One of my favorite things about Wet n Wild's annual Fantasy Makers launch, aside from the fact that every item in the humongous range is under $6, is that it's full of surprisingly wearable products. Even though it's framed as a Halloween collection, nearly everything can serve an everyday-makeup purpose. The cream pigments in the Painters Palettes, intended as face paint, can be used as eye shadow or lip color, as can the Multistick Body Crayons. The shimmering Color Icon Loose Pigments are begging to be worn on eyelids, and the MegaLast Prismatic Lipsticks do amazing iridescent things when layered on top of any lip color you're already wearing.
There's one item in this year's 80-product Fantasy Maker assortment that seems to buck the versatility trend, however. One of the four MegaGlo Highlighting Powders, all of which feature a strangely adorable skull embossment, just confuses the hell out of me. I can picture myself wearing Caught In Your Web, If You've Got It Haunt It, and Moonlit Gleam — which are white, pale lilac, and champagne respectively — any ol' day of the year. But the shade Not Your Basic Witch is a straight-up black powder pigment.
The whole point of highlighter, as far as I know, is to create brightness and reflectiveness on the high points of one's face. Naturally, you'd choose a highlighter that's lighter than your skin tone to achieve this. Since no one's skin is darker than the literal absence of color, it seems a bit of a stretch to classify Not Your Basic Witch as a highlighter, even though it's packed with shimmer. And it's that very shimmer that also pretty much disqualifies it as a contouring option since, last I checked, shadows aren't supposed to sparkle.
Regardless of the illogicality of it all, I decided to give Not Your Basic Witch a try, if only because I'm a sucker for a mediocre pun. After applying my usual makeup basics — foundation, concealer, a neutral lipstick (wouldn't want to upstage the black highlighter), mascara, and black eyeliner (another Fantasy Makers product, MegaLiner Metallic Liquid Eyeliner in Grave Digger) — I used a dense brush to pick up the pressed powder. And I immediately hesitated and rubbed most of it off onto a paper towel. I swept what was left along my cheekbone and up to my temple.
Once I saw that even a little bit of the powder left a grayish cast on my skin, I decided I was committed and really went for it. I dipped my brush in the compact again and applied a more generous dose of Not Your Basic Witch to both cheekbones. Seeing it was a bit patchy, I took a second, clean brush and blended it out a bit.
And to my surprise — just kidding, it looked ridiculous.
In addition to confirming my assumption that this wouldn't really function as an everyday highlighter, I had to wonder what kind of Halloween costume Not Your Basic Witch could even work for. I sent a picture of myself to some friends, and we came to the conclusion that it would make sense for only one costume: chimney sweep Bert from Mary Poppins, but make it fashion.
I'm not one to give up on a beauty product just because it's seemingly impractical, though. Despite its less-than-beauteous effect on my cheeks, I had a feeling the sparkly black highlighter had serious potential elsewhere. I patted it on my eyelids, blended it well above my crease, and used a liner brush to define my lower lashes. After applying another coat of Grave Digger eyeliner, it became apparent that Not Your Basic Witch was wearable after all — as a dramatic eye shadow.
And — plot twist — I'm wearing another black powder from the Fantasy Makers collection in that photo. Wet n Wild's Color Icon Shade Shifting Zombie Blush looks like an iridescent slate color in its compact, but it transformed into a warm, wearable, sheer orange shade on my skin — one I really will wear on a regular basis.
Follow Marci on Instagram and Twitter, or subscribe to Allure's newsletter for daily beauty stories delivered right to your inbox.
Source: Read Full Article