This review is for a discontinued palette by a brand that has since gone defunct. So why are you reviewing this you might ask? Because I think it was still a pretty palette that I did some stunning looks with. So while I may have decluttered it by now and no one is still able to buy it, I still wanted to do a round up on the Blush Tribe Laila 2. So here we go.
Review: Blush Tribe Laila 2 eyeshadow palette
The Laila 2 is a palette that wasn’t too expensive. Blush Tribe was a UK based indie brand that was discontinued in 2019 and then rebranded to Myali Beauty which has since been discontinued too. I loved trying the brand because it was an indie brand based in Europe, while so many of them are located in the US and therefore harder for me to shop from. I had already another palette by this brand, the Hasina 2, and loved that, so I was excited when the brand decided to come out with an all green palette. The palette retailed for £23.99 which was around €25 and that is quite a good price point for an eyeshadow palette.
What does the palette have to offer?
So Blush Tribe’s idea behind this palette was an all green palette with greens that would tie in with the greens of their Hasina 2 palette. The Laila palette was the second in the Laila line, the first one being more of a rainbow color story. I was pulled in by this when it was announced because I didn’t own any all green palettes at the time and this seemed to offer a good range. I liked how it had a pop of yellow and a variety of green tones. Sadly, once I got this home, I felt the greens were far too similar to create distinct looks and so I was a tad disappointed in the end. The palette also came with a sample of a gold loose shadow which you can see in the swatch below.
What is the color story like?
So the reason why I ended up not loving this is that the shades of green were too similar. In the pans they look very distinct, but the shimmers weren’t that vibrant and the mattes just are too close in undertone for it to really make a difference. At the end of the day I always just ended up with a wash of green on my lids and you couldn’t really tell any distinct shades once applied. What this palette lacked to me were some deeper greens to really make it stand out as a single palette. Especially the two shades in the bottom right corner pulled very similarly and just weren’t distinct to really create versatile looks with.
How do these shades swatch?
It wasn’t until I swatched these that I found out how light this palette was. If I look at the swatches and I look at the pans, I felt the shades just looked so differently. Maybe it’s because I have a fair skin tone, but in the end the shades pulled very light and bright and there just wasn’t enough depth and dimension for me. Within the 12-pan palette, there were also duplicates or at least shades that were so close in tone that they didn’t make much of a difference once applied to the lid. The loose pigment that came with the palette was a disappointment too as it was too chunky and had hardly any base pigment to it. So overall, I wasn’t impressed with this once I got it home.
What do these shades look like applied?
You know I like doing multiple looks and I have two to share with you here. Both looks are stunning and different enough but I felt this was pretty much all the palette let me do. The first look is a murky, more grungy look, while the second is a fun, bright half cut crease.
Once I started using the palette, it pretty much split up into two types of greens. The first, top half of the palette is the softer, murkier, grungier green half. This part of the palette features some more olive tones and combined with some of the murky yellows it really makes for a pretty more grungy makeup look. This is the kind of green that is quite neutral as these greens have a more brown undertone which makes them perform similarly to a neutral look and therefore this is a green look I could wear on the daily. I did have some issue blending some of the mattes in the greens and they were a little patchy.
The second half of the palette for me is brights and here I attempted to combine some of the more contrasting shades to create a half cut crease. Successful? Yes, but I felt the deepest shades weren’t deep enough to really create the contrast needed to really make the half cut crease work well enough. It works, but I had to layer this very carefully to really make it work. Here as well, I had some issues blending some of the mattes and felt they sort of stuck down and then were difficult to move and blend out.
My final thoughts
I wanted the Blush Tribe Laila 2 to be the green palette of my dreams and it just wasn’t. It has some pretty shades and I had fun playing around with this for sure, but it just wasn’t it for me. By now, I own other green palettes I like better and the fact that the brand isn’t even around anymore makes me not want to reach for this. Their Hasina 2 I loved and I want to go back to from time to time and I have yet to find a brand that combines greens, blues and purples into one palette. So that palette is unique to me. However, this just isn’t all that special and combined with a lack of versatility and a bit of a disappointing performance in the mattes, I just felt this wasn’t quite it.
Would I recommend the Blush Tribe Laila 2?
This I just can’t recommend as you can no longer buy it. What I can do however, is to recommend what I feel has replaced this palette for me. I bought the BH Cosmetics Sweet Shoppe Pistachio palette last winter and that I feel has much more contrast and therefore more versatility even though it only has 8 shades. Additionally, I now own quite a few palettes that combine blues and greens and I feel many greens in for instance my Ace Beauté Oceanic would be able to give me some of these looks. If I want something super vibrant I can always pull the Certifeye Affinity 2 palette from my makeup purgatory box and use that.