Sydney Grace Mystery Bags Christmas in July sale

It’s here! It’s here! What is?! My Sydney Grace Christmas in July sale Mystery Bag order that is. I had seen this sale going on for years now and I never had been able to take advantage of it. This year, I decided to make a point of leaving some room in my budget to be buying from one of my favorite indie brands. Sydney Grace singles are some of my favorites in my collection, and while expensive to buy as I live in Europe, I have never felt let down by any of their products. During the sale, I purchased all three mystery bags on offer so I’d not only have some shadows to play with, but also some other products from the range. Today I am showing and swatching what I got!

Review: Sydney Grace Mystery Bags Light

In case you have never heard of this brand: Sydney Grace is a US based indie brand located in California. Started as Feather River Body I started hearing about them from smaller creators and when I decided to build my own blue/ green/ purple palette as I had never found anything like it as a ready made palette, I placed myself my first Sydney Grace order. And I fell in love! Granted, shipping is expensive, so I tend to only place an order once a year. Each time I did so far, I placed my order right before their annual Christmas in July sale as I had plainly forgotten all about it. This year, I didn’t! When they announced what each day of the sale would entail, I decided to buy all three mystery bags. And to my delight, the day this particular sale went live they lowered the price point at which you would get a free bag, so I got 2 + 1 bag for free. I got all three bags in the light version. Let’s have a look inside.

Sydney Grace Mystery Bag Red Light

So each mystery bag was $35 to buy but you got at least $60 worth of product inside each bag. In my red bag in the light version (Sydney Grace does light and deep versions of pretty much everything they offer) I got 5 single shadows which are normally around $6 a piece. Then there is a single highlighter ($8), a liquid eyeshadow ($8) and one of their brushes ($18). The brush range was one I was very curious after and the only thing I feel a bit disappointed with these mystery bags was that not every single bag contained a brush. That would have made this deal even sweeter, but I am very happy with was inside.

The theme for the red bag were reds and pinks and I was sure this was going to be my least favorite pick, but in the end I felt the products were very pretty. The cream shadow looks super interesting. I have never tried this formula, but just a small drop gives you this insane, highly pigmented, cream formula that looks stunning. The shade Lee Lee is a warm pink, but it’s got silver specks of shimmer and a bit or a purple/ plum base. I am sure that if you pair this one with more taupy browns that it can make for a great lid color or a liner.

Heaven is the first swatch in the picture below, where I have also swatched out the five shadows from this mystery bag.

When seeing these shadows you may predict I would be disappointed in these if you know anything about my makeup preferences. But I was not. I have to say: these would not be shadows I would pick out myself given the choice, but I actually really like these. The light shade has a subtle pink sheen and that is going to be amazing for me as a base shade. The rosy shade is quite warm but it pairs well with the other shades and I think it can be pretty. The other matte looks like a great crease shade for me. But it’s the two shimmers I love. They are very stunning and again, can pull cool or warm depending on what you pair them with.

Sydney Grace Mystery Bag Cream Light

The cream bag would be more neutral/ pink themed if I am not mistaken. Again, pinks are not my favorite shades, but I was pleasantly surprised at some of the shades I got. Since there was not brush in this bag, I got some other bits instead, and everything else I got in the red bag (but different shades of course). There is an extra single shadow, a loose pigment ($7) and a loose glitter ($6). The loose pigment I already got to try recently (it will be featured in a video that will go up later this week) and I really enjoy it. So I am glad I now have a few more to play around with. There is another cream shadow here as well.

The cream bag was probably the biggest surprise. I was afriad it would feature many warm toned elements judging by the description, but I got a cool toned matte and two green shadows. And while the cream and loose shadows both seem to be quite a warm rose gold, they would pair really nicely I think and still create a soft look. The glitter is perhaps my least favorite product I received, but I do like how it has little stars in it. Not sure how often I’ll use it but it is a fun addition. This highlighter is a bit golden toned, but it seems light enough for it to work on my skin tone.

Sydney Grace Mystery Bag Blue Light

The bag I was most excited for? The blue one! That one I knew just from the description I’d love. This would include blue shades and I love a good blue any time of the year. And they delivered. One thing I love about these bags is that they have been put together very carefully and not only with shades that do not work together or would not work across all three bags. As you will see in the last picture below, all the shades together make for quite a cohesive color story! Plus an added bonus here is that nothing here is overly warm or overly cool, meaning that many different people can get away with the products. The Blue bag came with 6 singles, 1 loose pigment, 1 cream shadow and a highlighter. They even threw in one of their empty palettes ($10)!

So I was totally right. The loose pigment is giving me life! That cream shadow is quite possibly the best smokey blue toned grey I have ever come across and we get a deep navy matte in the singles? Get out! Plus these shades perfectly round out the palette these 17 (!!) shades make. I definitely will have to keep this palette as is for a hot minute and create some looks with these shades. It’s just such a good blend of shades. The highlighter, while with a bit of damage (my nails are evil!) is also the best one here. It is a very light peach shade and I love a good peach toned highlighter.

This is the color story created by the shadows I got in all three mystery bags. How perfect does this look? I mean we get some cool toned greens, some navy blue, some cool tones, some rosy tones, some warmth. It’s just a very well balanced palette overall. I now do wish I had one more single to round out the palette, but oh well. You can’t have everything. Another pet peeve: the empty palette doesn’t fit all three highlighters, just the two. So now I have on sitting in it’s sachet in my drawer as I currently don’t have a good enough container for it.

My final thoughts

Of course I have not yet tried these products on my face yet, but I was so over the moon with these products that I just felt I had to share this blog post and all the amazing swatches with you before I show this in an upcoming haul. I absolutely think this was a killer deal and a great spend of my money. In the end I may not keep all these products around for the long run, but where many brands go wrong with sales like this and you just get a bunch of leftovers that nobody wanted, here we have a brand who’s actually thought things through.

Would I recommend Sydney Grace Mystery Bags?

Yes I would! That said, I would wait till you have some descriptions before you decide if you want to buy. My only constructive feedback here would be to have a brush in every bag and perhaps make one bag a true cool toned offering. That said, I am nitpicking here. I think the brand did a lovely job giving customers a variety of very usuable product, even if they bought all three bags. I definitely do not regret this purchase.

Have you ever bought a mystery bag?

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