Storybook Cosmetics is a brand that I’ve wanted to try for a very long time. I mean, I’m The Book and Beauty Blog; a brand that creates makeup inspired by books is going to appeal to me. This brand is PRICEY, though. Most of their palettes are around $55.00 and I just don’t want to pay that for eyeshadow. However, when I saw their fairy tale inspired palettes, I had to have them. I ended up being gifted the Little Briar Rose Palette, the one we’re talking about today, by a sweet blogging friend. I was also lucky enough to find the smaller two, Red Riding Hood and Robin Hood, brand new on Poshmark. 

Aren’t they all gorgeous?? I’m planning to review the other two very soon but for now, let’s talk about Little Briar Rose! This palette is $55.00 at full price but has been on sale for $35.00 since it released. It contains twelve shades: five mattes, six metallics and one matte with glitter. Let’s discuss pros and cons!

Pros:

• The packaging is so gorgeous! If I ever completely used this palette up, I would keep it just for display purposes. It looks like an actual book. It’s sturdy cardboard with a magnetic closure and a mirror. 
• The color story is beautiful and all of the shades work well together.
• All of the metallics were great but I did have to use them wet if I wanted to avoid fallout and get opaque pigmentation. If I used them dry, I would get more of a sheer wash of color. 
• Almost all of the mattes were highly blendable and pigmented with little fallout. 
• Like the Lorac Cosmetics eyeshadow formula, these shades can be used wet or dry. 

Cons:

• The deepest matte shade, Grimm, is pure trash. It’s patchy and doesn’t want to blend. A shade this bad should never be in a $55.00 palette. 
• The packaging, while beautiful, is incredibly bulky. They could make it half as thick and still keep the beautiful book aesthetic. 
• The matte with glitter shade, Kiss, is pretty but once on the eyes, the glitter disappears. I will never understand why brands create mattes with glitter. This shade will also stain.

Swatches & Shade Descriptions:

These eyeshadows do have names and shade descriptions on the website. I’ll be going from left to right, top row to bottom row.

• Briar Rose– matte, peachy pink
• Spindle– matte, soft pink
• Talia– metallic, rose gold
• Castle– metallic, sky blue with silver
• Prince– metallic, royal blue
• Grimm– matte, rusty burgundy red
• Beauty– metallic, pinky purple
• Woodland– matte, nude with yellow undertones
• Enchanted– metallic, taupe
• Fairies– metallic, silver 
• Thorn– matte, mauve
• Kiss– matte with gold glitter, warm pink

Eyeshadow Looks:

I created four looks using primarily this palette alone but I did use two single shades in the first look. I always use the essence Colour Intensifying Primer and set my primer with a cream colored shade. When explaining the looks, I will go in the order of the swatches on my wrist; left to right and top to bottom. You can click on the pictures to see them better. Since these eyeshadows do have names, I won’t be describing where they are in the palette or what they look like.

I like the way this look turned out but Grimm, the deepest matte, was such a pain to work with. I used the single shades Halo from Looxi Beauty and Earthshine from Colourpop in my inner corner and on my brow bone. 

1. I blended Spindle into my crease and onto my outer lid.
2. I lightly blended Grimm into the deepest part of my crease and onto my outer lid. I also smudged this shade on my lower lash line. 
3. I applied Enchanted over the rest of my lid and in my waterline. 

This look is my favorite that I created. It gives me Cinderella vibes and I love that, lol. The light blue shade, Castle, in the middle of my lid is seriously one of the prettiest blues that I own. 

1. I blended Thorn above my crease, near my brow bone.
2. I blended Prince into my crease and on the innermost and outermost parts of my lid. This is a metallic shade so I had to really work at blending it but it turned out better than I expected. This shade is also smudged on my lower lash line. 
3. I applied Castle in the middle of my lid and in my waterline. 
4. I applied Fairies in my inner corner and on my brow bone. 

This look is a close second for my favorite but I used Grimm and once again, it was an unblendable mess. I used the L.A. Girl Shockwave Liner in Blackout in my waterline. 

1. I blended Thorn above my crease, near my brow bone.
2. I blended Kiss into my crease.
3. I deepened my crease with Grimm and applied it on my outer lid. I also mixed Thorn, Kiss and Grimm and smudged them out on my lower lash line. 
4. I applied Beauty over my entire lid.
5. I applied Enchanted in my inner corner and on my brow bone. 

This look was just okay. I was having a bad makeup day in general but the eyeshadows were good. 

1. I blended Woodland above my crease, near my brow bone. This shade really doesn’t show up on me. 
2. I blended Briar Rose into my crease.
3. I applied Talia over the outermost part of my lid.
4. I applied Enchanted on the innermost part of my lid, inner corner and brow bone. 

Brushes Used:

• Detail Crease Brush
• Tapered Blending Brush
• Flat Eyeshadow Brush
• Small Angled Brush
• Smudge Brush
• Eye Crease Brush
• Blending Brush, I used this brush to blend out the edges.

If you are curious about any of the other products on my face, you can find these looks in my recent posts on Instagram.

Final Thoughts:

Do I think this palette is worth $55.00? Absolutely not. The quality of these shadows is no better than Colourpop or most other brands. They’re good but not unique or special. I think this palette is worth the sale price of $35.00 IF you love the color story, love the packaging and think you’ll get use out of it. I would love to know if you’ve tried anything from this brand and what you think about this palette. Thanks for reading and have a great day!