You know when you fall in love with a book or a show, so you suggest (or, let’s be real, pressure) your friends and family to get into it, too? You lend them the book or send them the Amazon link. You constantly bring up the show or offer to watch it with them. You do pretty much anything to get them on board. Yeah, that’s what I do when I find a beauty product I’m really, really, really into.
There are a few products I have a history of doing this with, including Peach & Lily’s Matcha Pudding Antioxidant Cream, which just so happens to be one of my favorite moisturizers ever, and Chanel’s No. 1 de Chanel Revitalizing Foundation ($70), which gives me a my-skin-but-better look. But I digress. The latest product to ensnare me is kind of a surprise, even for me. It’s a high-impact shimmer that creates the most beautiful effect on the eyes (or anywhere you apply it). It comes in three shades. As soon as I got my hands on the first one, I ran back to Sephora to buy the second. When I got that shade home, I had to go back again the next day to get the third. I just couldn’t help myself.
On the final trip to Sephora, I dragged two of my friends along with me. While standing in front of the product, I was swiping all three shades on my arm to show them how stunning the shimmer effect really was. A fellow Sephora shopper overheard me and asked to see the swatches. Before I knew it, I had three strangers gathered around my arm, twisting and turning it to see the twinkle of each swatch under the fluorescent lights. Yes, that’s right—I basically cosplayed a Sephora employee and convinced three strangers to buy the product. (One of them bought it to wear on her wedding day.) It’s that good. Keep scrolling to see which product it is and learn why it’s one of my favorite makeup products ever to exist.
Here it is—the Makeup by Mario Master Crystal Reflector. While it might not look like much from the product image, it’s stunning in real life. It has a finely milled wet-look shimmer that’s unlike any other eye shadow or highlighter I’ve ever tried.
This is the first shade I bought since, lately, I’ve been a sucker for the Y2K-inspired resurgence of frosty eye shadows. It’s also worth noting that I was planning on wearing this over the holidays, so I wanted to go for the icy color first, even though I wouldn’t normally go for a cool-toned color. (My daily makeup routine involves warmer-toned brown and taupe colors.)
As I said, I was planning on wearing it over the holidays, so once I got home with the frosty white shade, I knew I had to go back for the yellow-gold one. And just like the former, this one doesn’t result in high-impact color—just a nice yellow-gold sheen. I was instantly obsessed.
Here is the third and final shade I went back for (and the one that spurred the infamous Sephora exchange). Even though I purchased this one last, it’s ironically the one I wear most often because of my aforementioned daily makeup routine that’s full of similar warm-toned shades.
Next, 2023’s Color of the Year Is Viva Magenta—Here Are 15 Matching Beauty Products