Too Faced Glamour Dust Glitter Pigment Swatches and Review

I've been wanting these Too Faced Glamour Dusts forever. The only thing that made me hesitate to buy them was the $17.00 price tag, but when they had that 25% off Groundhog Day sale, I took that as my sign to finally snag them. I picked up all four shades: Blue Angel, Glampire, Nude Beam and Pink Fire.

The packaging on these is extremely nice. This is just the outer box, but there are so many little details in the design that make it look so much nicer than just disposable cardboard. I'm rather fond of the holographic label on the top flap.


The jars themselves are equally nice. They're heavy, thick glass and have very glossy black lids with the Too Faced logo and a decorative border printed in reflective gold. The colors are clearly labelled, and even the design of the label is nice. I have to take a couple points off because somehow my Blue Angel label has fallen off already. Inside the jar is a peel-off plastic safety seal (not pictured) that covers the sifter inserts to prevent spillage during shipping.


Too Faced Glamour Dust in Blue Angel is a softly blue-toned translucent opalescent loose glitter. It has a tiny bit of fine silver particulate mixed throughout, but I don't find that this shows up at all when applied.


Too Faced Glamour Dust in Glampire is a very red-toned brown / maroon shimmer base with chunky, reflective teal/blue duochrome shimmer flakes. Reminds me very much of something like MAC Blue Brown pigment, but more glittery than shimmery.



Too Faced Glamour Dust in Nude Beam is a light pink champagne shimmer base with very chunky iridescent silvery-white based shimmer flakes.



Too Faced Glamour Dust in Pink Fire is a very light silvered pink shimmer base with smaller, but still chunky, reflective iridescent violet and pink shimmer flakes.

These are all extremely pretty in the jar, but don't show up quite the same when applied because they don't stick to the skin very well on their own:

Swatched heavily, no base, natural light and flash. Blue Angel, Glampire, Nude Beam, Pink Fire.

When swatched or applied over a sticky base, they do stick very well, but the glitter in them changes:
Swatched over a layer of Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy, natural light and flash. Blue Angel, Glampire, Nude Beam and Pink Fire.

When used wet or over a sticky base, the glittery particles all clump together and make a chunky, shiny, less-glittery foil like effect. I haven't quite figured out the best way to apply these, but Too Faced recommends their Shadow Insurance Glitter Glue as a base for these. If you apply them wet, you can brush them a little after they've dried to bring back some of the sparkle and take away a little of the clumped-together look, but it still doesn't look like it does in the jar.

So far, the easiest one for me to use has been Blue Angel, since it's essentially just loose glitter:

This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance Lemon Drop
NYX White Eyeshadow Base (lid only)
Sugarpill Tako on lid
Ben Nye Amethyst in crease
Tiny bit of Make Up For Ever #92 in crease to darken it
Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow Pencil in Clash on lower lashline
Stila Jewel Eyeshadow in Aquamarine over Clash
Too Faced Glamour Dust in Blue Angel on lid, applied over a dab of Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Physicians Formula Eye Booster Eyeliner in Black
Stila Jewel Eyeshadow in Opal on browbone

A glitter base like Pixie Epoxy is a must for Blue Angel. It doesn't really work that well wet, and it won't stick for very long on its own. A sticky base will also help prevent glitter fallout, so it's good to have one on hand just for that purpose alone. And since the glitter never shows up in normal pictures, I took one in the dark to show how gorgeous it looks:

The colors in Blue Angel shift a lot, from blue to pink to gold. It looks so much better in real life, it really is an attractive looking glitter.


Even though I think Blue Angel is gorgeous and I like it a lot, it is still just a loose glitter. Opal-style loose glitters aren't hard to come by, and most don't cost $17 like Blue Angel. I had this Wet n Wild Mega Sparkle Loose Confetti in White Icing sitting out on my vanity and I thought it looked pretty similar. It lacks the strong blue undertone of the Too Faced, but they look very close when they're applied.


The new Glamour Dusts also remind me of the old Too Faced Afterglow powders. On the left is Lust, on the right is Betrayal. They aren't exact duplicates, but they have a similar sheer shimmer base / chunky silvery glitter flakes formula. That, and the Afterglow jars contain twice as much product.

What I liked:

• Extremely nice packaging. The jars look shiny and glamorous and the outer packaging looks fantastic with gold and hologram accents.
• All of the colors are really pretty. Especially Glampire.
  
• The jars have internal sifters that work quite well. They're not so tight that it's hard to dispense the product, but not so loose that you accidentally dump out half the jar.
• They look amazing in the jar, they're fun just to look at.
• They're very sparkly.
• They add a sheer veil of sparkle when dabbed over your usual eyeshadow.
• Too Faced shipped my order very quickly, included really good deluxe samples and packed everything securely in pretty pink crinkle paper.
  

What I didn't like:

• They're hard to use. I still haven't quite figured out the best way to use these and get the sparkly end result I want.
• When used wet or over a sticky base, the glittery pieces clump together and look strange and a little wrinkly and ugly on the lids.
• When used without a base, they don't stick. If patted on with some pressure, you can get a sheer veil of it to stay, but not with the sparkle and intensity I wanted from these.
• Lots of fallout.
• The jars only contain 2.8 grams of product and cost $17. MAC's new tiny pigment jars (including Reflects Glitters) contain 4.5 grams for only $3 more.
• Blue Angel is basically just loose glitter.
  

I really love how these look in the jar, and when I swatch them on the back of my hand, I'm mesmerized. I just haven't figured out how to translate that look onto my eyelids. I don't like the way they clump when wet or used over a sticky base, but they don't want to stick otherwise. I like them enough to keep them, but I'm glad I got them on sale, because I don't know if I'd pay the full $17 each again. Looks like I'll have to pick up that Too Faced Glitter Glue now; all the reviews on their website say it's perfect for using with the Glamour Dusts.

If you're looking for the fine and delicate yet crazy sparkly effect that these have in the jar, I'd recommend checking out the Make Up For Ever Diamond Powders. They're stupidly expensive for how much product you get ($24 for just under 2 grams), but they actually stick on their own and are intensely sparkly. They don't clump when used over a sticky base, either. My personal favorite is the #2 White Gold shade. For years it's been my go-to product for instantly adding delicate but intense sparkle to my eye looks and I've yet to find anything I like quite as much as that.

The Too Faced Glamour Dusts are available at Ulta and on Too Faced's website, $17 each.