Velvet 59 Exotic Lotus palette swatches and review

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press sample

Plus Teenage Dream Velvet Rose lipgloss and Coral Canyon lipstick

Everyone has those go-to palettes. You know the type: neutral, reliable, and let’s be honest, kinda boring workhorses that you can practically apply with your eyes shut. The Velvet 59 Exotic Lotus palette ($39) is not that. Very far from it, actually. This is what I’d call a “I’m going out and wanna look good” palette. An anything but expectable stunner that you pull out when you want to wow. And wow, it does!

Velvet 59 is the makeup line by Paris Manning, a 22 year old who has lived a full life in her brief years. A former bi-continental animal lover from a makeup biz family, Paris wanted to infuse vintage glamour with international beauty. Velvet 59 does just that. Retro meets modern packaging, absolutely unique shades, all cruelty free.

The Exotic Lotus palette contains a mix of formulas (matte, shimmer and glitter) with shades inspired by “the most exquisite flower of the river; the exotic smoked lotus.” Having never seen it myself, I have to take her word for it! But using this palette as my guide, it’s one hell of a flower.

The color combo is unlike any palette I own (or have seen); a brown, plum and reddish stunner. The shades are…

From left (indoors top, sunlight bottom):
Cherry Blossom – light pink-nude matte
Tiger Lily – rust red metallic shimmer
Sake Plum – dark plum-brown matte
Princess of China – light nude with a silver shimmer

From left (indoors top, sunlight bottom):
Meiling – black with silver glitter
Kyoto Kimono – smoky plum matte
The Silk Road – light pumpkin orange matte
Smoked Tea – dirty medium brown matte

All the colors are beautifully pigmented, have a long wear time and a buttery feel (even the glitter). My two favorites are the most original, Tiger Lily and The Silk Road. Both do really great things to blue eyes!

Not to be outdone by the palette, the two lip products I tried are pretty spectacular as well.

The Velvet Rose lipgloss in Teenage Dream ($19) is a deep berry sheer base and an explosion of glitter and gold micro flakes. I am LIVING for the idea of putting this over a vampy lipstick this fall. It has an ever-so-slight rose scent to it, which normally I wouldn’t care for. But it’s so faint and really spot-on/not at all synthetic.

The beauty inside the rose gold Genie-in-a-bottle-looking packaging is Coral Canyon crème lipstick ($18), part of the Malibu Sunset collection. More pink grapefruit than coral in my eyes, and I’m ok with that. It’s creamy and a tad bit drying, but totally worth it for that pop of color! (And nothing some pre-exfoliating doesn’t solve.)

Coral Canyon lipstick, Teenage Dream Velvet lipgloss, lipstick with gloss applied on top

Perhaps most prettiest of all? Each package has a picture of Paris’ beloved Minpin Meiling as a reminder of being cruelty free. Beauty and compassion always makes the best duo!

we heartsters – What exotic Velvet 59 shade is calling you with its siren song?

Stef is many things. Amongst them: co-editor of we heart this, photographer, condiment connoisseur, Philly girl in the California desert, borderline hoarder and a hardcore beauty junkie.
skin tone: NC 25/30
skin type: oily with a fear of rosacea
favorite beauty product: high end skincare and lip products