Midnight Mermaid Box Review + Giveaway

 

Happy #MerMay!

Summer is on the horizon, and I can feel the beach calling.

 

The Ulta-exclusive Midnight Mermaid Box collection of mermaid-themed makeup from Wet N Wild is full of shimmery shades and was on major sale (half off its $29.99 list price), so I decided to pick one up to try out!

 

Packaging and first impressions

The packaging is lovely. It’s a fairly large box with a shiny image.

The makeup was almost all darker than I expected. I know it’s “Midnight” Mermaid, but I think I was was anticipating more sheen to add brightness to the colors. The promo image certainly looks much brighter.

Metallic Liquid Lipsticks

These were less metallic than I’d hoped, but very vividly colored. They felt almost like a lip stain, but definitely didn’t have the anti-smudge properties. I took the swatch picture several minutes after application to test, and you can see it can be a bid smudgy.

The two neutral colors are pretty but dark. I wish there was more of a difference between them. The blue and green are dark colors that go on very strong and evenly.

Metallic Liquid Eyeshadows

These were the biggest disappointment. Instead of being a nice metallic liquid eyeshadow, it’s more like glitter in a grey base. If the shadow isn’t catching the light, it looks mostly grey. It also did not sit still on my fairly hooded eyes.

If I use these, it will be as a glitter accent in places other than my eyelids. The blue did work well for undereye glitter effects.

Metallic Liquid Eyeliners

The blue and black were just meh, but the emerald green was fantastic! It didn’t have that same grey base that the other colors and the liquid eyeshadows seem to have. It is super bright and didn’t budge at all after it dried.

Mermaid Highlighting Bar

I really loved this subtle gold shimmer bar! It’s a great size, feels nice and works super well with my skin tone.

A few looks using the Midnight Mermaid Box

I did a few looks with the products in the box and took pictures in various lighting so you have an idea what it can do.

Here’s a fairly dramatic look. The eyelids did *not* work out – the “metallic” shadow flaked and just looked grey and sad. It worked ok under the eye, though. The gold highlighter added a great subtle effect. I put a clear gloss over the lips since they just didn’t have the shine I wanted.

Here’s the green lipstick with minimal other makeup. Definitely not the most flattering shade on me, but could be fun for a wild look some time in the future. It’s definitely more metallic than some of the other makeup in the set.

This is a more average day sort of look with an eyeshadow from a different set. Isn’t that green eyeliner gorgeous?

 

Final Thoughts

This set would have definitely been better if the “metallic” items were more metallic. That being said, the lip colors are bold and decent, and the green eyeliner and highlighter are big wins. The eyeshadows will see more use as glitter gel for other areas than as eyeshadows for me.

I’m glad I didn’t pay the full $30 for it, but for $15 it wasn’t too bad.

On to the giveaway!

Enter below to win a $20 Ulta e-gift card! US 13+ only, please.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
This giveaway is part of a hop! That means you can “hop” over to any of the other blogs linked below and enter their giveaways as well. Good luck!