The Present By Scott Barnes for Motives Review

When I first saw this product on my mom's vanity, I thought to myself "I must have it!" It's such a brilliant way to have an everything palette compacted into one tiny little present. Was it well executed though? Let us break it down. 

Today I will be doing a review on the The Present By Scott Barnes for Motives. Now this is no where near a new and innovative product. It's been out for a few years now, and being a make-up hoarder, I just found it in my collection haha. Have I ever used it? Nope, just swatched a few of the colours. 

What "the present" really is, is a compact, stacked, all-in-one make-up palette with a variety of shades and colours, to create many looks. 

The one that I will be reviewing is called "Smokey Nights".

Here it is in all its glory. It's very small that you can throw in your purse, but not flat enough to have in your make-up bag. 

It even comes with a mirror on the lid! They really came up with everything didn't they.

The eyeshadow quad:

Swatches:

To be honest, these eyeshadows were pretty disappointing. It took a lot of vigorous rubbing (not in that way you perv) to get a good swatch out of each of them, and the only one that really showed up the best was the copper/orange shade. 

The concealer quad:

Swatches:

Now I don't see why they would give you 4 different concealer shades, because in reality, only one of them is going to work for your skin. I guess this was the only way they could make this palette work for all skin types, but it's really just a waste of concealers that won't be used. It would be understandable if you were a make-up artist or something and this was in your kit, then all the colours would come in handy. The concealers were really nice though, very smooth and melted to the touch. Super creamy and didn't crease much besides the lightest peach shade.

Blush Duo:

Swatches:

Again with the powdery-ness and lack of pigmentation. I really think it has something to do with the design on the powders. It was difficult to get a nice clean swatch without having to go over it with my finger a few times to get good colour pay off.

The Translucent Powder:

Swatch:

For a translucent powder, it still came off very white, which led me to think that this would leave a terrible white cast on my skin. 

The lip gloss quad:

Swatches:

I was actually surprised to find out that these were lip glosses and not lip creams/lipsticks. They colour for these were very nice, but they were a bit sticky/tacky, but to be expected. 

Overall, Motives had a great idea for a product, but it wasn't that well executed. I felt the powders (eyeshadows, blushes, powder) could have been made better, or maybe it was the design on the powder that threw it all off. Otherwise, it's actually a great idea, and would be a wonderful "present" for those looking to start trying make-up, or who want an all-in-one palette. 

If you're interested in purchasing The Present by Scott Barnes or any other Motives Cosmetics make-up, click here!

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