TheBalm The Manizer Sisters Luminizer Palette Review

Every Christmas, theBalm Cosmetics bring out a limited edition palette called The Manizer Sisters that includes a mini version of the three luminizers in the range. It includes the cult favourite champagne highlighter, Mary-Lou Manizer, as well as a the peachy pink highlighting blush, Cindy-Lou Manizer, and the bronzing highlighter, Betty-Lou Manizer. Each shade can be used on both the face and eyes making this a very versatile palette.

The main product that the Balm is known for is the Mary-Lou Manizer. It is well loved by many for being a strong highlighter the suits lots of different skin tones.  The shade isn’t as bright on very fair skin compared to other skin tones and the gold undertone can sometimes pull a little too strong if the product is packed on, but it looks pretty with a light hand. It can be made to look even more intense if the brush used for application is sprayed with a makeup setting spray first. The original Mary-Lou Manizer comes in a round plastic compact with 8.5 grams of product whereas the Manizer Sisters Palette is cardboard packaging with 3 grams of product per pan/shade. The colour of each Mary-Lou Manizer is the same, but there is a difference in formula between the single and palette versions. The palette version is more powdery than the single version, so it can be slightly harder to apply but that difference in formula seems to make the product in the palette a lot more durable. The single Mary Lou Manizer is notorious for breaking up, mine has a chunk missing from it despite it always being handled very carefully, whereas the palette has held up a lot better. Mary-Lou is vegan, but the palette is not – there is a full list of vegan products in my theBalm Meet Matt(e) Hughes liquid lipstick review post.

Mary-Lou is described by theBalm as honey hued shimmer but it looks a lot more champagne to me. Champagne highlighters seem to be the most popular highlighting colour as it can suit all skin tones without looking out of place. Cindy-Lou is a pink shimmer with slight peach tones. On fair skin this can be a blush topper and a highlighter on medium to deeper skin tones. Betty-Lou is a warm shimmery bronze colour that can be used as a bronzer on light skin tones or highlighter on deep skin tones. Betty-Lou is far too warm for my very fair pink skin to use as a face product but works well as an eyeshadow. I can use both Mary-Lou and Cindy-Lou as face and eye products. The pink in Cindy-Lou looks lovely as a lid colour and Mary-Lou is a very brightening inner corner highlight. I have swatched them all using both a highlighting brush (left swatch) and my finger (right swatch) so that you can see the difference in colour pay off.

I really like having The Manizer Sisters palette because it is easy to travel with and the products are really versatile as they can be used as eyeshadows or face products. The single Mary-Lou does have a slightly nicer formula but I’ll never be able to use it to travel with as it will shatter very quickly. I don’t use the single Mary-Lou Manizer often enough to justify repurchasing it (I prefer whiter highlighters for my skin tone) but if I ever run out of the palette, I can see myself buying that again.

You can buy theBalm from both David Jones and Target in Australia (as I posted about a year ago) as well as ordering straight from theBalm Cosmetics website that is based in America. I plan on swatching and reviewing all the blushes I own from theBalm so sign up to email updates if you want to see that – theBalm blushes are one of my favourite cruelty free blush formulas. What do you think of The Manizer Sisters Palette? Are you one of the many Mary-Lou Manizer fans?

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