The Malika by Blush Tribe

Disclaimer: This is not a full review because I won’t have used and/or tested all the shadows, as this a very new product in my collection. I am a neutral reviewer, or I try to be. So nothing is ever a hundred for me, because everything and everyone has their imperfections. This is more on the unimpressed side.

Price for a Canadian

42 CAD + 17 Shipping - 10% Discount Code (You do the math). It’s 59 - 10% = 53.10 CAD I believe.

Shipping and receiving times were very impressive. It took nine days for it to get to me, after I ordered it.

Reason for Purchase

The gist? I bought it for the packaging. In depth explanation down below, or skip over to the shadow description.

The entire theme of the palette is very reminiscent to my background culture, which is Indian. I do abide and relate more to Canadian culture because the kind of person that I am, and is positively accepted so much more in my birth country. On different note, I do love Indian fashion. And I find Indian wedding fashion especially extremely beautiful and preferable to the normative White wedding in my environment. And this palette just puts me in touch with that part of my bi-cultural reality.

Now I don’t know the inspiration for the brand in regards to this palette. I am simply giving you guys my perspective and my reasons of buying this.

The Shadow Descriptions

Overall, I found that most of the mattes were on the dry side. Not so impressed with the finger swatch pigment either. And the middle row is my least favourite.

But after using some unique palettes, I have found that some palettes that swatch horribly actually perform very well on the eye, but I still have to come across a very pigmented finger swatched matte that does not work well on my eyes. You see what I mean?

At this point in time, I have not used the eyeshadows on my eyes yet. Therefore, the descriptions are solely based on finger swatches.

• Bilquis: Brown; Soft; Low-pigment
• Rani: Camel; Soft; Good-pigment
• Shazadi: Orange-tone tan; Soft; Good-pigment
• Munaza: Brownish red; Soft; Good-pigment
• Alia: Copper Shimmer; Butter; Good-pigment
• Amirah: Hot pinkish; Dryish; Okay-pigment
• Shazia: Hot pink; Okay texture; Good-pigment
• Salma: Lavender; Dryish; Low-pigment
• Henna: Coral; Dryish; Low-pigment
• Majeda: Regaular Pink; Dryish; Low-pigment
• Aysha: Bright red; Dry; Good-pigment
• Shadi: Bright Orange; Dryish; Good-pigment
• Farah: Peach; Dryish; Okay-pigment
• Safina: Gold shimmer; Butter; Good-pigment
• Malika: Champagne shimmer, Butter; Good-pigment

The Packaging

I always believe that seeing something online is never going to be the same as seeing it in real life. Obviously, that’s not the case for everyone. But for me 9 times out of 10, my first impression online vs. in hand for the same product is always the opposite. Love the design of the woman. Don’t like the font or the white background. The font is more hipster and rather than royal, and Malika does to me at least mean a Queen or someone of high status. The plain white background also clashes with red colourful look of the Malika. I feel like there should have been something going on in the background.

The Colourstory

This colourstory is the trendy and “normal” thing at the moment in the makeup world at a global scale. And what I have seen at large is that people of Asian cultures (Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian etc) prefer this wearable colour story. I say Asian simply because that’s my scope of knowledge and that’s why I purchased it, but I am sure that there are other non-Asian communities that can also relate to the theme.

Now obviously this is a generalization to an extent, but than it’s also a fact that most people prefer wearable palettes, so I really don’t see why. Long story short, I feel that the colour story goes well with the regal/bridal theme of the palettes. One thing we can all admit to is that not a lot Malikas (a.k.a. Queens) are going to wear “crazy” eye colour looks.

The Shadow Names

Usually I don’t care much for shadow names. Except if you do name them, then put the bloody names on the palette or just call them one, two, three. But these do have an actual translated meaning for me in Hindi or Urdu. I am simply going to translate a few.

• Shahzadi: Princess
• Henna: Just that, henna. But I also call it Mehendi.
• Rani: Literally Queen. While Malika can mean Queen, circumstantially it can also mean owner. It’s a feminine version of Malik, which means sir or employer as well. And a lot of “servants” will call their employers Malik. Not too sure about the Malika angle on that one.
• Alia: Feminine version of Ali. A popular Indian actress is called Alia Bhatt.
• Shadi: When I read this I think marriage, but we spell it with two As. Thus, not too sure what the brand meant by this.

Long story short, I love the names.

Application and Performance

Now we are on to me actually using the palette on my eyes. I mainly used the middle row, simply because it was my least favourite in the swatching. It ended up looking like a blended version of Be Legendary Smashbox’s Triple Tone Sunset Ombre lipstick. I used Malika on the center of my lid.

Now, I personally do not like using eyeshadow primers. But this time I used the original one by Smashbox because I wasn’t too sure if the pigment would show without one.

The pigment and blending was good. The mattes performed well throughout the day. Now in terms of the shimmer. I used the purple Huda Beauty shimmer from her obsessions colourful palette in my inner corner. And that purple shimmer stayed on strong even after five hours, while the champagne shimmer was spreading/fading away.

Now I mostly use my Tarte unicorn (Make Believe in Yourself) shimmer palette. And in similar temperatures for similar times, without a primer, the shimmers perform better.

I cannot speak for the mattes yet, because they performed well with a primer. But I don’t know yet how they would perform without a primer.

Better Alternatives for Similar or Less Price Point at 54 CAD

Note: I do not necessarily mean the exact colour story, just the wearable aspect of it. For instance, there are wearable pinkish tone palettes (Modern Renaissance) vs. a wearable warm tone palettes (Naked Heat). And in front of these palettes, Malika simply feels minuscule in size.

• Just Peachy Velvet Matte by Too Faced 55 CAD
• Toasted Tartelete by Tart at 49 CAD
• Pretty, Fun, Fearless by Ciate London and Chloe Morello 50 CAD
• Anything really by Pretty Vulgar at 43 CAD

Conclusion: Will I Repurchase?

I would not have paid 42 Canadian dollars for this if I had the chance to swatch or see this prior to the purchase. That obviously does not speak for the quality itself, but simply about my personal decision making as a customer. As a first impression, and instinctual gut feeling Juvia’s Place is a winner as an online indie brand. For me even Ulta is an online only store, because I live in Canada. I use JP to compare simply because it’s my only point of comparable reference in terms of an indie POC e-commerce brand.

With JP you get more for less. However, bear in mind I say this based on just this product alone. A product which I assume is one of Blush Tribe’s first palettes. It is very likely that their newer products may have improved.

But the thing is, for me, especially as an e-commerce brand one order (no matter what the product is) makes you or breaks you. Some people, are willing to give another chance, some are not willing to take the risk. I am one of the latter, there’s just too many fishes in the water. See I hated the Fenty Beauty Galaxy palette, and now I don’t see myself buying palettes from them for a long time, if ever. And yes it’s a money thing. But it’s also a wish list thing. The fact that my brand wish list is so long, that once a brand fails, they get shafted to the end, if not completely gone.

With Blush Tribe, the aesthetic is so up my ally that yes I would repurchase based on that. Based on the price point (excluding the shipping itself) and the overall quality, the answer is no. For 42 CAD for the palette itself, not worth it. At 54 CAD which I ended up spending, I could have used it for anything at Sephora.

Main Point: The shadow quality I can deal with. But the packaging design and palette size left something to be desired. I feel like the palette is not worth more than 20 USD, the price is too high for what it actually is. And this is excluding the shipping.