Giorgio Armani Belladonna Highlighting Palette from Effetto Nudo Spring 2014 Collection, Swatches & Comparison

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope your holidays have been a good one. Mine was lovely but quiet busy. Three things I must have done most was traveling, talking and eating. 

As for the blog, it has been a long break for me, partly intentionally and partly due to packing my notebook and forgetting to take it with me. I couldn't even answer to your comments properly, which I am planning to do right after posting this beauty I received yesterday night upon my arrival. 

The compact has two layers, on top there is the highlighter with a beautiful flower embossed in a three dimensional way. The design includes details such as the veins on the leaves of the flower, making it a pleasure to watch and very difficult to touch. Luckily there is enough space on the sides of the flower to start with if you would like the pattern to last longer.

Second layer includes a half moon brush for touch ups on the go. This layer could also be reused for your compact foundation, blush or eye shadow from other Armani palettes which may be handy while traveling. 

Belladonna Palette is designed to be used both as a highlighter and an eye shadow. The shade is a light champagne with a slight rose tingle. It is very finely milled and feels creamy to touch. Armani claims it to have a new gel based formula with a dense and light texture between cream and powder. To me, it is pigmented and shimmery but not frosty, the light catching effect is very complex and pretty. I like the way it can be blended to a very subtle effect or build up for a more dramatic usage such as on the lids.

I took out some of my favorite highlighters for a comparison. Poudre Signee de Chanel from Spring 2013 Collection, Chanel Mouche de Beaute from 2013 Croisière Collection and Route des Indes from  Bombay Express de Chanel Collection. You can see that Poudre Signee is properly loved and therefore lost its pretty design fully. Other two are more shimmery, as a result being used sparingly. 

Route de Indes is much of a yellow gold once compared to other three. Chanel Mouche de Beauty is more shimmery and leans more pink. Poudre Signee is the closest in terms of shade but leans more yellow and it is less shimmery. In fact you can see how much more Belladonna can be build up, looking almost opaque in heavy swatches compared to other highlighters. The very slight pink touch of Belladonna together with its champagne base makes it suitable across skin tones, not cold nor warm.

I would love to finish my review here but I feel obliged to write a few sentences to what I think about this highlighter on a value for money basis. Belladonna has 5 g/ 0.177 OZ of product and retails for something like 75EUR/ $88. Company's holiday blush Eccentrico, which I didn't review yet, partly duo to the fact of feeling ashamed of the price, even had 8 g/0.27OZ product and multiple shades on one layer. As pretty as it is, Belladonna offers 5 g of only one shade, a pretty design and a nice texture. Does it worth 88$? I think you should answer this question for yourself. Just a side note, I snatched mine for half the price on eBay. It is expected to be released from January to February internationally and it is limited edition.

Final thoughts: Belladonna must be the prettiest highlighter I own in terms of design, shade and texture. Its only drawback is the extremely high price and small quantity it offers. It is such a shame because it could almost get a cult status like Guerlain's Cruel Gardenia. Maybe it does anyway? Who knows...

What do you think about value for money? Is the size important or it is rather not since we anyway never finish products?