Hello beauties!
As a Huda Beauty fan I can honestly say I purchased almost every product she released so I’m pretty invested in this brand. One exception is Huda Beauty Pink Sands 3D Highlighter Palette which I received as a birthday gift from my bff and is a permanent product.
There are three permanent editions of 3D Highlighter Palettes: Pink Sand, Golden Sands and Bronze Sands (review). She has also released two limited edition Winter and Summer Highlighter Palettes that I purchased and reviewed on the blog back then.
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Huda Beauty Pink Sands 3D Highlighter Palette Review
Huda Beauty Pink Sands 3D Highlighter Palette ($45.00 / £40.00 / €43.00 for 1.10 oz.) includes one cream highlighter and three powder highlighters. Just like the other editions, Pink Sands is hosted in a slim, cardboard palette with no mirror. I don’t mind that there’s no mirror inside considering the palette is quite big but I’m sure some would have preferred one.
There’s quite a bit of product, just like in the other palettes. This palette was designed for those with fair and light skin tones while the Golden Sands version (which I didn’t buy) is more for medium to darker skin tones. After these two releases she came out with Huda Beauty Bronze Sands (review, photos) which is dedicated to richer and tanned skin tones.
They can be used as highlighters individually or you can combine them in a way that you have a base (creamy highlighter), blusher, sculpting powder and highlighter. These shades can work for a light skin but I also like to use them as eyeshadows.
I’m a bit confused about Huda’s suggestion to apply Azores under cheekbones to add dimension and shape at it’s a gold color and I wouldn’t quite sculpt my cheeks with that. Personally I really enjoyed Santorini and Ibiza the most from this palette. These are also the two islands that I visited in the past so the names really brought back memories. 🙂
RELATED: Huda Beauty Solstice Summer Highlighter Palette (Review, Swatches)
Huda Beauty Pink Sands 3D Highlighter Palette Shade by Shade Review
Capri is a medium gold-beige with warm undertones and a pearly sheen. It had a good pigmentation, even better than I was expected from a cream highlighter. On the other side the texture was very thick and a bit tacky.
In order to use it as a base the best way to apply it is by using your fingertips and gently pat it onto the skin. It will feel slightly tacky and make the powder formulas to adhere. The application was difficult, it was hard to blend it and didn’t spread out evenly so that’s why I decided to use my fingertips. Not even on bare skin works smoothly and over a foundation it disperses the product so I admit I won’t see myself hitting the pan on this one.
I didn’t like how it sat over my foundations (I used various one from matte to dewy, sheer and full coverage) as they were starting to look patchy, uneven and disperse the product. Not even applying one of the powder highlighters on top of the base helped as I got an even more patchy result. So I’m skipping Capri everytime I use this palette.
RELATED: Huda Beauty Winter Highlighter Palette (Review, Swatches)
Santorini is a luminous white gold with a strong base and a metallic sheen. It had a good color payoff, being semi-opaque on bare skin in a single layer. It applied evenly on the skin without emphasizing my skin texture and blended out easily.
Works very well with a brush but once I started blending the shade the metallic sheen was diminished. I personally don’t mind as I’m not looking for a super intense highlighter, I just prefer those who give a glow and luminous sheen without being too powerful. I got around eight hours wear without look patchy at all.
Azores is a light gold with yellow undertones and a metallic sheen. It had a great color payoff with almost an opaque coverage in a single layer and even on bare skin. The texture was smooth but dense in the pan and blended easily and evenly onto the skin. The finish is so intense that it did emphasized my skin texture just a little bit so I like to blend it as much as I can and apply it with a lighter hand. I started to get some patchiness after eight hours wear with this formula.
Ibiza is a medium pink-coral with warm undertones and a frost finish. This is my favorite color from this palette (favorite Island so far as well) so I was happy to see it had semi-opaque coverage. It applied smoothly onto the skin, adhered well even on bare skin and blended nicely. This one didn’t emphasized my skin texture like Azores did so I used this shade the most.
The texture was smooth, soft and dense which didn’t created any fall out or powderiness in the pan. In terms of long lasting I had around eight hours wear.
Huda Beauty Pink Sands 3D Highlighter Palette Swatches
I swatched the shades on bare skin in two layers and I took the photo under natural light.
