Well, I have come late to the game of makeup, but they didn’t have Star Wars makeup to entice me back when I was decorating my sassy, young lassy face in the 80s and 90s. Back then, my makeup routine consisted of eyeliner, mascara, and lipstick — I just never learned what to do with the other stuff. Now, well into my mid-life crisis and grasping desperately for youthful beauty, I am taking a crash course in the smoke-and-mirror power of eyeshadow and highlighter. So it was natural to give in to my compulsion to buy the Hyperspace Eyeshadow and Highlighter palette from Hot Topic, on sale for $13.42 (now onsale for $11.83!).
Along for the ride in this Millennium Falcon is a nice assortment of muted, natural colors — the browns of Wookiee, Cantina, Jedi Knight, and Tatooine — along with bolder colors — bright greens of Padawan and Rebellion, mid-blue Astromech, golden Droid, the irresistible sparkly, purple Blaster and glittery, sky-blue The Force. I’m not sure why the yellow shade is called Stormtrooper, and I’m not sure if I will ever use that color. I, of course will gravitate towards the dark side-themed colors: sparkly, red Dark Side, matte charcoal Sith Lord, glimmering burgundy Emperor, and silvery-slate Hyperspace.
The highlighter, the central feature of the palette is too light a shade for highlighting my eyelids — it accentuates the wrinkles. It has a Rebel symbol embossed in it, so its weakness is to be expected from Rebel scum. It works just fine as highlighter for my nose or cheekbones.
The assorted matte and sparkly powders are smooth and glide on easily. When selecting a product solely on its Star Wars branding, sometimes quality isn’t always its prominent feature, So, I was expecting cakey consistency, but these were silkier than expected. And on the underside of the palette are a few words of help on applying the different shades.
A handy mirror is attached to the inside of the lid for close-up application, with the uplifting message, “The Force is Strong With You.” I felt that the individual pots of eyeshadow could have been larger, and the case, being a spaceship, is ironically not really conducive to travel as it does not shut securely. There is a thin acetate film taped in place covering the colors that seems to be meant to be temporary. I’ve kept it taped on one side so it closes to protect the colors and keep any loose powder off the mirror.
Another issue is that there is only one applicator, albeit with a cool repeating Rebel scum symbol pattern on it, for use with the range of colors. And I had a tough time prying it out of its little slot. Of course, Hot Topic has a solution to that — just buy the lightsaber makeup brushes they sell! Oh, believe me; I will.
Sometimes form trumps function when a product is Star Wars branded (Oh, I could regale you on how frustrating my R2-D2 measuring cups and spoons can be), but this Falcon works well enough for me (perhaps I am unfamiliar with performance of more expensive and, dare I assume, high quality makeup). This is not the first time that I’ve tried Star Wars makeup. I was pleased with Cover Girl’s line of mascara, lipstick, and nail polish. I was happy overall with the performance of those products, as I am with this palette of eyeshadow based on my favorite galaxy far, far away.