Milani Luminoso Glow Palette Review

The Milani Luminoso Glow Palette was introduced by the brand last year (Spring 2019). It was a step by the brand into a higher price point of products, which continues to this day, with palettes around the $20.00 mark.

The Luminoso Glow palette, named after the much-loved Luminoso baked blush, costs $18.00 at full price. I did not see many reviews at the time of its release, probably because of the prohibitive cost.

It fell into my hands with a bit of luck. I had to run into Walgreen's for some essential items, when I saw the clearance section had an entire makeup bin of sealed products. With practically no other customers in the store, a quick rummage yielded some steeply discounted Spectrum by Covergirl palettes (at both $2.39 each), and this palette, the Milani Lumioso Glow palette, for $1.89, almost a 90% discount....whoa.

So, let's get into product details.

The palette contains 8 shades of blush, bronzer, and highlight tones, that could also easily double on the eye. It reminds me a little of the Em Cosmetics Golden Hour Face/Eye palette in that regard. The pans are sun-beam shaped, triangle, with divots in the pan. All in all, quite a gorgeous, sleek design, but with too much plastic for my liking.

In the past, I have had experience with Milani face color products. I owned and decluttered the Strobelight highlighter in the shade Afterglow. While the product was highly reflective, I didn't enjoy the thicker formulation. I also owned the baked luminous blush in Corallina, and did not like that one, either. It had an odd smell and huge flecks of glitter.

However, as I am a fan of Milani in general, and didn't have much to lose, I thought would give this a shot.

From left to right, we have swatches of shades #1-4

Shade 1. A luminous peach blush tone with scattered golden glitter. I am not a huge fan of glitter in products, but I don't mind the scattered effect of this one too much. 

Shade 2. A darker wine-copper metallic shade, with no discernible glitter. This is a rather pigmented shade that needs to be blended out. For me, it is really pretty mixed with the other shades.

Shade 3. A mid-toned, rich gold-copper metallic shade, no glitter. This one is probably the one I'll get the least use out of, unless I mix it with other shades. It has a nice shine to it.

Shade 4. A light gold metallic shade, no glitter. The gold is definitely red-toned, and though I don't particularly use gold highlighters, there is something glowy and pretty about this color.

And next,  shades #5-8

Shade 5.  A really bright duochrome with pink shifting gold with gold flecks. Reminds me a lot of the Too Faced shade Satin Sheets.

Shade 6. This is the peachy pink duocrome that Milani really started using with the Luster Lights single highlighter compact. Not as metallic as the other shades, but really gorgeous. Reminds me a bit of Urban Decay Fireball.

Shade 7. A sparkling peachy-gold.

Shade 8. A pink-gold duochrome that is also quite common in eyeshaow palettes.

Final thoughts:

Though this palette has a lot of glitz, I do think it can be used to create really soft and pretty looks. I do find this to be a rather lucky find, given it had such a high price tag for such a long time. I am not a fan of paying a lot of money for makeup, but I can say this would be a steal anywhere from $10-$15.00.

It especially curved my craving for the Golden Hour products from EM Cosmetics, as I think this palette is more than capable of washing someone in a warm golden light. I think the amount of duochrome shades is also really neat.

My final commendation is the formula. Past Milani highlighters from the Strobelight collection had, in my opinion, a denser "wetter" formula that I did not enjoy. This palette has a really soft and somewhat drier (but not dry) and thin formation that makes is easy to smooth over the skin. I have not seen anything like that formula from Milani before, though for all I know (given their more current and plentiful spate of releases) they might have been continuing with it.

Ah, well. This is a nice little palette. It's a shame I had to wait so long for the cost to become reasonable.

Thanks for reading.