I've been stalking my local Target for the past week, waiting for the new Sonia Kashuk Knock Out Beauty collection to arrive and this morning I finally got my hands on the beautiful Golden Gloves Skin Glow ($19.99 at Target). This is the one thing I wanted the most out of this entire collection so I'm really excited to review and swatch it for you guys. Let's get started!
Golden Gloves comes surrounded in large plastic packaging that seemed a little bit unnecessary at first, but I guess it was done that way because they wanted to display the compact in the open position. You can definitely appreciate it more when you can see the beautiful boxing glove design that's stamped into the powder.
When closed, the compact has cute artwork on the front depicting the Knock Out Beauty boxing theme, which was done by artist is Dana Louise Kirkpatrick. The inspiration for Knock Out Beauty came when Sonia saw a painting that Dana created of a fighter in red boxing gloves. She purchased the painting and the idea for Knock Out Beauty was born.
The Knock Out Beauty line promotes the idea that women are the ultimate fighters, and is meant to inspire women everywhere to communicate self-love. Sonia wanted to create products that would make women feel strong and embrace their individuality and each piece in the collection has an empowering message written on it.
The back of the compact is solid black and lists the ingredients and weight, which is .31 oz.
Written on the mirror are the words "You Are Beautiful" which is such a nice message to see when you're getting ready and putting on your makeup.
Looking at the powder close up, you can see that it has a pearly sheen, but it's very a fine shimmer. On the Target website, it's described as a "gel powder highlighter that reflects light, illuminates, and leaves skin looking plumper and smoother."
Once I swatched it, I realized that this isn't an "in-your-face" kind of highlight...it's much more subtle, kind of like Hourglass' Ambient Powders. I can use it all over my face without looking like a disco ball and it warms up my fair complexion nicely, leaving it glowing. I tried using this strictly as a highlighter but it was too dark on my skin to use it that way and didn't give quite enough shimmer to "pop" my cheekbones.
On the right, is one swipe of the powder, and on the left is two swipes, so it builds up very easily with a light sheen. It feels super silky and smooth and picks up easily with lots of pigment and no fallout.
Here I swatched it next to Becca's Shimmering Skin Perfector in Champagne Pop, which is more gold, less bronze and quite a bit more shimmery. In the past, I've said that Champagne Pop is right on the border of being too dark for me to use as a highlight, but next to Golden Gloves, it actually looks pretty light!
Overall, I really like Sonia Kashuk's Golden Gloves as an allover face powder...it gives me a beautiful, subtle glow and a bit of warmth without adding too much depth like a bronzer would. It's silky smooth and blends into my skin so nicely without accentuating pores or settling into fine lines.
Although it's much too dark to work as a highlighter on my fair skin, but I think it'll look gorgeous on deeper skin tones as a subtle highlight.
You can find the Golden Gloves Skin Glow at select Target stores or at Target.com