Can The Bratz Convert This Barbie Girl?!

I'm a tried and true Barbie fan, but Glamlite's new Bratz collab collection may just have me switching up my passion for fashion!

I never really got the appeal of Bratz. I was too old when they came out to have any sort of nostalgic feeling for them, and my heart belonged pretty faithfully to Barbie - and her big-hooved competitor Jem! The removable feet struck me as weird, and who knew that their balloon lips would predict the epidemic of bad filler among today's influencers?!

But for those who do want to relive their love of Bratz, Glamlite has a new collection that lets you do just that.

I recently used a good chunk of the collection to do my makeup for a theater show that I was in, and I have some thoughts!

The Eyeshadow Palette:

The palette is pretty typical Glamlite quality. This is the first time they've done the removable bottom drawer of shadows (it's giving scaled down P. Louise vibes - not a huge fan but I can live with it). Usually the problem with Glamlite palettes is that there aren't any light shades, and if there are, they are all shimmers. In this case, it's mid-tone mattes that are missing. I still got a couple of great looks out of the palette for the show, but a little more in the middle of the range would have been lovely.

For day one of the show, I stuck with the pink/berry tones with a pop of champagne in the inner corner, and the Yasmin lip kit (which we'll talk more about below). For day two, I wanted to do a little pink, but stuck to the more bubblegum tone mixed with the cool blues and some purple. For that look, I used the Cloe lip kit to keep it pink.

I was rushing on day one and didn't even get a pic in a wig, let along record anything, but I did do a live GRWM on my channel where you can see the products in action.

The Lip Kits:

As I mentioned, Yasmin was the kit that I chose for day one, and it has a more brown look than I would have guessed just looking at the products. I think the brown of the liner really changes how you see the lipstick once they are combined. The liners from Glamlite are great - not too creamy so that they go everywhere, but not so stiff that I need to go all 90s and spark up my lighter to soften them up. The lipsticks are a good basic lipstick and the gloss is fine - not super pigmented, but it gives you a nice shine and some sparkle.

Cloe is the kit that I used for day two, and I think that this is probably my favorite. I would have loved for the lipstick to be more icy pink, but as it was, it made a pretty nude-leaning pink look.

Sasha's lip kit is giving me flashbacks to my 90s ombre lip - deep brown liner and light nude lipstick. I would have paired it with a frost lipstick instead of a matte, but that's what the gloss is for. This is gorgeous and nude, and perfect for all of us who served the glam nude lip of the 90s.

The final lip kit, Jade, is the closest we get to a colorful lip. This one has a brownish red liner and the coppery red glitter in the gloss gives the look a little bit of flair.

My complaint with these lip kits is that they are too samey samey - not only looking at them next to each other, but also considering Glamlite's broad range of lip kits. It's almost always a brown lip liner and a nude lipstick. The undertones are a bit different, but the look is very similar. They do one thing, they do it well, but they do it a lot. I mean, if you look at the dolls, Jade has a powerhouse red lip - why not do that kit? Cloe has frosty pink lips, very early 2000s. Why not give us that look? They are good for what they are, but they played it way too safe.

The final lip item was a lip plumper. It's got a little bit of heat to it, but I didn't find it to be uncomfortable, and the sensation wears off fairly quickly. I could have done without this, but it was just easier to order the bundle (and a little cheaper), so here we are. I'll probably wear it a couple more times, and then it will end up in a declutter.

The Blush Palette:

The blush palette is the one piece of the collection that I haven't had a chance to use yet. I'll include the monologue from the show below, but the conceit of the show is that I'm sitting at my makeup table doing a livestream, and I'm adding blush to my look. I could have used this palette, but for the show I decided to use the Blend Bunny x Jordan Liberty Masterclass palette instead. It gave me more options and I just felt like it. I will say that I've loved all of the powder blushes from Glamlite so far, so I can't imagine these will be a disappointment. This is their first time doing cream blushes, and while I'm excited to try them, cream is never going to be my favorite formula, so I'm not waiting on those to make or break my experience. The shopping bag packaging is cute, although I want to cut those damn ribbons off.

I wanted to use Glamlite for my look because the monologue that I wrote and performed was all about how queerness and being an outsider has shaped my feelings about what "home" means. Glamlite is a queer-owned brand, and that felt like an easy tie-in to the show. I went with Blend Bunny for the blush not only because it's a fave but because that brand has been a big part of my makeup journey on YouTube - they were the first brand to send me PR since starting my channel! I've got a behind the scenes post under The Salty Dramaturg tab where you can read more about the various "Easter Eggs" that I included on the set!

And for those who didn't have a chance to see the show, here are two of the four performances of the monologue that I actually livestreamed during the show!

So, has this collection made me a convert? Sadly, no. I love all of the pieces and I'm excited to play with them more, but I am still a diehard Barbie fan. In fact, I've long said that the best Barbie makeup item to ever come out was Glamlite's palette from a few years ago! They've beaten themselves with a better doll-themed collection. I love the colors in the palette, and those blush shades are definitely calling out to me, but the classic Barbie palette is still the winner.

Now if we could just convince them to take a few more risks and give us a broader range of colors, especially in their lip kits, and all will be right with the world, regardless of which fashion doll has the keys to your heart!