Glisten Cosmetics x Strawberry Shortcake: The Sweetest Picnic of the Year
Six makeup recipe book palettes, one very special brush set, and a picnic we have been keeping secret for quite some time.
If you follow the scent of strawberries far enough, you may eventually find something magical.
Or, in my case, Natalie.
It was one of those afternoons that seemed to have been made especially for picnics. The sky was blue and drowsy, the grass warm beneath the sun, and the breeze kept lifting the corners of my gingham blanket as though it wanted to see what I had packed.
I had brought a shortcake, a glass bottle of lemonade clouded pink with fruit, and enough strawberries to feed considerably more people than I had actually invited.
Then Natalie appeared at the edges of the field with a picnic basket hooked over one arm.
Only hers was filled with makeup.
“Well,” I said, shuffling the shortcake aside to make room. “This changes things”
She sat down, and somewhere between the strawberries and the lemonade, six tiny recipe books began to appear between us.
The beginnings of Glisten Cosmetics x Strawberry Shortcake.
Our biggest launch of the year had officially found its way into the picnic basket.
And, naturally, I had some friends to call.
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We knew almost immediately that this collection could not simply be Strawberry Shortcake printed onto makeup. We wanted the whole world to come with it.
The fruit bowls and gingham tablecloths. The colours of summer sweets. The handwritten recipes and mismatched picnic glasses. The feeling of opening something small and precious that might have been sitting on a childhood shelf for years, waiting patiently for you to find it again.
Most of all, we wanted each of us to feel unmistakably like ourselves. So we made Makeup Recipe Books!
One for Strawberry Shortcake, Raspberry Tart, Orange Blossom, Lemon Meringue, Sour Grapes and Blueberry Muffin, each containing a three-shade colour story inspired by its character and a darling little heart-shaped mirror tucked inside.
They look rather like something you might discover in a sun-warmed kitchen, wedged between an old cake recipe and a note written by somebody you love.
Only these recipes are for your face.
And everyone in Strawberries team had opinions.
Strawberry Shortcake Palette
I went first.
“I think mine should be pink,” I told Natalie.
She looked at my hat. Then at the strawberries. Then slowly back at me.
Some things become classic for a reason.
My Strawberry Shortcake Palette is filled with the colours of berries left warming in the sunshine: a juicy strawberry pink-red, a softer coral-pink and a sparkling shade that looks as though somebody scattered sugar over freshly cut fruit.
I placed the finished palette beside the strawberry bowl.
Perfect.
“Next!”
Raspberry Tart Palette
Raspberry Tart arrived and immediately rearranged my picnic.
Apparently, the pink gingham looked better over there.
The glasses needed moving. The raspberries were not sufficiently visible. And the little plate of cakes, according to her, was “throwing everything off.”
Her Raspberry Tart Palette is pink, followed by pink, followed by another pink – though none of them could ever be mistaken for one another.
There is a vivid raspberry shade with all the sharp sweetness of the fruit itself, a soft powdered pink, and beneath them a rosy shimmer that catches in the light like sugar crystals at the bottom of a sweet jar.
“It needs more drama,” Raspberry said.
She was pointing at the shimmer. Natalie stared at her for a moment. Then added more sparkle.
I was beginning to think this collaboration might go rather well.
The finished palette is for anyone whose answer to "how much pink?" Has always been yes.
Orange Blossom Palette
Orange Blossom arrived carrying flowers in one arm and oranges in the other.
Somehow, she had made the two look coordinated.
Her corner of the picnic seemed warmer from the moment she sat down, as though somebody had turned the afternoon slowly towards the sunset.
The Orange Blossom Palette carries that same warmth.
Its three shades move through deep burnt citrus, bright orange, and glowing metallic light – the colours of orange peel beneath your fingernails, marigolds nodding in the garden and the last hour of sunshine spilling gold across the table.
“What do you think?” I asked.
Orange Blossom picked up the palette.
Then an orange.
She held them side by side, considering this with tremendous seriousness.
“Needs another orange.”
And so another orange joined the picnic. Then another.
Soon enough, the entire table had turned into a small citrus orchard.
That is one of my favourite things about the collection. You never have to ask whose world you have wandered into.
You just know.
Lemon Meringue Palette
You can usually tell when Lemon Meringue is approaching because everything becomes approximately twenty per cent sunnier.
Her palette may be the brightest proof of this.
The Lemon Meringue Palette brings together warm orange, brilliant yellow and golden shimmer that seems determined to catch every scrap of sunlight it can find.
Like lemon slices floating in cold drinks. Like cake cooling beside an open window. Like lying in long grass with your eyes closed and still being able to see the sunlight flowing red-gold behind your eyelids.
Lemon turned the palette towards the sky.
“This one should sparkle.”
“It does.”
She tilted it again.
“More.”
Apparently, I have surrounded myself with people who consider “more sparkle” a perfectly reasonable solution to most problems. Just how it should be.
Sour Grapes Palette
Sour Grapes did not trust the picnic.
“Too cheerful,” she said.
She came anyway.
She also ate some of the cake, although I promised not to mention that.
Her Sour Grapes Palette could belong to nobody else. It moves from rich, crushed-grape purple into a softer lilac, before ending with a shimmer so delicate it seems almost enchanted.
A little frost beneath all that fruit. A little moonlight amongst the purple.
Sour Grapes inspected it. For quite a long time.
“I suppose it’s acceptable.”
Which, translated from Sour Grapes, means she loved it.
The deeper purple can turn smoky and dramatic. Lilac softens everything into something hazier. Then that cool shimmer arrives and changes the entire look, catching at the edges like light on evening water.
Blueberry Muffin Palette
Blueberry Muffin arrived last.
She had been reading and lost track of time.
Her book was still tucked underneath one arm when she reached the blanket, so when Natalie passed her the palette, Blueberry stared at it silently for several seconds.
Her Blueberry Muffin Palette is all cool skies and sleepy mornings.
A brighter blue sits beside a softer pastel, followed by an icy sparkle that looks as though somebody gathered frost from the grass at dawn and pressed it carefully into a pan.
Blueberry turned the palette over in her hands.
Then opened it. Then closed it again.
“You made the packaging look like a book.”
“Yes.”
She hugged us.
Another success!
And then there were brushes…
I thought Natalie’s basket was empty. It was not.
From somewhere beneath all those palettes, she pulled out the Glisten Cosmetics x Strawberry Shortcake Brush Set.
There was a brief silence. Then everybody reached for it at once.
The brushes bring the same playful, nostalgic world of the collection into something made to be used every day, carrying those character-inspired colours and sweet details from the palettes straight onto your dressing table.
They are almost too pretty to put away!
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Strawberry Shortcake has always belonged to a world where friendship is colourful, personalities are allowed to be enormous and nobody has ever been frightened of choosing the pinkest possible shade.
There is nostalgia in that. But there is something else, too. Something that feels very Glisten, because getting older doesn't mean you have to become beige. You do not have to stop choosing things simply because they delight you.
You can choose the pink palette because it is pink.
You can cover your eyelids in purple shimmer on an otherwise completely ordinary day.
You can fall in love with packaging because opening it feels like discovering a tiny book you might have treasured when you were eight years old.
Growing up should not require leaving every joyful thing behind. Which is the real recipe hidden inside this collection.
Sit down at the picnic again. Open the little book. Choose the colour you like best, even if there is no sensible reason for liking it. ESPECIALLY THEN!
Natalie and Strawberry realised that somewhere around the second jug of strawberry lemonade.
The only thing missing in this collection is YOU.
So come a little closer. There is still lemonade in the jug, the sun has not quite gone down, and we saved you a corner of the gingham blanket.
Click to shop the Strawberry Shortcake X Glisten Cosmetics Collection
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By Ellie Black
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