Pat McGrath Skin Fetish 003 Golden Review & Swatches

The reason why I can never buy limited edition products is because I don't get the time to review until it's out of stock...forever. And that was the case for the Pat McGrath Labs Skin Fetish 003 in Golden, which I wasn't sure about getting but decided to take the plunge, because...that.packaging.tho.I'm sure you've heard anything and everything to know about this trio...but I thought I'd still put my piece in too. Skin Fetish 003 comes with 3 products for $72...so the initial sticker shock is outweighed by the fact that each product costs you $24, which is much more feasible. It comes with a duofiber brush, a powder pigment highlight, and a dual ended stick with a cream highlight and glossy face balm, which is a trend straight off the runway.I wanted to love you, Skin Fetish, I really did. But, I've found myself to be a bit disappointed. As far as the packaging goes, it's very low quality. I get that it's Pat McGrath "Labs" and is created to look like lab samples (I work in the beauty industry so been there done that). But, I think it would be much better if the products were actually printed with the product names, instead of all of them having stickers. The brush has a black sticker, the stick has a black sticker, and the pigment has a white sticker (that gets stained almost immediately). On top of that, the balm & highlighter are mislabeled on mine, which surely had to have happened more than once. It's just sloppy.As far as the products go, it doesn't get too much better, unfortunately.I hate the brush, it doesn't pick up any pigment at all and isn't even a traditional highlighting brush. It would have been so much better with a fan brush or something that would better apply the products.I have extremely oily skin, so my hesitation to buy this came from the cream highlighter & balm because I knew they wouldn't work for me, and I was right. The highlighter is not creamy enough, and if you try to apply it, it takes off any foundation you applied beforehand. I even tried warming it on the back of my hand and applying with my fingers and it still removed my foundation. The balm does the same thing, and although I liked the look of the balm, I just wish my foundation wouldn't get wiped off.And lastly, the piece de resistance, the pigment. I was so excited when I saw that white-gold duochrome, and it certainly does shine in person. But, I think it's better for darker skin tones as it mostly just shows up as yellow-gold on me and not white with a hint of gold as I had expected. So, I put it away and intended to just use it for nighttime looks, but then I found a way to use it and have it show up as a white-gold...layer it on top of other highlights! Sure, it kind of defeats the purpose, but it works.Overall I'm slightly disappointed in this, so I'm not even sure if I would buy any more Pat McGrath Labs products, even though I think Pat is awesome. I will say that it would look f*cking amazing on darker skin tones that can handle how dark the gold is! So, if you're fair/light like myself, I wouldn't waste your money trolling on eBay. The Sephora cast member that I had talked to said a lot of people were returning their Skin Fetish 003 kits, which is kind of upsetting to hear but I was glad to hear my reasons for not LIVING for it were valid. But, I'm excited to see what she comes up with next and hope that the products improve in future launches!