REVIEWING ALL MY EYESHADOW PALETTES*
*Just the palettes from brands that I don't own multiple palettes from
This isn't my favourite palette in my collection - the colours are beautiful and I love how well the mattes perform but the shimmers were just a bit disappointing, and they make up half of the palette. I would consider all the shimmers in this palette to be toppers, and the colours of them don't really work with the mattes so they just seem a bit out of place to me. This is definitely a palette I can get beautiful looks out of, but I often have to reach for a second palette to use with this. Most of the time when I do my makeup I use two palettes anyway, but I do prefer having the ability to do a whole look with just one. This palette is very expensive for what it is so I don't think I'd recommend it, and I really do regret that I don't use it enough, it's just that now I have other pastels in my collection that I reach for more because they're in palettes with a more cohesive colour story.
I lusted after this palette for so long, even before I was into makeup I knew about this and I just needed it. I got this for my 17th birthday and I was really excited, but I haven't used it a whole lot. I don't think this is really my colour scheme. Like yes, it's beautiful, but I just don't really gravitate towards cranberry tones. Owning this made me realise that I didn't want the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance palette because they're very similar and I hardly use this so why would I use it. I did use this palette recently and I loved the look I created (but it didn't photograph well unfortunately), but I wasn't very impressed by the shimmers. They had to be sprayed to have the sort of intensity that I like, which is fine, it's just not how I normally do my makeup. The mattes were really easy to use, and honestly wearing the look out I gained a new appreciation for this palette because I just felt really good about myself wearing it. It made me love pink eyeshadow again, even if it was a bit more on the berry side. I also used this on a model for a photoshoot I did and while the makeup turned out really nice, it was darker than I would have liked and Muse really betrayed me and went kind of patchy and left this awful harsh line on the eyes that I just couldn't blend out. Even if I don't get a whole lot of use out of this palette, I'm always going to love it because of how cool the idea is, The Birth of Venus is one of my favourite paintings and I just love how beautiful the packaging is, and how true to the inspiration the shades and shade names are.
I really like this palette, the mattes are beautiful and soft, pigmented, easy to use, and the metallics are super intense and foiled. The only downside to it really is that because it's olive tones, and my eyes are olive green, it looks a bit dull on me. The looks are still beautiful, but there isn't enough contrast between my eye colour and the shadows so it just doesn't quite look right. I do really love the mustard and the gold though - and the black is really nice too! Owning this has satisfied my need to buy the Melt Gemini palette, or the Give Me Glow Cosmetics Juicy Olive palette because now I know that olives aren't the most flattering on me. What I really love about this palette is the formula, the beautiful packaging, and how different it is to everything else on the market. My only other complaint is that you're very limited with only six shades, so I feel like I always do the same look with this palette, and it's what everyone else is doing with it as well.
I haven't had this palette long enough to really form an opinion on it. I've used it a few times and I found it a little tricky to work with, I really love the purple duochrome but it's chunky and definitely meant to be used as a topper (I love to use it as an inner corner highlight), I don't like the reds because they're like satins and I just don't know how to use them really, I was disappointed with the yellow, but I did really like the bone colour, and the purple matte is okay. This is the perfect palette for a sunset eye, but that's not something I do a whole lot so I only really reach for this for that duochrome - I really need to start using this more though because it wasn't cheap. The mattes in this palette are really dry so they can look a little chalky and flat on the eye, they're not creamy at all. I like the gold and the purple topper shade, they perform really well and are beautiful, they're very soft so you do have to be careful but they look stunning on the eyes. The reds are really odd, the darker of them is quite sheer and hard to build up, and the shimmer in it is really weird, I'm also not a fan of the lighter red and although there's more shimmer in it it's still an odd finish. I find that with the red (lighter) and bronze shimmer they're best used with a denser brush to really focus the colour and get any sort of payoff from them. Overall I think I just need to learn how to use this palette properly and then maybe I'll like it more.
Okalan Matte Eyeshadow Palette (Lime Crime Venus 2 Dupe)
I bought this and the Okalan dupe for the Venus 1 off Shop Hush when that was a big deal because I loved the colour stories of the Lime Crime palettes but couldn't ever imagine getting my hands on them. I ended up getting the real Venus 1 for my birthday one year so got rid of the dupe. I honestly never reach for this palette, which is a shame because it's got some really cool grungey shades in it. I love the mustard and used to use it a lot, but I have a good mustard single shadow that I reach for more now. I can't really speak on the formula of this palette because I use it so rarely. I don't have an opinion on the shimmers but I do like the mattes, and for a cheap palette they're surprisingly pigmented. This isn't one I want to declutter because of how interesting the shades are, but it's also a palette I only really reach for if I need a specific colour, and I could probably dupe the whole palette with my collection really.
I bought this and the Okalan dupe for the Venus 1 off Shop Hush when that was a big deal because I loved the colour stories of the Lime Crime palettes but couldn't ever imagine getting my hands on them. I ended up getting the real Venus 1 for my birthday one year so got rid of the dupe. I honestly never reach for this palette, which is a shame because it's got some really cool grungey shades in it. I love the mustard and used to use it a lot, but I have a good mustard single shadow that I reach for more now. I can't really speak on the formula of this palette because I use it so rarely. I don't have an opinion on the shimmers but I do like the mattes, and for a cheap palette they're surprisingly pigmented. This isn't one I want to declutter because of how interesting the shades are, but it's also a palette I only really reach for if I need a specific colour, and I could probably dupe the whole palette with my collection really.
Suva Beauty Block Party
I honestly feel betrayed by this palette, I bought this because Kat and Hailey recommended it and really hyped up Suva as a brand on Beauty News, and I really don't understand why. I did a One Month One Palette using this earlier in the year because I got this as a Christmas present and then only used it once, so I wanted to really test it out. I hated pretty much all the shades except for the teal and navy, but even they were difficult to work with. The mattes were just trash, the colours were chalky and not pigmented (and I'm as pale as they come, if they needed to be layered on me I don't understand how anyone can use this), the teal and the navy however were too pigmented and would easily take over a whole look because the colour would just keep blending and blending - it was a disaster. I just couldn't understand how inconsistent the formula was. The yellow was literally the worst yellow I have ever used and I was so upset because I love yellow eyeshadow. The shimmers.... I didn't mind the bright purple and teal, although the teal did not wear well on my eyes, it separated and creased really strangely and I've never had that problem with any other eyeshadow. The pink and orange shimmers needed to be sprayed to have any sort of pigment or any chance of adhering to the eye, and they were just so lack lustre. Then we come to the worst eyeshadow ever made, BBQ, firstly, I hate the name, secondly, it's garbage. It looks metallic in the pan, but on a brush or finger or on the actual eye it's a little bit of glitter suspended in a patchy weird coloured matte that has no pigment! While I did like the looks I was able to create with this palette and how it pushed me to be more creative, the experience of using it was so frustrating that I now have a grudge against it.
I honestly feel betrayed by this palette, I bought this because Kat and Hailey recommended it and really hyped up Suva as a brand on Beauty News, and I really don't understand why. I did a One Month One Palette using this earlier in the year because I got this as a Christmas present and then only used it once, so I wanted to really test it out. I hated pretty much all the shades except for the teal and navy, but even they were difficult to work with. The mattes were just trash, the colours were chalky and not pigmented (and I'm as pale as they come, if they needed to be layered on me I don't understand how anyone can use this), the teal and the navy however were too pigmented and would easily take over a whole look because the colour would just keep blending and blending - it was a disaster. I just couldn't understand how inconsistent the formula was. The yellow was literally the worst yellow I have ever used and I was so upset because I love yellow eyeshadow. The shimmers.... I didn't mind the bright purple and teal, although the teal did not wear well on my eyes, it separated and creased really strangely and I've never had that problem with any other eyeshadow. The pink and orange shimmers needed to be sprayed to have any sort of pigment or any chance of adhering to the eye, and they were just so lack lustre. Then we come to the worst eyeshadow ever made, BBQ, firstly, I hate the name, secondly, it's garbage. It looks metallic in the pan, but on a brush or finger or on the actual eye it's a little bit of glitter suspended in a patchy weird coloured matte that has no pigment! While I did like the looks I was able to create with this palette and how it pushed me to be more creative, the experience of using it was so frustrating that I now have a grudge against it.
Kat Von D Shade + Light Contour Quad in Plum
I was really excited when I bought this because it was my first KVD product (and this was pre-controversy), I even wanted to collect all the quads and was honestly disappointed when I found out they'd been discontinued. As much as I liked this when I first got it (late 2017), the greyish purple shade really doesn't perform well and I only really like the pink base shade. The purples are just patchy and don't last well, although the shadows feel really soft they're just not the easiest to work with. I hate how limited you are with a quad, and these colours being as grey toned as they are, I just find that I look a bit dead when I wear them so I don't use this anymore.
Since writing this post I have accumulated a few more palettes so I might do another similar post in January maybe that's more of a "reviewing the last few palettes I bought" type of post.
Iz 🦀
I was really excited when I bought this because it was my first KVD product (and this was pre-controversy), I even wanted to collect all the quads and was honestly disappointed when I found out they'd been discontinued. As much as I liked this when I first got it (late 2017), the greyish purple shade really doesn't perform well and I only really like the pink base shade. The purples are just patchy and don't last well, although the shadows feel really soft they're just not the easiest to work with. I hate how limited you are with a quad, and these colours being as grey toned as they are, I just find that I look a bit dead when I wear them so I don't use this anymore.
Iz 🦀
