I wanted to play around a do a look with this palette before I gave my full review just to make sure my first impressions were accurate. Sometimes just swatching some shadows doesn’t give me all the necessary info to share an informed review. However, this time, my first impressions stayed consistent throughout use and there won’t be too many surprises in this review.
Up first, my favorites – Morocco & Soft Peach. Really the entire left side of the palette is like a neutral-lovin’ gals heaven! You have a quad of shadows that includes Soft Peach, Morocco, Fudge, and Spoiled. All but Spoiled are matte and make for the best on-the-go neutral, smoky eye I have ever done. Morocco is a very warm reddish-brown (definitely more brown, less red) but it has just enough color in it to actually show up on my skin instead of blending in with my naturally complexion.
Morocco and Soft Peach stood out for me because, combined, they offered me the perfect transition shade. Soft Peach by itself was a bomb brow highlight and Morocco on its own gave my crease just enough depth for daytime wear. Fudge and Spoiled compliment this duo by offering a shade to further deepen the crease to take the look from day to night (Fudge) and a beautiful lid color that will shimmer beautifully under sunlight and glimmer under lights at night (Spoiled). Can you see why that left side is my fav!? I would have paid $30 just for those four colors. The final neutral color in the palette, a true matte black called Noir, is on the far right side and if anyone has the Tamana ‘DressYourFace’ palette, you know this shade is killer! I’ve already used up most of the shade in the Tamana palette so it’s good I now have a backup.
The other seven shades in the palette were satisfactory, not outstanding, but still worth talking about. I was most dissapointed in Heirloom (purple shimmer) and Chic (I don’t even know how to describe this). Heirloom did not show up purple on my lid! I tried it with primer and concealer and a combination of both as a base and the shade got so muddied I just had to wipe it off and start over. Chic is a weird color to me. It is very cool toned and looks almost pewter in the pan, but if you look at it from a different angle you can see some green undertones in it. It did not compliment my skin at all.
Pink Champagne is a beautiful color, but it has some rather large chunks of shimmer/sparkles in it that makes it hard to work with. I tried putting it in my inner corner, but instead of a consistent pink shimmer, my corners reflected as if I had just stuck some silver glitter right there and called it a day! Bellini, Azure, Intense Gaze, and Metallic are true shimmers and they are so velvety smooth it is insane! But with that smoothness comes the fallout of all fallout. I used Intense Gaze on my lid and my eyelashes and cheeks ended up being covered in it too! This was even after I tapped by brush after picking up the product, but before applying to my lid. Metallic is the same way. Bellini is a shade I feel could be easily replicated and you probably already have it in you collection. Look for an alternative before you reach for this one because the pigmentation of the one you already have might be better. I had such high hopes for Azure and it let me down! I wanted an intense royal blue, but it showed up nearly navy against my skin even with a base. I used it on my lower lash line and while I’m happy with the color, it wasn’t what I was expecting or hoping for.
I’ll post some pictures of my swatches as well as the initial look I did with the palette so you can see it in action. Questions? Hit me in the comments! Happy shopping!
