I have been wanting to write about my eyeshadow palettes collection, just didn't have time to come around with it. I love love love to collect eyeshadow palettes but I do not have many to begin with.
Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette RM215
Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette RM215
Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette RM199
Too Faced Sugar Pop Palette
Stila Eye Are The Window Shadow Palette - Spirit £39
Stila Eye Are The Window Shadow Palette - Body £39
Kat Von D Shade + Light Eye Contour Palette RM250
Tarte Tartelette in Bloom Clay Palette RM175
Zoeva Cocoa Blend Palette RM134
This is like a whole collection, not many. But I do have some classics, like the naked palette and the chocolate bar palette.
1) Urban Decay
UD Naked 2 palette is my first eyeshadow palette. I remember how it was sold out everywhere that time and I could not get my hands on it. Sephora did not have an online store during that time and it was unlike now where you can find Sephora is almost every mall. I had no choice but to ask my friend to get it for me, words couldnt describe how happy and excited I was when I first got it.
And there begins my journey of collection #smh.
Obviously back then I didn't really know what does it mean by 'no fall-out', 'pigmented' or 'buttery' or even 'blendable' despite the whole YouTube beauty community was raving about how good quality is Naked Palette is that time. I only knew where is my eye crease at the time when I got my palette can you imagine hahaha~
And then when I started to learn more and discover more about makeup, when I can tell the differences between different brands and when I can finally tell what a good quality eyeshadow is, I looked back at my Naked 2 plalette and am so impressed by myself for purchasing this palette. After that when I bought the Naked 3 palette, I was equally amazed by its quality.
I have heard many people saying the most buttery eyeshadow they have ever used is from Lorac. I have not tried the Lorac palette so I could imagine, if people say that Lorac has the most buttery eyeshadow then it must be so so so buttery that it melts on your eyelids (it better melt because it is kinda pricey) because to me the Naked palettes are pretty buttery enough.
I love the texture and pigmentation of the Naked Palettes but in shades and colour vice they are not my favourite, plus the packaging of it, it comes in a metal container where the 2 ends click when it is properly closed. It means what? huge, thick and chunky! It is definitely not a travel-friendly palette (eyeshadow palettes are generally not travel friendly I guess, who the hell would wanna bring a 12-colour palette on vacation, no?)
In terms on colour, Naked2 and Naked3 are both nude shades but Naked2 is of a much cooler tone whereas Naked 3 is towards a much warmer tone (of course not as warm as the recent Naked Heat Palette). There are beautiful colours just that they have more way shimmery shades than matte shades, and I am al about matte colour right now, so I hardly use any of the two these days. Don't get me wrong, those matte shades are gorgeous in the palette, but the palettes themselves do not have enough matte shades to my liking, which if I use the Naked Palettes I will need to grab some other shades from other palettes to complete my eyelook. I don't find convenient doing so when I actually can have a palette that has all the matte shades I like from soft matte to deep matte to complete my look.
The 5 colours from the left in Naked2 I particularly like. I think they are quite similar to the vibe of Naked Smoky Palette too, that kind of dark, smoky and metallic look. I am good with having those shades if I am doing a smoky eyelook.
Naked3 has a more pink-ish tone which at the first glance it would seem like only people who like pink would love it. Actually it is more versatile that it is seen from the palette. It has some really pretty gold and rose gold colours but like I said, it is impossible to complete a look with just the Naked3 palette. I love Naked3 until one day I found that those pink shades made my eyes look swollen and I could hardly see y double eyelids which made my eyes looked smaller, so I stop using it since then. Maybe I should try using it again as my makeup skill has improved quite a bit as compared to last time, maybe I could make it work this time.
2) Kat Von D
I have talked about this palette in my previous post. All matte shades, blend beautifully, has cool tone, warm tone and in between cool and warm tones shades, acceptable amount of fall-out, lasts on eyelid (with eye primer of course), no compliant, love it.
3) Zoeva
Speaking of buttery texture, this Zoeva palette has almost as buttery as the Naked Palettes. The powder are very finely milled so it glides onto the skin like a dream. However the shimmery shades have quite some fall out, which you can see from the sides of the pan itself. I have no problem making it work actually, it is not a big deal to me.
My favourites in this palette are the warm shades especially the burgundy shade, it is beautiful. It has a very subtle shimmer in the colour which makes the whole burgundy shade looks more classy and pop out better. Other than putting this burgundy shade on my outer corners I like it place it on my under eyes and sort of like connect it with the upper eyes, the effect is very pretty.
Another thing about this palette is I don't find myself using all the colours in the palette. I would swatch all the colours when I first then the palette but after swatching this one, I don't seem to touch on any other colours other than the 3 - soft matte brown, dark matte brown and the burgundy red colour. I am not sure whether I would find the other colours useful in the future because I am more into the matte shades at the moment. Maybe I would love the greyish purple colour in the future, who knows.
I got this palette when I was in UK. At that time Malaysia still does not have this brand but now they do, Sephora carries this brand and they have quite a variety of products here in Malaysia. I am not too sure about how well know this brand. It is not an expensive palette after all considering its quality and comparing to the prices of the really popular ones. However if you calculate so that you only use 3 shades in the palette like me and you are paying RM134 for the palette then it is quite a pricey palette, especially when the palette itself is made of cardboard and it has no mirror in it.
4) Stila
I purchased the palette on the right (Stila Spirit palette) by myself and the one on the left (Stila Body palette) was given to me as a birthday gift by my flatmates. Stila came out with 4 special edition eyeshadow palettes to celebrate its 20 years of infinite style. You know I am sucker for all limited and special edition stuffs ( a rational one I would say myself as hahaha~) so I got one of them instead of getting all you know.
The packaging is very pretty. Except it can get finger prints all over very easily, it is in rose gold colour, dense in a good way, slick, slim enough to be brought around very easily and it has a good size of mirror in it which makes it very travel-friendly.
It is a shame that I only get to hand-swatches the Stila Body palette that I was given as a gift. Even though the purple shades are a bit less wearable, I still find the blue and turquoise colours to be very pretty and shall be suitable for night time look.
The texture shadow is quite a unique one I would say. It is dryer and stiffer than the other eyeshadow that I have, in other words it is not as buttery as my other eyeshadow. Even though it is dryer and stiffer, I don't find it particularly hard to blend, in fact they can be blended pretty easily. It does not have a lot of fall-out either, which the fall-out is pretty unnoticeable.
In terms of pigmentation, both the palettes are not that type of extremely pigmented eyeshadow which the colours appear to be more subtle, you can actually get some hint of its pigmentation from the texture of the eyeshadow. Softer eyeshades are usually more pigmented and for this, it is dryer and stiffer so the shadow itself is not a super pigmented one. I think they can be made more pigmented by using a flat brush instead of a fluffy brush, and spray the brush with some makeup spray (for me I use MAC Fix+) before dipping it into the pan. I have no issue with the pigmentation of this palette because not all eyeshadows need to be blown-away pigmented to be considered a good shadow, I don't always need an extremely pigmented eyeshadow.
I brought this palette with me last summer when I was on Europe trip and I love love love it. Those shades that I have marked on are my faves, I only dig into those when i was travelling, they are more than sufficient. Even though the shadow itself is a bit towards the dry side, surprisingly they stay on really well on my eyelids (with eye primer underneath of course). Summer in Italy was a disaster but the shadow stays all day long even though I sweat like a pig throughout the day.
The palette has more shimmery shades than matte shades. Even though so I still fine the shimmery shades very usable during day time because the shimmering particles are very tiny and subtle. I will still bring this palette around while travelling, it has everything I need.
5) Tarte
I have not had this palette for very long, so I have not had a chance to play around with it a lot. In general I think this is a very travel-friendly palette. It has way more matte shades than shimmery shades which is definitely what I like at the moment, and it has a huge mirror in it, which I love. The shades are in between cool and warm tones which I think it is very suitable for travelling.
Just like other dark matte shades, those dark colours in this palette do require some effort in blending them. I do not find it particularly hard to blend either, I have no issue with making it work by adding a tiny little amount at each time and slowly build the colour up. Other than that, those soft matte shades are really pigmented and can be blended very well. the texture of this shadow is in between the UD Naked Palettes and the Stila palette, it is definitely not as buttery as the Naked Palettes but slightly softer and creamier than the Stila one.
However I realise it tend it to have quite some fallout, not on the face (duhhh obviously I purposely avoid that to happen) but on the side of each pan, especially soft matte shades. I can definitely avoid that to happen but I don't think it is a big matter if I don't purposely avoid it because they are matte shades and they are very light colours, so it wouldn't be obvious even though there is fallout on the face.
I am ready to bring it with me more often when I am travelling considering it to be quite slim and light. It has the similar palette than the Stila palettes, except Stila is denser but they seem to be made up from the same material to me, but Stila one is of slighly better quality as in it is more sturdy than the Tarte's.
6) Too Faced
I was dying to own this Chocolate Bar Palette when it first came out but when I first got it, I was a bit #meh because it isn't very impressing to me. All the shades are ok, nude neutral shade, more towards the warm side of nude. The texture of the shadow is a bit inconsistent, some are super buttery glides one beautifully but some are quite stiff and powdery. Pigmentation is good, both buttery and powdery shadows are very very pigmented. One thing special about it is it smells cocoa.
The only down side about this palette is it is the same metal container palette as the Naked Palettes, it clicks to make sure you have closed it properly. It is heavy, huge and thick. The mirror in it so so small, you can see from the pictures, ugh Too Faced cannot be more stingy about it.
I already knew I would not get a lot of use of this Sugar Pop Palette before purchasing it but I bought it anyway, because of its packaging being super pretty and unique, I am a sucker for that. I was in UK that time but UK does not have a lot of Too Faced products, so I asked my friend to get it for me when she was travelling to US. Can you imagine how much a wanted this palette when I asked my friend to purposely get it for me from US.
However the pigmentation of this shadow is a bit disappointing. I got the Chocolate Bar Palette before this so I sort of make a comparison between the 2. This texture of this Sugar Pop Palette is so much stiffer and the pigmentation is quite poor to my personal opinion, especially those colourful shadow.
I did not expect the colour to come out so sheer. The swatches I made above were finger swatches. If I get such sheer shadow when finger swatching it, can you imagine its opaqueness if I use a brush. Not only that, all the colourful shades have big and chuncky glitter in it, they are not shimmer, they are glitter, GLITTER jeezzz! I hate glitters in eyeshadow!!!
I have not put on the shadows in this palette properly, not because of the texture of the shadows but because of the colours. I believe I could make the shades work if I want them to work. I quite like the shades 'Blackberry' and 'Malted Milk Ball' but I don't know why I did not get around using it at all all this while. Frankly other than collection purpose, this palette basically serves me no purpose.
After these 2 palettes, Too Faced has not come out with items that caught my attention. They are either too cute, too pinkish or they have too many heart shapes on it. For example the Chocolate Bon Bons Palette and Sweethearts Bronzers and Blush, I am not a fan of those. The packaging itself is a turnoff and non of the colour or the shade is special enough (like the Sweet Peach Palette, I wanted it so much when it first came out but the later I found that I would not get a lot of use of it) for me to not bother about the packaging. So I am not particularly into Too Faced products these days.
Another thing is, to me the reputation of Too Faced has completely ruined after the collaboration between NikkieTutorials and Too Faced - The Power of Makeup Palette. I am a fan of Jefrree Star, so when he spilled the tea about this collaboration I truly am disappointed with Too Faced (YES! I BELIEVE JEFREE STAR!). Especially when Jerrod Blandino threw shade on Tarte being a copy cat as if To0 Faced is the creator of unicorns, I am so disgusted by this.
7) Makeup Geek
There was a period I was super into single eyeshadows. I wanted to create my own palette but I did not want to use t he usual Z-Palette that everyone out there are using. I came across this MAC palette which was like £7, it is a simple, clean and slick palette, I love how it looks. I thought the base itself is a magnet when I can stick my single pan eyeshadow on it however it turns out to be non magnetic. So I got my magnet to make the pan shadows stick on it. I went to Daiso to get small single magnets (they are cheap, you get a lot for RM5.90) and I stick the magnets onto the base of the palette, then only I put the single pan shadows on top of them
You will know about Makeup Geek shadow if you are a follower of the YouTube Community. It is so highly raved because it has a big variety of shades, a lot of it are dupes to the MAC shadows but they are so much cheaper than MAC shadows, however the quality of the shadows is extremely good for the price you paid. I paid for around £5 for each single shadow, foiled and metallic shadows are obviously more expensive. I am not kidding, I was blown away by its pigmentation when I first got it. I could not believe how great the quality of shadows are when I only paid less than £5 for each pan (tips: get it during sale, they are such a bargain!).
There are so many YouTube videos talking about how great Makeup Geek shadow is. You will see how Makeup Geek shadows are compatible to the MAC shadows in the videos.
HOW I STORE MY PALETTES?
I do not generally have a particular way in storing my palettes. I don't have a wardrobe specifically for makeup just like the YouTube makeup gurus, but I do have a drawer specifically for my makeup. So my aim is just to fit all my makeup into the drawer. I got this transparent plastic from Daiso and my palettes fit in perfectly.
I spent 4 days to finish this post, in the mean time I almost gave up writing cause it is so freaking long, I cannot!
But at the end I have finished it.
Till next time~x
Love,
Xiaohui
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