I already knew I liked Violet Voss eyeshadows. My friend gave me the Holy Grail for my birthday, and it’s impressively pigmented and often used! So it was hard to pass up a palette with so many staple colors! Bonus: It has my name on it!
I think this palette is a great investment! It contains all the basics to fun-but-wearable colors. There are surprisingly colors in here that aren’t dupes for anything in my collection. Overall this is a great purchase and I would highly recommend this to newbies to junkies to pro makeup artists.
The mix of finishes is welcome, you have all of your staple mattes- Browbone highlght, transition and crease colors for various skin tones, and deep colors. Then you have your more fun finishes. from strong metallics to a few duo chromes. Their strongest shadows are definitely the metallics. Stephanie being the most impressive. They are infused with jojoba oil which explains why they are so silky.
The mattes were not as strong without a primer. However I assume most people are priming their eyes anyway. I swatched row 6 twice. The first is without primer, it needed several passes, like at least 3. I could feel that wasn’t gripping well. But since we usually wear shadows with a primer, to give it a fair chance, I swatched it again with primer on my arm. It was much better, way more pigmented. On my eyes, they applied great. No issues. The reason why I didn’t prime my arm for each row is because I don’t have enough eye shadow primer, and I want to conserve what I have.
I love that there is a white! Usually highlight colors in palettes aren’t light enough for my skin tone. White can look ashy on the brow bone most skin tones, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it on the lid or inner corner for an actual white if you wanted.
Row 2: Taupes to Dark Browns
While it’s a mostly warm palette, row 1 and 2 are mostly cool toned.
Row 3: Warm browns
Josie and Courtney look the same. This reminds me of Hole’s Rock Star on Live Through This. Probably because of the name Courtney.
We look the same, we talk the same, yeah
We even fuck the same
Are they the same? They look the same in the pan and swatched. I would really like to have seen a much, much deeper brown. Dark like Teddy Bear in their Holy Grail palette. (But you know, different, so there aren’t any repeats!)
Row 4 : Golds
How many different golds can you make? Well, you can make a LOT. They proved they can make at least 6 different ones right here. Even the golds in their Holy Grail palette are different than the ones in here.
Row 5: Peaches
Ann was a surprising color. It’s super a pretty duo-chrome. It’s hard to see in the photo, but I tried to get the shot where the sunlight was hitting it. It has a blue flash.
Stephanie was super pigmented, didn’t need more than 1 swipe. Very impressive!
Below: Primer, not dry skin ↓
Things I need to buy: Eyeshadow primer, makeup removing wipes, ring light, tripod.
Would I travel with this? Only if it was a road trip. On the plane I tend to carry my eyeshadow palettes in my purse to prevent them shattering. In my luggage, I don’t trust anyone not to slam my luggage around. (Things have broken in the past, things that shouldn’t have shattered because I purposely padded them not to break!) With carry on luggage, the other passengers shove their stuff on yours in the overhead bins. Ugh just UGH! So this is too big to fit in my purse and sadly would not come with me on plane trips. It’s too precious and I can’t let it break!
Though mostly warm, there are cool toned shades. I was taught in art college, “temperature change” meaning, don’t wear all warm or all cool. Warm up the crease, cool down the outer V, or whatever. Just gradate the colors from warm to cool to make the look more well rounded. It definitely covers all the bases you don’t need to take a second palette with you. (Unless there are particular colors you want like blue, purple, green, etc.) You can can survive on this palette alone for sure.
In the future I’d like to see a mostly cool toned palette with taupes and purples. I switch up my looks and wear both warm and cool shadows. It would be cool to have more options and I have too many orange and red dominated palettes.
This palette was only available for a few days during IMATS LA, at both the show and online. This palette was on sale for $68 (which is $1.62 per pan). And will be back around this summer. (No official date as far as I could find.) I am unsure if it will again be $68, or if it will go up to the suggested price of $75.
Disclaimer: This palette was purchased by me with my own money. My opinions are my own.
