Palettes I’m wearing this month + mini reviews

You all probably know by now that palettes are some of my favorite makeup products to wear. I love seeing the combinations of shades and trying to work out different looks. It also helps me stay focused on using products consistently and and making sure they actually all get used.

This month, I’ve been using and loving these palettes:

• 3CE Mood Recipe Palette in #Plot Twist
• Colourpop Chasing Rainbows Palette
• Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette
• Viseart Sultry Matte Palette

Like last month’s palette rotation included mini reviews of everything, and since a lot of are these aren’t really new, I’ll do the same for these.

3CE Mood Recipe Palette in #Plot Twist

I bought this palette upon randomly coming across Ume Cosme, a beauty boutique selling different Asian brands. They don’t appear to have a website, but the store was packed full of Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese brands alike. While there was some markup on the prices, they day that I went in, they were doing 30% off the whole store, making the prices much closer to what I saw in Asia. I believe I paid ~$30 for this.

I had been wanting to try these 3CE palettes for months, and I was so happy to get my hands on this one. I believe they’re part of a collection of palettes. Formula wise, I find that these are on par with most Korean beauty shadows – they’re a little softer and sheerer than shadows from Western brands, though I do think these have slightly more density and pigment than a lot of Asian formulas.

There are 2 matte shades, 2 mattes with light glitter (that blend out), 3 frosty shimmers, and 2 glitter shades. I love the variations in textures and depth, and I can actually get a full look out of all these shades.

Final Rating – 8/10

Packaging – 8/10

Shades and Formula – 8/10

Value – 7/10

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Colourpop Chasing Rainbows Palette

Would you look at that – I actually have a palette with color this month! I am a completely neutral eyeshadow loving girl, but sometimes, inspiration hits, and I actually start to crave some color. This palette was part of a gift with purchase during the holidays, and I was really craving some brightness and color in my life at the time, so this was perfect.

I have to admit, me being me, I’ve gravitated toward the more neutral shades – the browns, corals, and if I’m feeling frisky, the purples. I haven’t work the greens and teals too much yet, though I knew I would like this palettes because on the rare occasion that I do wear greens, these are the tones I go for.

I am continually surprised by Colourpop shadows. They have a great formula that is pigmented, buildable, and blendable, and I find that they do mattes pretty well. They are not quite as nice – silky and smooth – as some of my favorite mattes from Chanel or Viseart, but they do work for me with little fallout or dragging on my lids. With this palette, the shimmers are consistent with the shimmers in the other Colourpop palettes I own, but I don’t completely love the glitter shades, Blurred Lines and Not Playing. They have a very wet silicone-y feel that feels really smooth, but don’t apply that well on the eyelids. I think the formula helps avoid fallout, but it seems harder to apply. I prefer to apply these glitter shades with my finger.

If you’re looking for an affordable color palette, I would definitely recommend checking this out. For $20 this is really a steal for the great formula and shades that are in here.

Final Rating – 8/10

Packaging – 7/10

Shades and Formula – 7/10

Value – 10/10

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Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

I really love the original Naked palettes, back when good neutral palettes were hard to find. I’ve said before that Urban Decay has some of my favorite eyeshadow formulas and these are no exception. The Naked 2 palette is cooler toned than the original (which is my OG favorite), but I find it still has enough warm shades to work for me. As I’ve played with it this month, I’ve noticed that it just generally has darker shades, which is great for smokier looks, but on a couple occasions, I ended up with a darker look than I planned.

I think my favorite Naked palettes are still the original, Heat, and Cherry, but this is a very solid palette if you’re looking for a slightly cooler toned look.

Final Rating – 8/10

Packaging – 9/10

Shades and Formula – 8/10

Value – 8/10

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Viseart Sultry Nudes Palette

Viseart has completely changed the matte eyeshadow game for me. They are simply the best I’ve tried – they apply and blend seamlessly. The Sultry Nudes palette was my first foray into an all shimmer palette from Viseart, and I remain impressed. I had heard some negative things, but I honestly think these are just as good.

Over the past month, I’ve been surprised (again) by how well the shades fit into my everyday looks, and how they blend together. Although all the shades are shimmery, they aren’t super frosty or metallic, so they still make a really nice work friendly neutral eye. The variety in cool and warm toned shades also make this an ideal shimmery neutral palette to pair with the matte palettes.

Yes, Viseart palettes are expensive, but I do think that they are pretty good value. A little goes a long way with Viseart, so I think it’ll take even longer to go through these eyeshadows than with other palettes.

Final Rating: 9/10

Packaging: 10/10

Shades and Formula – 9/10

Value – 8/10

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And now I’ve finally started doing a better job of taking pictures of the looks I do with these palettes. I don’t remember every single thing I wore, but I’ll do my best to fill in details where I can.

Look 1 and 2

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Left:

Colourpop Chasing Rainbows Palette:

-Feeling it and Realness blended all over lid

-Urban Decay Tempt lipstick mixed with Nars Cruella

Right:

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette – busted on the outer corner, Viseart Sultry Muse mauve (first column, second row)

Look 3 and 4

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Left:

Colourpop Chasing Rainbows:

-Feeling it and Realness in the crease and outer corner

Viseart second column, first shade (goldish shade)

Charlotte Tilbury Dolce Vita glitter shade

Right:

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette
-Snakebite in outer V
-Suspect all over lid
-Half Baked in the center of the lid

-Maybelline Touch of Spice lipstick

Look 5

Colourpop Chasing Rainbows Palette:

-Feeling it in the crease

-Wishlist also in the crease and lightly on the lid

-Realness in the outer V

-Not Playing all over the lid

I have to say, I really loved all the looks that I made. I didn’t take many pictures wearing the 3CE palette, but I think it was actually one of my favorites. It created really nice warm looks, and the glitter shades added that extra touch that I was looking for.

I don’t think I ended up using as much of the Colourpop palette as I wanted – definitely not any of the blue and teal shades, but I did actually get a lot of use out of the coral shades to add j ust a bit of warmth and brightness to my looks, which I didn’t expect to like.

The Urban Decay Naked 2 and Viseart palettes were the real workhorse palettes. They worked really well together and are just so easy to work with.

Do you have any palettes you’re loving this month? Do you own any of these palettes? Thoughts?

As always, thanks for reading.