Palettes I used in March: mini-reviews and swatches

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Are these posts getting boring yet? Palettes are one of my favorite makeup items so I could talk and read about them all day, and I also understand that there are only so many neutral palettes I can talk about before they start to blur together.

That said, I’m still going to share some palettes I’m trying to get more use out of this month and some thoughts I have on them after using them for a couple weeks. This month I’m using:

• Anastasia Beverley Hills Prism Palette
• Colourpop Element of Surprise Palette
• Make Up For Ever Artist Palette
• Custom Palette with Colourpop and MAC

Anastasia Beverley Hills Prism Palette

I’ll be honest, I had no idea what I was doing with this palette when I got it. I just knew that it was a unique color story, and I wanted to get it. Since I’ve gotten it, I’m still pretty clueless. I know what to do with the neutral shades, the corals and oranges, and even the cool toned shades. But the highlighter yellow and teal? I am struggling with those. Two weeks into using this palette, I still haven’t figured out quite what to do with them, or how to make a more creative, not neutral, look that is still aligned with the kind of makeup I usually wear.

That being said, I do really enjoy the (very neutral) looks I’ve been getting out of the palette. I love the formula of these shadows – they’re soft and pigmented, while they blend out really well. This is one of the few palettes that have come out in the past few years that I actually feel has a unique color scheme, so I give it major props for that. I have two weeks left to really focus on this, so we’ll see how that goes….

Colourpop Element of Surprise Palette

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I was really excited to start using this palette. I wasn’t interested in it for awhile, but I kept seeing looks with it that looked beautiful, and there seemed to be enough neutrals to keep me in my comfort zone. After using this a fair bit, I’ll say that I think the mattes are great. There’s a nice variety of depths and tones to have a transition shade (the foundation of all my eye makeup), plus additional blending shades that all work really well. But I’m not a huge fan of the shimmers in this palette. They look gorgeous in the pan, and when I swatch them, but the actual transition on the lid (even applied with the fingers) just does not have the same rich payoff. Something happens in application and the shimmers end up looking sheer and powdery, and I need to build up multiple layers to get to the level of pigmentation that I want. I’m going to continue experimenting with different ways of applying the shimmers, and pairing different eyeshadow bases with it, but I don’t think this palette is quite up to par with their other palettes.

Make Up For Ever Artist Palette

I bought this palette right before it was discontinued a few years ago, and I haven’t used it a ton since I’ve gotten it. I’ve always really liked Make Up For Ever shadows, so I knew I would like this palette. But the few cool tones in this palette made my brain this was a cool toned palette that would be tricky to use. In reality, most of the shades are neutral-bronzes, which are actually my favorite kinds of neutrals. So needless to say, I’ve been getting a lot of use out of this palette. The formula of MUFE eyeshadows are a little stiffer and denser, so they require a stiff flat shader to really get the best application on the eyes. Once they are on the eyes, however, they blend so easily, and they last forever. The only thing I can’t get out of this palette is a transition shade, which I usually prefer to be warmer toned – but honestly, I have so many of these kinds of shades in singles and other palettes (including ABH Prism and Colourpop Element of Surprise) that it doesn’t really bother me.

CUSTOM PALETTE – Colourpop Meteorite, Colourpop High Strung, Colourpop Wake Up Call, Colourpop Beach Shorts, Colourpop Glassbull, Colourpop Feathered

For my travel friendly palette this month, I opted to make another custom palette featuring some single shadows from Colourpop that I mass-hauled over the holidays. For this palette, I wanted a mix of shades that would give me an easy neutral look, plus a couple of “wild-card” shades to change up my look. Colourpop Glassbull and Meteorite were those shades for me. Wake Up Call, Feathered, and Board Shorts are enough to do a basic look, and I can blend Meteorite for a warm crease, or add Glassbull on top of everything for some interesting blue/green reflects. Although with Glassbull, I also find this shade extremely powdery and dusty, unless I use it wet. If I try to apply it with my fingers (dry) or with a brush, it just kind of … lays on top of my eyeshadows rather than blending it. But with a wet brush, it is BEAUTIFUL.

For some looks I used with these products…..

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I could have sworn I took my full makeup photos…but I guess this month was a bit of a failure on the end!

What are some palettes you’ve been using?

As always, thanks for reading!