3 Eyeshadow Palettes From 2016 – What I Think Now

2016 was the year where I rediscovered my love for the eyeshadow palette, infact all eyeshadow totally became my bag in 2016 with Makeup Geek quickly becoming an obsession as well. There were three standout palettes I reviewed in 2016 that were all higher end, I’ve reviewed and bought the odd high street palette over the past few years, but with brands such as Makeup Revolution playing the dupe game so well (as well as their ‘original’ palettes to be honest), it made me less and less likely to purchase anything higher end – because where I can find stuff that works for me at a cheap price I stick to it. I spotted one particular palette on Instagram, and instantly was like… that’s gonna have to be mine and within a few days I’d ordered it, reawakening my love for eyeshadow palettes since!


Whilst there are a few swatches at the end from some of the shades I’ve referred to, I haven’t reswatched the whole palettes for this post, you’ll have to head on over to the original reviews for swatches, and the Violet Voss one has comparisons with other shades in as well.

Violet Voss Drenched Metals (Original Review)

This was the palette which inspired me to write this post! The Violet Voss palette has been one that I’ve almost reached for daily since getting it, there was a point that I had to hide it from myself out of my vanity to stop myself from reaching for it daily so I could actually try out other things. You can see that there’s a few shades in here which have been real favourites over the past year. The shade Secret is my perfect crease colour, you can tell from the significant pan space – I usually pull this palette out even if I’m not planning on using anything else from the palette just to use Secret.

What it Looked Like New
What it looks like after 15 months of use

The neutrals in this palette tend to be what I reach for if I’ve been wanting a easy look, you can see the shade Crushed It is almost completely gone (it’s a perfect shade if you’re late in the mornings and need to be quick), with pans also hit on Minx and Huntress. Current favourites now my skin is tanned for a really glowy look are Squad Goals and Livin. A lot of the brighter shades in here look untouched, but I do use them frequently under the lash line for a pop of colour. One shade I love in the inner corner is Poppin’ but I can’t wear it for more than a couple of hours without my eyes becoming unbearably itchy, I don’t know what it is about that particular shade but I have to use it sparingly and only for a few hours at a time – that’s the first time I’ve come across being allergic to an eyeshadow.

One thing to note is that when I originally bought this from Beauty Bay the palette was £34.50 – it’s now £43 – which happened just a few months after. I think £43 is pretty pricey for a private labelled palette, especially as the matte cardboard packaging looks like this palette hasn’t been treated with any love or care, when it’s been quite the opposite. But that being said, if I was lose it tomorrow I don’t think it would be many days before I was online repurchasing it.

Buy The Drenched Metals Palette

Jeffree Star Beauty Killer (Original Review)

This was a palette that I was gifted – by Jeffree Star himself at the Beauty Bay event. It’s one that I got a lot of use out of in Autumn and winter as the shades were just perfect for that time of year. It’s another palette that has a star shade though that I pick up just to use it, the shade Vanity you’ll see in most of my eye looks as it’s the perfect colour for the outer corner, I also love the shades Courtney – which reminds me of the shade Secret from the VV palette – but is a little more pigmented so depends on the type of look I’m going for, and China Doll is a great matte brow bone highlight.

How it Looked New
Use 9 months on

In all honesty, I could live without the other shades in the palette – I do reach for it, more-so in the winter the gorgeous bronze cranberry shade ‘Confession’ was on my lids almost daily. But the whole palette is almost worth buying for me for the shade Vanity. I really missed not having this shade in particular whilst on honeymoon, it ties together any look perfectly. Luckily the pans on this are huge, and the shadows are highly pigmented, so despite me using this shade at least 5 out of 7 days of the week, just tapping my brush on the top corner of the palette I’ve still not hit pan on it, nor does it look like I’m that close to doing so.

The price of the palette is up there at £40, I’ll admit – it has been on offer a couple of times on Beauty Bay for a good chunk of money off. But if you’re interested in this palette and will use the colours regularly – I’d say go for it. The pan sizes in this palette are giant, and so highly pigmented you’ll use so little product at a time the shades will last you. Personally I wish as the pan sizes are big, that as you need so little they’d maybe made the pans smaller and squeezed another two shades in there. It’s another one that’s easy to get sidetracked on by looking at the bright sparkly blue and neon pink shades on the left, but if you take them away – it’s a wearable selection of shades. This palette won’t be for everyone – the lack of proper neutrals will probably be a put off for most, however if you like something that’s wearable, but not a neutral then this is a great option. I’ll admit I haven’t worn the brighter blue and pink shades too often, whilst I do like them – I just always tend to head to the Drenched Metals palette if I’m looking for something bright.

Buy the Beauty Killer Palette

Makeup Geek Manny MUA Collaboration (Original Review)

One of the highlights of my blog life so far has been meeting Manny MUA, and him giving me his last palette in collaboration with Makeup Geek at the Beauty Bay event I went to last year. He is seriously friendly and we got chatting about what makeup he was wearing as his eye makeup was so stunning and I went on an immediate hunt to get the products to complete the look.

How It Looked New
Use After 9 Months

Out of these three favourite palettes from the past year, this was the one I choose to come on honeymoon with me, with a couple of ColourPop Supershock shadows, as it was the smallest of the three and fit into my makeup bag. I love this makeup palette, especially in autumn and winter (which is why I took a few brighter and lighter ColourPop shades with me), but there’s a gorgeous mix of mattes, shimmers, foil and duochrome shades in this palette which make the looks you can make with it really diverse.

That being said, if I lost the palette I would find it really hard to justify repurchasing it – although it seems as though the collaboration has been discontinued. The palette was priced at £56 when I received it in the UK, which is a crazy price for just 9 shades. Makeup Geek is such an affordable brand to buy as pan singles and I’m not sure why the price of this palette is so crazy here given that buying directly from Makeup Geek it was just $45, converting to £36.

If you refer to my original post you’ll see that not all of these shades are unique to this palette, some are available in Makeup Geek’s core collection (which is at least some good news if you wanted to purchase it). If I was to lose my palette I would probably repurchase the shades I could – and whilst there are definitely some unique shades – such as Mars, the deep velvet red matte that I love – I would have found it hard to warrant the cost for just those shades as I reach for them less often compared to the few which I adore in the Jeffree Star palette which I use daily.


 

Jeffree Star Courtney vs Violet Voss Secret – very similar colour but the pigmentation of VV is softer and easier for everyday
Favourite Shades from the Three Palettes: Jeffree Star Confession, Makeup Geek Mars, Jeffree Star Vanity & Courtney, Violet Voss Secret, Jeffree Star China Doll, Violet Voss Crushed It, Minx, Squad Goals, Dark Desires

*Makeup Geek Manny MUA & Jeffree Star Beauty Killer palettes were PR samples from an event in October, however I’ve never had to talk about them then or now. Thoughts are my own. Post contains affiliate links.

 

 

The only palettes that are currently on my horizon to buy are the Naked Heat, I missed it’s prelaunch as it was whilst I was away – however I think I do want to see it in person, it looks like the Sweet Peach palette I wanted, with lots of peach and orangey shades which are right up my alley. I do have the colour pop yes please palette on its way, which is all warm orange and yellow shades which might fill the void I think I have for the naked heat palette, so I’ll be holding off til that arrives. I’m also tempted by another Violet Voss palette as I love this one so damn much – the others are much more neutral however and I wonder whether I’ve actually got what I need in this palette from a neutral point of view, as I don’t wear pure brown neutrals all that often – maybe once all these shades are gone I’ll pick up the Holy Grail one to use alongside these brighter shades which will take me a lot longer to use up as they’re used more sparingly.

What are your favourite palettes?

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Helpless Whilst Drying

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33 Comments

  1. chxrlotterose
    July 12, 2017 / 6:31 am

    I really like the look of the Violet Voss palettes! Not super keen on the Jeffree Star one purely down to the colours but the Manny MUA one is 🙌🏻 and I’ve wanted the Sweet Peach one and pretty much that whole collection for ages. I need to invest in more eyeshadow palettes really! xx

    • July 12, 2017 / 9:09 am

      Yeah I think the Jeffree one is not for everyone, they’re very specific shades! Sweet Peach I like the idea but it’s not peach enough for me! xx

  2. Kenzie's Beauty Blog
    July 12, 2017 / 6:38 am

    I have the yes please palette and it’s amazing! So much pigment and they last forever with a primer! I also love my TF chocolate bar palette just for some neutral looks for everyday!

    • July 12, 2017 / 9:08 am

      The Yes Please palette is now on it’s way since I wrote this post last week! There’s a pink one launching tomorrow which is really tempting from ColourPop as well! I’ve got another TF palette which I’ve been yet to review, but I’m not that impressed with the pigmentation, it has so much all out!

      • Kenzie's Beauty Blog
        July 12, 2017 / 2:14 pm

        The rose palette from colourpop looks gorgeous, but there’s only 3 mattes and like 9 shimmers, and no real transition shade! At least that’s what the swatches look like. The shimmers are gorgeous though! And my chocolate bar palette does have some fall out but the neutral colors have good pigmentation for me, the purple colors don’t have much unfortunately

        • July 12, 2017 / 2:26 pm

          I don’t mind not having transition shades in a palette, I have plenty of them lying around in singles or other palettes I dig out! I think I’ll wait out and see what reviews are like though! It reminds me of the ABH palette in tone, but at a better price point!

          • Kenzie's Beauty Blog
            July 12, 2017 / 3:23 pm

            Yes! Colourpop seems to recreate their own version of popular palettes, like the Natasha demons palette and the yes please one

  3. jennywren7
    July 12, 2017 / 8:00 am

    That Violet Voss palette looks amazing. I love the idea of this post where you’ve come back and stated whether you still love each palette. Would you mind if I pinched the idea and did something similar on my blog? xx

  4. July 12, 2017 / 12:12 pm

    I honestly love seeing eyeshadow palettes which are so heavily used 😀

  5. July 12, 2017 / 1:32 pm

    Great post and great idea 💡

  6. July 12, 2017 / 2:32 pm

    I like the look of all three palettes. I held off buying Mannys but I do love the colours! My faves have been ABH palette and Hudas. I don’t really reach for any others xx

    • July 12, 2017 / 2:41 pm

      Manny’s was really nice (shame it’s gone!) just very expensive for what it is really – it was no cheaper than picking out makeup geek shades individually!
      I love the look of Huda’s (the rose one yeah?), heard a bit rocky reviews of the textures of them though! I may have to go and reinvestigate once the no buy is over

      • July 12, 2017 / 2:47 pm

        Yeah it is quite pricey. I need to buy some imdividual MUG shades😊 Yes Rose Gold one. I haven’t used the textured ones much but the other shades are nice x

  7. July 12, 2017 / 5:50 pm

    I should do a post like this. Some of my palettes I really go at hard. 😂

    A few of my favorite palettes are Lorac MegaPro 2, Sedona Lace 35 Color Intensely Warm (exact same thing as the Morphe 35O) & the Ciate xChole Morello Pretty, Fearless & Fun palette.

  8. July 13, 2017 / 10:11 am

    I loved this post rach! Something so satisfying about seeing how much you’ve used! The violet voss really does look amazing! Xx

  9. July 13, 2017 / 4:34 pm

    I really have to get my hands on a violet voss palette!

  10. July 18, 2017 / 12:51 am

    Wowee, looks like the Violet Voss palette was well worth it!
    The Manny MUG palette looks like a great palette but I can see how it’s completely dupeable.
    I vow to not buy another palette for the remainder of the year! Let’s see if I can stick to it.
    I just never reach for them – I love my singles and custom palettes so much more.

    • July 18, 2017 / 9:09 am

      I’m such the opposite, I went out for dinner with Molly & Sophie last week and we were saying how none of us ever reach for singles – we were trying to pawn ones off on one another and we couldn’t!
      Yeah Manny MUA I’d rather pick the pans from the main collection that are available – and everything else there would be something similar. It’s size does make it good for travel though!

  11. J | Beauty's Expert Amateur
    July 24, 2017 / 11:56 am

    The Jeffree Star palette looks like something I’d love to try – I love the Confession shade! Great post. x

  12. Elly
    August 2, 2017 / 11:24 am

    Violet Voss do the best shadows! Ive tried the Laura Lee and Holy grail and I’m obsessed!

  13. emzynelson
    August 3, 2017 / 7:58 am

    Great post. Would love to get my hands on some of these palettes! x

  14. August 5, 2017 / 12:54 am

    I love this! Such an amazing blog post idea! Love seeing your pan progression on each shade 🙂

  15. Makeup & Beauty Blog
    August 14, 2017 / 8:05 pm

    the violet voss palette is soo pretty!

  16. September 24, 2017 / 6:39 pm

    The fact you got to meet Jeffree and Manny literally kills me! I think I’m going to treat myself to the Jeffree palette as I think I’d get a lot of wear out of it! .x

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