Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts Palette – Worth the Hype?

Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts Palette

I saw this palette first when it was too late, I saw it on Pinterest used in an eye look, and it was the most fabulous array of colours I’d ever seen. Off I popped to do some research as to where this was going to be, I discovered that it was Limited Edition, and gone. The horror. So I was surprised when my friend Lora (who knew that I’d discovered, fell in love with and become heartbroken over the Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts Palette within the space of about 10 minutes) remembered I’d wanted it and had spotted it had come back in stock on Beauty Bay. I was on that website in a flash and within the hour it was on next day delivery on its way to me. Beauty BayI’d said for a while I’d been debating the ABH Modern Renaissance Palette, but something about that just wasn’t quite right for me, this was the alternative I’d been looking for. I’d thought about getting the ColourPop Fem Rosa palette, but after seeing this came back into stock, I soon backtracked and decided that no, this was definitely the one. I’ve tried some of the Coloured Raine Liquid Lipsticks (I’m still working on my giant comparison post) but has been really impressed with the quality of what I’d heard and upon researching the palette I’d heard only positive things about the eyeshadows too. The price of this ain’t cheap and I can’t help but feel that the price of this may have been… hiked up, so the people who were desperate to get it would pay for it. So muggin’ over here was £45 down, but never the less I was anticipating it’s arrival gleefully.

The Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts Palette contains a mix of warm toned reds, pinks, purples, oranges and coppers, with splashes of neutrals for transitions, I could see it being a perfect palette going into autumn. There’s a mixture of finishes here, 6 Mattes, 5 Foils and 1 Shimmer. In terms of the palette packaging the size is quite huge only marginally smaller than the Jeffree Star Beauty Killer Palette, and the quality of the packaging is also really reminiscent of each other.

The outer sleeve of the packaging of this is really pretty, with gorgeous gold pattern with purple and red details, it’s very eye-catching – although could have done more with the Queen of Hearts theme IMO. However once the sleeve is removed the palette is pretty disappointedly plain for £45 – a plain matte black outer cover with the Coloured Raine logo small and centred in the middle. Whilst the inner package is gold laminated with the shade names nestled underneath. The first thing that struck me was that this palette has too much space and it should have been made smaller and more makeup bag friendly. I don’t mind a big palette if it’s packed with shades, but it feels like there’s a lot of wasted space with this one.


Swatches

Crown – The only classic shimmer of the palette, good pure white shimmers can be hard to find in higher quality palettes they often come off chalky.

Royal Highness – The first foil in the palette, but the one which has the least reflection, this is a pretty warm taupe shade that’s just pale enough to work in the inner corner, but also dark enough to be pretty all over the eye too.

Your Majesty – Another foil shade which can have a really intense reflection on it in the right light. This is a pretty gorgeous firey orange copper shade.

Princess – In the pan princess looks like a pretty dusky pink matte, but on the eye/swatched it’s much more brown than it first appears like it would be. Very buttery and good all across the socket.

Empress – Empress certainly impresses, an intense pigment of burnt orange matte that looks a bit bright in the pan, but creates a gorgeous warm tone on the eye and compliments the other colours surprisingly well.

Queen Mother – A gorgeous purple foil with good pigmentation, this one isn’t quite as good as the others foil wise, but purples can be hard to formulate. This one definitely isn’t bad and layers on a good level of pigment.

Heir – The palest matte in the palette, this sits somewhere between a peach and a beige and is good for mixing with some of the other mattes to tone them up or down.

Royal Perogative – A gorgeous warm medium brown Matte shade that pays off well. Depending on the look I like to use this either all over the crease for a smokier look, or on the outer corner for something slightly more toned down.

Noblewoman – In the pan next to the purple, this looks almost pinky, but swatched this definitely comes off red. It’s a very rich red and on the eye is very foily in texture and looks very pretty like a glistening cranberry.

Ladyship – This is the only swatch where I’ve gone over more than once. Purples are hard to do well, so are mattes and I can forgive this one slightly for not being the best swatch for that reason, but it does stick out as being the odd one from the bunch compared to the rest. This is a really pretty purple and looks nice on the bottom lash line, it does also look nice in the crease it just needs a lot of effort to get the pigmentation right. It does work well with other mattes to give them a toned hue. It does skip a little on the eye with blending and can cause some patchiness issues if using in a large area, it’s best mixed with other colours.

Duchess – The darkest matte, this is a cooler chocolate brown. Really nice formula and looks lovely on the outer corner.

Dethrone – This is definitely the coolest tone shade in this warm toned palette. I think this would make a really gorgeous halo eye (I haven’t had chance to put that theory to the test yet. Most shades this dark I tend to like in a matte rather than a shimmer, but it’s such a good formula I can see it getting a lot of use.


After I’d finally taken some pictures of this I started swatching away and gleefully showing them on Instagram stories, getting lots of heart eyed emoji replies everything had high pigmentation and swatched incredibly well (bar one shade but I decided not to rule it off straight away as it might work differently on the eye). But when I used it on the eye I started noticing some problems. In all honesty I was a bit devastated that I’d just spent £45 on it. Over the past 2 and a bit weeks now I’ve used it daily apart from the odd day not wearing makeup, I’ve forced myself into it and what I’ve learnt is certain shades need certain brushes.

A lot of the shades overall seem to come across darker on the eye than they do in swatches or in the pan, some of the shades in this look super bright and reflective, but most don’t come off looking as I expected. I’ve tried applying wet, with fix plus, with a primer, without a primer and the results whilst on the foils change the foil reflection, none seem to effect the brightness.

The foil textures are a little crumbly in texture, they need patting onto the lid with some force otherwise balls of pigment and require careful tapping into the lid to get rid of, as if you blend too much the colour fades heavily and looses its reflectiveness, becoming more of a shimmer than a foil. They do look gorgeous when you get them on the lid right.

Bar the matte purple shade Ladyship the matte shades are great, they’re buttery  well with good pigmentation, the shade I’m a little disappointed by is Princess whilst a beautiful soft dusky rose pink in the pan it comes off brown on the eye, I do like it, I do use it most days, but I bought the palette because one of the shades was a soft pink, and it just doesn’t come off that way on the eye. Ladyship is workable, but it takes time and layering, and most of the time I just CBA with the effort of it. My critism with the mattes is some of them are almost too pigmented, and can require a lot of blending to get soft edges, they don’t shift colour (AKA ABH Subculture) and blend away to nothing, but some just take persistance to get them looking nice.

The shade crown is the only shimmer and is a lovely shimmer white to use in the inner corner as a highlight it has good pigmentation. It also doubles well to be mixed with other shades to lighten them slightly.


Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts Palette Looks


I can’t help but compare against the JS palette, because both in terms of size it’s very similar, but I can also create my favourite look from this palette with that one virtually identically to the non-shadow geek obsessed eye.

Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts Palette Jeffree Star Beauty Killer Palette
£45.00 £40.00
12 Shades 8 Shades
17.5g Total Palette 24g Total Palette
1.5g Per Pan 3g Per Pan
£3.75 Per Shade £5.00 Per Shade
£2.57 Per Gramme of Product £1.66 Per Gramme of Product

My overall thoughts on the Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts Palette is that I really like the looks it creates, especially going into autumn I’m going to use this a hell of a lot and have had many compliments on looks I’ve done using this palette. I like to think of myself as being pretty good at eyeshadow and whilst through the weeks I’m finally finding my groove with it and liking the looks I create more, I don’t think this one is particularly easy to work with and would stay away if you’re in a beginner territory for sure.

I do have to ask myself however, if I knew what I knew now, would I rebuy it and the answer would be no unless the price dropped to under £35, would probably be no. The foil shades in here are probably dupeable within the Makeup Geek ones which don’t seem to have the same crumbly texture out of the ones from there I’ve tried and they’re a lot easier to work with. The mattes I love with the exception of the pesky purple, but I do have other palettes which do mattes just as well as what these do and with the exception of the orange, they’re all interchangeable with other shades for overall effect, it wasn’t the mattes I bought this palette for! If you’ve been lusting after this palette I wouldn’t say don’t get it, but maybe adjust your expectations if you’ve spied similar eyelooks to me with intense foily bright looks as they just don’t pay off that way. It is a gorgeous palette, maybe just not quite gorgeous enough to live up to the height.

If you’re interested in the palette, it’s available on the Beauty Bay website here. It’s worth noting that the shades from this palette are available individually, I have seen them previously on Beauty Bay, but none of the shades are currently in stock as I write this, however I will still leave a link to the single pans here, just in case you’re interested and you’re reading this in the future (wooooooo!). BB do ship internationally too, but certain products are excluded depending on distribution rights per country, so you’ll have to check for your own here.

Post contains affiliate links, but product purchased with my own money & thoughts my own.

rachael-signature

FacebookInstagram | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr

Helpless Whilst Drying

Email: helplesswhilstdrying@gmail.com

Follow:
Share:

39 Comments

  1. September 19, 2017 / 8:20 am

    On a whole the shades in this palette look lovely on first glance. I’m drawn to all the bright, unusual shades that aren’t brown/neutral toned. Heir looks like it would be a great base shade and I love all the look your created! Do you know if there are any dupes for this palette from other brands? Xx

    • September 19, 2017 / 9:39 am

      Thank you! I was drawn to all the unusual shades too, I’m over neutral palettes now – I have enough of them scattered about I just want to see things that are different now from brands! When I thought it was limited edition and never going to come back I did a lot of research into dupes and couldn’t find any. Something I did mean to mention in my review and totally forgot is that the shades are available individually, so if there’s just one or two shades that you love they can be bought in a pan (I’ll update that shortly, thanks for the reminder!).

      • September 19, 2017 / 10:48 am

        That’s handy! Are the individual shades on Beauty Bay as well?

        • September 19, 2017 / 1:17 pm

          They are, but currently none of the ones from this palette are in stock, they only have a few of the individual pans in stock at the moment so must be awaiting a restock!

          • September 19, 2017 / 7:21 pm

            I will check out what they do have 🙂

  2. September 19, 2017 / 8:33 am

    I’ve been eying this palette up on Beauty Bay but I’m not sure I’m ready to spend £45 on it yet! x

  3. September 19, 2017 / 12:24 pm

    looks so beautiful!! Don’t think I can justify the price though!!

  4. September 19, 2017 / 12:34 pm

    When I first saw your photos of this palette I genuinely thought “I’m pretty sure no matter what the cost, it will be worth the hype. I feel your disappointment so much with this palette, but the looks you created are stunning!

    I’m amazed with how differently some of the colours swatch, especially Royal Highness and Princess! How can colours come off so differently? Baffled. I think I’ll definitely be saving all my lust for the JS palettes!

    Beka. xo

    • September 19, 2017 / 1:20 pm

      I know! It’s crazy isn’t it – so many of them just don’t come out as you’d be expecting them to. Even the shimmery purple I’m wearing for the second time on the lids today looks so dark on the eye compared to even the swatch, it looks entirely different to how it does in the pan!
      The JS palette I have is much easier to work with than this, there are different finishes on this, but if I was considering buying one or the other in future I’d go for the JS one for definite!
      Rachael xx

  5. Sophie in Wonderland xo
    September 19, 2017 / 2:37 pm

    Thats such a shame it didnt live up to the hype! I’m glad I didn’t spend my money now! Such a shame about princess as well as that was one of the shades that caught my eye. The looks you created are gorgeous though you are amazing at eye shadow xox

    • September 19, 2017 / 3:14 pm

      Thank you, this palette does not make eyeshadow easy these aren’t my best looks I’m aware, I’m getting better over time but kinda wanted to put up the pictures before I’d managed to perfect this palette cause it ain’t easy!
      xxx

  6. September 19, 2017 / 3:51 pm

    They look amazing on you but I don’t they are worth the price. Is it me or they swatch so differently than what they look like? I was particularly surprised with royal highness. I thought it was a bit more purple. The colors are gorgeous anyway, just overpriced really.

    • September 19, 2017 / 5:15 pm

      I don’t know! I can’t work out whether it’s because they’re sat against a gold background in the pan making them look different or what! So many of them swatch differently to how they look though, you’re not wrong – I think the pan picture head on has come out a little more purpley than it does in real life, but it’s a palette that really shifts in the light, Noblewoman can sometimes look pink, but most of the time it’s red!

  7. September 19, 2017 / 8:09 pm

    Noblewoman is absolutely gorgeous – it reminds me of a full-bodied red wine and chandelier earrings – tres chic. Gorgeous colours for autumn and so pigmented too. This is going on my wishlist for sure xx

    https://thenellybean.com

  8. September 19, 2017 / 8:11 pm

    Really gorgeous shades in this palette! For the amount of work it takes to find which brushes/methods work for which shadows, I think it would be more worth it to try to dupe this palette with less troublesome shades from other brands.

  9. September 19, 2017 / 9:43 pm

    It’s a shame the eyeshadows take a bit of work as they look super pretty. I think you’ve done a great job. I love all the looks you created x

    • September 20, 2017 / 12:28 am

      The looks you created are gorgeous! I’m sorry that you didn’t like it as much as you thought, but you’ll probably get use out of it this season. And the packaging is stunning!

  10. September 20, 2017 / 5:25 am

    The looks you created are so beautiful! I was interest in this palette but decided to go with the new Huda Beauty Desert Dusk palette instead. Great review!

    💜Sammie

    EssentiallySammie.com

  11. September 20, 2017 / 3:14 pm

    Ooh wow, the palette looks amazing, so I understand why you shelled out for it! But for that price it’s disappointing that it didn’t work as well as it should. And that gorgeous outer sleeve should have been the design for the palette itself, WTH!

    • September 21, 2017 / 12:51 pm

      I know – why would they make a pretty sleeve and don’t put it on the palette itself? Baffling and the sleeve is slightly tight that it’s a pain to get it in and out of that it makes me not want to keep it in the sleeve too cause it’s too much of a faff to get it out in the morning!
      Sad it didn’t quite deliver as I was hoping 🙁

  12. September 21, 2017 / 6:53 pm

    What a stunning palette! The shades look gorgeous. Love the looks you created!

    Nicole | The Glam Surge

  13. September 22, 2017 / 2:44 am

    I’ve been SO on the fence about getting this palette! Your swatches look amazing and your eye looks are stunning 🙂

    http://www.xxojess.com

  14. November 13, 2017 / 9:17 am

    You’ve created such gorgeous eye looks with this palette! The colours look amazing on you, especially that coppery one. What’s the country of origin for these please?

  15. Booker
    February 2, 2019 / 7:23 pm

    I bought this for £30 from ‘just my look’ because of the hype but I’m not hugely impressed with the quality. It’s not bad, but it’s not a patch on the quality of Juvia’s Place where every single shadow works like a dream. However, the colours really are beautiful when I have the time to faff around getting them on right.

    • February 6, 2019 / 10:15 am

      I’m glad I’m not the only one who wasn’t overwhelmed by this. it’s been a fair while since I looked at it and thought “yes I want to use this”. I’m thinking about selling mine on.

Leave a Reply and Let's Have a Chat