When I first saw the Violet Voss Drenched Metals Eyeshadow Palette, I knew it was going to have to be mine. The gorgeous selection of metallic shades was completely up my alley and I added it to my palette family about a month ago and I’ve finally started testing it.
I aimed to film a first impressions video on this… and I did but it was my first video and let’s just say the crop was wrong and the camera kept cutting out. I don’t know when I’ll have chance to film again so I decided to just post a “first impressions” after using it everyday this week.
Let’s start with the basics – Packaging. The Violet Voss Drenched Metals Eyeshadow Palette arrives in a cardboard box, and the palette itself is cardboard too, it’s very light but is quite wide and square and not the most travel friendly. In terms of design, it’s quite simple and not my favourite design – I worry about how this will look after 6 months of being in my drawer as something about the coating makes me think it’s going to be delicate and easily scratched. It’s constantly being cleaned due to being covered in dirty finger prints.
Inside the palette there’s 20 shades at 1.8g each and the palette is £34.50 – Making each shade £1.72. Compare that with a MAC refill of 1.5g at £10 each that’s incredible value for money or an Urban Decay Naked Palette (£38.50) 16 shades at 1.3g, making them £2.40 each – they’re undeniably cheaper and bigger. High five Violet Voss.
The thing that struck me about this is the mix of colour. I think you can look at this and go “shit that’s bright” as there’s a few colours that really jump out the palette at you. But actually for the most part the palette is pretty neutral, with a few bright accent colours. Whilst the size makes it a little travel unfriendly, if you’re someone who likes to have neutral and colours to hand then this is a good palette to take with you.
There’s just one matte shade in this palette, a transition brown – which kind of made me think is this going to be the perfect transition colour and all others will be rendered useless. There’s also a black, but it’s not quite fully matte, it has a slight sheen to it but actually despite my initial thoughts that it wouldn’t be an option I could use for smoking out a crease with a matte as I like to do, it’s actually not as sheeny as it looks.
Every shadow is incredibly buttery, swatches and blends (on those I’ve used on my lids) absolutely beautifully with pretty much zero fall out. They rival every single shadow I can think of.
Okay so onto the swatches!
First Row
Poppin – Pink Champagne with pale gold duo chrome, good pigmentation
Kisses – Frosty pale pink with silver duo chrome, good pigmentation
Confession – Pink Peach with peach duochrome, okay pigmentation
Crushed It – Rose Gold Brown Metallic – great pigmentation
Secret – Mid Warm Matte Brown – good pigmentation
Row 2
I’m so Fancy – Bright Aqua with blue duocrome, great pigmentation
Mermaid Vixen – Cool blue with silver and green shift, great pigmentation
Grunge – Mid Cool toned brown, great pigmentation
Minx – Warm mid toned brown with orangey undertone, great pigmentation
Squad Goals – Golden Copper metallic, great pigmentation
Frisky – Bright Colbalt metallic blue
Dark Desires – Bright Purple with Indigo undertone metallic – great pigmentation
Slaycation – Cool toned brown with silvery blue duochrome – great pigmentation
Come Thru – Pale gold metallic – great pigmentation, formula a little chalky
Livin – Firey golden orange, great pigmentation
Shade – Cool toned taupey, lilac grey – very unusual, great pigmentation
Bliss – Golden Olive metallic, great pigmentation
Huntress – Warm deep brown metallic, great pigmentation
Forbidden – Warm cranberry red metallic, great pigmentation
Midnight Tryst – Black satin, good pigmentation
I next decided to look through my collection to see what I could find that was comparable and dupable, and for the most part the shades are surprisingly unique. There was ones which I thought were going to be dead on dupes which when I put them next to each other were completely different.
Comparison 1 – Grunge
Top to Bottom: Grunge, Bottom Seventeen Brown
Verdict: Pretty darn close shade & texture wise, Seventeen is slightly cooler toned
Comparison 2 – Frisky
Top to Bottom: Frisky, Maybelline Couture Blue, Urban Decay Radium, MAC Deep Truth
Verdict: Very close in colour to Maybelline and MAC but texture Violet Voss is way nicer in texture. Initially I thought this was a match when I first saw it for Radium, but alas it’s much darker.
Comparison – Livin
Top to Bottom: Livin, NYX Prismatic Fireball
Verdict: Very close in texture and colour, Fireball is more red
Comparison – Mermaid Vixen
Top to Bottom: Mermaid Vixen, Urban Decay Money
Verdict: Same family buy Money has glitter and is more silvery/pale in comparison.
Comparison – Huntress
Top to Bottom: Huntress, Urban Decay Smog, Kiko Colour Sphere 05
Verdict: Initially when I saw this I was like “this is definitely smog” and nope, it’s much warmer in comparison. It does match a single baked shadow from Kiko however pretty well.
Comparison – Confession
Top to Bottom: Confession, Makeup Geek Mai Thai
Verdict: Pretty close in colour, Confession has better pigmentation. MUG is three swipes, Confession is just one.
Comparison – Slaycation
Top to Bottom: Slaycation, Makeup Geek Havoc
Verdict: Another shade I thought was definitely going to be a dupe but it turned out nope they aren’t. This does have a similar duochrome effect, but the Havoc is warmer toned brown base and has a brighter blue green duochrome – Slaycation is much more cool toned. Similar effect – but no where near identical.
Comparison – Forbidden
Top to Bottom: Forbidden, MAC Cranberry
Verdict: Not identical, but not a million miles away. Forbidden is much more buttery. Forbidden feels half a tone darker and with a touch more orange.
Comparison – Minx
Top to Bottom: Minx, MAC Woodwinked
Verdict: Similar, but not the same, Woodwinked looks more golden than Minx does. Minx almost looks coppery in comparison. Finish and texture very similar to one another though, and they aren’t a million miles away.
One thing I should mention as I hadn’t done a lot of research on the brand/product is that Violet Voss is private label. I’m sure there will be lots wondering what that means as I didn’t know it was a thing until 2 or 3 months ago, and I do have mixed feelings about it. Essentially Violet Voss have not created the formulation/worked with a factory to create something. They’ve gone to a factory, purchased it and packaged it how they like, that same formula could be resold again and again so potentially you could end up with identical shades everywhere. (This is also what Lime Crime did which initially gave them a bad rep as they claimed to be unique when they wasn’t – add to that they bashed bloggers who dared raise this as an issue is why I’ll never support them). Mixed feelings – I don’t feel that this is an extortionately priced palette and the quality is nice and I love the shade selection. Is it a little bit annoying that this isn’t a unique formula yes. That being said there was very little I could find that was dupeable – even the neutrals weren’t close to anything for the most part.
I bought the Violet Voss Drenched Metals Eyeshadow Palette from the Beauty Bay and it’s currently out of stock… Sigh, but there even more popular neutral palette called Holy Grail is back in stock… I’m so tempted! Violet Voss Holy Grail Eyeshadow Palette
I plan to follow up this post in a few weeks featuring some looks from it. I probably won’t use every single shade, but if there’s some you’d like to see featured let me know in the comments!
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What a gorgeous palette x
I’m so happy with it! Good purchase, the best makeup one of the year so far!
I love the swatches! 😍
Me too, I keep swatching the colours at home they’re so pretty!
The colours in this palette look absolutely stunning, especially row 2! What a pity your camera kept cutting out, this would have been lovely to see in video form x
I struggle to decide which row is my favourite! I know I was so annoyed when I looked back at the footage – glad I got the pictures of it untouched as a backup in case anything went wrong!
This palette is definitely next on my list!
Jaynie Shannon * / Morphe & Zoeva Giveaway Running
xx
Best purchase I’ve made this year, would recommend!
This looks like a dupe for UD Alice in Wonderland, doesn’t it? xx
I think there are a few tones that are similar – I think the shades in this are a bit more jewel toned in this comparatively though. They have a similar split of neutrals and colour though!
This palette looks amazing!
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This looks gorgeous. The Holy Grail palette looks gorge too x
I now want the HG so badly, I will treat myself I think once I’ve managed a declutter/stash overhaul which I’ve been promising myself to do for months!
This palette is so beautiful! I love the warm gold/orange shades like Huntress and Minx, but I really love a good matte eye so this isn’t the palette for me but wow this is stunning. I love this review with the shade comparisons to similar ones!
Yep this isn’t for matte lovers – I don’t even think the HG neutral palette is that matte heavy either!
The shades are so beautiful but I’m such a matte girl!
Oooh, my favourites are: Confession, Crushed It, Grunge, Hunress and Forbidden! Basically all the colours to do a neutral eye. 😛 And Dark Desires is so vibrant! It’s not easy to do purples well, and this one is great!
And the comparisons are fantastic! I’ve been planning comparisons posts but I keep putting them off because I do not want to be faced with the reality that I just own dupes over and over. 😛
These shadows DO seem to swatch nicely – I’d like to know how they wear on the eyes. Fading / creasing issues?
I’ve been wearing these without a primer some days to test and they’ve lasted all day, some slight fall out but nothing major with application but other than that they wear perfectly! Will update when I do the looks post and confirm 🙂
Dark desires looks great under the Lower lash line and is surpingly wearable! I think crushed it is my fave so far, the don’t already in the pan is pretty impressive considering I’ve only been using it a few weeks!
So are you going to get the Holy Grail palette? 😉
Probably at some point!
What a gorge palette just a shame about the craooy cardboard packaging! I guess you could take your faves out into a plastic palatte or a used up one? and I have to say a really excellent, well researched post too. I’d love to see those colours on darker skin tones(like mine!) ….I guess I’ll have to wait for it to come back into stock! I’d never heard of this brand either but will be keeping an eye out for it (haha) but really, if you see this brand in a real shop here let me know! Cheers
I shall do, I think it’s more of an indie brand so maybe not in stores but will give you a holla if I do!
Wow, look at those shades and pigmentation! Although I would never wear the following colours, the third set of swatches with the jewel-toned shades are stunning. They did an incredible job on this palette!
Some of the shades I thought I would rarely touch are some of the ones I’ve worn the most. Dark desires looks gorgeous, and very wearable blended out or under the lash line!
my eyes went straight to Forbidden. Love all the shades in this palette, really gorgeous.
Forbidden is a beaut! It was one of the colours on the pictures online I was most drawn to. Definitely a shade I can see me wearing a lot over autumn! xxx
Really pretty and I love shades like that.. Gosh!! Why are we talking autumn here??? Hahaha
I don’t know, definitely not wishing summer to be over! ☀️☀️☀️☀️
Agree!! 😂😂😂
Gorgeous, especially considering blue is as far as I’ll experiment with colors haha. The swatches are seriously gorgeous, Love the post xoxo
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I am in love with Slaycation! It is so gorgeous!
-Sierra
Crushed It and Forbidden look amazing! I’ve been hearing alot about this palette lately, but the brand is completely new to me! I may need to buy it just for these two colour alone, as I love coppers and golds, plus any kind of metallic finish!
Kayleigh x
scampinchips.co.uk
Crushed It is stunning – I’ve had this palette is August and I’ve hit pan on it, I’ve used it pretty much daily since getting it! Forbidden I’ve been wearing a lot now it’s autumn (looks real pretty under the lower lash line) and also looks really pretty with Livin. It’s a great palette definitely my beauty buy of the year!