Too Faced I Want Kandee Candy Eyes Eyeshadow Palette ($45.00 for 0.48 oz.) features mostly warm-toned shades with a few, slightly more neutral shades in it (like a taupe, plum, deep brown, and black). The overall quality was better than a lot of Too Faced palettes, though there were still some misses and shades that were prone to fading faster than average on me (without a primer). The formula was still on the thinner side, but most shades were fairly pigmented and not too powdery.
I don’t normally comment on packaging, unless there are noteworthy things to say about it, and that was the case here: it felt particularly well-done. The palette is housed in a tin that resembles a candy box and the back shows the eyeshadows as if they were chocolates in a box.
Estee Lauder Blonde Gold Eye Metals ($45.00 for 0.10 oz.) is a light gold with moderate, warm undertones and a sparkling, metallic finish. For swatching purposes, I tried it dry as well as damp, but it was fairly pigmented even without the use of a dampened brush. The texture was smooth, dense, and more-cream like, which helped the eyeshadow stay together on the lid and have minimal fallout over time. The eyeshadow was blendable, though there were bits of sparkle that came away from the area when I was blending it out. It wore well for six and a half hours before creasing on me.
It is supposed to be a “rich color powder eyeshadow” that is “densely pigmented” that can be worn alone or layered. There are two shades in the collection, and they performed similarly, though Bitter Clove is a bit richer overall and longer wearing. They were nicely pigmented with very dense, almost cream-like textures that blended out easily on the lid and adhered to bare lids. I found that they were prone to creasing within six hours of wear, but the wear time improved to eight hours (before creasing) over primer, so primer helped but ultimately, this was not an ultra long-wearing formula. I did not experience much fall out, though, despite the high sparkle content in Bitter Clove (Charred Emerald has more of a pearly sheen). I liked them, but at the price point, it’s definitely a lot for a single eyeshadow, so they’re not going to be worth it for everyone.
Marc Jacobs Beauty Frivoluxe Eye-Conic Eyeshadow Palette ($49.00 for 0. oz.) features an assortment of pale peach, mauve, violet, purple, and taupe. I think the color combination was rather unique relative to most palettes, so I really was quite disappointed by its performance, though I was not entirely surprised, given grays and purples are often hard to do well. The palette was workable but lacked pigmentation in some shades with inconsistent textures with one being exceptionally stiff and others being smooth and silky.
Huda Beauty Desert Dusk Eyeshadow Palette ($65.00 for 0.89 oz.) is a 18-pan palette that features eight mattes, six “Pressed Pearls,” three “Duo-Chrome Toppers,” and one “Pure Glitter.” It’s a story of hits and misses, and I think that there will be some who really enjoy it and others that will find the better shades too dupable and the more interesting shades needing too much work and/or improvement to be “worth” it. This palette will be best suited for someone who likes using their shimmers with a dampened brush, fingertips, and/or adhesive base and prefers their mattes to be thinner (and does not care about how they feel in the pan, only about how they perform on the lid).
The mattes are supposed to be “highly-pigmented” and “butter-smooth.” The formula has a chalkier, drier feel to them–almost sandpapery in a way–with a thin texture that has slight to moderate powderiness in the pan. I did not find these shades to be that prone to fallout; I did not feel like I had to take great care to minimize fallout and ultimately had little fallout after producing looks from this palette. Something I noticed was that while the matte shades looked fairly matte on the lid, most of them had very tiny, almost imperceptible micro-pearl in them. The pigmentation varied but most were pigmented and fairly blendable to very blendable. They wore anywhere from seven to eight hours on me.
The “Pressed Pearls” are supposed to be “rich” and “add depth and intensity” and can be used alone or layered over the mattes. The consistency of the formula was creamier and slightly denser, but the eyeshadows never felt stiff or difficult to pickup on a brush. These were the ones that applied well with a brush, though I noticed a couple did not appear as metallic after blending as they did initially. They were also quite pigmented and wore between seven and eight hours.
The “Duo-Chrome Toppers” are “ever-changing illusions” so the colors are designed to shift. The brand recommends blending these “into the base shadow with a brush or apply with finger to maximise the reflection.” They are not as chunky as last year’s Rose Gold eyeshadows, and they definitely bind together better on the lid, but they were not very usable dry, even when I used a fingertip. I tried patting on top of other eyeshadows with my fingertip, and the majority of product just stuck to my fingertip with little transfer and visible shift over the base eyeshadow. I also tried the same layering technique using a brush and had better results but they were still subpar. The best technique I found was using a flat, synthetic brush dampened or even using a light adhesive on the brush. By the name and limited description, they seemed design to be layerable, e.g. not fully opaque.
The “Pure Glitter” is described as a “ready-to-go formula” that can be “dabb[ed] on with a flat brush.” The idea that it is a “Pure Glitter” is an odd way to put it, as pure glitter seems like it would just be glitter/sparkle and nothing else, but the ingredient list for Cosmo is as long as all the rest of the eyeshadows. The idea of it being “ready-to-go” and the recommended application not mentioning adhesive or even dampening the brush also suggests that it can be used as-is. Well, not really–there is a creaminess to it, but it is half-loose, half-pressed, and moves around easily in the pan. It doesn’t fly away like a truly loose glitter would when applied directly onto skin or over a powder eyeshadow, but it does not stay in place for long at all. To use this, I would recommend using an adhesive base or patting over a cream product.
Too Faced Just Peachy Mattes Velvet Matte Eyeshadow Palette ($45.00 for 0.48 oz.) is a new, 12-pan eyesahow palette with 11 matte finishes and one satin finish. According to the brand, the eyeshadows have “intense color payoff that’s beyond blendable.” To the touch, the formula–in general–had a drier, slightly chalky texture, and was firmer with a lot less powderiness compared to past eyeshadow releases from the brand. While they did not feel as velvety nor as finely-milled, I found them easier to work with in practice as they blended better without blending away to nothingness and were buildable when I wanted buildability.
What I did find was that a few shades–Peach Meringue, Peach Butter, Just Peachy, and Peaches and Cream–had stronger white bases and had a tendency to turn darker shades–like Peach Tart, Just Ripe, Chocolate Dipped–grayish. This was a bummer, as the majority of the palette is quite warm in undertone, so having darker shades go gray makes those shades look a lot less true-to-color.
I also noticed that those more white-based shades did not work as well on the inner corner of my eye as any wateriness seemed to travel and cause severe fading (almost erasure of the eyeshadow) shortly after, and by no means am I referring to extremely watery eyes… just a normal day and my eyes never felt like they were watering, but I could tell that they must have at some point as eyeshadow started to go missing and there was a harsher edge where it had gone missing over time. I have seen it happen on occasion with some matte eyeshadows but never as bad as with these. It did not matter if I wore Too Faced’s Shadow Insurance under those shades or not; the same thing happened.
The eyeshadows had a sweet, peachy scent to them, but I did not find it as strong or as prone to lingering compared to the Sweet Peach palette, which seemed sweeter, peachier, and I could smell that scent when I applied the eyeshadows, whereas I did not smell anything when working with Just Peachy.
Estee Lauder Noir Vanille Victoria Beckham Eye Duo ($60.00 for 0.06 oz.) is a basic set of shades featuring a medium beige and a dark black both with more matte finishes. Noir proved more difficult to apply and blend out, and I suspect that many will prefer a black eyeshadow that’s more forgiving–one that can be used intensely but also more gradually–and Noir was not that. Vanille was much easier to use but easily duped with a myriad of brands and shades given it is a basic neutral color (nothing wrong with that but lots of competition this color family).
The duo contains a bit less than the average full-sized eyeshadow (0.05 oz. and these are 0.03 oz. each), despite the compact being more substantial in size. I also had to be careful as the mirror was so heavy that the palette would not stay flat on the table unless I had the mirror angled slightly over the eyeshadow pans to keep it from tipping.
