Written Reviews

The I Want Kandee palette contains the following powder eyeshadow shades in a mix of matte, satin and shimmer finishes; Sparkling Cider (champagne nude), Pastry (matte cappuccino), Sugared Strawberry (shimmering coral pink), Cream Puff (matte sand), Sugar Plum (silvered lavender), Raspberry Cocoa (matte berry brown), Butterscotched (matte apricot), Sweet Toffee (gilded copper), Frosted Pink (gilded soft pink), Hot Chocolate (matte rich brown), Taupe Berry (matte smokey taupe), Licorice Rope (matte pitch black), Banana Cream Pie (matte cream), Ice Cream (matte pinky cream) and Whipped Cream (pearly white). This is tricky to review as it's not bad, just something I think is unnecessary. On one hand the shadow quality is excellent on all but one of the shades (Liquorice Rope needs building up), the shades are very wearable and the packaging is awesome. But on the other hand, there isn't anything here that hasn't been done before many other times, so if you have a few palettes already then you already have very similar shades to what's on offer here. If you are new to eyeshadow so want a helping hand with selecting shades that work really well together [the shades are split into three clusters using the best well-coordinated options], or are looking for a attractive gift [the way the tin palette is designed to resemble a vintage chocolae box is a nice touch], then I Want Kandee is worth the splurge, but I don't think this is a must-own palette for those of us who already own, ahem, a 'few' eyeshadow palettes. So yeah; all in all this palette falls onto the ho-hum side for me, especially as the shades look different in real life compared to how they appeared on screen = it turns out that I can dupe everything. I regret falling for the hype and ordering it. Like I said above the shades are pretty and the formula quality is mostly good, so I'll continue to use the palette as it's easy to apply the shadows and they wear well. But, in my opinion, the colour picks are pretty "blah" as they're all overdone - Too Faced themselves have permanent palettes with these kinds of shades in them.

The I Am Divine eyeshadow palette is inspired by the makeup worn by the well-known drag queen Divine, whom is one of Kat Von D's muses. The palette contains eight powder shades; Babs (champagne with blue-green shimmer), Hard Magic (matte jet black), Baltimore (cobalt with blue-purple glimmer), Waters (matte sky blue), Filthy (metallic gunmetal), Pink Flamingos (pearlescent lime green), Female Trouble (matte pure white) and Hairspray (metallic pewter with silver and gold glimmer). You can technically make a variety of complete-look-in-one-palette looks with this palette, although the small number of matte shades means that I do prefer to use some matte shades from another palette alongside this one as I have deep set eyes, so shimmery shadows tend to transfer on me. Though some of the other shades (particularly Baltimore and Pink Flamingos) haven't transferred on me when I've played around with different looks, so there are plenty of ways to use this palette. Kat Von D eyeshadow palettes are an auto-buy for me, as the brand is very consistent with the high quality of their shadow formula, so I'm always confident when it comes to buying things from them. The pigmentation on everything is awesome, and the shadow formula is very soft and buttery - and I'm not someone who usually bothers with primer. To date I haven't had any issues with shade fading, or shadow creasing. When I dip my brush into the shadows they do have some kick-up to them, but they aren't patchy and apply with only a little [if any] fallout and blend really well, so I generally don't feel that removing a star in my reviews is really necessary as long as the ease of use and performance isn't affected - just tapping excess off your brushes solves the problem. All highly pigmented shadows tend to be softer. The only out-and-out complaint I have with the I Am Divine eyeshadow palette is that I would have preferred other options in place of the black and white shades - on one hand I appreciate that they are shades that Divine wore a lot and the whole point of the palette was to recreate shades frequently worn by her... but yeah, Kat Von D has used matte white and/or black shadows in several of her recent palette releases, so I would have loved it if we'd gotten something different. I'd replace this palette if I lost it as most of the shades are unique, and I'd recommend it to people who aren't intimidated by bright shades and don't mind using multiple palettes for one look.

I love a more grungy- undone look, so I'm not a big shadow blender which is a major deciding factor in how Subculture is going to work for you - to get the fantastic pigmentation that these shadows have means that the shadows are very softly pressed, so firmer application and overworking the shadows will just muddy the shades into a patchy mess. We get a nice mix of warm, cool, and neutral tones, and [having hooded eyes] I love the matte to shimmer ratio. There's some pretty, more toned-down 'everyday' work looks. However it's when I add one or two of the more punchy shades to take my look up a notch [I find myself gravitating towards New Wave, Roxy and Edge all of the time]. that I really fell for subculture - if you have blue eyes like me and/or love autumnal shades, you'll love the shade selection too! I've got quite a few new palettes within the past year, but none of them pack as much punch visually with the shade selection; it really encourages me to step out of my comfort zone. I've not had any issues with fading, oxidizing or creasing to feedback - I believe those problems are being caused by people applying too much product. Any let downs? The duo chrome shades Cube and Electric aren't as soft and apply on the sheer side, but almost every duo chrome shadow I've tried is, so I guess that's not a real negative for me as the shadow seems to be designed as shadow toppers. Dampening the dense shader end of the supplied brush for application of these two shades, gives a more intense look, compared to applying the shades dry. So there we go; I mostly like my Subculture palette and will rebuy it when I need to. I think it's just a question of preferred application technique with the very soft shadow, rather then good batch versus bad patch. I think that if you are used to using softer shadows and aren't a big shadow blender, then this palette will work for you. If you prefer to use a firmer hand for shadow application and love your blending, then you might want to sit this one out.