Tropic

Natasha Denona Tropic 15-Pan Eyeshadow Palette ($129.00 for 1.20 oz.) is a new, limited edition palette for spring that includes a mix of mattes and shimmers with two rows of more neutral-hued shades and one row featuring pops of color. The matte eyeshadows were nice--= smooth and blendable, though a touch dry--but the shimmers were more inconsistent. Both Mint Frost and Tiger Lily were extremely dense, which made them stiffer and harder to work with; Tiger Lily was workable but Mint Frost was more challenging as it was also very chunky.

On a personal note (this did not impact the rating at all), I found the palette a challenge to work with unless I was only going to stick to three or four shades, due to the mismatch in undertones of the first two rows (very warm-toned) and last row (cooler-toned). I also found the lack of satin and pearl finishes made it harder to smoothly diffuse mattes into the metallics, as they were a denser, thicker formulation.

Each pan also contains 0.05 oz. compared to 0.08 oz. from prior releases; the brand explained (via Instagram story, which I can’t find to reference) that the ingredients used were different and lighter but the pans themselves had the same volume of product. I tried weighing pans from the Tropic palette against similar finish pans from my Sunset palette, but my food scale didn’t seem to be as reliable as ideal for this low of a weight–I kept getting 0.14 oz. for each pan, but when I put two together, it would go up to 0.31 oz. (which would account for the 0.03 oz. difference in product if the pans are exactly the same). Visually, the pans were the exact same height, width, and length. I didn’t receive a box with the palette, so I don’t have a list of ingredients for this one to try and compare it against past palettes.

I have seen certain types of formulas–typically “baked” eyeshadows–weigh noticeably less than traditional powder eyeshadows, but the brand has repeated finishes between palettes (like Creamy Matte), so I’m not sure what specifically was changed that would change the weight significantly (by 0.03 oz.) but not the volume. (If there was a new finish and that was lighter, it wouldn’t seem as notable.) Just for something easy to reference, MAC Eyeshadows are typically 0.05 oz. each but Veluxe Pearls (a type of finish) are 0.04 oz., and MAC Extra Dimension Eyeshadows are all 0.04 oz. despite having a similar pan size as the regular eyeshadows and actually having part of product raised above the pan’s maximum height. Another example is Chanel’s Les 4 Ombres Eyeshadow Quads, which contains 0.07 oz. of product when the original formula contained 0.24 oz. yet they seem to take up the same volume, though it seemed to go from traditional to a more “baked” formula.

The updated packaging is definitely an upgrade, though, from the prior palettes. I vastly prefer the more secure, plastic exterior and shade names written next to each respective shade over the overhead sheet from before.

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