Today I’ll go through this ColourPop product! This time I’m bringing you my thoughts on the shimmering eyeshadow palette for bold, stylish and shimmer-loving girls like me. I fell in love with this palette right away. The swatches presented on the website were so glowing, that I was hooked and didn’t even look at the other palettes of the brand. I just love making an accent on my eyes!
The exteriors and contents
The eyeshadows came to me in a box made of thin cardboard. The design is very symbolic: the butterfly wings and pollen. The picture of the pollen is very fitting actually, but I’ll tell you why a little later.
On the back you can find all the shadows and their names. Well, you can’t surely see their glow here, but the shades depicted are quite realistic.
On taking the palette out of the packaging, we see… the same design, the same wings, tails and pollen. Right up, the palette is very convenient to use. It’s sleek, small (9.5х15.5 cm) and lightweight. Also, it has a magnetic closure. The palette doesn’t stain so easily. However, you can notice an ‘elegant’ lipstick stain on top of the packaging. Anyway, any fingerprints or anything else can be easily removed with a wet wipe.
There are no pictures, but only names of the shades on the palette itself.
The palette comes with 15 refills. Each of them weighs 1 g and has a diameter of 2 cm. Inside there are no names, which is not very handy.
The camera is not able to convey this magic glow of the palette. All the beauty is only noticeable on the swatches.
How to apply to get the desired coverage?
The texture of this product is very crumbly, so it’s useless to apply and pick it up with anything but a damp flat brush or with your fingers. This eyeshadow is kind of flaky, so if you don’t use a brush while picking up, you get nothing but flaky bits under your eyes. Apply it to a base or to a pigmented creamy eyeshadow to get a cosmic makeup.
If you don’t have many makeup products, this palette will definitely be on the shelf.
Here, I’ve touched the refill with a fluffy brush a few times and it didn’t obviously like it.
The light shades are somehow less picky, so that if you touch them with a brush slightly, the pigment won’t probably pick up well.
However, nobody actually picks it up with a fluffy brush, so it was just for the sake of experiment.
Here, I’ve picked up the white-pink shade with dry and wet fingers. The result looks almost the same, but the swatch says that the dry application sucks.
Right- damp, left -dry.
Let’s talk about the shades
When opening the palette, it seems that half of the shades are one and the same boring bronze. Well, it’s not true, of course, but it would be better if the colors were more diverse. For ex., a few duochromes on a green or blue base would be preferable instead of orange-yellow tones, which are in abundance here. Then I would call it an accent palette suitable for all occasions, although it’s not at all versatile. On the other hand, the palette is quite gentle despite all the shimmering particles. There is nothing so much out of the ordinary.
Watch Out
It’s a warm toffee color with blue glistening particles. It reminds me of my favorite ColourPop Pressed Powder Glass Bull, but the shade is warmer and the particles are more like… say, sporadic here. It’s probably not that finely milled, so it’s a little bit harder to work with to get the sheer glow.
Zero Clue
It’s a cool moon stone, which doesn’t bore me over time like for example a similar shade from Urban Decay. >_>
To get a ‘smooth’ and even payoff, you should either rub it into your eyelid or apply it to a thick creamy eyeshadow.
GRLFRND
This is a more manageable and less crumbly shade than Zero Clue, but it has to be rubbed in too, as the white base is half-transparent. The shade has to be layered, because the pink-lilac particles give an awesome glow.
~ All the colors on the swatches are applied with my fingers to a base. The base as well as creamy eyeshadows applied damp make the product super pigmented. ~
Pay the Piper
It’s a dull orange gold and the base of it is somewhat floury. It gives a muted glow.
I would prefer something like a green shade instead of this one. Nevertheless, this color looks quite pretty in a refill.
Golden Egg
It’s a yellow shade again, but it has a brighter silver undertone. As far as you can see, the texture is more loose than Pay the Piper, but the payoff is better.
Unsupervised
It’s a coral-pink shade with a soft glow. The texture reminds me of Pay the Piper, but this one applies better. It’s a very gentle color for everyday use. I use it quite often.
Sparkler
This shade is on top for me! It’s a stunning color of cranberry juice with pure gold particles. It’s my favorite shade right now!
The eyeshadow is very soft. Everyone who is fond of red-toned makeups will love it.
Can't stop
This shade looks quite dark in a refill, but in actuality it reminds me of Watch Out with the only difference is that this one is more intense. In general, it’s a good tone, but given that these two shades are quite similar, I would prefer some blue hue better :3 Also, It’s finely milled.
Uptight
This is a shade with a very thick coverage. The payoff is streak-free. You can just apply it with a damp brush without any base. By the way, most of the shades out there have the same properties except for the light shades. It’s a warm brown shade that has a yellow glow, although it looks colder and darker in the refill. It’s not finely milled.
Drizzle
This is one more everyday shade like Unsupervised, but this one has a brighter yellow undertone. Both shades remind me of Naked 3 shadows. These colors can actually rival with them in terms of the quality. The shade is quite soft, but has some particles. It applies in a thin coat and doesn’t crumble at all. The glow is nice 
Tinker Time
It’s an intense and glowing bronze. The quality is amazing, but the shade is nothing extraordinary. The shade is very soft and easy to work with.
Heads or Tales
This is the coldest shade in the palette. It looks grayish if you don’t layer it, but applying a thicker coat, a beautiful purple undertone and a silver overflow appear. The shade has very fine white and pink glistening particles. I would say that it’s a perfect purple for those who don’t like purple It’s a nice shade and I use it quite frequently.
Wing Women
Oh, well… This shade is almost the same as Tinker Time, both in terms of the quality (no complaints) and the color. But it’s bronze again anyway! It has a more distinct red undertone, but the difference is hardly noticeable on my eyes, although the swatches on the official website are different.
Mind Tricks
It’s a cool cold and shimmery mauve tone. This is one of the reasons to buy this palette really. The shadow is very soft and layers like a dream. No ‘floury’ texture.
Lust in Time
It’s a glowing antique bronze. This is a classy shade for those who have basic cold-toned palettes like for instance Urban Decay Naked 2. The shadow is of a good quality and very soft.
In the swatch, Mind Tricks looks warmer than in reality.
What is good about this product?
Stays put really well. It neither fades away nor creases all day. It has the same glow till the evening.
Highly-pigmented.
Has some awesome and rare tones.
Layers really well and applies well to the other shades. The colors blend out with ease, if you want to get not just an overflow, but a nice gradient.
It’s a steal for the product with 15 shades of such quality.
A little goes a long way, unless you are a circus performer.
What is bad about it?
Some shades have glistening particles (thank you, captain Obvious.) Yes, they are very fine and hardly noticeable in makeup, but they fall out a little bit. The eyeshadow base and a damp application help there, but not to the full extent. The particles fall out under my eyes in about 30 minutes after applying. Well, it doesn’t look too bad, but I don’t like it. Therefore I prefer starting my makeup about 40 minutes before going out, so that I have an opportunity to sweep away the fallout.
Some colors are very much alike. If the palette had some more exotic tones or some fascinating duochromes, I would have ignored the glistening particles.
Makeup looks
Zero Clue is applied in a thin coat to the light-pink creamy Color Tattoo eyeshadow. It’s a cosmic makeup, love it!
Here, I used Pay the Piper + Golden Egg + Sparkler and GRLFRND for the inner corners of my eyes. The mattes used here are from the fabulous Barry M Fall in Love eyeshadow palette, plus the eyeliner from Essence.
Heads or Tales + Golden Egg + Unsupervised, plus an eyeliner from E.L.F.
Mind Tricks + Unsupervised. The matte and brick-red tones are taken from the Pixi & It's Judy Time, Get the Look eyeshadow palette. I’m sorry that the photos look so pale and so similar. :с It’s because the sun wasn’t bright that day.
Here, I used one of a thousand bronze shades + GRLFRND under my brows and blue-purple shadows from the Urban Decay XX Vice LTD Reloaded palette.
Now let’s move onto my naughty experiments
Such palettes always encourage me to try something new and apply the product everywhere possible. It’s very sad, but the shades from this palette cannot be used as a highlighter. The light tones have to be rubbed into my skin, but as a result I get a glowing stain on my skin. If I don’t rub it in, I get the deposit of glistening particles. Well, I don’t know… It’s alright only for Instagram probably.
On the plus side, the product can be used to give the lipsticks a metallic effect. Here, I applied the liquid matte Golden Rose lipstick in the shade No. 24.
Look how boring my lips look…
And here is a trendy metallic effect! I added Mind Tricks here. The result is OK for photos, but I would recommend you buy a real metallic lipstick to wear in real life to avoid this ‘layer cake’ effect on your lips
🍀 Whom and why I recommend this eyeshadow palette:
— I recommend it for those who are not afraid of 15 glowing and overflowing shades without any matte hues.
— For those who love making an accent on their eyes with a non-traditional shade.
— For makeup junkies who are getting crazy at the thought of having it in their cosmetic bags.
— For those who want to try vibrant and shimmering shades without breaking the bank.
🍁 Whom I DON’T recommend it and why:
— It’s not good for those who are newbies in a makeup game. There is no use to purchase it, unless you have an auxiliary eyeshadow palette with mattes.
— For those who are not keen on shimmer.
— For those who already have tons of palettes with bronze shades.
Conclusion:
If you are obsessed with shimmers and duochromes and have around $20 to spare, grab this palette. The eyeshadow is amazing and of very good quality. However, I haven’t decided yet if I should give it 3 or 4 stars. Well, I don’t have the heart to give it 3 stars, as I actually love this product. It has some shades that totally won me over and they are actually in the majority.
The palette has bronze tones of all kinds, but the question is if you need it or not.
