Showing posts with label Eyeshadows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eyeshadows. Show all posts

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Sleek Curacao Multicolour Sunset/Bird of Paradise Eye Look

The more I play around with my awesome new Sleek Curacao Palette, the more I think its bright shades are starting to grow on me. Although I didn't think I would reach for this palette, I'm starting to really love the wide variety of looks and effects its rainbow of brights can produce. Just look at today's eye look! Is that hot or what? I've actually done a previous sunset inspired eye look, but I think this look just blows it out of the water!

Sleek Curacao Sunset Green Multicolour

Jamilla Camel actually commented that this look reminded her of the Bird of Paradise plant, and you know what - I think she's right! So here's a photo of the Bird of Paradise plant, just so you know what I mean. Don't you think it sort of looks like the plant, with the same mix of colours? I've even gone back to change the blog post title, just because I love the comparison so much!

Image from thaifoodandtravel.com


Surprisingly, I didn't actually have to use 99 shades to get such a vibrant effect, which is really impressive. I did use four colours from the Sleek Makeup Curacao Palette, though. The colour names used are Tequila Sunset, the shimmery rust orange, Martini, the pale light beige, Green Martini, the deep shimmery olive geen, and Singapore Sling, the bright hot pink!

sleek curacao palette sunset green eye look

I know the colours don't look all that blended in the phoot, but I promise they look better in real life! Singapore Sling was used on the inner corner of my eyelid, while Tequila Sunset was used on the lid (mostly in the middle). Green Martini was used in the contour area, and Martini was used as a highlight. The shot below shows my closed eye, so that you can get a better sense of colour placement.

sleek curacao multicolour sunset eye look 1


For this look, I actually didn't have much problem blending the eyeshadows. I was actually a little surprised by how blendable they were. I was half-expecting to end up with all these big blocks of colour on my eyes given that I was cramming so many colours onto my puny little eye space, but the end result turned out better than I expected!

sleek curacao multicolour sunset eye look 2


Don't you love how vibrant the colours look? This is definitely one of my favourite looks using the Curacao Palette, and perhaps the look that demonstrates just how awesome the palette is. I am totally thrilled with this look, and I don't think I can say much more about it - it's just so absolutely, steaming, flaming hot! With all the connotations of sunset and greenery (hey, there is some olive green in the eye look after all), I feel that this eye look really brings out that feeling of a summer sizzle!

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Aqua and Purple Eye look with Sleek Curacao Palette!

I'm so excited about this eye look, because I think for possibly the first time ever in my life, I'm wearing aqua eye shadow! I'm normally a colour-shy, neutrals-only kind of girl, but thanks to Sleek Makeup's Curacao Palette, I now have a whole rainbow of brights to play around with!



The photo below shows the shades that I used for this eye look. I decided to use Blue Hawaiian, that awesome blue-green aqua shade I was raving about when I swatched the Curacao Palette, and I paired it up with my favourite colour ever - purple! Purple Haze is the shade name.

sleek curacao palette aqua purple eye look shades


The photo below shows the closed eye so you can get a better sense of colour placement. Blue Hawaiian, the light (but bright!) aqua shade was placed on the lid, and Purple Haze was used in the contour area and the outer corner of the eye. Martini, the light beige in the palette, was used as a highlight colour.

sleek curacao palette aqua purple eye look 1


I love how the colours blended so nicely. I especially love that although I used just two colours for the lid and contour area, the look somehow looks more complex than that - it kinda looks like I used more than two colours, doesn't it?

sleek curacao palette aqua purple eye look 2


I'm not normally a brights kind of girl, but I definitely appreciate having such beautiful shades to play around with! I love how this looks cool yet intense at the same time - something about the combination of light, floaty aqua with a deep smokey purple, and is still summery while having some oomph. I definitely can't wait to try out more looks with this palette, and see what other combinations I can come up with!

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Sleek Makeup Curacao Palette Swatches

The hottest, brightest, boldest palette of summer is here! And it's mine! All mine! Sleek Makeup's Curacao is officially the loudest, brashest set of colour you can wear on your eyes. Just look at all that brightly coloured goodness!

Sleek Curacao Palette

The Curacao Palette is part of the Carribean Collection, out for this Summer. It's supposed to be full of bright, happy, confident colours - like a Carribean holiday! I've never been to the Carribean, but hey, now I can pretend that I'm on a holiday just by looking at the tropical-looking box!

sleek curacao palette 1


Box aside, I'm so glad to see that Sleek Makeup has nammed all the colours in the palette - previously their palettes didn't have colour names, so I think this is pretty cool. Coming from Singapore, I especially love that there's a hot magenta pink colour called Singapre Sling - I know it's named after the cocktail, and not the country, but hey, it's still cool, right?

sleek curacao palette 2


1st Row, L-R: Tequila Sunrise (warm russet orange, shimmer), Martini (shimmery light neutral beige), Blue Hawaiian (a pale but bright blue-green aqua), Bloody Mary (matte primary red), Screwdriver (bright matte crayon yellow), Green Iguana (shimmery deep forest green)

2nd Row, L-R: Apres Midori (shimmmery yellow grass green), Blue Lagoon (matte light aqua blue), Purple Haze (deep matte grape), Green Martini (shimmery deep olive green), Singapore Sling (shimmery hot pink), Espresso Martini (matte black)

My favourite shades out of the palette are Blue Hawaiian - it reminds me of China Glaze's For Audrey, but in eyeshadow form! I think if I ever did my China Glaze For Audrey manicure again, I can totally wear Blue Hawaiian to go with it! I also love Green Martini, because it's the perfect deep shimmery olive green with a great deal of complexity.

And here's a shot of the colours without the plastic sheet over it. Aren't the colours gorgeous?

sleek curacao palette 3


And of course, what kind of blogger would I be if I didn't offer you swatches, so here you go! Swatches of the Curacao Palette!

sleek curacao palette swatch


As you can see, the palette has pretty good pigmentation and texture, much like the other Sleek Makeup palettes. However, I did feel like the shimmer shades were softer and a bit more pigmented than the matters, like other Sleek palettes I've tried. If you've liked the previous palettes produced by Sleek Makeup, you'll definitely love the Curacao Palette as well, as the formula hasn't changed - this is pretty much the same thing, but with a zing and a zest in the bright shades!

Over the next few days, I'll be producing a few eye looks with the Curacao Palette, so do keep a watch out for those - I'm pretty excited about the wide variety of looks this little baby can produce, and I can't wait to share them with you!

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Canmake Shimmer Jelly Eyes Cream Eyeshadow Swatches

Canmake, the Japanese drugstore cosmetics brand, typically produces ranges of products aimed squarely at the Asian market - with tons of shimmer, frost, and cutesy packaging, the brand does not deviate much from the typical formulas used to appeal to Asian consumers.

With Canmake's range of cream eyeshadows, the Shimmer Jelly Eyes Cream Eyeshadows, these are slightly different. The Shimmer Jelly Eyes, as the name suggests, are full of shimmer, but most colours don't have many visible specks of glitter, just frosty shimmer.

Image from http://bobodave.com


Here are swatches of the products. Look ma, almost no huge bits of glitter, just tiny ones! The frost is still there though, as is the somewhat weaker pigmentation I tend to find in Asian brands.

Canmake Shimmer Jelly Eyes Cream Eyeshadow Swatches

01 White Frosty is a sheer white frost
02 Sugar Milk Tea is a light tan brown, also frosty and sheer
03 Strawberry Parfaiit is a sheer, shimmery, pastel pink
04 Frozen Melon is blue-based pastel green. Doesn't look like the colour of a melon at all, but a very pretty aqua blue-green.
05 Caramel Chocolate was a rich, deep, chocolate brown. This is the least glittery of the lot.

My favourite out of the lot is 05 Caramel Chocolate, because it has the best pigmentation, and the least amount of grittery glitter. Most of the shades are sheer, and have tiny specks of glitter, especially the lighter colours. I really liked that the shadows started off with a fluid finish, but dried fast. After leaving them to set for 5 - 10 minutes, I found that the colours stayed on and did not remove easily. But if rubbed hard, these could be removed, so if you have a habit of rubbing your eyes, this isn't a great choice for you. However, if you don't rub your eyes, chances are this would last pretty decently on you.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

NYX Smokey Eyes Eyeshadow Palette: Awesome Neutral Colours!

The latest addition to my palette collection is definitely a kickass one - I officially have gotten my hands on the NYX Smokey Eyes Eyeshadow Palette! As you know, NYX Cosmetics is pretty hard to get here in Asia, so I just have to show off! By a stroke of luck, I won it on Makeup Merriment's giveaway awhile back, and, boy am I glad to have this!

NYX Smokey Eyes Eyeshadow Palette

Isn't this thing gorgeous? It's so pretty, I can't bear to touch it yet - but I will eventually!

It comes in the cutest paper box, with a very alluring photo of a smokey eye. The Smokey Palette comes in a simple plastic packaging.

nyx xmokey eyes palette 1


Here are the colours all laid out for you in their beautiful glory. I love how there are a bunch of awesome TAUPES in there, along with the standard range of greys.

nyx xmokey eyes palette 2


Have any of you used this palette yet? I'm so excited, I can't wait to get to use this palette and show you guys the awesome colours in the palette!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Dupe Search: Taupe Eyeshadow Comparison Swatches!

Woohoo! Don't you love it when I ransack my stash and do comparison swatches? What's more, these are swatches of taupes, glorious taupes! Now to be fair, these are just some of my taupes, definitely not all of them. It started when I reviewed the new Edward Bess eyeshadow single in Storm, and I thought - don't I already have these colours? So I looked through my stash, and dug out the colours that I thought would be most similar to Storm. So in other words, what you're looking at is just those of my taupe eyeshadows that I thought might have some semblance to Storm.

Taupe Eyeshadow Comparison Dupe Swatches

Here are the shades we're comparing today, in order:

1: NARS Belissima II (darker shade)
2: L'Orea HIP Electrified I (lighter shade)
3: MEMEME Beautifully You Eyeshadow Cafe 7
4: First Light Cosmetics Storm Grey
5: Bourjois Stretch Eyeshadow Brun Nylon 09
6: GOSH Glamorous Eyeshadow Grey Brown 7
7: Edward Bess Storm 07
8: Stila Cloud

Isn't it funny how many taupe eyeshadows that are numbered are given the number 7? And on another note, gosh, it's embarrassing how many taupe eyeshadows I've bought over the years of being a makeup fanatic. Anyway, here are swatches of all of them, in that order, with my thoughts on each of them below. By the way, the eyesahdow labelled L'Oreal Sassy is wrong. The duo is actually Electrified:

taupe eyeshadow swatches


NARS Belissima II (darker shade) is the only true matte in the bunch, as the rest all have some sort of shimmer. This is a cool-toned grey-brown with hints of purple. Texture is decent, pigmentation is sheer but buildable.

L'Orea HIP Electrified I (lighter shade) is absolutely rockin'! Don't be fooled by the cheap plastic packaging or the drugstore brand - this is awesome taupe goodness. As you can see, it just stands out among my swatches. Its texture and pigmentation are also excellent, and it has a frosty finish that, depending on your preference, can be a good or a bad thing. I've actually reviewed the Electrified duo before and have even previously compared Electrified to a much more expensive Bobbi Brown Heather Mauve eyeshadow.

MEMEME Beautifully You Eyeshadow Cafe 7 is also another cheapy-but-goody. This is cheap, but good, and I really need to get around to reviewing this sometime. It's a brown-based taupe, and thus would be very wearable for warm-toned girls who find a lot of taupes pull purple or greyish on them. It also has slight shimmer, that for some reason isn't showing up in the photo.

First Light Cosmetics Storm Grey is another underrated gorgeous colour. Like Edward Bess's Storm and MEMEME's Cafe, it's a light brown-based taupe, only that it has more shimmer than either. Pigmentation and texture are also pretty good. An EOTD (Eye of the Day) with Storm Grey is available if you'd like to see more of this pretty little thing.

Bourjois Stretch Eyeshadow Brun Nylon 09 is not as similar to Edward Bess's Storm as I initially thought it would be. For one, it's less brown-beige-y and slightly more purple and grey on. They did look quite similar in the pan, however. Texture is good, and pigmentation is sheer but buildable. I've previously swatched Bourjois Brun Nylon before, and also once did an FOTD with it. My, that FOTD was just a year and a half ago, but I think I actually looked visibly younger then. And my photography skills back then sucked.

GOSH Glamorous Eyeshadow Grey Brown 7 is one of those I keep meaning to review, but never get around to it. No fault of the shadow, though. This one has the texture of baked eyeshadows (it comes in a round, hard dome), and pigmentation is sheer but buildable. It leans more grey than most of the other taupes featured here, and also has some sparkles in the eyeshadow.

Edward Bess Ultra Luminous Eyeshadow Storm 7 is a brown-based taupe. Honestly, compared to the rest of the taupes on my arm, it looks a little blah. But since it leans brown, it's less likely to pull purple or grey on warm-toned girls. Pigmentation was sheer, and not the best, but still buildable. Texture was also decent. I'm not going to say too much about this since I just reviewed it in the last post.

Stila Cloud is a taupe that pulls purple and grey, and has a frosty finish that makes it look silver, like how the L'Oreal Electrified taupe looks silver due to the frost finish. I actually should feature this sometime, I have had this eyeshadow since I first became a makeup junkie years ago and it's still with me...Brings back all the nostalgic times when Stila eyeshadows came in little paper pots, and when collecting Stila eyeshadows was the "in" thing of the day. Anyway, this one is cooler-toned that some of the other taupes, and is more purply-grey than some of the other more brown-based ones. It also has frosty shimmer, which some may like and some may not.

So here you go, eight of my lighter-coloured taupes! As a taupe junkie, I love all of these shades and I think they are all different enough to own all, although I'm sure not everyone would agree with me. They're almost like my babies! I hope this post was useful for some of you who wanted a comparison between some taupe eyeshadows.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Edward Bess Storm Eyeshadow: Taupe of the Day EOTD!

*Rings alarm bells* TAUPE ALERT, EVERYONE! TAUPE ALERT! And it's a brand spankin' shiny new taupe to boot! Edward Bess has just released two new shades to his Ultra Luminous Eyeshadow range (just so you know, I've swatched the Edward Bess eyeshadows before), and one of them is a taupe! *Starts hyperventilating* As a taupe lover through and through, you can't imagine how excited I was. I was positively, eagerly, holding my breath for this to come in the mail.

So here it is. Behold, everyone, the newest taupe to my already burgeoning taupe eyeshadow collection. Edward Bess Storm.



Although the colour name is Storm, Edward Bess's rendering of this colour isn't exactly stormy (lame pun, I know). In fact, it's positively tame. The colour is neutral, and light - in fact, it's exactly the kind of eyeshadow colour you could wear to any office.

The eyeshadow packaging puzzled me a bit. I hadn't realized that Edward Bess had changed the packaging for his Ultra Luminous Eyeshadows, but unlike the other previous eyeshadows I swatched, Storm didn't have the brand name imprinted on the eyeshadow surface. And the eyeshadow pan was round, not square. And the material of the casing seemed different. Still, the packaging retained the chic black exterior, and comes in an expensive-looking box, and a luxe looking velvet pouch.

edward bess storm eyeshadow 2


The eyeshadow itself seemed surprisingly light in terms of pigmentation. Granted, this is a lighter colour, not so much a taupe like MAC's Satin Taupe, but more like Bourjois's Brun Nylon. In other words, a light, beige-ish kind of taupe. I found this lack of pigmentation a little bit disappointing, because previously when I swatched Edward Bess's Luminious Eyeshadow range, I found the colours to be very pigmented. Perhaps these shades are meant to be sheer for Spring/Summer. Here's a swatch of the eyeshadow.

edward bess storm eyeshadow swatch

Here's an EOTD (Eye of the Day) with Storm on. Here I used it on my lid. To contour the look a little more, I paired it with the darker shade in another eyeshadow duo I've featured before, the L'Oreal's Sassy HIP Duo. The L'Oreal HIP shade is just a little bit in the contour area.

edward bess storm eyeshadow eotd 1


As you can see, it's a lighter, browner, beige-ier kind of taupe, perfect for conservative offices. It also has a hint of shimmer, although I do think Storm has more shimmer than the shades I previously swatched in the rest of the Edward Bess eyeshadows. Still, this is manageable shimmer, not OTT, and quite pretty, too.

edward bess storm eyeshadow eotd 2


I quite like this shade, and for me this is something wearable that I could definitely see getting heavy usage in my stash. It's just that if you were expecting a deep, dark taupe, this isn't it. Come to think of it, I should swatch this with some of the other taupes in my eyeshadow collection, and see if there are any similar taupes out there.

edward bess storm eyeshadow eotd 3


So, would I recommend this? Well, if you are NC/NW25 and above, I'm not sure if this shadow, being a light shade, will show up on you. It would probably be used as a base, or an all-over lid shade in that case, so if you want it for that reason, great, but if not, it may disappoint you. Also, if you are looking for a shadow with strong pigmentation, this may not be for you. But if you want a simple, wearable taupe, then this could be worth checking out.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Thursday, June 23, 2011

BeautyUK Baked Eyeshadow in Wave: OMG I'm Wearing Blue Eyeshadow!

BeautyUK is a UK-based brand that has been getting lots of raves for its range of colours and cosmetics at an affordable price. I have to admit, the brand has never been on my radar very much, but I've begun to like their products quite a bit.

One of the products I've tried and liked lately is the Baked Eyeshadow. These are domed eyeshadows trios, similar to MAC's MSFs and other baked products, but in eyeshadow form. There are three colours in each eyeshadow pan.



The Wave eyeshadow trio basically consists of three types of blues - a light pastel blue, a medium cobalt blue, and a blackened blue. All of them, being baked eyeshadows have a shimmery, almost frosty finish.

beautyuk baked eyeshadow wave 2


Here are swatches of the eyeshadow. You can see the shimmery, frosty finish, as well as the excellent pigmentation. These are swatched using a finger, on dry skin.

beautyuk baked eyeshadow wave swatch


And of course, no review of an eyeshadow trio would be complete without an EOTD (Eye of the Day), right? I used all three colours so you could see the gradiation in colours.

beautyuk baked eyeshadow wave eotd

Here's a shot of the EOTD with my eye closed. Hopefully, you can make out all three colours on the eye. All the colours blended easily, and were very pigmented with a base.

beautyuk baked eyeshadow wave eotd 2


I really quite like this trio. It does totally look awesome, doesn't it? With all the blue and the shimmer, and the sheen - it's gorgeous, even if blue isn't typically the colour I'd wear on my eyes.

beautyuk baked eyeshadow wave eotd 3


If you want a cheap, cheery baked eyeshadow, this is definitely worth checking out. It's easily available, it's cheap at just £3.99, and it works.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Monday, June 13, 2011

Work Appropriate Neutral Brown EOTD on the Cheap!

Today's EOTD is a rather boring, basic one - it's just a simple brown EOTD that you're supposed to be able to wear to (most) work places. And it's pretty good example of how you don't have to spend a fortune on makeup to look good!

Neutral Brown Eye Look

This simple EOTD (Eye of the Day) was done with my awesomely cheap 26 Colour Eyeshadow and Blush Palette, which I got from KKCenterHKa, a Hong Kong-based retailer of various brands of affordable Asian makeup. Over the past week or so, I've been playing around with this deceptively cheap and simple palette, and I've been quite happy with the variety of looks it can produce for the cheap price of the palette. Sure the palette's no MAC, but it's good for what it is.

The two shades with the "X" on them are what I used for this look. The lighter brown shade was used on the lid, while the darker brown shade was placed in the contour area.

es 26 color eyeshadow blush palette neutral brown eye look

Here's a look with the eye closed, so you can see the shades and the blending. I really am quite fond of the light brown, for some reason. It's a light matte, malt brown, which looks deceptively boring, but is so wearable. For some reason, the darker brown seemed to pull quite red on me, but not so much that it became unwearable.

neutral brown eye look 2


Pigmentation and texture of this palette was pretty good - the shades showed up, although the lighter brown required a bit of layering to get it to that intensity that you see in the photo. The dark brown was quite pigmented, and blended easily.

neutral brown eye look 3


You know I'm a neutrals kind of girl, so this look is totally up my alley! I absolutely love this look, and I hopefully haven't bored the colour addicts out there with this one. I guess after all the brights, everyone could use a little palette cleanser now and then!

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Deep Purple EOTD with a Cheap Palette!

Ah, purple - one of my favourite colours both on the nails, as well as on the eyes. This gorgeous deep purple eye look is courtesy of my awesome 26 Colour Eyeshadow and Blush Palette, which I got from KKCenterHK. This time, I decided to go for placing the darker colour on the lid, instead of in the contour area, and I think it worked!

Deep Purple Eye Look

Here are the two colours that I used. The purple is was used on the lid, and the shimmery brown was used on the contour area.

es 26 color eyeshadow blush palette smokey purple eye look


The colours were pretty good, pigmentation-wise. The purple, having a more matte finish, had less pigmentation than the brown, but can still be built up for a more intense eye look.

deep purple eye look 2


And here's a look of the eye from a weird angle, just so you can see the blending of the eyeshadows. For some reason, although the purple is a bit more matte, it looks shimmery in the photo due to the blending, and the shimmer from the brown shadow got into the purple colour.

deep purple eye look 3


I like this look a lot, I think it's dark enough to be smokey, but not dark enough to look like you have a black eye, so it's quite versatile that way. I'm starting to like that 26 Colour Palette, as it can be used to produce quite a variety of looks.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Friday, May 27, 2011

Sunset Orange and Red EOTD: Budget Beauty

OMG, I'm wearing bright eyeshadow! This is so atypical, but I thought, why not? In my last post, I swatched the cheap and cheery 26 Eyeshadow and blush colour palette from KKCenterHK, and I thought I'd show you guys an eye look I did with it. Since the palette has a bunch of "sunset" colours, like rusts, oranges, reds, and bronzes, I thought I'd go along those lines, and do something vaguely sunset inspired.

Sunset Orange Red Eye Look

For this look, I used just two colours. Unless I want to do something outrageous or complicated, I rarely ever use more than two or three colours. The two colours I used were shown below. The burnt orange colour was applied on the lid, while the bright russet red-brown was applied on the contour area. I also used MAC Dazzlelight on the browbone area as a highlight, but that was just to balance out the look a little bit.

es 26 color eyeshadow blush palette sunset eye look


Here's a shot of the eye look with the eye closed. As you can see, the shimmer shades in the palette have a pretty good pigmentation, especially with a base underneath, and can be blended out to acheive a gradiation.

sunset orange red eye look 2


The texture of the shades also wasn't too bad. Fallout wasn't as nightmarish as I thought it would be - there was some, but actually not much more than usual.

sunset orange red eye look 3


While this is perhaps not exactly one of my usual looks, I thought it would be cool to do a more dramatiic look out of a mostly neutral palette, as it shows how versatile the palette is. I also love how bright and shimmery the look is, it's just like a sunset on my eyes!

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

26 Colour Eyeshadow and Blush Palette: Swatches

One of the items that has been gaining popularity in recent years has been makeup palettes containing large number of colours, like the 88 colour eyeshadow palettes that have been popular in various forms. The reason why these are so popular is that they are cheap, and have a large variety of colours. I couldn't help but end up with one myself - the ES 26 Colour Eyeshadow and Blush Palette, from this page on the KKCenterHK site.

As you may know, KKCenterHK has been gaining popularity with some makeup fanatics for its wide array of cheap and cheerful makeup items. The 26 Colour Palette cost US$15, which works out to less than a buck per colour. Not bad at all, price-wise. But I was curious as to the quality of the palette, so I thought I'd provide some swatches for a start.

ES 26 Color Eyeshadow Blush Palette

The palette itself comes in a plastic case, that, while not luxe-looking, certainly doesn't seem cheap and flimsy. The palette is also of quite a substantial size - sometimes, with these palettes with humongous numbers of colours, each individual colour can be the size of a dime or something like that. But each individual eyeshadow pan size is only slightly smaller than that of a MAC eyeshadow, which is pretty decent. Here's a photo for comparison. The MAC eyeshadow, Dazzlelight, is placed in between two eyeshadows on the palette. The two larger pans below it are blush colours.

26 colour palette size comparison


Altogether, there are 21 eyeshadow colours, and 5 blush colours, making that 26. As you can see from the photo below, the colours are mainly warm neutrals, with some bright "sunset" colours (e.g. rust orange, gold) thrown in. Some of the blush colours look a little similar to eyeshadow colours, and a few of the eyeshadow colours are quite close to each other. Generally, though, I'd say the palette colour range is quite decent if you like these types of colours.

es 26 color eyeshadow blush palette (2)


Here are swatches of the palette, row by row. The first row is below:

es 26 color palette row 1 swatch


Row 1, L-R: bright orange with shimmer, light tangerine orange with shimmer, warm brown with slight shimmer, matte light pink, bronzey brown with shimmer, brown with a tinge of red with shimmer (think along the lines of Stila's Barefoot Contessa), medium brown with shimmer, which I really like - it could almost be a taupe!

es 26 color palette row 2 swatch


Row 2, L-R: pinky-peach with shimmer (sort of like NARS Orgasm blush in eyeshadow form), burnt orange brown with shimmer, muted neutral brown with no shimmer, rust-red-brown with shimmer (it isn't as red as it looks in the photo, but it is quite rusty in colour), medium warm matte brown, deep matte brown, shimmery brown-gold.

es 26 color palette row 3 swatch


Row 3: Warm orange-pink, shimmery burnt-orange brown, muted matte brown, deep purple with the slightest hint of shimmer, muted neutral brown, slightly darker and less warm-leaning than the previous brown in this row, midtone purple-magenta, and a gorgeous taupey brown shimmer, my favourite eyeshadow colour in the entire palette.

Lastly, here are the blushes.

es 26 color palette row 4 swatch


Row 4: Light peach, pale baby pink-beige, medium pink, deep purple (sort of like the second-last purple in Row 3 of the eyeshadow range), and russet red-brown (similar to the middle colour in Row 2 of the eyeshadows).

Pigmentation and texture of the eyeshadows was actually very decent. In general I didn't have too many problems with pigmentation, and texture was pretty decent. As with some of these palettes, the shimmer colours for some reason were of better quality than the mattes, being softer in texture and better in pigmentation Still, the palette in general was of better quality than expected.

Over the next few days, I'll be showcasing a few EOTDs (Eye of the Days) using this palette, and we'll see what looks I can come up with! In the meantime, if you're looking for a palette of decent quality at a cheap price, and if you like warm colours and neutrals, this palette would definitely be worth checking out.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)