Recently I turned 29. Counting backwards, of course.
On this never-before-seen occasion, my friends and family showered me with tons of amazing beauty products. This was definitelly uncalled for (except on every single one of my social media profiles, but let's not split hairs, ok?), and I absolutely loved each one. Need I say my peeeps are the best in the world?
Among the beautiful gifts I received, one in particular got me feeling like a dog with two tails: the latest I <3 Revolution Chocolate Palette in Violet. Advertised as the eye makeup with 18 richly pigmented shades (captivating purples, violet tones, burgundy hues, earthy neutrals and browns / a mixture of mattes, shimmers and satin shades), I couldn't wait to try it.
PACKAGING AND PRICE
The Violet Chocolate Eyeshadow Palette is packaged within the I <3 Revolution typical dripping chocolate palette design (there are 23 other palettes in this line), with purple chocolate dripping onto the dark. It contains a full-size mirror on the lid and, for the first time, the eyeshadow shade names printed below them. So cute!
Certainly, the Violet Chocolate Palette is just one of the many purple-themed palettes released by both high-end and budget brands during the last several months: it's safe to say that purple is the new trending colour in the Makeup Land. Personally, I don't mind this at all: it is one of my all-time favourite colours, it's great for creating many wonderful autumn looks, and it acts beautifully on both green and brown eyes. But before moving on to my review of this palette's performance, I must underline that the one thing that makes this palette stand out among other similar palettes at the very first glance is its price. Eighteen beautiful shades for only about €13.00 - sounds crazy, right? I must confess I was initially sceptical, too, although you know I am a firm believer that price doesn't always equal quality. However, the palette screamed my name so loud when I unpacked it that I just had to try it out right away.
And right away was 9 p.m. on a Friday night.
Which translates to: laziness, unpreparedness, poor lighting, poor shots. And to using all of these as an excuse for not-so-perfect blending.
Still, none of the above discouraged me. On the contrary, I even decided to do two different eyeshadow looks. One on my left, one on my right eye.
(Halloween is just around the corner, isn't it? I might as well go about looking like a maniac)
(Halloween is just around the corner, isn't it? I might as well go about looking like a maniac)
LOOK NO. 1: REDS AND BROWNS
Although it's hard to tell it's autumn here in Croatia with temperatures still around 25°C, I've finally managed to come to terms with waving summer goodbye. And this oddly perfect mid-October weather inspired me to create a new autumn makeup look that the Violet Chocolate Palette seemed just ideal for. And here is what I came up with:
In creating this red-brownish look, I used Wine as the transition shade, Mulberry on the crease, Expedite on my outer eye corner, and Prevail to highlight my browbone. For my inner eye corner, I used another palette (All About Sunrise by Essence) as I wanted a light, neutral, shimmery shade there, so I applied the lightest of the shades included in the Sunrise palette using a wet brush. On the lower lashline I again used a light layer of Wine, Mulberry and Expedite. If you look really closely, you'll notice I also applied some red eye pencil on my waterline and, of course, some black eyeliner and mascara.
The finished look was just amazing! I love how easily these eyeshadows blended and how little fallout there was. Also, I must applaud the pigment - just wow!
In creating this red-brownish look, I used Wine as the transition shade, Mulberry on the crease, Expedite on my outer eye corner, and Prevail to highlight my browbone. For my inner eye corner, I used another palette (All About Sunrise by Essence) as I wanted a light, neutral, shimmery shade there, so I applied the lightest of the shades included in the Sunrise palette using a wet brush. On the lower lashline I again used a light layer of Wine, Mulberry and Expedite. If you look really closely, you'll notice I also applied some red eye pencil on my waterline and, of course, some black eyeliner and mascara.
The finished look was just amazing! I love how easily these eyeshadows blended and how little fallout there was. Also, I must applaud the pigment - just wow!
LOOK NO. 2: PURPLES
As the first look exceeded all my expectations by far, I immediately wished to see how some of the other shades act, so I created a purple look on my other eye. This one turned out a bit messier, though: I should have blended the shades better, but in my defence, I literarly did this in 10 minutes, and under extremely poor light.
This look was created applying basically the same principle as the former, except choosing for a few different eyeshadow shades this time. Namely, here I also used Wine as the transition shade, Prevail to highlight my browbone, and the light gold shade from All About Sunrise for my inner eye corner. However, for the crease I now used Forsaken, and Desired for my outer eye corner. Unfortunately, I eventually tried adding a light layer of Praise on my outer corner, but this only messed everything up. You know, I have this habit of toning down extremely warm colours with really dark tones (usually black), but I simply failed to blend Desired and Praise, which I only noticed afterwards when editing the photographs.
As above, on the lower lashline I used a light layer of Wine, Forsaken and Desired, some purple eye pencil, black eyeliner and mascara.
All in all, I believe this could have been an amazing look if it was done more caringly. But as with the first look, the pigmentation of these colours is just incredible and I am quite content with how it all came out.
CONCLUSION
Buying this palette was the best investment ever. Seriously.
The ratio of invested and gained is by large on the side of gained. I mean, €13.00 for eighteen pretty, diverse shades that allow you to create a number of either basic or vamp looks - what's there not to like? If you're a fan of violet and burgundy matte shades like I am, this is the palette you'd probably want.
As I stated above, the mattes are amazingly pigmented, buildable, blendable, and longlasting.
Shimmers are somewhat inferior to the mattes, however: they are not as intense, nor metallic as one might expect them to be. This is something I personally don't mind as I am not a big fan of shimmers anyway.
I have one resent, though: I wish the palette had at least one whitish, shimmery shade. I am positive it would have fitted perfectly with the existing ones.
The ratio of invested and gained is by large on the side of gained. I mean, €13.00 for eighteen pretty, diverse shades that allow you to create a number of either basic or vamp looks - what's there not to like? If you're a fan of violet and burgundy matte shades like I am, this is the palette you'd probably want.
As I stated above, the mattes are amazingly pigmented, buildable, blendable, and longlasting.
Shimmers are somewhat inferior to the mattes, however: they are not as intense, nor metallic as one might expect them to be. This is something I personally don't mind as I am not a big fan of shimmers anyway.
I have one resent, though: I wish the palette had at least one whitish, shimmery shade. I am positive it would have fitted perfectly with the existing ones.
OTHER PRODUCTS USED
Mascara: Lash Sensational lash multiplying mascara by Maybelline + Get Big Lashes! volume curl mascara by Essence
Eyeliner: H2O Proof liquid eyeliner by Wet n Wild
Eye pencils: 29 Berry Fantastic and 27 Purple Rain longlasting eye pencils by Essence
Brow pencil: Ultimate Brow retractable brow pencil in Ash Brown by Wet n Wild
Lipstick: Ultimate Matte 040 Dramatic Lilatic! by Catrice
As always, thanks for reading!
- 12:31 am
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