Wet n Wild Eyeshadow Palettes Comfort Zone and Silent Treatment

Chances are that if you heard about Wet n Wild brand, you've heard at least about their Comfort Zone palette and Megalast lipsticks. I've reviewed the latter and compared some alleged dupes with Mac lipsticks here, and now come the palettes. These are definitely some of the best drugstore eyeshadows I've tried and I get why they are so popular. 

COMFORT ZONE

Comfort Zone is incredibly popular and highly rated, actually even Temptalia gave it a high mark and she mostly deals with high end makeup. I never gave this palette much attention. It's the green side that bothers me, I just like the palette to be completely neutral, but actually, apart from that "eyelid" green one, all shades are neutral. Now that I've tried the palette, I completely get the hype. This palette has insane pigmentation and the eyeshadows truly are high quality. It's hyped up for a reason and not just because it contains a supposed dupe for Mac's Club.

Texture: Eyeshadows are incredibly pigmented, buttery and blend so well. They do sometimes flake a bit under the brush when you're trying to pick up colours, but so far I haven't experienced any fall out. 

Colours: There are eight eyeshadows in the palette, which is just such a bargain, especially considering how much it costs. It's separated into two theme parts, the neutral bronzy-coppery brown and mossy green.

Left side

BROWBONE: a warm vanilla with silver shimmer. It's a bit too yellow for my liking, but it works an inner corner highlighter
EYELID: neutral, light copper shade with a satin finish. Classically pretty, but I don't wear it often.
CREASE: a gorgeous brown-gold shade with a satin finish. Fantastic shade in my books, a bit like mixing Mac's Patina, Urban Decay Smog and L'Oreal's 21 Sahara Treasure. I would pick up this palette just for this shade.
DEFINING: a dark brown shade with red shimmer. It looks almost black on the skin, so it's dark for the crease, but great along the lashes.

Right side

BROWBONE: a greyish gold champagne shade with a satin finish. A very unique looking shade to me.

EYELID: green with yellowish hue. It's least pigmented in the palette.

CREASE: dark green-grey shade with green shimmer. It looks almost black on the eyes and it's most crumbly in the palette.

DEFINING: a duochrome shade that looks emerald green when heavily layered, but blended out it looks reddish-brown. People have been saying for years that it's a dupe for Mac's Club. Knowing Mac eyeshadows, I suspect Wet n Wild's one is even better due to the softer, more creamy texture (Mac's eyeshadows are hard, but still have a decent payoff, though nothing like Urban Decay, Too Faced and Wet n Wild). The duochrome effect is much stronger in real life than n my pictures.

Look with the left "crease" shade on the lids and left "definer" shade along the lashes. Jordana Matte lipstick in Nude on the lips.

Green look: Right "eyelid" shade and right "crease" shade in the corners. Reddish-brown look: right "definer" shade a.k.a Club's dupe. The duochrome effect is much, much stronger in person, but my camera couldn't pick it up.

Staying power: The last nicely pretty much all day on my lids. There is some minor creasing on my normal lids, but nothing too terrible.

Packaging: Simple plastic, the closing system holds well, but the packaging isn't anything exciting. Added are a mini brush and applicator, which is of course of a poor quality.

Price and availability: Mine is from Click2Chic where it costs 5.99 €. I got it to swatch for their website.

SILENT TREATMENT

While Comfort Zone is super popular, I must admit I haven't heard much about Silent Treatment, actually about trios in general, but I can assure you that the quality isn't much different. I love the colour selection in this palette and the "eyelid" shade is a treasure on its own. 

Texture: These are a bit less creamy than those in comfort Zone, but still highly pigmented and very blendable. I haven't experienced any fall out at these, but through the day, shimmer does tend to travel like at most shimmery shades.

Colours: 

Top "Browbone" colour is a shimmery pink shade. I wish it were matte because it's would work better as a base, but I can use it as a subtle inner corner highlight. It's nicely pigmented, though the colour is very skin-like on me.

Middle "Crease" colour is deep reddish brown with red shimmer. Like two darkest shades in the Comfort Zone, it's basically almost black on the skin, which makes it almost too pigmented for the crease and I use it very moderately. 

Bottom "Eyelid" shade is the true gem in this selection. It's a medium taupe with slight violet tones and it has a lovely satin finish. It's very pigmented, blends lovely and I just love wearing this also on its own because it's a true one-wash wonder.

All shades used, but the crease colour us applied very lightly because it was too pigmented for this look. On the lips it's Milani's Amore Lip Creme in Gorgeous.

Staying power: It's very similar to Comfort Zone, so great with almost no creasing at the end of the day. Trust me when I tell you that these have such a high rating on majority of websites for a reason.

Packaging: Pretty basic, plastic, the closing system works well and it has both the applicator and a mini brush.

Price and availability: Mine is from Click2Chic (I got it to swatch for the website), where it costs 3.99 €.

Have a great day!

Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eyeshadow Palette

As hyped up and popular the Chocolate Bar palette is ever since its launch, I never considered actually buying it and that's purely because of the price. After I got TheBalm's Nude'Tude I didn't plan on buying another eyeshadow palette for a really long time, but I needed a proper treat for my birthday and one night I just decided to order it. And boy, am I glad I did. The raves are so justified and I can easily see why so many people put this palette into their last year's annual favourites. The shade selection is fantastic and the quality of the shades is brilliant as well. It may be expensive, but I don't regret buying it for a second.

Texture: All the shimmer/satin shades apart from the Candied Violet are buttery, incredibly pigmented and blend so well. The mattes are great too, more buttery than Urban Decay's, but they perform equally well. Candied Violet feels drier to the touch and it performed poorly from the start, however, now that I've swatched it properly, so gone through the top layer, it performs great. A similar thing happened with Strawberry Bon Bon, which swatched chalky from the start, but is now working just fine. In general the eyeshadows are more buttery than Urban Decay's and TheBalm's.

Colours: There are 16 colours in the palette, ranging from mattes to satins and shimmer shades. The shade selection ranges from chocolate browns, gold, greenish old gold, burgundies and purples. Black is missing and I would also add an even darker matte brown, like Sleek in theBalm's Nude'Tude, but otherwise, I love the shade selection. I love every colour and all are very wearable, I've even worn Candied Violet, which not a shade I typical wear. I have very little dupes for these in my collection, which is a bit sad considering I've been a beauty blogger for over five years and a beauty enthusiast for well over a decade.

Gilded Ganache - a shimmery green old gold shade. It's similar to Bronze Goddess by L'Oreal in the discontinued Infallible range, but less gold and green. It looks stunning on its own and I also I love combining it with Creme Brulee for an antiqued gold look.

White Chocolate - a matte skin tone shade. The perfect base and blending colour.

Milk Chocolate - a matte medium cool brown. Great crease colour, but quite a brown choice for something that fakes a shadow.

Black Forest Truffle - a shimmery brown burgundy. Finally a company that made such a shade right, all the rest I've tried weren't pigmented enough. I combine it mostly with Amaretto.

Triple Fudge  - a matte deep cool brown with some green tones. Great for deepening the outer corners, but I would make this shade darker.

Salted Caramel - a matte medium peachy brown. Very smooth and looks great on the lids in combination with blue eyes.

Marzipan - a shimmery light beige-peachy shade. Darker than Sin from UD's Naked or theBalm's Stand-offish, but with a similar effect on the lids. Great as a lid colour and as an intense inner corner highlight.

Semi-Sweet - a matte medium chocolate brown. A lovely darker shade for the crease and outer corners.

Strawberry Bon Bon - a matte pastel pink. Soft, but quite sheer, so it works as a blending out colour. 

Candied Violet - a medium violet shade with purple shimmer. This one was very deceiving from the start because it swatched sheer, but then I did a test with one eye bare and the other with a cream eyeshadow base. To my surprise I managed to build up a fully opaque layer of colour on both sides with no problems. It's a very pretty purple that looks even more interesting because of the red shimmer.

Amaretto - a gorgeous satin reddish brown shade. One of my absolute favourites and crazy pigmented. Looks great with green and blue eyes.

Hazelnut - a satin medium brown shade. Very similar in terms of quality to Amaretto, so amazing and one of my favourites. Love wearing this on the lids.

Creme Brulee - the perfect gold shade that doesn't look orange on me, instead it's much more old gold/bronze like. Undoubtedly my favourite gold shade so far so my colouring. Quality is like at Amaretto and Hazelnut.

Haute Chocolate - a darker version of Hazelnut shade. Another great quality one and one of my favourites. It use it mostly in the outer corners.

Cherry Cordial - a satin burgundy shade. Similar to Sexy in TheBalm's Nude'Tude, which I slightly prefer to this one, though both are great. 

Champagne Truffle - a satin light gold shade which is an excellent highlighter. It looks more pink in the pan, but the shimmer is gold.

White Chocolate as a base, Hazelnut on the lid and under the lower lashline, Haute Chocolate in the outer corner and in the outer third of the lower lashline, Champagne truffle in the inner corners. The eyeliner is Stila Stay All Day Waterproof and mascara Maybelline The Sensational Waterproof. On the cheeks Max Factor Creme Puff blush in Lavish Mauve and on the lips Sleek Matte Me Birthday Suit.

Staying power: They last all day on the lids, but they do sometimes crease if I don't use a primer because some shades are so buttery. In that respect I actually find TheBalms' are better. With a primer they work great. I use theBalm's Put a Lid on it eyeshadow primer, but mostly I use a cream eyeshadow as a base to intensify them and make them last all day.

White Chocolate as a base, Amaretto on the lid, Black Cherry Truffle in the outer corners, Champagne Truffle in the inner corners. Eyeliner again Stila, blush Max Factor Creme Puff in Lavish Mauve and on the lips Golden Rose Velvet Matte 12.

Scent: The first couple of days I could not smell any chocolate, but now I do. It really does smell faintly like chocolate and cocoa. So far everyone has noticed the scent, even though I haven't told them that its scented.

Packaging: The packaging is metal with a magnetic closing system. It has a decently sized mirror inside. It's bulkier than my other palettes, but it's the only one made from metal. 

Price and availability: Mine is from Beauty Bay for 54.70 € (41.75 GBP). I hear Beauty Bay will now stop selling Too Faced, which is just the stupidest move ever. French and Polish Sephora ship Too Faced to Slovenia or you can go to Italy's Sephora. I'm not sure where else you can get this brand.

I just adore this palette. I has a wonderful selection of shades that are so completely up my alley. Maybe I'm missing a taupe shade or two, but I have them in other palettes anyway. I love how pigmented these are, since I have zero patience when it comes to application and they blend so well. This may well be one of the best purchases I have made in this year.

Have a great day!

Golden Rose Eyeshadow Crayon 14

During my first ever visit of the Golden Rose counter/stall, I picked up one of their crayon eyeshadows, even though I haven't heard anything about these, but since I found Kiko's Eyeshadow Sticks, I'm a bit obsessed with these types of products because they are the perfect base for powder eyeshadows. They have quite a nice selection of shades, a lot of very familiar colours to me (the classic bronze ones like Golden Bronze by Kiko, some taupes and also some bold shades like blue and green), so I tried to find a nice neutral that's different from what I already have and I chose a shade called 14. 

Texture: The texture is similar to Kiko's and Maybelline's Tattoos. It has that same soft, but silicone-y texture that glides on the lids with ease and is very easy to blend. The pigmentation isn't quite as strong as at those two, but it can very simply be layered up. The format of the pencil that requires to be sharpened proved itself to be an inconvenience of a sort, since the texture is soft and you tend to  use up the product quickly, it therefore needs to be sharpened a lot. Another problem I encountered is that it breaks a lot. 

Colour: The "very memorably named" 14 is a warm bronze-hazelnut shade with a metallic finish. It's a very wearable and simple shade that is a classic crowd pleaser.

Staying power: It's not as good as Kiko's or Maybelline's. I noticed quite a lot of creasing when worn on its own, so I use it more as a base for eyeshadows. With a powder eyeshadow on top, it performs brilliantly, just as all the rest such products.

Packaging: A jumbo pencil that needs to be sharpened. I use Essence's sharpener.

Price and availability: These are very affordable at 3.30 € per pencil.

I always like to write a review months after I got the product because I want to see if it survives the test of time. I found myself not picking it up often as of as Kiko's for two simple reasons - it needs to be sharpened and it breaks. While the quality is very nice, though maybe not the best as an eyeshadow on its own due to creasing, but as a base, it's always the little things that matter. Its a nice product and you'll enjoy using it if you get a shade or two, but I wish it came in a twist-up form instead of a pencil.

Have a great day!

Essence All About Nude and All About Bronze Palettes

I'm probably not the only one who is not as trusting of Essence eyeshadows and to be fair they haven't given us much reason to inspire trust so far. However, I've been hearing some chatter about these palettes, first from Ana Ina from Bijou Beauty and later from Vesna (Chunky Cheeks) and then Petra (Adjusting Beauty), so I gave these a swatch in the shop and was very pleasantly surprised by the pigmentation and quality of these. I picked up two, both very neutral, wearable palettes, All About Bronze and All About Nude.

Texture: In the shop these appeared to be very soft and pigmented, basically a massive step up from what Essence usually does, however, when I tried doing makeup with these at home, I wasn't as enthusiastic any more. These are another set of eyeshadows that need to be built up and I'm the type of person who doesn't like to spend long on my eyeshadow look trying to get the intensity up. Of course, not all the shades all like that, it's mostly the All About Nudes that fails to impress, but the bronze shades in All About Bronze are nice. In general the latter does perform better which is not as surprising considering it's made out of shimmer shades. They blend ok and aren't patchy like some Catrice matte shades can be (referring to the Chocolate Nudes palette). I noticed these perform better if I apply them with fingers, at least when it comes to building up the colour.

All About Nudes

All About Nudes is the most classic neutral palette consisting of vanilla, brown and taupe shades in various intensities, finishes (mostly matte or satin mattes plus two shimmers) and a mix of warm and cool tones. The medium shades (the four in the centre) are not my favourite as they aren't as intense as in the pan, but the darkest one in the top row performs well, while the shimmery taupe is nice, but still not as good quality as bronze shades in All About Bronze. There is a choice of a classic vanilla base and the shimmery vanilla highlighter which has quite a nice glow to it. This is the type of palette I would consider being almost perfect since it's a great mix of mattes and shimmers, but I wish some shades were more intense. In terms of colours isn't not that different from Catrice's Absolute Matte palette except that one performs a lot better.

Jordana Matte Lipstick in 10 Red on the lips.

All About Bronze 

All About Bronze is a much warmer palette than the Nudes and also completely made out of shimmery shades. The quality is a bit better, but here the darkest shades aren't as intense on the eyes as I would wish, so all ends up a bit too monochrome. Also missing is a matte base shade as both lightest ones are quite shimmery. The two golden bronze shades (bottom row) are almost too warm-orange-y for my skin tone, but these would look fantastic on skin darker than mine. I prefer the medium brown shades in the top row as the main lid colours, both are nice quality. It's easier to built these up, but still it looks a bit too washed out if I don't use a cream eyeshadow under it. I used the darkest shade in the Nudes palette to deepen the outer corners on my picture bellow because the two in this palette weren't cutting it. 

Jordana Matte Lipstick in 60 Plum Passion on the lips.

Staying power: I can't say I've noticed anything special about staying power or how these wear. They're pretty average on my normal lids. Creasing usually happens late in the day for me as at most eyeshadows and even that isn't tragic or at least I'm never bothered by it. 

Price and availability: I got both of these in Müller for 4.39 € per palette. 

I had the strangest deja vu with these. I have one of their eyeshadows from the Metal Glam Eyeshadow line called 18 Choco-Chic which swatches so pigmented, but I cannot get the same intensity on the eyes. These are better, but still not what I expected based on swatching it in the shop. These are nice palettes for simple neutral eyeshadow looks, but you won't get the same pigment as in more expensive palettes. When I decide to use them, I always pair them up with a cream eyeshadow as a base, so I get the intensity and staying power I expect from any eyeshadow. I would pick these up if I were a teenager or on a very tight budget, All About Bronze especially is a nice addition with its warm medium shades, but the reality is that I will still pick up my theBalm palette more often.  

Have a great day!

TheBalm Autobalm California Face Palette

When it comes to theBalm, their packaging is either a win or a total fail to me. This one is such a winner in my book. I think that the driving license design is really clever, especially for a palette that is meant to be above all travel friendly. I  think these were released last year, but I'm unsure whether they are LE or permanent, however, they are certainly sold here in Slovenia as well as on Feel Unique. I already put this in my November favourites, which proves how much it appealed to me. My version is the California licence and the other version is a Hawaii one.

There are four powder products inside the palette: 

• A matte bright peachy-pink blush/shadow

• A champagne highlight/shadow

• A medium matte brown eyeshadow and brow powder

• A deep reddish brown with shimmer that works as an eyeshadow and eyeliner.

It's a basic collection of shades, but definitely ones I wear a lot. These are the colours I use for a simple everyday makeup and I was using different products in bulkier packaging, however, here I have them in a small travel friendly compact, which makes it a lot easier.

The blush is one of those peachy-pink brightening shades that makes your skin look more healthy. It's matte which was a good decision considering they added a highlighter already. I own two other blushes from theBalm, Hot Mama and Frat Boy, and I have to say this isn't quite that same awesome quality, though still nice, it just takes a bit more effort to blend, otherwise it's a nicely pigmented, lovely blush. It's a bit small for proper blush brushes and I think this may be the reason why I feel it could blend a bit better. It's similar to Frat Boy, but less pink and deeper.  

TheBalms eyeshadows are amazing, probably the best I tried so far (or it's tied with Urban Decay's and L'Oreal's L'Ombre Pures) and these inside this palette are no exceptions. They are super smooth, pigmented and blend so nicely. 

The highlighter shade isn't as strong as for example their Mary-Lou, but this still packs a punch and looks super pretty both as highlighter and as eyeshadow. Compared to Stand-Offish from the Nude'Tude Palette it's a bit pinker. 

The eyeshadow/brow shade is a matte medium neutral brown and another great matte eyeshadow by theBalm. Compared to Sultry from Nude'Tude it's a bit lighter. I do wish it were a bit cooler, especially considering it's a brow product.

The last shade is the deepest  and similar to Nude'Tudes Silly, which is not the best quality and though this one also isn't as opaque as their other similar shades, it performs much better than Silly and works for deepening the outer corners.

The packaging is cardboard as most of theBalm palettes and it contains a mirror. As I said it the intro, it's designed to look like a driving licence and around the mirror there is a map design as well, which appeals the geographer side of me.

It costs about 19 € in Müller. It's not the cheapest, but it is very versatile and very travel friendly. 

Have a great day!

Kiko Long Lasting Stick Eyeshadow 06 Golden Brown

After being seriously impressed with the shade 38, I really wanted to get my hands on more of these. I planned on getting more colours, I still do, but settled on one more shade for now - 06 Golden Brown. These are the most amazing cream eyeshadows I tried and some of the quickest to use, which is something that always appeals to me.

06 Golden Warm is a bronze shade that is actually very similar to Maybellline's On and on Bronze, but it's a bit darker and cooler. Thankfully, this one does not have the chunky shimmer like shade 38, it's just a simple metallic bronze. Despite being so similar to On and on Bronze, both in terms of colour and texture, I prefer Kiko's version because it's so much easier to use. It's almost as a thick eyeliner that you apply it over the lid and blend with a fluffy brush. It takes seconds and you're done. 

The texture of these is so creamy and even now that the 38 is a bit older, it hasn't dried up so much that is would start tugging on the lids. These just glide on the skin and leave a fully opaque streak of colour. This shade is very pigmented, but of course as you blend the intensity diminishes, so you have to build up the colour if you want a nicely blended look with the intense colour on the lid. It blends so well and with any blending brush I've tried, from the classic MAC's 217 to the inexpensive synthetic eBay one. 

Once it sets it won't budge. The colour is still on the lids late at night, it may be a bit creased if you didn't set it with a powder eyeshadow, but most of the colour is still there. These are really the most long lasting eyeshadows I've tried. 

I got mine is a Kiko shop in Palmanova for 4.90 €. I paid 6.90 € for the first one online.

These are so worth it and if you happen to go to Kiko or order online, these are my top recommendation, even above their nail polishes. I use them as a base a lot, but also individually and they perform so well. I really need to buy more of these.

Have a great day! 

Catrice Eye'Matic Eyepowder Pen 050 Al Cappuccino

I'm always up for eyeshadows that are easy and quick to apply. I have a few cream ones, but I've never tried a powder one in such a form. Catrice released a collection of stick powder eyeshadows, with the colour/product in the lid and a sponge applicator. A majority of the shades are light and act more as a sheer shimmery wash, while Al Cappucino is already packing a bit more of a punch. These take seconds to apply and you can easily blend them with fingers if you wish, so I find these perfect to throw in the bag for either "beauty emergencies" or if you're simply not a morning person and you end up quickly slapping on makeup in your workplace/school. It actually came handy a lot in these months since I got it. 

The shade I got is called Al Cappuccino and it's a shimmery taupe-brown shade that is a browner version of L'Oreal's Infallible in Tender Caramel, though on the lids the look very similar. It's a simple neutral colour that isn't too much and but it gives a bit more definition to the eyes as well as a touch of a sheen. As I said before the actually product is in the lid and it has a spring in it, so the applicator is squished in the cap thus ensuring that it get a new coat of product every time.

The colour transfers well to the lids, at least most of the times. Sometimes you need to shake the product or open and close it again to get the colour on the applicator, but strangely it doesn't annoy me that much. It sticks on well, so there is not much of the shimmer falling down and landing on your cheeks, which is surprisingly considering this is a loose product.  For a more intense look I like to apply it over a cream eyeshadow (Kiko's stick one that are also super easy to apply and blend). The sponge is a big version of those that are added to cheap palettes and I actually like it because it also helps you blend the product around the edges. The pen is very sleek and travel friendly, plus the top of the cap is in the colour of the eyeshadow inside.

Staying power is ok, but this does crease on me after several hours if I don't use a base. 

I didn't expect to like this as much as I do. First impressions based on the press release was that this is certainly just a gimmicky product, but it is lazy girl's best friend. It's easy and quick to use and the colour is everyday appropriate. 

I got mine in Müller for 4.29 €.

Have a great day!