Unlike some of the other Indie brands I’ve discussed before, I didn’t feel like I had enough to say about JD Glow or Terra Moons for standalone posts, so I combined them both here today.
Terra Moons Cosmetics
The majority of my Terra Moons mattes are from the Neon Mattes Collection, in which I have 9 of the 14. Neverland is a discontinued traditional neon green shade from the original formula. It isn’t as smooth as the ones available now, but I’m happy I was able to get the last one. It’s very exciting to see these unique tones of neons though. These shadows are thin and powdery, so most of these will not look opaque without being carefully packed on. Shades like Land on the Stars, Jupiter and I, and 4th Dimension are glowy neons. You can see this in TerraMoons’ Instagram post before the launch.
The rest in my collection I’d consider more of vibrant shades on my skin tone. I treat them similarly to the Vivid Pigments from Coloured Raine, so I either have them in the crease or as inner corner accent shades. As these TerraMoons neon mattes are actually the only neon shades I own, I only have experience with these and cannot rank or compare them to others on the market. I can say that I’m happy with these and I don’t feel the need to try any from other brands. They aren’t beginner friendly. I feel as though I’m still learning how best to use them. They aren’t a necessity for me, as I don’t do super artistic editorial looks, so they’re just a fun cool addition to my collection to occasionally use. Also, Lunar or Later is a pastel matte and not part of the neons. It was sent to me by mistake instead of Lunar Haze in my order. Terra Moons’ customer service is great and sent me Lunar Haze right away without any issues and they let me keep Lunar or Later.
This next section of swatches are a mix of a shimmer, duochromes, and a multichrome. I was unable to find Candy Apple, Sweet Like Honey, Take Me To Terra, and Sagittarius on the website. I bought those in the same order with Neverland (June 2020), so, perhaps these have been discontinued as well. Crushed Velvet is described as, a “wine brown duochrome,” but the dark pink shimmer doesn’t stand out very much and the base color is a bit muted, so I view this as more of a satin eyeshadow. Bailar is one of their newer shades. It was introduced in the El Barrio palette, but it’s also available for sale individually. It’s a beautiful duochrome coral and gold and that combo always attracts me. Martian is a greenish toned gold shade, the kind of shade I also often buy, but after playing with my Natasha Denona mini gold palette more lately, Martian isn’t as much of a standout shade as I thought. On the other hand, Hot Spiced Cider is a much more interesting version of Martian as it has a stronger green tone that makes it more duochromatic. It’s not the most unique shade on the market, as I’m certain I have shades like this in my collection, but the formula is great. I recommend this if you don’t own a shade similar to it. Mint Frosting has an interesting tone of green with gold shimmer that looks warm in the swatch, but has some blue tones to it that can be seen better when applied onto my eyes. X-ray is a blue and purple topper shade. The texture is a bit flaky, so I had a little trouble getting it to stick in my inner corners, especially since I had to really press it to make that white powder blend into my skin the way many iridescent shades do. Grapetini is a pretty purple. It’s not as exciting compared to the others but I wanted it anyway and the formula is nice.
UFO is always on Pre-Order. It’s described as having, “a bright purple base that shifts red, gold and peach.” I just see purple and pink. This shade isn’t very shifty to me, but it is definitely beautiful and I like the level of shine it has. Moon Tide is also a Pre-Order shade with, “an indigo violet base that shifts light blue, lavender and pink with hints of silver.” This one definitely shows all of that. It’s my favorite shadow from Terra Moons. When it comes to duochromes and multichromes, it’s not a secret that I favor Devinah and Clionadh, but Moon Tide is one of those shades that if you want to make a purchase from Terra Moons, I highly recommend trying this one. Clionadh released a new Vibrant mulitchrome called Regal that I believe might be similar to Moon Tide, but I haven’t purchased that shade to see for myself. UFO and Moon Tide are both part of the Cosmic Chameleons collection, which are multichromes with colored bases, not black bases like the Extreme Multichrome line.
Alter Ego is one of the extreme multichromes. It’s mainly purple with a blue, magenta, orange, and gold shift. It reminds me of Rosette from Clionadh, though not as sparkly of a finish. In the photo below, Alter Ego is on the left and Rosette is on the right.
Considering the number of shades I’ve seen disappear from the website in the last twelve months since I placed my first order, I definitely recommend that anyone who wants some Terra Moons shadows should try to get them while they’re available! I was able to get most products on sale and use an influencer promo code to get them at a discounted price. Waiting is a gamble, but sometimes it pays off. For example, the neons being discontinued in order to come back in a reformulated version. I will say though that shipping is pretty expensive considering it’s only a few dollars cheaper than some of the international shipping fees I’ve paid to get shadows from other countries. It does bug me a bit, considering I live less than two hours away from where Terra Moons ships their shadows, but it’s a nice consolation to be able to support a Florida business.
JD GlowCosmetics
The JD Glow shadows are stunning and I would have been way more excited if I hadn’t been expecting their Galaxy shadows to be like the Clionadh Stained Glass shadows that so many people compare them to. The shades are described as having, “duochrome and triochrome effects,” but they’re more along the lines of intensely sparkly shimmer and duochrome shadows. Because I expected JDGlow’s multichromes to be with all the other shadows on their site, I thought the Galaxy shadows must be the multichromes I saw on Instagram. I later discovered that what I really wanted was under the “Special Edition” section.
Their website is basic, yet not user friendly. I hope this is something they work on soon. This is why I was unable to get the See Weed shade I’d been wanting from them for so long. I also wish they restocked more often, as I’m reluctant to place orders knowing that some of the things I want aren’t available (and would therefore require a second order) while the shipping is not free.
Limelight is from the Metallion line, Martini is a Shimmer, and the remaining four are Galaxy shadows, though Starluster was no longer on the website when I last checked. Despite them being beautiful, and the Makeup Goblin inside me wanting more, I can’t say that there is currently anything else from JD Glow’s offerings that I don’t already have in a similar quality or with a better shift. Especially as most of the shadows I wanted aren’t available anymore. For anyone who doesn’t have shades like theirs, it’s worth trying, even if it’s to compare between all the amazing Indie brands out there.
Today, I’ll be reviewing the Club Nebula palette and showing the reformulated Mars Melter Highlighter.
The reason I’ll just be showing, but not reviewing, the highlighter is because mine was shattered. My usual method of repressing shimmer products is to use a little 91% isopropyl alcohol. While I don’t believe the integrity of the two eyeshadows from the palette were effected, I believe not dry-pressing the highlighter might have compromised the performance. The highlighters in this line are glittery, but they lay on the skin in a way that is right on the edge of my comfort zone. When I do a finger swatch, the highlight looks exactly the way I expect, but when I use a brush to apply this to my cheekbones, the way it picks up the product causes the shimmer particles to be too spread out and uneven. It looks like a glittery mess. Wet-pressing also caused it to shrink so flat. I imagine this highlighter wasn’t meant to be condensed/compressed in such a way. Because I think it would have performed better in its regular state, I feel I can’t properly review it. I could perhaps still find use for it as an eyeshadow topper, but I will not be using this as a highlighter.
If it was just the two shadows in the palette that were broken, I would have left it alone, since the breakage was contained within the pans and I could salvage those. However, the highlighter being broken as well bugged me considering the $10 shipping fee (increased from their previous $8 charge) and the 25 days it took to arrive after it departed Shanghai. For anyone wondering about Kaleidos’ customer service, I received a reply within 24 hours. I was offered a reshipment or to receive a partial or full refund depending on which item(s) I decided not to replace. I hadn’t heard the best things about their customer service, so I was happy that my experience with them was actually pleasant and was resolved quickly. Although I wanted a pristine palette, I felt too guilty at the idea of getting a whole extra palette knowing there were people who still couldn’t get their hands on Club Nebula, even after the restock. After my wet-press mistake, I could have benefited from a new Mars Melter highlighter, but considering my usual view on glittery highlighters anyway, I thought it best to just opt out of the replacements for both.
The packaging was so elaborate and beautiful that I wanted to show how it came to me (the box was wrapped in an air pillow/cushion/pad/pouch roll for extra protection). I usually want smaller packaging for storage reasons, but for something this beautiful I would love to have it displayed after I complete my declutter series and hopefully have spare surface area.
The special custom shipper that is included with the order of this palette comes in the large and small size. I believe mine is the large, the one intended for the set with a deck of cards. The padding for the Space Age Highlighter (plus divider layer of foam and extra tissue paper) caused the highlighter to sit too high for the box and the lid had to be forced down and secured with tape in order to close. The magnets alone weren’t strong enough to keep the lid closed with the excess padding inside.
I think it was an accidental oversight on the part of whoever packed my order, as I suspect the added pressure to force the box to close (forcefully enough to cause the dents in the front corners of the box) is what caused the breakage. Anyway, just a heads up to anyone ordering this palette with an additional item! Let’s proceed to the review!
Kaleidos Club Nebula Palette x Angelica Nyqvist
The swatches above were taken indoors with no flash on bare skin.
I’m very impressed with the quality of the packaging and the designs. It is stunning! I’m incredibly pleased with the smoothness and richness of the matte shades and how deep they go. After being disappointed by the Lunar Lavender mattes and questioning if Kaleidos’ quality was taking a dip, I was relieved to see the mattes in Club Nebula are fantastic. Because I love duochromes and multichromes, buying this palette should have been a no-brainer, but for some reason I wasn’t 100% sold on the color story. Honestly, I purchased this to avoid FOMO (fear of missing out). It was made very clear that this palette was limited edition. I preferred to have it and not use it, rather than skip it and regret it later. I am subscribed to Angelica and I’ve grown to really like and respect her. Of course I felt the tug and impulse to support her collab, but I don’t believe that factored into the FOMO because I know I already support her in other ways by watching her vids, allowing the ads on her videos to play in full, shopping through some of her affiliated links and codes, etc. One thing Angelica said in her launch video did play a factor in my decision to buy the palette. She said to give this color story a try and step outside our comfort zones. I felt that trying to dupe a palette like this wouldn’t be the same. I wanted to see for myself if I could be inspired by something that wasn’t entirely my style. Plus, I figured this many multichromes and duochromes in a palette for $45 was a steal! While I’m thrilled to have Nova and Nebula, and I think Firefly is quite pretty in certain angles, I was a bit let down by the other three.
The swatches above were taken outdoors with no flash on bare skin.
I appreciate the dark mattes, but pale shimmers tend to go unused in my collection. You’re My Only Hope is described as a lavender with a pale blue shift. The purple is so ridiculously hard to see on my skin tone regardless of indoor and outdoor lighting. I had a similar issue with the Lightyear shade from The Futurism III: Astro-Pink palette. Celestial is another one that I absolutely could not see any shift in while inside, no matter if I was under warm or cool light nor the angle in which I held my arm. So, I was surprised to see this one is considered a multichrome, “a radiant hot pink multichrome with decadent fuchsia and golden shifts.” The only way I could see a shift was while I was outside. If I want to wear a shade like this, but with a stronger shift, I’d rather reach for Blaze from Clionadh Cosmetics. Astro is another disappointing multichrome in the sense that the shift between royal blue, teal, and violet are too close in tone and it’s almost a lighter version of Neptune from the Futurism 3: Astro-Pink palette. The upside to this color is that it’s at least very pretty. I can still use it like a statement shimmer even without the shift. I can see the lighter and darker blue particles in the pan but that shift to violet does not show on my lids unless I’m outside.
Firefly has a beautiful mint green and fuchsia duochromatic sheen that is visible in person but harder to capture on camera. I’m at least happy that it’s noticeable at the right angles, unlike the previous three shades I mentioned. Nova is gorgeous! I would have expected this to be the multichrome because of how well it shows up, but this is, “a glistening amethyst blue sparkling duochrome topper with a warm violet shift.” Nebula is my favorite color in the palette, as “a rose-gold red sparkling duochrome with a molten copper shift.” It’s very unique to my collection. The closest shade I have to it is Clionadh’s Torch if Nebula had a darker red tone to it. Surprisingly, I actually prefer Nebula. In one of the looks posted below, you can see that in some lighting Nebula can look nearly as light as Samus. Speaking of Samus, that peachy orange is gorgeous! I have a hard time liking the way it looks when paired with other shades, so I actually prefer to just use this color solo blown out on my eye with some mascara and/or liner and leave it like that.
I mentioned how well the mattes blend, but I am particularly impressed with the four lightest ones because those type of shades are notoriously difficult to show on my skin tone. None of the mattes were patchy. They gave me zero issues when used over the MAC NC45 Foundation Stick as an eye primer, Gerard Cosmetics Clean Canvas, MAC Paint Pot, and Nyx Proof It primer. Naaru in particular is the kind of shade that never looks good on me because there usually isn’t enough pigment and it looks like an ashy gray instead. This shade actually looks on me the way it does in the pan, and for once it looks nice! I also like to blend the edges of darker shadows with Naaru. Gravity is easily the best performing matte lime/chartreuse eyeshadow I own! I have nothing negative to say about Queen of Blades, Void, Cylon, Rockhopper, and Red Giant. They’re top notch! For the shimmers, I apply them wet or on top of Nyx Glitter Primer because as beautiful as they are, they need a little help to really pop on my eyes. I always want more pigmentation than topper shades provide, so those two methods help me achieve more of the look I want. It also helps to lay down a shadow underneath the topper shade first.
I mentioned in my Lethal Cosmetics Velvet Dusk palette review that I only recommend getting the palette if you like the colors as is and aren’t getting them for the multichrome aspect since they’re more like shiftless shimmers or duochromes at best. The shifts were weak in those. I’m going to say the same thing for the Club Nebula palette. Firefly, You’re My Only Hope, Astro, and Celestial have weaker shifts than even the Velvet Dusk shades. They may as well be regular shimmers, though the amount of sparkle in them still puts them above some mainstream brands’ shimmers. Nova and Nebula are true duochromes though. So, if someone doesn’t mind having topper shades or weak shifting shadows or if the duochrome and multichrome aspect isn’t a factor at all, I would easily recommend purchasing this palette. Angelica mentioned there may still be one final restock coming in the future, but beyond one probably depends on how high the demand is. *After my post today I saw in a pinned comment on Angie’s latest video that the restock is in May. **As of April 1st it was announced that the restock was moved up to April 14th.
As much as I wasn’t enthralled by the color story initially (despite being a lover of greens, purples, and oranges), the more I’ve used this palette, the happier I’ve become with my decision to buy it. As one can see from the amount of example looks I showed, I kept reaching for this palette and wanted to try different styles and shadow combos. I’m up to fourteen by now (though not all made the cut for this post)! I love when I can look at a palette and feel inspired to play.
I’d like to begin this post by noting the Georgia Blush, Del Mar Highlighter, and 24Hr Eyeliner were gifted to me by Persona Cosmetics for the purpose of customer satisfaction and not for blog/reviewing purposes. I will go more into detail on that in the Terracotta Blush section.
Prior to January 5th, I only had the eyeshadow palettes. The Identity Two palette specifically had become the closest thing I had to an everyday palette. I loved it so much that I bought the older one, the original Identity Palette afterwards to see how they compared. Ulta briefly listed it for half price and I figured if it had the same formula as the Identity Two, I did not want to miss out, even though the color story isn’t my usual go-to.
Persona Identity Palette
I’m not sure if the formula was changed or updated when Persona updated the packaging of this palette from cardboard to plastic, but I do find these shadows to be a tiny bit on the drier side. The shadows still perform nicely despite being slightly less pigmented (excluding Fearless). I was also surprised to see how grey Maverick looked on me considering how brown it looks in the pan. The overall color story is a little more cool-toned than I expected, but I like having some of these shades anyway. Ironically, I still have to mix Humble and Charming together to highlight under my brows (to avoid looking ashy) like I do with Kind and Loyal. Goddess is a brighter alternative I wanted alongside Resilient. Goal Digger is the more traditional gold shade I wanted alongside Unique. Audacious is the kind of shade I love to have in the crease, so I’m very happy to have that one. It leans more orange than than the shade Passionate which leans more pink. One of the things I really wanted from the Identity Two palette, after using the pink leaning white shade called Honest, was a white leaning gold. When I saw Sassy, I was hopeful this might be it, but it’s more of a silver shade. If Persona ever makes an Identity Three, I hope that pale gold will be in there, though I can still use Goal Digger for the purpose I envisioned.
Persona Identity Two Palette
I raved in-depth about this palette in my 2020 Eyeshadow Tag. If I had to declare a favorite premade eyeshadow palette from 2020, it would definitely be this one. It was one of my favorite palettes to pair with my beloved Clionadh Cosmetics multichromes. Everything I mentioned about the formula of this being creamy, pigmented, blendable, being worth the full retail price, something I can take traveling (which I have by now) and being versatile enough to create simple or complex looks and go neutral or colorful holds true. What I forgot to mention is that Limitless makes an excellent powder eyeliner.
I have additional looks with the Identity Two Palette in the 2020 Eyeshadow Tag post.
Now that I’ve compared both, I can say that the Identity Palette is great, but the Identity Two is the version that suits my preferences specifically: creamier, slightly more colorful, more pigmented, and warmer. If an Identity Three palette is ever released, I will probably purchase it on launch day. The palette would most likely still be neutral, as the owner and brand’s overall aesthetic favors everyday/natural glam.
Persona Superblush in Terracotta
Terracotta is the newest addition to the Super Blush range. As I went completely bananas for blushes last year, I naturally had my eye on them for a very long time. It was difficult to find anyone with a deep complexion wearing Georgia or Carmel via Instagram, Youtube, Persona’s website, or Ulta’s site. There was only one woman I could find, who was darker than me, and I could hardly see the colors on her cheek so I thought perhaps these shades just weren’t meant for me. When Terracotta was released, I had an even harder time trying to figure out if this shade would work for me or not, especially as even the color in the pan looks vastly different depending on the lighting. I watched one of Sona’s videos (owner of Persona) and it looked pretty light on her, but she mentioned that this blush gets much deeper the more it is layered. The website also listed Terracotta specifically as being suitable for medium to dark skin tones. My foundation shade among inclusive ranges like Make Up For Ever, Nars, Fenty, etc tends to be in the beginnings of the dark category and often called medium-dark, sometimes even the tail end of the tan category. So, I figured this should give a subtle color to my cheeks at the very least. Considering how often MAC’s paler shades surprisingly worked for me, I decided to give it a try and purchased the Georgia and Terracotta duo (with the intent to give Georgia to a friend for Christmas).
Unfortunately, Terracotta doesn’t work on me. At the time, I felt duped by the ‘suitable for dark skin tones’ label considering the shade isn’t just faint, it disappears entirely. It’s too close to my skin tone. I have four heavy layers of blush in the photo above, though it looks like nothing. I tried to leave a comment on their website to warn other shoppers about the description inaccuracy, but my comment was never made public. So, I wanted to at least warn those who followed me on Instagram about it. I had no idea Persona Cosmetics would see my post (or I expected it would be ignored by them if they did come across it). Their response was beyond anything I expected. Not only did they change the description from “medium to dark” to “medium to tanned skin tones,” which was the best case scenario outcome I could have hoped for, they also refunded the amount I paid specifically for Terracotta, sent me Georgia (since I had already given mine to my friend) because they were confident that shade could work for me, and sent the eyeliner and highlighter as extra surprises. It became very clear to me that customer feedback is important to them and they didn’t glaze over the situation like plenty of other brands would. It restored my confidence in the brand. It was especially poignant considering a short week later, Hourglass tried to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes with their release of the Ambient Lighting Palette Volume II, promoting it with a photo where the model and palette looked edited to appear deeper. The shades in the trio palette were repromoted ones (two of which I have) and that darkest shade which is considered a bronzer is what I literally use as a highlighter. The response from Hourglass was to simply remove the photo from Instagram and ignore the problem entirely. The different responses between these two companies are night and day, and I have even more respect for Persona Cosmetics when the situations are compared. This is the reason I felt it was important to share this story. If I’ve had a customer service issue in the past that was rectified, I would normally delete my original post since it was resolved. This time I kept my post on Instagram and am talking about it here because I think it’s really important to show the growth and integrity that was shown to me by Persona’s response, and also to present this as an example for how brands should handle things.
The last point I wanted to make is that I’ve tried to use Terracotta many times on my cheeks (and it actually makes a decent under eye setting powder). There was one time that I had it on and a slight tinge of color actually showed on my cheek by the end of the night. I don’t remember what foundation I was using at the time, but it led me to believe that if this shade is applied on foundation that oxidizes or will allow my natural oils to come through, it could potentially show on my skin. I have since tried to recreate that same scenario and have been unable to get the color to show visibly enough on camera (hence the hours later photo in the gallery above). So, I still stand with the fact that this won’t work on someone with my same skin tone. In the best case scenario situation it’s barely a whisper of color.
Persona Superblush in Georgia
Persona was correct. This shade does work for me! Honestly, I was pretty shocked considering my friend who I gave my original one to said it’s perfect for her and she is much lighter than me (though still in the caramel family). It gives a very light flush of pink as if I’ve been out in the cold. If I really layer it on, it’s the type of shade that I think of when anime characters blush, which is super cute!
Persona Del Mar Cali Glow Highlighter
As seen in the Georgia section, the Del Mar Highlighter is perfect for me! It’s close enough to my skin tone to blend in very well, it can be as subtle or as shimmery as I want, and there are no chunky glitter particles! Although I am wearing the Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter under my foundation on the high points of my cheek, this highlighter looks just as great without it. I need to use it a bit longer to see how often I reach for it, but it could potentially knock Nabla’s Skin Glazing in Amnesia from the top spot on my list of favorite highlighters!
Persona 24HR Waterproof Eyeliner in Black
I’m going through this pencil very quickly as I feel like I lose a lot of product when I try to get the tip sharp enough with my Nars sharpener, which I need to sharpen every 1-2 uses. This formula is very creamy and easily glides across the skin. That softness does make it difficult to sharpen as I previously tried to use it with the sharpener that came with my MILK Makeup Gel Eyeliner, but that did nothing but instantly break off the tip. I like that when this dries it becomes smudge-proof and when I use it at an angle I can make lines in varying thicknesses. I can make a very precise thin line across my lid, but creating a sharp tail has proven immensely difficult due to that blunt tip. So, I just draw a line as well as I can and then use concealer to clean up the outer corner. The fact that this stays so well in the waterline makes this pencil worth it to me and I’m curious to see how long this pencil will last at the rate I currently use it. For the precision issue, I usually have to use a brush with my MILK eyeliner pencil, so the fact that this is nearly as black and budge-proof as that, while still being easy to remove with Bioderma (and the creaminess makes it easier to spread with a brush), makes the potential for me continuing to like and use this very high. I’m glad I have it, but I honestly wouldn’t recommend it in this current form. If Persona comes out with a retractable/twist up version, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
That’s everything! I will continue to keep my eye on new products from this brand as I am more excited about them than ever. They recently launched lipliners and colored balms, but I’m on a lip product no buy. I’ll keep my eye out for the next new release from them!
Ofra is a small Florida based company best known for their highlighters and liquid lipsticks. I wasn’t aware of the brand until four years ago when Ofra had their first collaboration with Youtuber Nikkietutorials. Since then, they’ve continued to partner with influencers: Nikkie, Kathleenlights, Samantha March, Jen Luvs, and more. I imagine Ofra is doing very well considering their products are available at Ulta. Then again, Ulta recently announced they’ll be carrying Jaclyn Cosmetics despite Jaclyn only having one successful launch after the disastrous lipstick release. That combined with Ulta selling KVD despite the brand struggling for the last two years and taking on Hourglass at their lowest dip in popularity has me questioning what it takes to be stocked at Ulta.
In any case, after my most recent order of the Blushzer, regular blush, liquid lipstick, and brush, I decided I had enough products from the brand to do a full review!
Glow Goals Highlighter (Nikkietutorials Collab)
I have this in Ofra’s older (but not oldest) packaging. It’s a bit difficult to see on camera, but this champagne colored highlighter has a light pink tinge that shows that shade in swatches but isn’t as detectable on my face. I tend to not favor pink highlighters, so I’m glad this looks essentially gold on my skin. This highlighter is a little softer pressed and even though I used the Wayne Goss Air Brush to apply Glow Goals and Rodeo Drive in my photos, the brush picked up way more product with this one and I was left with a far more blinding strip of color. Of course, it makes sense that Glow Goals would be extremely striking considering how much Nikkie loves her highlighters. On occasion, I like an intense highlight, as long as it isn’t glittery. This is definitely one of the most blinding shimmer highlighters I have in my collection and I love the fact that the particles are so fine. Because of the $35 price tag, it’s easy to want to compare this to Becca. The consistency and texture of the powders are different, but the result is similar. If someone wants a more intense version of Becca’s Shimmering Skin Perfectors, I recommend trying this one.
Rodeo Drive Highlighter
This is a warmer champagne/gold shade. I like that I have a bit more control with this product and can use a light amount for an everyday look or build it up to be much more intense. The amount seen in the photo above was created using one dip into the pan, which is the perfect amount for my usual tastes. Ofra considers this a “universally flattering shade,” and I honestly think this is as close to one as any brand can really get. It would be those on the lightest and darkest ends of the color spectrum who may not like how this looks on them. The result I get when using this shade reminds me even more of the effect Becca highlighters can give. One of the benefits Ofra offers over Becca is that the current packaging is magnetic with moveable pans, so I don’t have to keep these highlighters in their bulky packaging. I can put them in my custom magnetic face palette. Other benefits are that they sell refills (which uses less plastic for repeat buyers) and also mini sizes for those of us who never hit pan on powder products anyway, or would just rather spend $18 for less product.
Chick-Lit Blush Duo (Samantha March Collab)
I saw some photos of this blush online that made it look darker than it really is, so I began to wonder if perhaps this is one of those light blushes that could still work for me (like MAC’s Melba and Mocha). Unfortunately, this was not the case. I think this would look better on anyone at least two shades or more lighter than me. I liked the way it looked when I mixed this shade with the right side of the Squad Blushzer, pictured below. This was basically useless in my collection, so I’m glad to know I can keep Chick-lit as a mixer shade. I found it interesting that the shimmer half of Chick-lit has a darker base color in it than the matte/satin side, but combining the two leads to some icy looking results that I’m not into. It reminds me of the Clinique Pop Blushes, but I like the quality of this one better. Mixing them both also leads to me picking up too much product in the pan, which is quite easy to do as these blushes and blush duos from the brand creates quite a bit of kickup. The large packaging suddenly makes sense to keep the powders contained within the compact so it doesn’t waste product, but as I have a hard time panning anything, I don’t mind losing product.
Ride or Die Blushzer in Squad
While there are other products from Ofra that I’ve been curious about for well over a year (e.g. the Bali highlighter, beauty sponge, and liner), this duo drew me in to the point that I could only resist for about a week after it first launched!
As deep as these halves look, they don’t give intense pigment upon the first application once it’s blended. One pass of the blush, for example, sheers out to a soft medium pink flush. And for this bronzer to show enough to add warmth to my face, I have to really layer it on. This means that someone a few shades darker than me could wear this, but also those much lighter than me could as well.
I mentioned that this blush is sheerer than it looks upon initial application. While it’s great to have a blendable blush, I think it’s mainly due to the fact that this doesn’t stick to my skin very well. I’ve tried it over bare skin, different primers, and different foundations. The result is that this starts to noticeably fade around 3-4 hours and is gone around the 6 hour mark. I rarely have issues with blushes fading on me, so I thought it was a bit strange. However, if I use a setting spray, it does lock this product into place. Out of all the blush products I’m reviewing today, I’m the happiest with this one because I love the shade.
B-29 Coral Crush Pressed Blush
I have mixed feelings about this blush due to this specific color. I like that this is deep enough to show on me, but the particular tone isn’t my favorite. Like the Squad Blushzer, this shade has a bit of kickup. It has a little easier time sticking to my cheeks, but it will fade in five hours unless I use a setting spray. Coral Crush is smaller than Ofra’s newer blush releases. This was $15 for 4g as opposed to $29 for 10g.
#22 Blush Brush
This is a blush brush in name, but the item description says this is a highlighting brush. I find it’s far too big to highlight with, especially considering how intense Ofra’s highlighters can get. I wouldn’t want an even bigger stripe of this on my cheekbones. The pointed tip makes it suited for the split pan products as a typical blush or bronzer brush might be too big.
This isn’t that soft of a brush and it’s a bit scratchy. The bristles have the look and feel of a low grade goat brush, but it’s actually synthetic. I was a bit surprised because I’m used to synthetic brushes feeling softer than this. Also, it sheds quite a lot. While it’s normal for a natural hair brush that’s been hand bundled to lose a few hairs, I’ve only had a synthetic brush shedding issue from my lower quality ELF brushes, so I was once again surprised considering the price of this brush. At least I got it free with my $35+ purchase.
The washing process can free the remaining straggler hairs from natural bristle brushes, so I hoped that washing this brush would do that as well. Unfortunately, washing this brush only increased the shedding and letting it air dry caused the brush to puff out and become too rounded to be useful. So, I recommend using the aloe vera method or a brush guard after washing to maintain its shape (and I have since done that with this brush to reshapen it). Ofra makes some nice products, but this brush just isn’t one of them.
I’d recommend the ELF Pro/Studio line (with the black handles), EcoTools, or Real Techniques over this one. They’re less expensive, synthetic, and softer. For synthetic bristle brushes at a higher price point, I recommend some of Tarte’s brushes and Scott Barnes. I used to use It Cosmetics for Ulta brushes, but my less expensive brushes are comparable in quality. Also, I enjoyed Smashbox’s original line of brushes (which was mostly natural hair) and while their line is completely synthetic now, I’ve heard great things about the new ones. I haven’t tried them myself yet though.
Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick in Baroque
I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I have no intention of purchasing lip products this year (with the exception of balms), but this was on sale for $8 and would let me reach the free shipping minimum, so I decided to buy this so I could test out the formula. This shade is described as a nude pink with gold flecks. I haven’t seen any shimmer in this at all and despite looking warm toned in the tube, it’s not as brown or warm on my lips as I’d hoped. I don’t mind that it’s a light shade, but the undertone isn’t my style, even when I’ve paired it with other shades of lip liners.
I still did a few wear tests on it. This formula is very comfortable on the lips. Some liquid lipsticks show a discolored patch if you try to touch it up, but this one doesn’t do that. It isn’t completely transfer-proof (it left a faint imprint on my glass when I was drinking tea), but I had great results from the time I put it on until the time I ate. Without retouching after eating, the lipstick is susceptible to transferring a lot more, but I don’t expect any lip product to last past eating. I give this kudos for only really disappearing in the center-most part of my lips.
While it doesn’t feel drying, at around the eight hour point it starts to look drier than it feels, so that’s when I’d remove what’s left and replace it with a balm. I’ve also tried this with a Tower 28 gloss on top, and while the lipgloss doesn’t displace the color underneath, once you eat, it makes the lipstick especially easy to remove to the point that reapplication is definitely necessary.
In the future, if I want to buy liquid lipsticks, I would definitely consider this brand, but hopefully I’d be better at choosing a shade. I also think Ofra’s reputation for having fantastic highlighters is well deserved. Those two types of products are my recommendations.
That’s all I have for today! Thank you for reading!
I’ve never been one to fawn over brands. There are some companies whose products I really like, and I speak about them highly, but when it comes to Clionadh Cosmetics I fully acknowledge I am a Stan.
I respect the company so much because of their amazing customer service, social media presence, and support of customers, creators, and even other indie brands. The biggest reason is of course their phenomenal eyeshadows. Their standard eyeshadow collections are fantastic (and underrated) but their Stained Glass Collection is several tiers above the rest. Other brands can make multichromes and do a decent job, but no one has been able to replicate Clionadh’s “mirror” finish in their Jewelled multichrome formula. Leigh and Maggie have created truly extraordinary eyeshadows.
THE ORDERING PROCESS / DELAYS
When I first heard about Clionadh, they were already popular. It was just a two-person team handmaking everything. The processing time was 20 business days and it was not uncommon having to wait 1-2 months for an order to arrive from Canada where they are based. However, they had a huge boom on January 21st, 2020 with their belated Black Friday sale. They had a new workspace and hired a few employees, but the demand was so massive that things were selling out within minutes. In order to give everyone a fair shot, they turned the Stained Glass collection into a pre-order collection and on February 4th they made preorders available and honored the sale price for the first two days. This is the reason why what once took a few months turned into a 2-5 month wait. In one of their updates they explained, “In total, we received more orders from this single restock than we did the entirety of 2019.”
This process became a lesson in patience for me. For the January 21st restock, I checked out 14 minutes after the launch and received my order on February 18th. For the February 4th Pre-Order launch (planned to ship in April), I was better prepared and checked out two minutes after the launch. However, I combined that order with my later February 25th order. So, my package arrived on July 8th. My March 4th order was also part of the April pre-orders and arrived on August 4th.
The COVID-19 pandemic with social distancing restrictions caused a far greater delay than anyone could have anticipated. This is the reason Clionadh didn’t catch up with everything until November 30th. That included closing their store for a month in order to complete the pending orders, build up inventory to reopen, move to an even larger space, hire additional help, order two custom pressing machines, and transfer their website to a different e-commerce platform. They have since reopened and from December 18th – December 31st, their biggest restock/sale yet has been underway. My intention was to post this before the sale, but my final order did not arrive in time for that to be possible.
Regarding the current sale, they plan to ship the standard orders after the holidays (January 2021) for the current inventory they have in stock. All orders containing a pre-order item will begin shipping in late February. This is a reasonable amount of time considering how long it takes to create new shadows, so it appears they won’t be as backed up in 2021 as they were this year.
This post has been many months in the making. I kept debating whether or not to post considering I still had so many pending orders. Ultimately, I decided to work on this a little at a time, as my orders came in, so I could finally make a giant 2020 Clionadh Collection post all in one!
PRICING
One of my initial deterrents from the brand was the cost of a single eyeshadow. Prior to watching Lauren Mae Beauty’s video, which is when I decided to finally try out the brand during their next sale, I only knew of Clionadh from photos on Instagram. I thought those pictures had been photoshopped or enhanced in some way because I didn’t think eyeshadows could ever look like that in real life. The irony is that they look even more stunning in person! At the time, I didn’t want to spend $25 on a shadow when I’d already been a little disappointed by the $15 multichromes I purchased from Sydney Grace. What I didn’t take into consideration is that the prices listed were in CAD, which is higher than USD. It’s only the most expensive shades, the Jewelled multichromes, which are 25 CAD at full price and $19 USD. Their website now has a conversion changer, which makes things easier to calculate.
Terra Moons Extreme Multichromes are $17, Sydney Grace Pressed Multichromes are $15, and JD Glow Multichromes are $16. Devinah Cosmetics shadows in the Butterfly Kaleidoscope Collection are $10, but the shifts are a lot weaker than the multichromes from the other brands. Devinah now has Aurorae Flares for $16 which are comparable to Clionadh’s Jewelled multichromes. They are the closest in quality that I have seen, though Clionadh’s are still just a touch better in my opinion due to that mirror shine. However, they are nearly identical enough that I would suggest if you live in the US and don’t already have the equivalent Clionadh shades to the Aurorae Flare shadows, you’d be saving $3 per shadow going with the Devinah options.
Clionadh’s prices for multichromes within the Stained Glass collection range from $8-19 USD. The duochromes from their other collections, which still have strong shifts depending on the shades, range from $5-6 USD. Devinah’s Duochromes are $8 with regular shadows as low as $5. Terra Moons’ are $6-13. Lethal Cosmetics Duochromes are $6.50-7. Give Me Glow’s regular shimmers are $7. JDGlow’s regular shimmers are $7.50. So, Clionadh’s eyeshadows are on par or better price-wise than other indie brands. Other brands have more sales though and some are at deeper discounts, so it just depends.
The cost of shipping to the US is around $11 (15 CAD) but it is tracked and insured. My last Terra Moons order cost me $7.29 insured shipping (free if you spend $65). Considering Clionadh is based in another country whereas Terra Moons is based in Tampa about one hour from where I live, I think it’s a pretty good deal. In addition, Clionadh knows that it would be so disappointing to wait months and have anything arrive broken, so they pack them the most securely of any brand. It takes me quite a while to unpack the shadows from all the bubble wrap!
THE STAINED GLASS COLLECTION
I will be categorizing by formula and showcasing eye swatches. Arm swatches and other comparisons will be towards the end of the post. For eye swatches, I used Nyx Glitter Primer on shimmers and MAC Paint Pot for mattes. For arm swatches, I used Nyx Glitter Primer on the Stained Glass Collection and Urban Decay Primer Potion on the standard collection.
Series 1 Iridescent Multichromes
These appear white in the pan but have color shifts and a transparent base. They are recommended to be used as lid topper shades and highlighters for the eyes and face.
Umbra has “colour shifting reflects that go from blue-indigo-violet-pink.” This is the only one I have in this formula because although this kind of eyeshadow still works for me and is beautiful, it takes a bit of rubbing to make the white part of the powder disappear. It gets messy when I have to rub the shade rather than gently patting it onto my glitter-glue-primed eyes which I use to avoid fallout.
Series 2 Iridescent Multichromes
With Series 2, Clionadh says, “We don’t recommend using these on their own as a shadow because their formula is so thin and slippery, thus it doesn’t have the same adhesion a regular shadow would need on its own. But they certainly are perfect for the inner corner or brow bone.”
Of course, I still put them all over the lid for demonstration purposes. You can see a few sparse areas despite me building up these shades because they aren’t meant to be opaque. I currently have two shades and I was able to buy one more during the sale, which I will review in a future post.
Lux has “colour shifting reflects that go from yellow-lime-turquoise-violet with a slightly more glittery finish.” This shade is so reflective and beautiful that I literally gasped when I first swatched it. My camera doesn’t come close to doing it justice!
UV has “colour shifting reflects that go from violet-peach.” I can’t really see the peach on my skin tone but the shade of purple is beautiful and I’m happy with how it looks. It practically glows!
Overall, Series 1 feels a little more powdery and Series 2 does appear to have a more invisible base. With Series 2, I don’t have the same issue of needing to rub it in for the color to show. The regular application process is enough.
Deep Iridescent Multichromes
The Deep Iridescent Multichromes have a tan base which makes them easier for customers with medium to deep skin tones to wear without a white cast. They still look gorgeous on every skin tone though. I have 2 of 5 shades but I ordered two more during the restock. Clionadh mentioned plans to add new shades to the Stained Glass collection. I’m hoping they will expand the shades in the Deep Iridescent multichrome range, especially if they create a purple to top the ones I have from the Iridescent Series 1 and 2. A girl can dream!
These shadows go on easily and definitely don’t leave a cast. They look glittery but are super smooth in texture. Of all the iridescent formulas, this is my favorite!
Verte is an “emerald-turquoise-purple-pink shifter with a medium, cool tan base.” This is another shade that made me audibly gasp. It’s one of my favorite shades from Clionadh’s entire collection and just my eyeshadows in general. It completely exceeded my expectations. I have quite a few green to purple shifting shades, but these tones are unlike anything else I’ve seen before!
Vermillion has a “light, warm tan base that shifts pink-orange-gold-lime.” It’s not easy for me to be impressed by pink shades but this one is very pretty. It’s a smoother and shiftier version of Devinah’s Tocana.
Iridescent Glitter Multichromes
The Glitter-Type Iridescent Multichromes aren’t pressed glitters. They have larger particles than most of the other shadows though, so I highly recommend using a glitter primer/glitter glue. Clionadh recommends this as well, along with, “applying them with your finger or a shader brush sprayed with a setting spray. Don’t swipe.”
Gilding “has a translucent base that reflects bright gold-silver-green-turquoise.” The eyeshadows in this line are so incredibly beautiful, but because I prefer smaller sized glitter specks, this is the only one I intend to have in this formula. Also, I love how intense this is, but I wish the silver wasn’t there. On my complexion, the silver looks like unblended white powder in comparison to all the gold.
Glitter Multichromes
The Glitter Multichromes are once again not pressed glitters or plastic-based glitters. Clionadh says, “These have varying levels of opacity in the base colour and varying sizes of glitter particles. They are safe to use on the eyes.”
I have 19 out of the 23 currently in the collection. The missing shades are Corrosion, Ornamental, Kaleidoscope, and Engrave. From pictures alone, those four don’t look the most unique or shifty to me, so I decided not to buy them just for the sake of wanting to complete the set.
Abrasion “has a semi-sheer burgundy base with large glitter particles that shift turquoise-indigo-violet.” The color it looks in the pan is so similar to a multitude of duochromes I’ve seen before, even from mainstream brands, but when it’s actually swatched and put on the eyes, you can see how multi-dimensional it is. It’s so much more special than I thought!
Grisaille “has a semi-pigmented terracotta base with medium glitter particles that shift turquoise-indigo-violet-pink.” This shade looked similar to Abrasion in the pan, but the base color changes the look on the eyes. Abrasion has a stronger turquoise shift whereas the sparkle in this appears more minty green, even though it isn’t described that way on the website. Pavonine from Devinah Cosmetics is a bit similar to this shade.
Opulent has “a warm purple-brown base (almost rose gold) with medium glitter particles that shift orange-gold-green-turquoise.” Certain shades don’t shift the way it is described, and I thought it might be due to my darkly pigmented eyelids, but I couldn’t see the other colors on my finger either. When I wear this one, it shifts from dark rose gold to a lighter and brighter gold, but that’s about all I can see. Perhaps the others show in different lighting. As it stands, the tone still makes it unique when seen in person.
Enamel “has a semi-sheer lavender base with small glitter particles that shift blue-violet-pink.” This shade is gorgeous! I absolutely love the color, but I’ve discovered that thinking a color is beautiful doesn’t mean I’ll love how it looks on me. For my comfort zone, this one is a little too pastel-bright to be used all over the lid. However, when this is patted on top of other eyeshadows in strategic places, I absolutely love how it looks! If Clionadh makes a shade in 2021 that has a deeper purple base (similar to Stencil) with a blue-violet-lavender shift I would be all over it!
Chandelier has “a sheer pale mustard yellow base with small glitter particles that shift turquoise-indigo-violet-pink.” This shade surprised me. I typically don’t like shadows this light, but the shifts make this so wearable and flattering. It’s such a unique take on what could have been a typical goldish green, especially with how it looks so intensely turquoise at night. This is one of my favorites to wear alone or combined with other eye looks to give it extra oomph.
Glazed “Has a sheer lilac base with large glitter particles that shift pink-orange-gold.” I’ve learned that lighter purples are not my favorite and this pulls very white-gold/baby pink on me, which I also don’t like. Combine this with the larger glitter particles, and therefore added mess risk factor, and it becomes clear that this shade isn’t for me. Objectively speaking, it’s a pretty color though. On my eyelid, in this photo, it looks more strongly pink. At night, when the lighting shifts, the lilac is a bit more apparent and looks like the color on my finger.
Sunbeam “has a sheer pink base with small/medium glitter particles that shift pale gold-lime-turquoise.” I have a few pink shadows with gold shimmer in my collection that I think are actually quite pretty: Pinkleberry from Coloured Raine, Meadowhawk and Golden Rose from Sydney Grace, and Empress from Devinah. This shade is more like Devinah’s Pixy Stix Xploder where it looks pink on my finger and in swatches, but on my dark eyelids, it looks incredibly light in a way I couldn’t have predicted. I have an easier time seeing the gold lime and turquoise at night when the lighting is different.
Ciel “has a semi-pigmented sky blue base with large glitter particles that shift gold-green-blue.” Ciel and Ripple aren’t typically the kind of blues that I like, but I thought if anyone could make me like this kind of color it would be Clionadh. Although it isn’t my favorite, I still use it from time to time. In the daytime, the lighter sky blue is more visible whereas, at night, it looks closer to the pan color.
Ripple has “a sheer aqua-green base with large glitter particles that shift turquoise-indigo-violet.” This shade looks similar to Ciel overall, but the shifts are different. It’s not easy for me to detect that shift in person or in photos though. I’ve noticed that quite a lot of the lighter shades look deeper at night, but with this one there wasn’t much of a difference. At sharp angles, I can see the violet, but it’s still just not easy for me to see.
Carving “has a sheer, grungy, light brown base with medium/large glitter particles that shift turquoise-indigo-violet-pink.” I still haven’t decided if I like this shade or not. I’ve only worn it twice, so perhaps I’ll have a stronger opinion once I’ve worn it more. The pinkish turquoise gives it an interesting twist and I don’t recall having anything quite like it in my collection, though it gives me similar vibes to Grisaille and Abrasion.
Stencil “has a semi-pigmented deep blue base with medium glitter particles that shift violet-pink-orange-gold.” I have purple-pink eyeshadows but nothing with this exact tone. Wow! It is so beautiful. If you’re a purple lover, this is an absolute must-have!
Tracery “has a semi-pigmented purple base with large glitter particles that shift indigo-pink-orange.” The purple and pink in this shade are close in tone, so the shift isn’t as apparent in person or on camera. I can see the variances between the indigo and pink, but I’ve yet to see orange.
Spotlight “has a semi-sheer hot pink base with medium/large glitter particles that shift blue-indigo-pink.” I didn’t buy this shade based on the color in the pan. It was entirely based on how it looked in swatches where the hot pink takes on more of a purple tone. It still isn’t as purple as I had expected it to turn but, it’s an interesting shade. It’s not my favorite but I don’t hate it.
Translucency “has a sheer baby pink base with small glitter particles that shift blue-indigo-violet-pink, and tiny gold sparkles.” The way it looks in the daytime isn’t my kind of color, but how it looks at night is beautiful to me. It’s the kind of shade I prefer to use as a topper and not as a one-and-done eyeshadow.
Emboss “has a semi-pigmented salmon base with small/medium glitter particles that shift lime-turquoise-blue.” On my eyelids, this looks a bit similar to how Carving and Sunbeam looked in regular daylight lighting. At night, I have an easier time seeing the lime and turquoise. I think I prefer Carving over Emboss, but I like Emboss more than Sunbeam.
Blaze has “a sheer orange base with medium glitter particles that shift peach-gold-lime.” Blaze reminds me of Vermillion but with a less noticeable shift due to the peach, gold, and lime being all light tones and therefore harder to see without as much contrast in color. This is close to Devinah’s Tocana shade.
Torch has “a pigmented copper base with medium glitter particles that shift red-orange-gold.” This is very pretty but very hard to see a shift with indoor lighting. While outdoors, it was very easy to see orange and gold. This shade is like a toned-down version of Kiln.
Glazier’s Mark “has a sheer orange base with medium glitter particles that shift indigo-violet-pink-orange.” My brain keeps saying I’ve seen shadows like this before, but everything I’ve tried to compare this to isn’t similar enough. On Temptalia’s blog, Enigma from Lethal Cosmetics and Magenta Dreams from Sydney Grace are some cited dupes that I also thought about based on the color in the pan. The way they look on my eyelids is where the biggest differences between them are seen and why I don’t think I have a close enough dupe. I think the choice to use an orange base, yet maintaining the magenta look, is what makes it a bit more unique.
Foiling “has a pigmented warm gold base with medium/large glitter particles that shift orange-gold-lime.” This doesn’t show a shift easily. While outdoors, I can see the orange and gold, but still not the lime. I’m happy to have this because the glitter intensity and level of warmth in this gold shadow still make it stand out in my collection.
Hybrid Multichromes
The Hybrid Multichromes are supposed to be the middle ground between the Jewelled and Glitter Multichromes as they “behave more like the small/medium particle glitters, but with the tones of the Jewelled Multichromes.” They can be applied sheer for a wash of color or packed on for full opacity.
Because these are intended to be similar to my two favorite formulas in the Stained Glass collection, I had high expectations. I thought the shifts would be even stronger than the Glitter formula or essentially Jewelled shades without the black base. Shard, Embroidery, and Rose Line have lived up to that assumption but Medieval and Tapestry need particular lighting and a wet base to stand out like the others. It’s confusing because sometimes I wear those two and I’m amazed by their beauty but other times (again, due to lighting) they look dull and not as shifty.
I like that this collection has smaller particles and the fact that they still have visible shifts. I have five of the eight shades in this formula and while I’m constantly tempted to complete the collection, I keep thinking about my mixed feelings over Medieval and Tapestry, so it holds me back.
Medieval “has a warm brown base with medium glitter particles that shift indigo-violet-red-orange.” While Glitter Glue isn’t a necessity, I feel that it takes a tacky wet base to have a better shot at seeing all the color-shifting nuances in this shade. I like Abrasion more than Medieval, and that one is less expensive. This is still pretty. I just expected more from it.
Embroidery “has a grey base with small/medium glitter particles that shift lime-blue-purple. The shift is very clear to see on my finger. On my eyes, it’s just a hint, but it’s such a beautiful color that I don’t mind. You can see just a tinge of blue on the outer corner of my eye in the lid picture.
Shard “has a brown base with small/medium glitter particles that shift turquoise-indigo-violet-red.” Look how gorgeous it is on my finger! In some lighting this reminds me of Abrasion and in some lighting, it reminds me of Grisaille. This makes it different and interesting enough that I would probably still buy it if I knew at the time of purchase what I know now.
Tapestry “has a grey base with small glitter particles that shift blue-indigo-violet.” Like Medieval, I only like how this looks when applied wet and on a sticky base. It’s a pretty shadow, especially if you like blues with a tinge of purple, as opposed to purples with a tinge of blue. I am admittedly the latter.
Rose Line “has a brown base with medium glitter particles that shift rose-orange-yellow.” The rose and orange tones are very easy to see. I haven’t been able to see the yellow on my finger, but it’s faintly visible in the outer corner of my eye. Even with just the rose and orange, I’m happy with how it looks.
Jewelled Multichromes
These are the crown jewels of Clionadh’s collections and of the Stained Glass formula. They state, “The Jewelled Multichromes are finely milled, ultra rich pigments. They have a black base and intense colour shifting reflects. They’re packed with a high pigment concentration, so the end result is a saturated, vibrantly shifting shadow.” This is the bar which all other multichromes are compared to for me. They have yet to be surpassed and I have nicknamed them the Rolls Royces of eyeshadows!
I have 9 out of 20. Aside from buying some for my sister, I may get 1 or 2 more in the future. The oranges and yellows are where I have gaps in my Clionadh collection.
Gothic “shifts violet-pink-red-orange-gold.” This shade reminds me of an oil slick. It’s a beautiful warm purple and the shifts are very apparent in person. This isn’t a unique shade among multichromes, but from my research, this seems to be the best version of this color combo that anyone can buy.
Smoulder “shifts magenta-orange-gold-lime.” The magenta dominates this shade. I found it interesting that I could see the lime and orange on my eye, but I couldn’t capture the lime shade on my finger. The magenta, orange, and gold are very easy to see. It reminds me of Pat Mcgrath’s Sextraterrestrial shade, but replacing the magenta with pink. I’ve heard Forge is a closer dupe to Sextraterrestrial, which is why I didn’t buy Forge. Devinah’s Australis shade is very close to this.
Kiln “shifts red-orange-gold.” Green and purple have always been my favorite eyeshadow colors, so you can imagine my surprise that this shade became my most used shadow from the Jewelled formula. It reminds me of sunsets; which yellow, orange, and red tend to be one of my go-to color combos. This also reminds me of Autumn and beautiful changing leaf colors. The leaves stay green in Florida, so I’ve always been a little fascinated by that process in other parts of the world.
Weld “shifts grungy rose pink-antique gold-lime-teal-navy.” I bought this shadow specifically as a more neutral-leaning shade. I thought it would be cool to have that antique gold, which would look like a brown and blend in with my skin, which could also shift in different lighting to show an intense lime. When I wore this, I could see a little pink mixing in with the antique gold in the center of my lid, which again gave me Sextraterrestrial vibes, but it wasn’t strong enough for me to capture in the pictures.
Patina “shifts gold-lime-emerald-turquoise.” There is no doubt that this green is striking. In fact, it’s a little intimidating. I still have yet to use Patina to its full potential because I’ve been drawn to the other greens in this collection. I would say that simple eye looks are better with intensely shifting multichromes because nothing should detract from the beauty of each shade on its own. However, I want to reserve Patina as the surprise pop to a look; to elevate a look that might be otherwise boring.
Oculus “shifts turquoise-blue-violet-pink-red-orange-gold.” I can see why this is one of the most popular shades in the Stained Glass collection. It’s one of the most shifty shades of all of them and I could easily see all the colors described on the website!
Crown Glass “shifts teal-indigo-pink-red-orange-gold.” This shade and Oculus are very similar in their shifts, but I just could not decide between them. I chose Crown Glass first, but since I wasn’t totally satisfied and kept thinking about Oculus I decided to get that one as well. I thought this would be my favorite of the two because it leans more purple, however, with Oculus I still get purple and I think I favor the turquoise in that one over the teal in Crown Glass. I recommend getting at least one of the two because they are such standout shades in the collection.
Rosette “shifts indigo-violet-red-orange-gold.” I almost skipped out on getting this shade because I thought I had too many purples and didn’t want to get another one too similar to the others, but this is my favorite purple-dominating shade of them all! It’s what I wanted from the shade Spire, but with more shifts and leaning more purple than blue. I love it!
Spire “shifts royal blue-violet-red-orange.” This is actually the first Jewelled multichrome I purchased from Clionadh. Although the purple and blue are so close as to make the shift harder to see, I could still see the potential this collection had. I figured if I was pleased with this less obvious shifting shade, I would definitely love the others. This is great for dark dramatic looks, which I don’t do often, but it’s nice to have it available to me.
Pastel Multichromes
These “have a soft, sheer, grungy, grey base with bright, metallic coloured reflects.” They are a less intense version of the Jewelled multichromes. I like intense eyeshadows, so I honestly just bought one of the four in order to try out the formula in person to see what it was like for myself.
Turret has a “neutral grey base that shifts lilac-pink-orange-gold.” If I hadn’t read the description, I would have never known this was a multichrome. When I study the shade very hard, I can see a bit of a pink hue in the lilac, but the lilac color dominates. Despite this not being a favorite of mine, it still made me curious about the other pastel shades. However, I don’t see myself buying them when I know they aren’t intended to make a statement.
Vibrant Multichromes
Clionadh describes these best: “They behave more like the small/medium particle Glitter Multichromes. They have intense colour shifting reflects and colourful, saturated bases.“
These are extremely sparkly and glittery, even more than the glitter multichromes, despite these having just as small of glitter particles as them.
I have half of the collection, but I think that’s where I will stop. If I get another vibrant multichrome in the future, it would be Majesty.
Bloodline “has a burgundy-berry base that shifts gold-green-turquoise-blue-purple.” This is definitely my most used shade of the Vibrant multichromes, and among the top most used of the Stained Glass collection. In February’s preorder sale, this was the second shade to sell out. It’s definitely one of the favorites. The berry tones don’t show on me as much as I expected, but I still love this shade so much. When I’m looking to add a little more red/warmth, I pat a little bit of Kiln on top and it gives me exactly what I am looking for!
I have an example of this from a photo I uploaded to Instagram as seen above. Perhaps in the future I will make another blog post or a series of photos on Instagram showing new shades that can be created when combining two Stained Glass shadows together.
Royalty “has a grape purple base that shifts pink-gold-green-turquoise-blue-purple.” I wish the way it looked on my finger was how it looked on my eyelids. It’s more of a cool purple-blue than the vivid purple I had hoped for. However, this is a beloved shade and it was the first to sell out during the initial round of preorders. I may be able to create the shade I envisioned by patting one of the Stained Glass purples or blues on top, like Crown Glass. During the current sale that started December 18th, Clionadh released a very similar shade to this called Regal which has a blue base.
Crown Jewel “has a bright blue base that shifts gold-turquoise-blue.” It’s gorgeous and serves as another example of an eyeshadow shade I don’t wear but bought anyway purely because I couldn’t resist that stunning blue hue!
Heirloom “has a teal green base that shifts gold-green-turquoise.” Green and gold is a classic combo, but the base color is what gives this shade a unique twist. It’s such a fascinating shade that I don’t utilize enough.
CLIONADH’S OTHER EYESHADOW COLLECTIONS
Before we get into the shades from the different collections, I wanted to mention the Koala Charity eyeshadows that Clionadh said, “100% of the proceeds will be donated. This time to Wires Wildlife Rescue & Wildlife Victoria Emergency Funds, which benefit the wildlife affected by the Australian bushfires.” They kept their word, and although these shadows are no longer available, Clionadh plans to have another charity to support in 2021.
What I also needed to say about the standard eyeshadows is that the mattes are incredibly fragile! One arrived partially broken and one arrived with cracks, two broke when I accidentally dropped my palette (those are on me), but the last one literally shattered apart when I was placing the shadow into my magnetic palette. The draw of the magnet on the pan was so strong it slipped from my fingers a touch too high and that did it. So, please use the absolute most caution when handling the mattes. Clionadh mentioned at one point debating whether or not to continue imprinting their logo into some of the shadows for fear it would make some of them more fragile and they ultimately decided to just skip imprinting the delicate ones. The nice thing about the mattes is they do press back easily and perfectly using the dry pressing method. The quality of them is really nice. Just use care. If your shadows break in transit, they will replace them for you, but I haven’t gone through that process myself. Considering how busy they are and the shipping cost, I didn’t want to give them the trouble, especially now that I know how to fix them to look brand new.
Lastly, Clionadh updated their Witchcraft vs Alchemy Bundle (the duochrome collection) to include all the shades in the range. The largest one used to be missing a few shades and some shadows in the collection weren’t part of the main bundle or the “Additional Shadows Bundle.” Now you can get all 26 in one bundle. I also saw an option to create your own custom bundle of 6, but it was taken down before the sale.
Prophecy – from Team Witchcraft. This is the pinkish gold type of shade I always want, but when some brands make this kind of color, it looks more white than pink on my lids. This one is the same as the pan color, which makes me very happy.
Panacea – from Team Alchemy. It’s a vibrant beautiful “grape purple with pink reflect” that I recommend to any purple shadow lover.
Wildfire – from the Woodlands collection. This is a very sparkly shade that gets most of the intensity from the gold glitter, though I was hoping more of that deep fiery orange base would look stronger on my eyelid. When my next order arrives, I could try putting Burnt Sienna on top to see if it will give me the intensity level I envisioned.
Crystalline – from Team Witchcraft. I normally wouldn’t be interested in this light of a purple shade, but the duochrome aspect made it so much more intriguing of an eyeshadow. The reflect color is lime green but on my lids, I thought it looked aqua.
Beehive – from the Woodlands collection. This is one of the prettiest yellow-orange shades in my collection.
Poison Ivy – also from the Woodlands collection. This color reminds me of the mossy green shade called Habitat from Lethal Cosmetics.
Hex – from the Dreamweaver collection and Team Witchcraft. It’s a beautiful, “mid-toned purple base with a gold reflect.” Hex is lighter and cooler toned than I expected based on swatch photos I saw around social media. It’s not my favorite on me, but the color in the pan is true to what you get on the eyelid.
Calx – from Team Alchemy. Based on swatches, I thought the blue would be at least a deep mid-tone, but the description as a cornflower blue is accurate. Although the reflect is pink, the glitter color over the blue makes it look a little more on the purple side, which I like.
Rune – from the Harvest Moon Shadows and Team Alchemy. It is described as, “a grungy base with a gold-green reflect. This shade pulls more moss green on the eye.” It is so beautiful! I love green-gold, olive-gold, and antique gold type of shades, so this is perfect for me.
Bon-Bon – from the Dreamweaver Collection. This is a stunning color that’s as vibrant on the lids as it is in the pan! Clionadh describes this shade as, “a rich berry metallic with a cool purple reflect,” which surprised me because the base color is so intense that I didn’t notice the reflect on the eyes. The shimmer is so fine that the particles are undetectable, but it’s visible when the light hits it.
Charmed – also from the Dreamweaver Collection. I bought this shade during a time when I was really into using peachy pink and blushy medium pink shades in my crease for my pink and purple eye looks. Although my obsession with that combo has nearly passed, I still use this shade quite a bit.
Wildberry – from the Woodlands Collection. I tend to pair with this Charmed to slightly deepen up the outer corner when I don’t want to go for full smoky look. It looks like a mauve-purple in the pan but it shows up dark pink on the eye.
Sky Lights – from the 66.5° N Collection. This is “a shimmery shadow with a royal purple base and purple, blue and pink sparkle.” This was part of my first Clionadh order and it’s one of my favorites from the brand. The multicolored sparkle in person is even prettier than my picture shows.
Nocturnal – from Team Witchcraft. This “indigo base with a blue reflect” was also part of my first order. I love bluish-purple eyeshadows but the tones of this seem special. I love vibrant blues and there is nothing subtle about this one!
Forest Heart – from the Woodlands Collection. It’s described as a metallic teal-green and I always thought it had a bit of a blue tinge, but it just looks like a medium-deep green on my eyelids. Sky Lights, Nocturnal, and Forest Heart remain my top three favorites out of the standard eyeshadows. It’s very easy to overlook the “regular” shadows when you have the Stained Glass collection available, so if it wasn’t for these three shades blowing me away, I wouldn’t have continued purchasing from the standard eyeshadow collections.
Ursa – from the 66.5° N Collection. This is a “blackened-blue shadow with a blue reflect and gold sparkle.” It’s not as dark on my lids as it looks in the pan, which makes me happy. I like the tone of it on me. The sparkles get a bit lost though and although I can see that lighter blue reflect, it didn’t wow me like some of the other shades. However, Clionadh set a huge bar for themselves and though I wasn’t as impressed, it’s still a beautiful shade.
Bramble – from the Woodlands Collection. This is a light yellow-green shade. For some reason, on my camera it comes off looking way more yellow than green. I can confirm that in person it does look more green, but still with a strong yellow tone to it. This is one of the few shadows I wouldn’t miss if it was removed from my collection (based on the color, not performance).
Koala – from the Koala Trio. It’s a charcoal grayish black color, which is typically a shade I don’t like, but my goodness this is amazing! It would be great if Clionadh brought this shade back to be sold individually and not have to be tied to the charity aspect. This is such a perfect shade for creating a smoky eye that isn’t too intense and dramatic, though I’m into that kind of look as well. This pairs so nicely with all the other Clionadh shadows, and for a few weeks straight I used this shade exclusively to deepen up all my eyeshadow looks when using other brands’ eyeshadows too!
Gum Tree – from the Koala Trio. I definitely don’t have another eyeshadow like this in my collection. It’s like a gunmetal or antique pewter with a bronze-red reflect. It is so beautiful and such a shame it’s discontinued.
Eucalyptus – the last shade from the Koala Trio. It looks just white on my eyelid, but when applied sheer, like a topper, it’s an iridescent shade with red, gold, and a little bit of green reflect. It’s a fun and unique color that amps up any eye look when patted on top.
Fog – from Team Witchcraft. I’ve mentioned before that light colors aren’t my favorite, but this blue has enough warmth from the sparkle that I think it looks so pretty! It’s described as, “a dusty, teal base that shifts golden-peach.” It instantly reminded me of the shade Narrow Path from Sydney Grace. They have the same base color but that gold glitter makes me like Fog more than Narrow Path.
Crucible – from Team Alchemy. It’s a deep purple with a subtle “purple shift and gold sparkle.” Sky Lights is my perfect purple, so it’s harder for me to get excited about this shade by comparison. That being said, Crucible is so beautiful that it still deserves appreciation. It’s a great color to use for a purple smoky eye.
Honeycrisp – from the Harvest Moon Collection. Something about this shade was so alluring to me, particularly around the time I bought it. I was still going through my phase of searching for a golden pink. Honeycrisp is described as, “a coral pink satin with a pearly reflect.” Sydney Grace has a lot of shades along this same vein like Meadowhawk and Golden Strawberry. Even Salamander looks similar, like a slightly more orange toned version, especially in the photo above where I combined Salamander with Eucalyptus. This doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a gorgeous shade and despite having similar colors, I’m still glad I have it.
Salamander – from Team Witchcraft. This is described as, “a coral base with a gold reflect,” which accounts for the similarities between this shade and Honeycrisp. It’s like a fiery golden tangerine. I really like it.
Gecko’s Tail – from Team Alchemy. This shade has an “apple green base with gold reflect.” It’s a lighter tone than a typical Granny Smith Apple shade. I think I would have liked it more if it was a touch deeper, but it’s a fun color.
Clairvoyance – from Team Witchcraft. I didn’t expect to like this color, but I couldn’t resist buying it anyway. It’s “a turquoise base with a light green reflect.” It reminds me of Blitz Aquamarine from Pat Mcgrath, but the green reflect is a different twist.
Amulet – from Team Witchcraft. This is a “a bright fuchsia that shifts blue.” This is a very popular type of duochrome shade. The base color is similar to Bon-Bon but Bon Bon is much deeper.
Merlot – This is a metallic plum shade from the Ultra Metals Collection. It looked a little grey in some of the swatches I saw online, so I was much happier with the actual color. It looks very rich in person. It also looks like a regular shimmer or satin shade when applied dry. With a wet brush, this shade looks much more metallic and pretty. This is currently the only shade I have from the Ultra Metals because I was using this shade as a tester before I considered buying more.
Honeycomb – from the Woodlands Collection. As, “a warm beige metallic with gold sparkle,” I bought this shade to use specifically as an intense inner corner highlight.
Dahlia – from the Woodlands Collection. It’s “a light peach-gold duochrome” that I thought would look a little more different on me than Honeycomb. Between the two, I think I like this shade slightly better for all over the lid because of the pinkish shift. As an inner corner shade, I would prefer a more neutral color like Honeycomb.
Hunter – from the Woodlands Collection. Hunter is described as a metallic mulberry. The base color is a dark purple but the lighter shimmer prevents it from being a traditional dark purple. It’s like a silvery purple mauve.
Permafrost – from the 66.5° N Collection. It resembles Hunter on the eye, when looking straightforward, because of the grey tone. However, this shade has a noticeable pink shift in person that gives it a grey pinkish purple look.
Tree Line – from the 66.5° N Collection. This “sage green metallic” shade looks a bit more blue-tinged on my eyes, though I was expecting a brownish-green. I still like it.
Alpine – from the 66.5° N Collection. This is, “a rich, blue-toned metallic green,” as opposed to the teal-green shade in Forest Heart. This shade is a lot brighter. It’s like a deeper toned version of The Shallows from Sydney Grace.
Necromancer – from Team Alchemy. It has a “blackened-blue base with a teal reflect and silver sparkle” that looks similar to Ursa in the pan, but the teal reflect makes it look brighter and more vibrant than Ursa.
STAINED GLASS SWATCHES
On Instagram, I have videos of the Stained Glass swatches in this post. You just need to scroll sideways to see more.
STANDARD COLLECTION SWATCHES
EYESHADOW SHADE COMPARISONS
The hardest parts about comparing multichromes are that the shades in the pans don’t necessarily correlate to how they will look on the eyes, especially depending on the lighting. Sometimes they look similar based on one shift at one angle, or in the dark, or in bright light, or in the pan, or the types of colors that they shift to. Sometimes it’s only the base color that is similar.
I tested out many more comparisons that didn’t make it into this post for the reasons above. Some of the dissimilar ones I kept in order to demonstrate how similar pan shades can differ from the swatch.
The duochromes were easier to find comparisons with other brands, but the level of glitter/sparkle in Clionadh’s shadows tend to be so intense that they ended up not looking the same, despite having similar base colors.
TOP RECOMMENDED SHADES AND EXTRA EYE LOOKS
If I had to pick my personal favorite shades they would be Lux, Verte, Abrasion, Stencil, Enamel, Chandelier, Embroidery, Shard, Kiln, either Crown Glass or Oculus, Rosette, Bloodline, Sky Lights, Nocturnal, and Forest Heart.
When it comes to this brand, there really aren’t duds in terms of quality. It’s just a matter of personal preference like colors and particle sizes. I’ve been able to create some gorgeous looks even using shades that aren’t my favorites.
Just one shimmer shade or multichrome patted on top of an existing look can really change the outcome.
My camera always picks up the green hue in Weld even though, in person, the whole lid looks like the antique pink in the center. That’s what gave me the idea to use a different shadow to tone down the green in the photo below.
That’s everything! I know this was another incredibly long post, but I wanted to be thorough.
I’m a big fan of Lethal Cosmetics for their quality products, fantastic customer service, fast worldwide shipping, and the importance they place on diversity and inclusion. My initial interest in the brand was for their eyeshadows. At the time of writing this, I own 72 out of their 90 individual shades released so far, and I reviewed most of them earlier this year.
Even though I’m trying to limit the number of face products I buy, I couldn’t resist ordering from Lethal on launch day. I purchased the Solstice palette, another highlighter, blush, bronzer, and the Lethal Cosmetics x Jolina Mennen eyeshadow palette. The same morning I began working on this post, the brand announced their new Velvet Dusk Collection and details about a Black Friday sale, so I delayed posting until those items arrived as well.
Face Powders
The Solstice Palette
This is one of the four premade palettes on Lethal’s website. It was created for those with dark tan/olive to deep skin tones. Lethal Cosmetics has six individual highlighters that have been available long before the bronzers and blushes, but the highlighters in the premade palettes are exclusive to those palettes. The exclusive shade from Solstice is called Gravity and it has a strong yellow base. The blush included is called Echinopsis and the bronzer is Caldera.
Although Lethal doesn’t have designated contour powders, within the bronzer line are three shades with cool undertones that I consider contouring-bronzers. I picked up one of them called Zenith.
Until Zenith, I had no real contour powder that I liked enough to wear regularly. The best one I have is actually a Colourpop eyeshadow called Cloud Nine. Because Caldera is warmer and I prefer to use bronzer around my forehead, while Zenith is cool-toned and I prefer that for cheek and jaw contouring, I have found uses for both powders in my collection. I actually replaced the Gravity highlighter with Zenith in my trio palette when I was on a brief trip for my birthday. The palette is magnetic with holes in the back and the pans are not glued in, so that makes it easy to mix and match face products.
Terrestrial is the newest addition to my face powders that I purchased with the launch of the Velvet Dusk Collection. I wanted to see if I could get a cool-toned contouring bronzer that was closer to my skin tone for times I might be in a rush and don’t want to have to be careful about how much I apply. Between Terrestrial and Zenith, I think Terrestrial is better for me.
I’m experimenting with daylight bulbs so the newest photo additions look different in terms of my skin tone for this reason. I’m trying to find a balance between being bright enough versus washing colors out.
I like these powders, but I should note that these are not beginner-friendly in the sense that using the wrong brushes can make these harder and more time consuming to blend. I found this to be the case for the bronzers and blushes, but not the highlighters. Also, when it comes to bronzers, I still prefer the Kosas Sun Show Moisturizing Bronzer and the Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush matte bronzers because of how they look on the skin and how they blend regardless of the tool. It should be noted that those two bronzers are 2-4 times more expensive than the ones from Lethal.
The texture and consistency of Lethal’s powder products remind me of MAC’s Satin blush formula but they are definitely matte and they perform like MAC’s brighter blush shades, such as Loudspeaker and Frankly Scarlet. What I mean by this is that wherever you first apply with the most pressure is where the powder mostly sticks. They’re still blendable, but using too small of a brush can concentrate the product in too small of an area that is time-consuming to smooth out. If the initial placement covers the entire area you want, it makes the blending process easy. This is why I recommend using a fluffy brush with these powders in order to disperse the product lightly and evenly.
Calyx was more orange than I expected. Echinopsis is more of a berry color, and darker, but it can be worn in a sheer layer as demonstrated in the photo above (a heavier application is in the Terrestrial section). Between the two, I think Echinopsis looks better on me.
As I mentioned before, Gravity has a strong yellow base, so I prefer to wear it only on days when my blush is on the more neutral, natural, and sheer side. This way, the highlighter doesn’t have to compete for attention, so to speak. If I use less, Gravity doesn’t look as strikingly yellow, but it’s still very apparent in person.
Gamma is an “elegant bronze with warm gold highlights.” It is everything I want in a highlighter! It can be subtle and look more shiny than glittery, but it can also be built up more intensely. I think it’s a better shade match for me as well.
Both highlighters are over Echinopsis and Terrestrial.
Gamma, Echinopsis, and Terrestrial is my new favorite trio palette pairing! I have a magnetic palette with depotted face products that I’ve taken on trips before, but this is the first time I’ve ever had a highlighter, blush, and bronzer/contour from the same brand that actually works for me and is kept in an aesthetically pleasing palette that looks like it was premade! Although I could pack a trio of Nabla Skin Glazing Products, I find carrying one palette to be easier with less chance of an accident than a stack of 3 compacts.
Eye Palettes
Lethal Cosmetics x Jolina Palette
I love the fact that these shimmer shades make beautiful new colors when mixed together. For example, Fck Me Eyes and (A)mar create a pretty turquoise blue. Loyalty is a red-based purple but when combined with (A)mar is makes a nice deep cool purple. For a white shade, Scandal is not stark on my skin tone and I can actually use it in the crease. This is probably the only white shade in my entire eyeshadow collection that I like! The only color in the palette I dislike is Cold Brew, and that’s because it’s the same color as my hyperpigmentation. When I use it, it looks to me like I missed a spot or that the eyeshadow faded, but it’s just the color of the shadow.
Overall, I find the quality of this palette to be consistent with Lethal’s single eyeshadows. With the exception of a few shades, there are close enough similarities to other Lethal singles that I don’t think this palette is a necessity for anyone with a large enough collection of their shadows. If your collection is on the smaller side, this is a great way to get a variety of neutrals with vibrant pops of color at a more affordable price. The pans in this palette are smaller than the individual shades, but I have still yet to hit pan on any eyeshadow in my collection, even with mini palettes.
Velvet Dusk Eyeshadow Palette
These pans are also available for purchase individually, which is why I counted them as part of Lethal’s 90 current shadows. What made the Velvet Dusk collection especially exciting is that for the first time, Lethal introduced two “triochrome” eyeshadows.
Lethal has had duochromes for a while, such as Aerial, Stargaze, and Mainframe. Apart from certain shades like Enigma and Lucid, I don’t consider a lot of them to be true duochromes because they don’t make as much of an impact as the duochromes from other brands. I’m also more impressed when a duochrome is one base color that either shifts to another shade or the glitter color very different, as opposed to a base color with plain gold or silver shimmer particles.
Keeping this in mind prevented me from expecting much from the triochromes, so they weren’t the selling point for me for this palette. I just loved the overall color story. It’s rare that I like even half of the shades in a palette. With this one, I was drawn to 10 of the 12!
As for the triochromes Revolve and Covet, they do have a shift but they aren’t easy to see. With Clionadh, you can see a change on the fingertips, the pan, the eyelid, and/or arm swatch. Revolve is a shade I can slightly see on the finger in very specific angles but Covet is extremely difficult. I cannot see a change on either of them in arm swatches. I can faintly see a shift on the lid while wearing Revolve if I’m in the proper light. However, the only time I could capture anything from Covet was on my palm. I included a photo below, but to see a 3-second video clip you can click here. I was unable to figure out how to change the video dimensions to be smaller and embed it to a reasonable height and width on this page.
There’s something that seems a little different about the formula of the Velvet Dusk shades (and even the ones from the Afterdark palette), but I can’t put my finger on what it is or how to explain it. They’re still pigmented like the others and long-wearing. Corrosion and Deceit took a bit of work to blend. Deceit specifically is a bit patchy but the sparse areas can be patched up if extra shadow is added on top and not manipulated too much. All of the shadows in this palette stuck to my arm fine in swatches, but these absolutely need a primer in order to stick properly to my eyes. There isn’t anything wrong with needing a primer, but my other Lethal shadows from the older collections still look great without it.
I’ve found that the mattes work better over MAC Paint Pot and the shimmers work better on the Urban Decay primer potion or a non-dry base, even though Lethal recommends a dry base for all of them.
This palette is another great mix of pops of color with neutrals, just with a grungy twist. It isn’t perfect, but I would still recommend this to anyone who likes the color story. I don’t recommend this to someone specifically wanting it for the duochromes and multichromes. For those kind of shadows with more impact, I suggest Clionadh, Devinah, and Terra Moons. Even JD Glow’s Galaxy Shadows have more sparkle and shine.
Additional Single Shadows
Besides the new Velvet Dusk Palette eyeshadows, I added Synth, Ephemeral, and Frequency to my collection. I kept updating my previous Lethal Cosmetics post with either arm swatches or eye swatches each time I got a new order. It looked a bit messy, so for the sake of consistency, I redid all 72 eye swatches here! I felt it was important to show how they look on my eyelids because what I expect from the pans isn’t always what I get on my lids.
I also redid all the arm swatches because I wanted to have similar shades from lightest to darkest next to each other for comparison purposes.
The only shadows I don’t have yet, plus the remaining face powders I’m curious about are in the photo below.
Light colors of eyeshadow are my least favorite, and I don’t need so many medium-toned browns, so that is why these haven’t made it to my collection. Due to the cost of shipping, I don’t intend on making another purchase just for two more face powders, so those won’t be reviewed unless another new release catches my eye from them in 2021. I’m also planning a low-buy for 2021, so perhaps I will skip them entirely.
That’s everything! Thank you for reading! If there are any swatch comparisons you’d like to see from Lethal or any of the products in my posts, just let me know!
I’ve been a Juvia’s Place customer for three years now, but it wasn’t until 2019-2020 that I actually started using what I purchased. Most of my experience with the brand is through their eyeshadow palettes. The quality is great but the color stories always threw me for a loop. I never knew how to pair colors together in a way that I felt was cohesive and made sense. Depotting the shadows helped because it was easier to have access to other complementary shades. Now, I’m actually getting use out of them!
Lip Products
I’ve heard amazing things about Juvia’s lipsticks and lip liners that were released this year. I’m not very adventurous when it comes to lip products, so I had no intention of possessing any, but due to an error on Ulta’s part, I wound up with a mini Lip Duo.
Wahala Mini Lip Duo
A strange but unimportant thing I noticed is that the lip gloss in the set came with a plastic shrink band but the liquid lipstick did not. I don’t know if it’s just mine that was like that or if all of them are supposed to be that way.
Shakara is a gorgeous color, but right on the cusp of being too pale for my preference. Using a lip liner is enough to make Shakara wearable for me, but my favorite combination is pairing it with a lipliner and gloss. Petty Betty isn’t the kind of pink I normally gravitate towards, but it pairs well with Shakara and is still nice on its own.
Juvia’s Place Eyeshadows
I used to have the Saharan palette, but I gave it to my sister. I even gave my unused/unswatched Tribe palette to her because I was uninspired by the color story after seeing it in person. It wasn’t until I watched LonDen Makeup Artistry’s video that I suddenly felt the urge to give it a chance and repurchased it. I’m so glad I did!
The only eyeshadow palette I haven’t depotted yet is The Chocolates, but I intend to soon.
Juvia’s Place currently has 11 mini six pan palettes. Other than the Mariposa collab, the minis don’t have shade names. Whenever I’m referencing them, I refer to them from left to right by row. I’m missing shade number 6 from the Violets palette. It broke when I was depotting it and I wasn’t interested in that color enough to try and salvage it.
The shade names in green are from the Tribe palette, which has been discontinued. Blue is for the Magic palette, Purple for Masquerade, and lilac purple for the Violets.
What I like most about Juvia’s Place eyeshadows is the level of pigmentation. I never have to worry about shades not showing up on me. They also last a long time without fading. The mattes and shimmers are equally easy to work with. There are frequent 30-40% off sales on their website, and even periodically at Ulta, so you can always snag their products at a discount. So far, Wahala and Wahala 2 are the exceptions to the discounts. They’re already a great price. The only reason I haven’t purchased them is, once again, due to the color stories. Another deterrent is that Juvia’s Place has been putting a lot of pressed glitters in their palettes this year, which I try to avoid.
Blushes
When I said Vivid Azalea from Wayne Goss was the most pigmented blush I’ve ever come across, I completely forgot about my Juvia’s Place Blush palettes. When I saw these in person, I realized right away that they were not going to work for me. Both palettes have the most unique blush shades I’ve seen, which is a great thing in terms of bringing something different to the makeup world. However, this does make them less wearable to the average consumer, as only a few of these will look natural and on someone and not everyone is into wearing avant-garde blush looks for the remaining shades that are too bright, light, dark, or too different of a tone to give a natural flush.
The Saharan Blush Palette Volume 1
When I realized these blushes were a bit too out there for me, I utilized the palette by scraping some of the powder out and combining them with other brands’ blushes to create custom blush shades for myself. I intended to get more use out of these by using them as eyeshadows and depotting them into my magnetic palette with Juvia’s Place shadows, but I typically break every pressed matte shade from Juvia. That’s the only reason I haven’t done so already. I can always press them back, but I’ve contemplated whether it’s worth the hassle.
Abywas clearly far too dark for me, so the best use I’ve found for that shade was as a contouring-blush. I used a fluffy blending eyeshadow brush to slowly and lightly build the color into the hollows of my cheeks.
Neo is the most “natural” shade for me in this palette, though I’ve struggled to use a light enough hand to apply that shade in a way that I would feel comfortable wearing it. In the second photo above, I applied with a light hand but it was still incredibly pigmented. In the third photo, I used a Makeup Eraser cloth to remove some of the color in order to tone it down a bit.
Lila and Zara look very similar in the pan, but Lila has much smaller shimmer particles, so it looks less glowy and a little more subtle.
Zane was the most difficult to apply to the cheek without looking patchy. I kept over applying in the process of trying to get it to look smooth.
Toby was the easiest to apply evenly. However, I’m not a fan of this color blush on me.
The Saharan Blush Palette Volume 2
I bought the Saharan 1 on August 2019, and even though those shades were not what I expected, I still bought the Saharan 2 in December 2019 because I was hopeful that this palette would suit me better. In some ways it does, because I prefer a blush that’s too light over a blush that’s too dark on me. However, these are cooler-toned blushes. Warmer tones look better on me. There’s also the issue of Yara being invisible on my skin.
Tau is the most natural-looking blush of the bunch on me. I tried to apply a subtle amount like I did with all the other blushes, but I could have built up this shade more heavily. It’s very unique for orange, as orange is typically warm, but this one is muted as though it has a cool pinkish undertone to it.
I was happiest with the way Bee and Sola looked on me, as I prefer to wear standard blush colors on my cheeks. I expect a shade like Bee to be too light for me, but because it is so pigmented, it definitely shows on my skin tone and without a grey cast! Unlike Zara and Lila from the previous palette, which I would never use as blush or blush toppers (just highlighter), Sola works as a highlighter, blush, and blush topper. The only potential issue is that it takes some blending when using Sola as a blush because the shimmer doesn’t spread evenly. It’s as if the shimmer is still moveable on the skin but the base pigment stays in place.
I’ve used these blushes as eyeshadows. The mattes are heavily pigmented for blushes, but they need a little building up on the eyes for full pigmentation. This does make for easy blending though. The shimmers in this formula are a slightly thinner version of the regular eyeshadow shimmer formula. They don’t require glitter glue or wetting them, but those methods can be used to intensify them. In the eye looks below, I only used MAC Paint Pot.
Juvia’s Place consistently has great quality products at affordable prices. I do recommend giving them a try!
The Space Age line of highlighters from Kaleidos is known for having non-traditional shifty duo-chromatic shades like blue, bright red, green, etc. They even recently released a multichrome highlighter. As much fun as it would be to have colors like that in my collection, I’m not bold enough to rock shades like those regularly enough to get my money’s worth out of them. Instead, I chose to buy the two most traditional types of highlight colors: Solar Sailor, “a sleek and radiant satin gold,” and Ray Rider, “a velvety champagne sheen with a trace of peach.” Ray Rider was repromoted/reformulated during the launch of the Make Your Escape Collection. Although I don’t have the original shade to compare, according to Angelica Nyqvist, the new one is slightly lighter and smoother with a more translucent base. This change happened in June. As of November 2020, Ray Rider’s packaging was updated. However, it is not listed on the website as being a different from the original, unlike the shade Mars Melter which was reformulated with new packaging and is being sold as “Mars Melter” and “Mars Melter Original.”
The swatches are on bare skin. In the Solar Sailor photo I applied it under the brow arch and on the center of the lid. In both photos I have the highlighters on the cheekbones applied on top of a mixture of Love and Joy blushes from Rare Beauty.
These highlighters look glittery, which I usually despise, but because they blend a bit into the skin, they become a little more wearable. I used the tiniest amount of highlighter in these pictures, so a regular application would look much more intense! Ray Rider’s particles are a bit smaller, which I like more, but I prefer the actual shade of Solar Sailor on me. Because they are right on that line of glitter level that I like, I doubt I will wear them regularly, but they won’t be completely neglected in my collection.
The Futurism Eyeshadow Palettes
Futurism I: Sci-Fi Green
This was my first Kaleidos palette, but I purchased it from a third-party. I know I’m fortunate to have such low shipping fees as a US consumer, but having to pay for shipping still bugs me. I only wanted to try one palette to see if the eyeshadow formula was worth the hype and didn’t want to spend $8 in shipping to find out. The other three palettes, however, were purchased directly from Kaleidos.
Swatches over a light layer of MAC Paint Pot.
I do think these palettes are worth the hype. That black shade is incredibly rich and dark. Sometimes yellow shadows don’t stay true to color on my eyes, but I don’t have that issue with Radioactive. The shimmers have a wonderful slip to them and the mattes are pigmented and blendable. My only complaint is that although you can see the shade differences in the swatch, my forearm is lighter than my eyelids. On my dark lids, the two matte greens look almost the same. Glamora appears more yellow than green on my eyes, which makes it harder to distinguish from Nuclear.
Futurism II: Cyber Bronze
Swatches over a light layer of MAC Paint Pot.
I’d have to double-check my single shadows collection, but I do believe plasma is the best silver eyeshadow I own (though I don’t have that many silvers in my collection). It is shockingly brilliant and intense without even being applied wet or on glitter glue. Droid is my favorite shade out of all the palettes to use from the brow to the crease. Y2K and Carbon look a bit more subtle on my eyes because they’re closer to my natural crease and lid shades. I can still see them in person, but they aren’t as distinct on my camera. Quantum is an uncommon shade among my collection and I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked it. Infared looks intense in swatches but for some reason, that shade of red doesn’t have the same vibrancy on my eyes. If you like shades like Infared, I highly recommend Salvatore, Blazed, or Homicide from Devinah Cosmetics. In my opinion, theirs are the best.
Futurism III: Astro-Pink
Swatches over a light layer of MAC Paint Pot.
This is my favorite of the four palettes I purchased! That blue-to-purple duochrome shade, Neptune, is gorgeous! The fuchsia shade, Nebula, isn’t a unique color but it is so incredibly smooth, pigmented, and easy to blend. It’s possibly the best-formulated version of that shade I have. Lightyear is just as brilliant as plasma, but with a light pinkish purple tone to it. It just looks silver on my eyes though. Cosmos is one of those sequin shades that usually drive me nuts (matte with a dash of glitter…just pick one shadow type!) but the glitter is so sparce that it’s mostly matte and I can use it as though it’s a plain matte, which is why I like it. And that shade is so pigmented and buttery smooth that I can easily use it as a powder liner. I’m not as impressed with Stardust and Lunar, purely because they don’t show up enough on my eyes, but they do give a rose-toned tinge under the brow and crease that pleases me to see in person, even if I know no one else will notice.
One interesting thing I noticed with the shimmers is that Nyx Glitter Primer, my tried and true product to enhance the impact of shadows on my eyes, doesn’t make much of a difference in terms of bringing out the pigments and sparkle. I still use it on the duochrome shades, but on the regular shimmers, in order to intensify the look, I dampen the brush with some MAC Fix+ spray. And even after that, I pack more shadow on top with my finger.
Futurism VI: Lunar Lavender
Swatches over a light layer of MAC Paint Pot.
I don’t enjoy being critical. I love gushing about good makeup, but I have to talk about issues that arise while using them. This palette gave me flashbacks to the Nomad Cosmetics Harajuku Tokyo palette that was a nightmare to use.
The top photo shows the patchy issues with MAC Paint Pot when trying to blend. The bottom two photos show how they look better on top of the Nars eye primer but despite that one being a wetter base, it still didn’t stick properly to the eyes and were blending away.
Unlike that formula, which worked better with a wet white base, I find these mattes work better on a dry white base. Because these shadows have more pigment than the Nomad Tokyo mattes, they are still usable and visible on the lids. This formula isn’t as bad as that one, but I don’t have the patience to try and make them work with continued use in the future. Even the two duochromes, though they work the same as the other Kaleidos duochromes, reminded me of the Nomad duochromes in terms of how they feel to the touch. But there’s no comparison in terms of performance and overall look. Kaleidos still wins on that front.
My improved eye looks using this palette when combined with a little of the Anastasia Beverly Hills eye primer.
Here are additional eye looks using shades from any of the 4 palettes.
Futurism V and VI are part of the new Fresh Fantasy collection, so I don’t know if there has been a tweak in the formula. As beautiful as the duochromes are, I cannot recommend anyone spend $24 to get just those two shades. $6-$8 CAD duochromes from Clionadh Cosmetics are still more intense, sparkly, and shifty than these.
I have since decided to depot these and put them all together (excluding the Lunar Lavender mattes) in one large custom magnetic palette. I know I wouldn’t get as much use out of them if I kept them all in their separate smaller palettes.
For anyone interested in ordering from Kaleidos, I recommend checking out the bundle section on their website. That’s how I was able to get any three palettes I wanted (excluding the limited edition Futurism IV) for $59 instead of $72. There is free shipping at $70, so I only needed to add one more item to my cart. There are also affiliate codes that can be found from different YouTubers, but the codes don’t work on the bundle.
Also, you can expect a long wait once your order is placed. I completed my order on September 9th and it arrived October 13th. 24 of those days were in transit as it was shipped directly from their factory/manufacturer in China. It roughly took a week to travel from Shanghai to LA, a week to clear customs, and another week from Compton to my address.
I believe I covered everything. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. Thank you for reading!
I placed my very first order with Sydney Grace in November 2019, but the majority of my collection was purchased during their annual Christmas in July sale. The deals were so good, I couldn’t pass them up!
Along with the eyeshadows, I will also discuss one of their blushes and their empty magnetic palette. Overall, Sydney Grace makes beautiful high-quality products. I believe they are worth the prices as is, but if you’re looking for the best deals, they happen on Black Friday and in July. You can also find affiliate codes on many different Youtubers’ videos for 15% off year-round.
Tiny Marvels Palette by Mel Thompson
The quality of the shadows in this palette is the same you can expect from Sydney Grace’s singles. Every shade has a high level of pigmentation. The mattes feel soft and perform like Viseart shadows on the eyes, making them easy to blend, but with the added bonus of swatching well too. Some important things to note are that Scarab is called Red Chameleon as a single, but the other 14 shades are exclusive to this palette. Flutterby seems to be more fragile than the other shadows because it was the only shade that came with a piece cracked off in my palette, and I saw a few others on social media where that was the only broken shadow as well. Pressing it back with liquid works to an extent, but I recently learned in an interview on Behind the Beauty that the binders Sydney Grace uses in their matte shadows are powder only (no liquids)*. So this makes their mattes perfect for the dry-press fixing method.
*July 4th, 2021 UPDATE: I was browsing the website and noticed the ingredients of the mattes I saw had fractionated coconut oil listed, which is a liquid. I don’t know if this is the sole exception to their original statement or if the addition of liquids is a new formula change.
Lastly, Jewel Bee is the only shadow in the palette that I feel underperforms. It looks great on those with lighter skin tones, but there isn’t enough depth in the shade to make an impact on me. It admittedly still works slightly better than pastel purples from most other brands.
*October 1st, 2021 UPDATE – I felt compelled to update this post to say that although I didn’t know Mel Thompson personally, she will be missed dearly. As a subscriber of hers on YouTube, it hurt my heart to learn of her passing and I can only imagine how much worse it has been for her friends and family. I treasured those few moments I had communicating with her via Instagram and the comment section of her YouTube page. It means even more to me now. May she rest in peace.
Chase Your Dreams 9 Pan Palette
This is a great smoky eye or companion palette. The color story isn’t exactly what I expected after seeing photos online versus what it looks like in person, but it is still fairly versatile. The two red/pink and two orange shades are a bit redundant to me, so I foresee myself depotting this into my larger custom palette. The only reason I haven’t yet is because I like the purple glitter print packaging so much.
Eye Swatches: Palettes, Bundle Exclusives, and Individual Shadows
All the eyeshadows come from the Danny’s Dream Bundle, Autumn’s Reign Bundle, Chase Your Dreams Palette, Tiny Marvels Palette, and all the individual shades I own. In the arm swatch portion that I’m including later in the post, I have it noted which shades are part of a collection.
I used MAC Paint Pot in Groundwork for all of the eye swatches (excluding Beauregarde and Chamellionaire which are over Nyx Glitter Glue). If I used a primer with a white base, perhaps certain shades would look less similar. In my opinion, Sydney Grace is the most consistent brand I know in terms of eyeshadow quality. So, when it comes to choosing which eyeshadow to purchase, it’s more about the particular color and less about performance. However, I will note that Queen of the North and Lemon Cream were a little patchy on me. I don’t plan to keep them in my collection after this review.
This brand makes arguably the best green eyeshadows (though nothing tops Forbidden from Coloured Raine). Among this batch of shadows are Chamellionaire and Beauregarde, two out of the three pressed multichromes Sydney Grace currently offers.
Compared to Devinah, Clionadh, Terra Moons, and other brands’ multichromes, I honestly like these the least. All multichromes show their black bases/look darker in too much direct sunlight or with flash on. These are beautiful in the right lighting but are the most finicky to capture in photos and the least forgiving in the Florida sunlight. These were the first multichromes I ever owned and the difficulty of use made me better appreciate the formulas of the other brands’ multichromes I tried later on. The texture of these are a bit strange. I don’t know how to describe it. They don’t pick up very well on a brush and they look terrible over bare skin or regular eyeshadow bases I’ve tried. Applying them with my finger on top of Nyx glitter glue is the only way I’ve found to successfully show off their beauty.
I have to admit, I bought certain eyeshadows purely for their names! I know it’s silly, but there were enough shades I wanted that were named after the 12 Days of Christmas song that I decided to get all the ones available on the website: Pear Tree, Turtle Doves, French Hens, Geese a Laying, Maids a Milking, Ladies Dancing, Lords a Leaping, and Pipers Piping. I have no idea if Calling Birds, Five Gold Rings, Swans A Swimming, or Drummers Drumming are discontinued shades in Sydney Grace’s collection (or Feather River Body as they were formerly called) or if they were just never made.
In addition to powder multichromes, Sydney Grace also has cream shadows and cream multichromes. Though I don’t like the pressed multichromes, I can vouch for the cream formula being much nicer to work with. However, I’d still prefer to use a Clionadh pressed multichrome over the cream and pressed ones I’ve tried from Sydney Grace.
When I bought the Alexandrite cream multichrome, it came in a 10 ml tube for $25. The period after opening (open-jar symbol) was only six months. Since that time, the brand has released smaller 5 ml tubes for $15 and they say it has a longer shelf life. Shelf life and period after opening are different terms, so I don’t know if they mean to say that the p-a-o date is longer. It’s great to know that they can stay in inventory and be unsold for longer without any fear of it expiring or drying out before you get a chance to purchase them, but I would be curious to know if it still lasts 6 months before it goes bad after you first open it. In any case, this is quite competitive pricing for Natasha Denona’s new Chromium liquid eyeshadows at 2.5 ml for $28 and the same 6 month p-a-o.
It took me so long to do this post that, unfortunately, I have no good photos of Alexandrite. The blurry picture in the bottom right corner in the eye swatch gallery above is what it looked like while the shadow was still good. I only have that photo from my former cell phone with terrible quality megapixels and lighting. Hopefully, you can see that it was smoother while it was still good. My tube of Alexandrite lasted 9 months before it started to have an odd fish oil smell so I stopped using it (excluding this one time for this review). So, on the bright side, it does last a little longer than 6 months after you open it. The other two eye swatches of Alexandrite show what it looks like after 11 months. That’s why it looks strange and scaly. And yes, now that I finally finished this post I have thrown it away. I wanted to at least show that in this instance, regardless of your skin tone, the shade will look pretty much the same on everyone.
Official Swatch Picture From the Sydney Grace Website.
Arm Swatches: Palettes, Bundles, and Individually Sold Shadows
I tried to group these swatches together by color but Celebration and Starfish are not with the other greens because I had already decluttered these two shades (and remembered to rescue them just before making this post). The base color in Starfish was too dark for my liking. As for Celebration, I like it as much as Sutter (and actually think it looks more flattering on me) but I thought they were too similar to keep both. Also, back in January when I only had 30 SG eyeshadows, I asked 8 of my guy friends which purple and green shades they liked the most. Although their responses might be different if they saw my entire collection now, the shades that got 4 or 5 out of 8 possible votes were Totally Worth It, As If, Flannel, Evergreen, Thrilled, and Sutter. Between Sutter and Celebrate, Celebrate only received 1 vote. That’s why I chose to declutter that one, but I have now returned it to my collection!
Eyeshadow Looks
Thinking of You Blush
I didn’t have the self control to take a photo of this blush before swatching it. It’s such a pretty, soft, pigmented, and blendable blush. If I wasn’t already swimming in blushes I would be tempted to try more shades from the brand. This reminds me of MAC’s powder matte formula, which I love, but this only costs $9 as opposed to MAC’s $17 pro pan-only blushes. MAC has had at least four blush sales this year at 30-40% off, so I have been able to get some as low as $10.20.
All blushes in the “Deep” category on the brand’s website are currently sold out. Sydney Grace is still a small company, so it takes them a while to restock items. Due to COVID-19, there are also delays in pigment manufacturing and just a shortage of certain pigments in general.
Sydney Grace Large Custom Palette
I have this Large 40-48 pan Sydney Grace empty magnetic palette on top of my 96 pan Coloured Raine palette for comparison purposes. It has a mirror inside and the outer design has light-reflective rose gold lettering. The same print is sold in 9 pan and 12 pan palette sizes. Since I have too many SG shadows to fit in a palette of this size, it’s currently holding my non-Stained Glass Clionadh eyeshadows. I’ve had no issues with it so far.
Favorite Shadows
I mentioned at the end of the arm swatch segment which shades were the favorites among my guy friends, but my favorite Sydney Grace shadows are a combination of shades that I think look most flattering on me, as well as shades that are just flat out gorgeous and/or unique to my eyeshadow collection.
Geese A Laying – “A medium matte yellow bright matte”
*The Dream – Warm Gold
Mango Tea – “Yellow with an orange undertone”
The Greatest Gift – “Light pink with a green shift”
*Mantis – Deepened pastel green
*Granny Smith – Vibrant grass green
*Sweetsop – Medium green with gold shimmer
The Shallows – “Green with a blue shift”
Evergreen – “Medium green”
Thrilled – “Dark matte teal”
Fierce – “Medium blue with purple undertone”
JB – “Royal blue”
*Supreme Harvest – Dark terracotta
*Be Bold – Vibrant terracotta-orange
Lords A Leaping – “Deep red brown matte”
*Bug-A-Boo – Matte maroon
Magnificent Chestnut – warm metallic golden brown
Golden Rose – “Medium pink with a gold shift”
Maids A Milking – “Bubblegum pink with a strong blue shift”
Forever Enough – “Medium burgundy red with a satin finish”
Orange Slush – “Vibrant Orange with a metallic finish”
Golden Peach – “Deep peach with a golden shift”
Lost Princess – “Red with an orange undertone”
*Amber Jewels – Metallic Cranberry Red
*Don’t Quit – Metallic Burgundy
Flannel – “Bright medium purple”
*The Drive – Warm purple
Magenta Dreams – “Magenta with a blue shift”
Deliverer – “Vibrant violet with a red undertone”
Celebrate – “Yellow Green”
The final important note is that if you’re interested in purchasing from Sydney Grace and are trying to find specific shades via the search bar, just note that it’s extremely inconsistent. For example, if you type “Deliverer” you will get that shadow as the only result. If you type “Orange Slush” exactly as the shadow is called, you will find it on page 4 of the search results.
Devinah is one of my favorite indie brands. As a favorite, you can expect their products to be pigmented and beautiful like all the other shadows I love. What helps set them apart is that their price point for duochromes and multichromes are on the less expensive end. Their shadows are also a unique texture, unlike any other brand’s shadows I’ve experienced. Some of the mattes give some resistance when you try to rub your finger in the pan, yet they apply so smoothly to the skin. Some shimmers give resistance too, some are smooth, a few are dry, and some feel like a putty without moving around like a putty. The closest similarity would be to a Colourpop Supershock shadow, but without as much of the dimethicone/silicone feel to them. Devinah’s feel “heavier.” It’s hard for me to explain. The textural element is important to note because when I purchased the XPLODERS Collection, the Everlasting Gobstopper shade shrunk.
As you can see, it was unbroken and still in a perfect circle, just loose and sliding around in the pan. When I contacted them asking how this happened, they explained that the formula enables these shadows to be pressed back into place without breaking. They still offered a replacement or store credit, even though mine technically didn’t break, so their customer service is definitely top-notch!
It took very little effort to be able to press the shadow back together, and it looked like nothing had ever happened to it! I’ve been able to do this with Clionadh shimmers when I accidentally dropped them, and other soft shimmer shadows, but Devinah’s shadow is the only one I’ve been able to press back and have it look brand new using my fingers alone! Again, I think this goes back to the near putty-like texture.
As for Devinah’s multichromes, like the shades in the Butterfly collection, they feel closer to a traditional shimmer eyeshadow (still with some slip) in terms of texture. I apply the inner corner of shimmer shades with a brush, but I use my finger everywhere else on the lid. This is why texture has become an important element for me, since it adds to my enjoyment while using them, and why I felt it was important to delve into this much detail about it.
I use MAC Paint Pot for Matte shadows and Nyx Glitter Glue for the glittery/sparkly shadows. The more satin/metallic shades that shine without use of glitter have enough slip that I don’t think a primer is even necessary, but I still use MAC Paint Pot with them anyway.
SUGAR DROPS COLLECTION
The Sugar Drops are semi-transparent shifting glitter eyeshadows. Devinah recommends using a glitter glue to help the shadows adhere. They make great topper and highlighting shades and are recommended to try over white and black bases.
Cake Bomb – This shade shifts green and blue. On me it looks like seafoam green to powder blue.
Soda Swamp – This looks like a peachy pink to pinky-purple shift, but I mainly just see the peach-pink. I didn’t like the way this looked over white and black bases. Though the black base made the sparkles stand out more, it turned cooler-toned, which isn’t as flattering on me. Over the white base, I couldn’t see the shift anymore.
Puffles -This looks like a pink-blue-green shift. Of the three, this is the one I like most because it makes the biggest impact.
XPLODERS COLLECTION
This is the only Devinah Collection I have in its entirety. I bought them all because I couldn’t decide between the shades! The brand recommends using a glitter glue with this one too. They remind me of the sugar drops but with more of a base color.
Everlasting Gobstopper – I can see purple-pink, a goldish green, and light blue. Blue is the dominating shade though in most types of lighting. I love how easy it is to see the shifts in this, though I wouldn’t wear a shade like this on it’s own.
Nerds – This has a blue-green-gold look, but on my eyelids the greenish gold is all I see. I don’t see blue, even though that’s the main color in the pan.
Swudge – This shade is blue-green with a purple shift, though strangely on my eyes the purple is more prevalent. This one I would feal comfortable wearing alone.
Pixy Stix – This is a pink to gold shift, but there’s no visible pink on my eyelids when glitter glue is used. Over a white base, the pale pink tones show and it looks similar to the shade Gelicide. Over a black base, it turns a darker gold.
Kazookles – This has a pink to purple shift, but on my eyelids it looks like there’s a bit of a gold shift as well.
Marshmallow Pillows – This is a pink to purple to blue shift. The blue and purple pop more on my eyelids, which makes this my favorite of the XPLODERS.
Runts – This shade is a lilac to purple with pink glitter, though the purple is so light that I can barely see it in person (and not in photos).
NEWEST MULTICHROMES
I bought two of the three new eyeshadows as part of the galaxy dust shifters collection. With these shadows, they recommend using glitter glue and trying them out over white or black bases.
Tucana – I would call this a rose gold shade, even though it shifts from golden peach to pink. Or maybe it’s rose gold to pink. I’m really not great at describing shades.
Centaurus – I describe this as a shift from yellow gold to a more orange-gold.
GALAXY DUST SHIFTERS COLLECTION
Whereas the Sugar Drops and XPLODERS are more on the iridescent side, the Galaxy Shifters have a lot more pigment to them. They remind me of Clionadh’s glitter and hybrid multichromes from the Stained Glass collection.
Celesta – This shade is like a vintage gold to olive. There isn’t a significant difference when used over a white base, as it just makes the shade lighter. Over a black base, it makes the green a little more apparent.
Skyla – This is like a fuchsia to purple with blue reflects.
Asteria – This one is a pretty cranberry to mint.
CANDY CAKES COLLECTION
The Candy Cakes shadows remind me of the Galaxy Dust Shifters, but without a shift. They’re like very pigmented duochromes. If there is a shift, perhaps I can’t see it because the shifting color is too close to the dominant one.
Rainbow Blossom – I really like this shade. It’s a beautiful fern green and gold.
Confetti Kisses – This is not my type of shade, but I was so curious about it that I had to get it. It’s like a bright sky blue with pink and purple shimmer.
Sweetie Sunbeam – I think this shade has a rosy base color but is mainly a coppery gold.
BUTTERFLY KALEIDOSCOPE COLLECTION
The Butterfly Multichromes have the most pigment and strongest shifts. These are the closest shadow comparisons to Clionadh’s Jeweled Multichromes, but without the black base.
Morphinae – The cool purple to blue shift is strong, but on the outer edges you can faintly see warmer purple too. A white base tones down the shade. I expected a huge impact when using a black base, but I didn’t get that. It did turn this shade smokier and intensified it slightly, but still nowhere near Clionadh or Sydney Grace’s multichrome level. That being said, not everyone wants that level of intensity. Some makeup lovers aren’t into deeper smoky colors and will possibly like these better. I love the ones with black bases, but I admittedly don’t always go for that look either.
Parthenos – The more obvious shift goes from a lighter green to a darker green, but the outer edges have a little aqua blue or cyan.
MULTICHROME MADNESS COLLECTION
Nacarat – This shade has a subtle shift from darker to lighter orange. I was surprised to discover this grouped in with the multichromes, since it’s so difficult to see any shift at all. I was also surprised to see both white and black bases dulled the intensity of the orange, though the black base showed the lighter orange shift better in the outer corner. Though it doesn’t show as much on camera, over the white and black bases, I also noticed a slightly pink tinge to the shade as well.
Pavonine – When I think of common duochrome and multichrome shades, this one comes to mind as a dark berry/burgundy with green-blue shimmer. Even though this isn’t a unique shade, I don’t have that many in my collection, so I decided to buy it anyway.
UNBUNDLED MULTICHROMES/DUOCHROMES
Gelicide – This shade was a lot lighter than I expected. It’s like a light baby pink with champagne shimmer. Strangely enough, I like it and think it would make for a great inner corner or inner third lid shade.
Empress – This shade reminds me of Sunbeam Sweetie, which I will compare later in this post. I love this one so much! Most pinks I encounter are cool-toned, which isn’t as flattering on my complexion. However, this one is deeper and warmer, so I love the way it looks.
Charmed – This type of purple duochrome (with the light to medium blue shimmer) is a very popular eyeshadow shade, but it tends to be on the sheerer side. I’m glad I bought this one because it is the most pigmented purple of this kind I own.
Vicious – This eyeshadow is looks purple in the pan, but has a cool blue tone to it on the eyes. When I wore this in a video chat, it looked completely blue on camera. Over a white base, this shade looks relatively similar to what it looks like on a clear base, but the blue is slightly brighter and less silvery. Over a black base, this makes the purple dominate. This is probably my least favorite eyeshadow in my Devinah collection, with the exception of the shade it turns over the black base. That kind of purple is what I was hoping it would be from the beginning.
SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW SET
This collection was inspired by the Wizard of Oz. I love that so many of Devinah’s shade names are inspired by different things, for example, the types of butterflies in the Butterfly Kaleidoscope collection, the Willy Wonka theme of the XPLODERS, Salvatore from the Vampire Diaries. The owner (DeAndra) mentioned in an instagram post that she likes horror and murder mystery genres. With shade names like Homicide, Criminal, and Devious, it is very apparent. I’ve also seen Egyptian inspirations, the show Sparticus, etc.
Upon first impression, I despised these two shades because of the fallout. These were among my first the few Devinah purchases, when I had gotten accustomed to their regular shimmer and metallic formulas where using an eyeshadow primer wasn’t a necessity. I had used them over bare skin and then MAC paint pot and they looked so dull. Once I used them over a glitter glue, my opinion completely changed. Glitter fallout was no longer an issue and they looked a lot more opaque and impactful. I highly recommend using a glitter glue with the shadows in this Somewhere Over The Rainbow formula.
Are you a good witch – This is a sparkly dark purple with pink glitter.
I’ll be tender, I’ll be gentle – This shade is a deep teal with aqua glitter. It reminds me of the Lapis Lazuli shade I love from Pat Mcgrath.
PRESSED SHIMMERS
I don’t have much to say about the shadows in this formula, beyond what I mentioned in the introductory paragraphs. They perform well, have longevity, can work without a primer but I like them with my MAC Paint Pot (not as much with glitter glue though). Some of these are shimmers but some have more of a metallic feel with some slip. It’s as though each shade has its own tweaked formula to maximize its effectiveness and beauty.
Sphinx – I like this very pretty bright yellow shade.
Nefertiti – I don’t have any shade in my collection quite like this one It’s very metallic and the shadow even feels wet. I would describe the color as a yellow-orange brass.
Cleopatra – I think of tangerines when I see this color.
Ambrosia – I honestly bought this shade purely because of the name. I have this weird infatuation with the term. I think because I love mythology (Greek especially) and ambrosia was the food of the gods. I’m happy I actually like the way this caramel-bronzy shade looks on my eyes.
Paramour – This is another one of my favorite Devinah eyeshadows. I would describe it as a festive crimson shade that can be built up to look a little deeper.
Salvatore – This looks to be a true red shimmer.
Starlet – This shade is a dark slightly red toned purple, like a wine color.
Purple Kush – This shade is a dark blue toned purple.
Avalon – Is this blue? Is this purple? Another blurple?
Lurican – Purples are my favorite eyeshadow color and greens are my second favorite. I really like this green shade with gold shimmer. It’s similar to Rainbow Blossom without the intense glittery sparkles.
Ferly – This shade is the reason I didn’t buy Clionadh’s Lineage multichrome, as it reminds me so much of it based on swatches. It’s a very pretty almost minty green with gold shimmer. This is another favorite of mine.
Chimerical – I’d describe this as a mossy green with brighter green shimmer.
Alew – This is a blue-ish green shade with gold (and maybe even a little silver) shimmer. It reminds me of a slightly more green version of Hydra from Sydney Grace.
Odium – This color reminds me of Coloured Raine’s Forbidden shade (my favorite eyeshadow of all time). Coloured Raine’s single shadows are being discontinued, so I’m glad I have this as a close replacement.
Briseis – Talk about bright! This shade is so vibrantly ocean blue! Or Turquoise? I don’t know but this blows Coloured Raine’s Malibu shade out of the water!
Midnight – In pictures this looks mostly black with a slight greenish blue tinge. In person, the blue (or deep/darkened teal) is easier to see.
Hydra – Again with the insane vibrancy! I don’t have anything close to this shade in my collection. I would call this an Egyptian Blue shade.
PRESSED MATTES
Toska – I like this shade of yellow but it takes a lot of building up to look opaque on the lid.
Passion – I love this rusty orange. It was one of the first shades I bought from Devinah.
Runa – This is a more pigmented terracotta version of Passion.
Kaia – This is more of a pastel purple that isn’t the worst I’ve tried, but I don’t like this one as much. It might work better over a white base, but I haven’t tried that yet. And at least I can get it to look opaque.
Courtney – This is a very popular shade among Devinah customers. I can see how this type of grungy yellow-green would be liked on others, but it’s just okay for me.
Desma – This rich reddish brown is so nice! It’s rare that I wear just mattes on my eyes or even one-and-done eyeshadow looks, but I would feel comfortable wearing this on its own. It’s my favorite of the mattes I have.
Here is a gallery of some comparison swatches to each other from Devinah and examples of other eye looks.
I would normally post more complicated eyeshadow examples, but Devinah’s shades are so unique and special on their own that in my everyday routine I just put a neutral shade in the crease, add a darker eyeshadow in the outer corner for smokiness, and let each shade shine on the lid on alone. This is why I decided to do the 50+ eye swatches rather than posting just hand swatches. Each eye swatch is already a look I would do.
Additional Information
As I mentioned earlier, Devinah’s prices are quite reasonable for what you’re getting. This is also the case when coupled with promo codes. When you initially sign up for their emails, you’ll get a code for 25% off. There are also influencer codes that can be found in different Youtubers’ video descriptions for 20% off. Also, after every purchase, I usually get an email with a coupon offering 25-30% off if I place another order within 7 days. The codes should work on everything except the Butterfly Multichrome shadows.
I’ve only been a customer with Devinah since they relocated/reopened in Oregon, so I’m not certain if they have regular sales throughout the year. I haven’t witnessed one yet, but the promo codes are a great deal as is. Shipping isn’t free and they recommend purchasing the $3.80 insurance as a USPS order upgrade to protect against loss, theft, or damage.
One of the other things I like about Devinah is that they’re interactive on Instagram and supportive of other indie brands, even liking posts that don’t have their own products in them. They recognize there’s room for everyone in the beauty industry. When you have a good product, it speaks for itself and people will notice.
Overall, I really like Devinah’s shadows and recommend them to anyone who has been thinking of trying out this brand. The glittery eyeshadows are a little more difficult to work with than Clionadh’s formula when dealing with fallout. The Xploders and Sugar Drops are particularly messy. I think this is because they are a little less emollient. However, this is the tradeoff because the shadows don’t settle into the lines of my eyelids as much as Clionadh’s can. Speaking of which, I still have a Clionadh Cosmetics post in the works. I just keep debating with myself whether to post it soon or just wait until I have everything I ordered (which would take a few more months).
Lili's Beauty Blog 