This post has been in the works since I purchased three of the palettes during Viseart’s annual Spring Sale in May. I was having some issues with the Grande Pro 1x, which is why this review got so delayed. Then, I bought London Etoile during the Beautylish Gift Card Event in October, and Violetta in November. So, this post is now featuring all the Viseart palettes I purchased in 2022!

Before we dive into the reviews, I just want to get the discussion of the pan sizes out of the way. I think it’s important to know for those who like to customize/rearrange their palettes. The standard original eyeshadow pans Viseart launched their brand with is their largest size and are part of the newly named “SlimPro” palettes. Their medium size pans are part of the Petits Fours and Étendu palette lines. The smallest pan sizes are part of the Petites, Petit Pro, and EDIT palette lines. Also, the original Grande Pro 1-3 palettes were in that largest/standard pan size, but the Grande Pro 1x has the medium pans. Below is a photo showing the standard, medium, and small.

PETITS FOURS – VIOLETTA

Violetta is one of the three holiday quads and one of Viseart’s newest releases, which I purchased from Beautylish at full price. I’m not going to downplay how much I love this palette. It is literally the best offering of finishes Viseart has ever put together in a quad, the most cohesive and unique color selection, and their best eyeshadow quality yet! It also happens to swatch better than a lot of Viseart’s other palettes.

I normally despise mattes with random flecks of glitter, but Couperin is such a gorgeous mauve-pink shade that I don’t mind. Plus, one of the reasons I don’t like sequin type shadows (Viseart calls it a “matte hybrid finish”) is that when applied, the shimmer is mostly gone but it looks out of place having a few individual specks on the eye unless I pair it with a shimmer. With a color like Couperin, I don’t see myself using it in an all-matte look anyway. I have been such a fan of this shade that I’ve paired it with other eyeshadow looks I’ve done lately, and that is not a usual thing for me to do. I will usually only reach for additional palettes to pull out specific shimmers, so a matte shadow being memorable for me is rare. Also, a shade this light to show up pigmented on me and remain looking mauve without looking ashy is not that common, even among similar Viseart shades in other palettes.

Verrerie is described as a, “midnight-purple with a duochromatic metallic finish,” and I am obsessed! It has beautiful bright reflective shimmer that is more impactful than Viseart shimmers I’ve used in the past. In fact, the sparkle quality and duochromatic nature is on par with some of my favorite smaller indie brand’s duochromes! I haven’t felt the need to even apply it damp, though I recommend glitter glue because I have gotten some fallout without it. This shade and Couperin together is a dream for creating a light ethereal look. The base color is in the same family as Châtelet, which makes them go well together too, and the blue shimmer on top of that deep gunmetal with a greenish tinge really pops. This is an amazing lid shade, but also makes for a very pretty and popping inner corner shade and highlighting shade.

Châtelet is the least unique color of the bunch, but it goes so well with the others that it makes sense to be included. This matte is pigmented, but easy to blend and layer with the other shades. It’s great for adding depth, but also can be sheered out and not look too dramatic if it’s also in the crease.  

Lastly, we have Perchoir, which is a slightly green leaning “gunmetal with a metallic pearl finish.” I have to be a bit more careful with this one as it’s so pigmented and intense, but that makes it great for adding depth, smokiness, drama, and lining the eyes.

How the intial three eye looks came about is that I essentially took photos at each stopping point that I felt I could have been pleased with how it was and could have left it alone. The first one is the lighter look for minimal daytime makeup. The second one is where I would usually stop after adding a little more depth and tiny bit of smokiness. The third is a more dramatic going-out-at-night type of look. They are three similar looks that I love equally for different situations. It’s a truly special quad with no longevity issues, no blending issues, and I’ve been able to use them effectively with all my primers. This gets a glowing recommendation from me!

PETITS FOURS – PERIDOT

I love greens, olives, and golds, so I knew this quad would end up in my collection. Illusion is the only matte and unfortunately it barely shows on my eyes. Having a shade like this doesn’t add any value to me in a quad, but it will be just fine with my other Viseart shadows.

I’m a little confused by Viseart’s metallics because sometimes they are shimmery and wonderful even in their dry state, but at other times they are like Gatsby and are more like satins until they are wet. Gatsby is described as a “khaki with a metallic finish.” When wet, the intensity is raised, but it’s still a tame shadow. I like the color, but I prefer the shade called Khaki from the Dior Backstage 008 Khaki Neutrals palette because it has a stronger green hue to it.

Greenlight is the darkest shade, but it’s not as deep as I would normally prefer for my outer corners. So, I feel like this quad still lacks a depth-providing shade. Being viewed as an individual shadow though, it’s a beautiful color that’s bright and shimmery. It beats out the Emerald shade from that Dior Backstage Khaki Palette I reviewed here before, but not Pine Green which is along the lines of how deep I wanted Greenlight to be.

Gimlet is the last shade. It’s a nice bright yellowy green that goes well with Greenlight and for highlighting purposes. However, I prefer a deeper yellow shimmer or the green to be stronger to wear Gimlet as a lid color. The middle ground limits things for my personal preference, but I needed a bright shade for my inner corner, so I see its purpose in the quad.

I got the Charlotte Tilbury Eyeshadow Quad in Green Lights around the same time as Peridot. Essentially, because I wasn’t completely satisfied with the khaki shade and I had long been lusting after Green Lights since it was released, I decided to just get it after all. I only recently learned the story behind it (thanks to Temptalia’s blog), that began with a quad called The Rebel which had a pale shade, deep teal-green, olive, and spring green. That palette was discontinued. Then in 2020, the brand released the same color story as the Green Lights palette, but called it The Rebel even though the shades were different from the original The Rebel palette. Then, later that same year, “Green Lights” was released despite it being essentially identical to the current iteration of The Rebel quad. I don’t know what the point was in doing that, especially since Green Lights is apparently limited edition and so once it’s gone, The Rebel will continue to be sold with the Green Lights color story instead of the original. Strange choice.

This screenshot was taken from the Charlotte Tilbury US website.

CT quads are swatched by the brand in a clockwise direction, but I stick to my typical left to right and top to bottom.

Even though Peridot gives me the most variety as a curated quad, I actually prefer the Charlotte Tilbury quad. When I’m craving olives, I’m craving something with a more toned down color, but with amped up sparkle, and paired with neutrals. I don’t usually want a bright shade to go with it like how bright of a green that Greenlight is or with something as lemon-lime green as Gimlet. I would have preferred a traditional gold instead. Plus, Illusion hardly shows up on me, so it adds nothing to the quad. The upside is that Peridot is half the price of Charlotte’s Green Lights quad. The shadows don’t feel the same, as they’re very different formulas, but they’re both still high quality performers. So, even though I don’t like the Peridot color story, I like the satin and shimmer shades individually and had already planned to swap around the shadows within my Viseart collection to create a green quad I prefer. For that reason, I’m still glad I bought it (especially at the $17.50 sale price).

PETIT PRO LONDON ÉTOILE

I knew I absolutely did not need London Étoile. I have similar enough shades within my Viseart collection, but I just couldn’t skip it. With purples, green-brown, and gold, this palette may as well have been named Lili Étoile because of how often I’m drawn to these type of colors.

Now, Carnaby is the exception. It’s a pale cream beige that’s too light for me and looks ashy wherever I use it. The brand says it can be used, “for highlighting the brow bone for all skin tones,” but I politely disagree. It only looks passable on me if I blend it out so that there’s barely any pigment left, and then I even add a little Piccadilly to tone it down. So, I even prefer to skip using Carnaby entirely and just use Piccadilly in the crease with another shade added to deepen the look.

Camden is a traditional dark gold, but it’s much needed in this palette because of how many deep shades there are in comparison to the wearable lighter colors. It’s the pop of brightness to most of my looks. It’s got a lot more intensity to it than the other shimmers, so I don’t need to use it wet, but if I do, it gives off an intense metallic finish.

Brixton is a matte, “Boysenberry purple,” and looks especially similar to Blackened Honey from the Grand Pro 1x and Beaujolais from the Dark Mattes. This shade blends decently enough, but not as easily as the other mattes we’ve discussed so far. It takes a bit more work and is a little troublesome to get it to show distinctly if there are too many shades already packed underneath it.

Tottenham is described as a “muted sage taupe with a metallic duochromactic shimmer finish,” which is close enough to the golden olive that I expected when I ordered the palette. However, I don’t know how this is considered a duochrome. Irrespective of that, it’s still my favorite shadow in the palette and has a satisfactory amount of sparkle to it.

I don’t have any Viseart dupes of Dalston, but reddish burgundy shimmers and metallics are very common in my collection. I think it’s quite beautiful in person, but for some reason, my camera has a very difficult time capturing how vivid it looks on my eyes. How Viseart shadows can sometimes look on camera, particularly the deeper purples, is an issue I will get more into in the Grande Pro 1x section. So, I just want to reiterate that it looks even better in person than my eye looks below suggest.

Portobello is a medium tone matte fuchsia shade that in the pan looks so similar to many other shades in my collection, but how it looks on the eyes and swatched is much more vibrant than I expected, which is a quality I like about it. Sometimes a purple like this can be tricky to formulate, but this one gives me no issues building and buffing.

Shoreditch is the final shade in the palette and described as a “soft metallic plum with a shimmer finish,” and it’s my go-to shadow to deepen up any of the looks in the palette. It naturally goes well with the purples, but it takes on a dark brown appearance when it’s next to the neutrals, so it works with shades like Tottenham and Piccadilly too.  

I’ve enjoyed every look I’ve created with this little palette. The quality is solid. Although I still believe I didn’t need this palette since I have enough shades close to the colors in this one, I’m glad I bought it anyway. Considering how tiny the pan sizes are, I probably should have waited for a sale to get it so it could feel a little more worth the price ($25 is what I’d have preferred), but I still got a deal of sorts because I bought it during the Beautylish Gift Card Event.

BIJOUXETTE ÉTENDU

Viseart has a rainbow palette in the form of their Editorial Brights, but I view Bijouxette as the brand’s jewel toned rainbow. To me, this is the ultimate Viseart palette for people who like a matte neutral eye base with a pop of color on the lids. I tried to create a wide variety of looks further down to show off every color in this palette, but I could keep it simple with Nouveau, Sidecar, and Speakeasy and then add Prohibition on the lid and be perfectly happy with that.

Every matte in this palette is pigmented, but blends and layers well. They’re buildable and long lasting on the lids. I would prefer Carnelian to not have that sparkle added to the orange, but most of that comes off by the time I’m finished applying it to my eyes. I don’t know for sure if Viseart tweaked their matte formula, but these seem to be even better performing than the ones I own that were released prior to October 2021.

For a long time, Viseart’s shimmers weren’t praised among consumers because they were an artist brand known for making things that work beautifully in the television and film industry, which meant small less reflective shimmer particles and basically being glorified satins. However, around the time of the launch of the Grand Pro 2 palette, they started amping up their shimmer intensity. In the past year or two in particular, they’ve also gotten more pigmented and colorful. The shimmers in Bijouxette are, in my opinion, Viseart’s best shimmer quality yet. I feel that these can actually compete now with Clionadh’s standard circle pan shadows and Devinah’s shimmers. Granted, some are still on the satin side like Scandalous, or not completely opaque unless built up heavily like Jade and Cubism, but after Verrerie from the Violetta palette, every shimmer in Bijouxette ranks higher in my books than all the other shimmers in this post. They’re quite good. They apply smoothly across the lids, but they don’t have that dimethicone slip to them that other creamy/buttery formulas often have, which means I don’t need to worry about creasing and I don’t need glitter primer either.

I’m very glad Viseart started releasing smaller and more “affordable” palettes. I got this for $26, but based on my experiences with it, I’d have been happy paying full price. I don’t know that the original 12-pan palettes in the standard sizes were necessarily worth the retail price for non-makeup artists or those with extensive eyeshadow collections, but if there was ever a Viseart palette that I would recommend to a colorful shadow lover wanting to try the brand for the first time, this is the one I would suggest. Color preferences aside, if the quality in this one isn’t to someone’s liking, I don’t think any other palette from Viseart can top it.

GRANDE PRO 1X

When I saw this on sale for half price, I was so excited because I lusted after the original Grande Pro for years, but it was never in a price range that I could justify to myself. Then it sold out and was discontinued. I planned to mix and rearrange my older standard size Viseart shadows with the ones in Grande Pro 1x instead, but completely forgot that the pan sizes in 1x are medium! So, there went that idea, but I can at least interchange them with the other palettes in this review (excluding London Etoile).

This mega palette is the reason I’ve delayed posting a Viseart review for ages. My experience with the mattes in here has been so inconsistent. The biggest issue has been that so many eye looks (deleted and not posted here) looked horrible on my camera. They were so beautiful and well blended in person, but for whatever reason, they just do not translate on my camera. They looked so patchy as if my skin was showing through. I kept trying to add more to cover up spots that I saw on camera that looked odd (though I still couldn’t see it that way in my mirror) but it never helped. I literally started to question if my optometrist was wrong and if my eyesight had suddenly gotten worse, though I didn’t have this issue with palettes from any other brand! I would add additional product over the spot in question and it would then look unblended, but if I blended it in, then it would cover up too much of the other shade in the look or turn a different color. It drove me mad! No matter what primer I used, it kept happening with back to back eye looks. I would be so happy with how they looked in the mirror and then take the photo and feel that sense of pride deflate. Considering these are meant to look great on camera, it boggled my mind as to why this was happening. I still don’t have an answer. Perhaps it’s just something that happens without a high quality camera and/or professional lighting. Again though, this issue is exclusive to the Grande Pro 1x and Dark Matte Edit palettes. My other Viseart eyeshadows look great in various lighting situations and with the devices I use.

To put this in perspective, I’ve been using Viseart shadows since January 2016. My first palette was the original Dark Mattes. Some of the shadows in that palette had to be tossed out by now, but most are still performing wonderfully to this day. However, I started to feel uncomfortable at the idea of using a palette so old. So, in April 2021, I purchased the Dark Mattes Edit palette as a partial replacement with the bonus of some shimmers. I had no issues with Viseart’s mattes prior to this purchase, and my last purchase from them had been the Boheme Dream in December 2019 when they still had the original sharp edge palettes and not the curved SlimPro ones. The Dark Edit palette gave me such a rough time using the purples and black matte, that it put me off buying another product from Viseart until this year. The Dark Edit palette had the same issue with it that I was dealing with regarding the Grande Pro 1x, so by this point I started to question whether the Viseart matte quality had dropped considerably at some point between 2020 and 2022. I hadn’t used the other two palettes I got in the sale by that point because I was so disheartened by my experience with Grande Pro 1x. I spoke with Queisyani who is one of the two biggest Viseart fans I follow on IG (murderingjellybabies being the other) and she reminded me that Viseart previously had a difficult transitional period adjusting to expanding from France to the US and that this may account for the time in which Viseart’s matte quality wasn’t measuring up for some people. This issue with the mattes did appear to be a temporary thing considering the Bijouxette and Peridot palettes I bought at the same time worked perfectly fine. Then I started to think about how the Dark Matte Edit palette had been newly launched when I bought it in April 2021 and that even though I bought the Grande Pro 1x in May 2022, it originally launched in February 2021. It’s possible my Grande Pro 1x was from that original batch. Bijouxette was released in October 2021 and Peridot in November 2021, so it started to seem more likely that palettes produced between 2020 to mid 2021 (or at least released in February 2021 to April 2021) could have been the ones affected.

I’m happy to say that the mattes in palettes with launch dates from October 2021 and onward seem to have consistent quality again! In fact, I love the mattes I bought between 2016-2019, but the ones from the end of 2021 and onward are as good as they used to be or arguably even better!

The eyeshadow examples above aren’t to my satisfaction, but they were the best of everything I had with the Grande Pro 1x. As I mentioned, they all looked so pretty in person, but looked worse on camera. However, this palette is not a complete dud. I had less trouble with most of the lighter and mid-tone shades. They are on the thin side, so building up the opacity level was a challenge with some of the shadows in the 1st and 2nd columns, but columns 3-5 were perfect. The darker shades took a little more time getting them to layer on the other shadows, but the outcome of the blend was so pretty in person. The shadows that were most problematic were the truly vibrant shades: Red Coral, Bougainvillea, and Cobalt Blue. They even felt drier to the touch than the other shadows. I didn’t expect Pumpkin to cooperate, but that one is colorful and performs well. I shouldn’t have been surprised though, as Viseart really nails orange.

When there’s an issue with the blend of a matte, it can usually be covered up with a shimmer, so that’s where this palette is at a disadvantage. There aren’t any shimmers to hide the flaws.

Based on the palette in front of me, I cannot recommend it to others. However, this comes with the note that newer batches of the Grande Pro 1x are possibly better performing than the one I’ve got. For the time being, I’m not going to declutter this palette. I plan to reduce the number of lighter shades, especially the ones that just look white on my skin or look too similar to each other. Then, I’m also going to remove the troublesome darker shades and fill the empty spots with shimmers! Or completely rearrange all the medium sized pans. I just have to remember not to wear a Grande Pro 1x all-matte eye look when I’m taking photos!

Wow, this was a monster of a post.

I hope this has been helpful and that you’ll return to visit this blog again next week!

-Lili ❤