Palette Overview
16 Nov
These palettes are super popular in the makeup world because they’re inexpensive, pigmented, and come with a ton of shades. The palettes are mass produced in China and are relatively easy to get. They were also popularized by the online wholesaler Coastal Scents (but I don’t recommend buying from them, I’ll explain that in a post later). Anyway, I’ve collected a few of these palettes over the last few months and I thought I would review them all at once, give you my honest opinion, and give my recommendations for where to buy them.
The 26 eyeshadow/blush palette is amazing, some of these shades go on so smooth it’s like liquid, I can’t explain it any other way. The colors are on the neutral side, but not completely. There are a mixture of plums, corals, taupes, and browns. The only drawback to this palette is there are no good highlight colors (at least for my extremely pale skin, the lightest blush may work for people with darker skin tones).
The 28 neutral palette is often referred to as the bridal palette because it has such a range of neutral shades.  This one contains a number of highlight colors as well as crease and lid shades. And a matte black, which is a necessity. The pigmentation on the palette is slightly less (very slightly) than the others, but still amazing.  This palette is perfect if you love neutral looks or need work-appropriate shadows, and of course this is perfect for bridal work!
As you can see from the photo above, my 88 ultra shimmer palette is very well loved. I really like shimmery eyeshadow, so if that’s you’re thing too, I definitely recommend this palette. This palette only contains very shimmery shades, no matte or satin finishes. With the 88 palettes, each shadow is about the size of a dime, so they are quite small. But the shadows are so pigmented that you only need to use a little, so these palettes will last a very long time.
If I had to choose between the two 88 palettes, I would probably choose the 88 Shimmer, but I love shimmery eyeshadows. If you don’t, the 88 matte palette might be for you. Like all the other palettes, this one also has awesome pigmentation. This palette has matte and satin shades, and a few of the matte shadows have glitter but none of the shades are shimmery. This 88 matte/satin is a very good starter palette.
If you’re going to get just one eyeshadow palette, I recommend the 120 palette. This one comes with the most shades (120 eyeshadows, obviously haha) and has a mixture of all four finishes – matte, satin, glitter, and shimmer. And the individual shadows are a little larger than the 88 palettes. One bad thing about the 120 is how fragile it is, the shadows in this palette are a little softer than in the others and they’re contained in two stackable trays which makes the 120 a little more clumsy to work with. It isn’t available on Coastal Scents or Stars Makeup Haven, but is is available from sites like bhcosmetics.com and bf-beauty.com. I still recommend purchasing it from a reputable Ebay seller because you will get a better deal.
Although I do like the blush and contour shades in the contour palette, the other three pans (white, yellow, and light pink) are not very useful. The white (highlight?) shade is very chalky. This palette is nice, but certainly not a must-have. You’d be better off buying a few blush shades and a bronzer at your local drugstore.
~As I’ve said before, these palettes are mass produced in China. So why not buy them from the source and save a buck?
Here are my favorite Hong Kong based Ebay sellers:
jolieeeee and 3act* beauty
