Happy Friday everyone!
This time of year I'm always tracking down holiday palettes to review, and this one from Hard Candy is one of the most affordable I've found. It's called the Glam Kit Eyeshadow palette (24 colors), and it was only $4.88 at Wal-Mart. There were actually several versions of this palette available- maybe 4 or 5 different options. They had different colors on the top of the palette (I chose the gold one), and each had its own grouping of shadows on the inside... each one seemed to have quite a bit of color variety, and they all contained shimmery shadows. Ever since I fell in love with the quality of Hard Candy's baked shadow duos, I've been intrigued by any subsequent shadow release because I'm just hoping that it's the same as those duos. So far nothing measures up, including this palette.
Here I've swatched the top, middle, and bottom rows of this palette and didn't use any primer underneath. As you can see- the pigmentation is VERY weak with that top row. When you look at the center row of the palette, you'd think those shades should be pretty vibrant... they swatched better than the top row, but are still pretty sheer. The bottom row contains the deepest shades, and also some of the most pigmented shades. (I used a couple of the best shades from that row in my look today). Still, the quality is very hit and miss-- note the swatch of the black shade... it looks like a sheer grey.
For my look, I first used an eye primer, and then used five of the shadows from this palette...
1. I applied this bronze color all over my lid
2. I used the olive green on the outer part of the lid and in the crease
3. I used black in the outer corner
4. I blended the coppery color just above my crease
5. I used this pearly shade as my highlight
As far as other parts of the look, I lined my upper lashline with the Jordana 12 Hr. Made to Last eyeliner in Jade Jewel on my upper lashline, and I used a black pencil in my lower waterline. I also applied mascara to my upper and lower lashes. On my lips, I'm wearing the Maybelline Color Whisper in Petal Rebel with Laura Geller Color Drenched Lip Gloss in Tea Rose on top.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the shadow look- partially because I used some of the more pigmented shadows in this palette. One thing that I was not happy with was the black shade. I had to really scrub on the shadow with my brush to pick up any color, and then when I started to apply it, it had really bad fall-out on my cheek... you'd think that a shadow that creates fallout would at least be rich and pigmented, but that wasn't the case here. It was weird! I had to wipe down my cheek and start over with my concealer, which I almost never do.
♥
Bottom Line: I realize this kit is only $4.88... and a lot of people might not expect great quality. But with the Hard Candy name on it, I held out some hope that it might be good. Unfortunately, there are many more misses than hits. I know that sheer shadows do have their place in someone's eyeshadow collection... sometimes you just want a sheer look, or maybe you're not experienced with makeup so you don't want anything too pigmented. However I could see this palette just being a pain in the butt to both the beginners and the experienced makeup users. Many of these shades don't show up anywhere close to the way they look in the palette, and eyeshadow that generates a lot of fallout is really frustrating. Also- EVERY shadow in this kit has the same shimmery finish-- no mattes. If you want to try something from Hard Candy, check out their regular line of products... they have many things that FAR exceed this palette quality-wise. (Baked eyeshadow duos, baked blushes, Tiki bronzer, etc.)
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