I was actually kind of excited when this launched. I am not the one to obsess over beauty gurus on YouTube, and I don’t watch anyone’s videos religiously. I pop in from time to time and look at what peaks my interest. But Christen Dominique has been someone I have watched from time to time over so many years, back in 2011-2012 when my interest really sparked I used to watch her videos and I still do, sometimes.

Since I have been familiar with her for a while her launch of her own brand was something I was fairly positive to. You know, sometimes it is just “oh, great! Another YouTuber releasing a brand!” and sometimes it is more “Well, lets see what you can do, you got my interest”, and this palette got my interest.

Not necessarily because the colors are unique and eye-catching. The palette is on the contrary very neutral with a few pops of color. The typical trend as of lately. But this one peaked my interest because of how well thought through it seemed to be. When someone make a “Palette-Baby” instead of just releasing just another item to the line, it does sound more promising I think. So the minute it hit BeautyBay (or not the minute, but actually the same day) I was 42$ poorer, and one neutral palette richer. I am actually very rich in  palettes if I may say so.

There is no denying it though. The palette is gorgeous, well composed, cohesive and just very pleasing to the eyes. There are 7 mattes and 3 shimmer shades. The top row is all mattes brown goodness. I would say they are all warm. I would also say they are not unique in any way. I have multiple of these colors, and so you probably you. But they are handy, hence why they appear in to many palettes.

One cool thing about these shadow are that they are quite big in size, and the reason being that you are supposed to be able to multitask, and being this size it is no problem dipping a face brush into them. Vanilla Créme for instance can be used as an under eye brightening powder as well as a base shade for your lid, or browbone highlighter. Caramel works for me as a bronzer, and Hazelnut or Mocha may work that way for you depending on skintone. Some may even find a brow color among these browns (I am not that lucky though). The shimmers could also be highlighters, and for my skin tone Macchiato was light enoug. They do however have a bit too much glitter in them for my taste as a highlighter, but they do look stunning as eyeshadows still!

The second row has those three gorgeous shimmer shades and the two pops of colors. I love that the color pops are actually matte, and not shimmer or metallic like in “every other palette”. That pop of color is great, and for me very welcome, but I think they are shimmers way to often. I am very pleased that both Cold Brew and Double Shot are completely matte.

Even though we all know that whats inside it what counts (for makeup and human beings alike) it does not hurt to give the nice packaging an honorable mention.

The palette was designed to be chic, elegant and Instagram friendly. Check, check and check! It has a nice heavy feel to it making it feel like a 42$ palette and not a cheap cardboard solution. The mirror inside it large, and I could without any issued apply my eye makeup using that mirror only.

The gold detail and simple logo gives it a clean nice appearance. But talking about clean. How is it to keep this white palette looking nice and white? Not problem! I does not seem to attract dirt and you can use a makeup wipe without any big risk.

But lets go back to pan size for a while. I did mention it was big, but the packaging says that each powder holds 1.8 gram. That is exactly the same as a MakeupGeek or MAC eyeshadow even though the pan size looks twice as big. After further makeup investigation I could see that the powder is not filled to the rim of the tin pan. No biggie, 1.8 gram is a decent amount, it just isn’t more product than a regular pan even though it looks like it. I can’t even hit pan on things I am trying to hit pan on, so that’s completely fine by me.

The quality? Excellent! They are very easy to work with. Nice pigmentation, not the most pigmented ones I’ve seen, just enough to make them work nice but not to much so that you have to be careful with them. Just perfect I would say. There is a tiny bit of fallout with Cold Brew and Double Shot but not much at all considering they are dark. The shimmers go on beautifully, but did also have a little bit of fallout but nothing major. I didn’t feel like I had to dampen my brush to be satisfied with their performance. They work good just as is.

Just overall a very solid palette, and I think this is a clever take on a first launch. It is just a solid, well-composed neutral palette with colors that can be used in multiple ways. Yes, it is “just another neutral palette” but I am impressed!

XOXO

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