Thursday, September 13, 2012

E.L.F. Ultimate Eyeshadow Palette with 144 swatches!

I recently got the E.L.F. Ultimate Eyeshadow Palette which is $15 on the Eyes Lips Face website. This has 144 different eyeshadow colors and is super exciting. I always wanted a palette with a huge variety of palettes so I could do looks without having to purchase colors I would only wear once or twice. This is perfect for that and I'm really happy with this purchase. I'm also crazy because yes, I have swatches. I spent yesterday morning swatching all 144 colors and washing my arm quite a lot!

The palette comes in a plastic casing and is rather large. I would estimate about 9 by 11 inches. The actual palette packaging does feel rather cheap, but for the price I didn't expect much. Unfortunately when I received mine one of the shadows had popped out, but it wasn't damaged with no mess. A little craft glue kept it in place and now it's good as new.


The palette has 12 rows of twelve shadows, and each column has shades of a different color. I swatched these by column, so like colors are together for the most part. I gave each column a number and my idea of the type of colors within it. These are not from E.L.F. but just my interpretation!

Column 1- Neutral Browns and Golds
Column 2- Yellows and Oranges
Column 3- Warm Greens
Column 4- Teals
Column 5- Cool Greens
Column 6- Blues
Column 7- Purples
Column 8- Pinks and Reds
Column 9- Warm Browns 1
Column 10- Warm Browns 2
Column 11- Cool Browns
Column 12- Greys



And now- On to the swatch fest! I broke each column into 6 and 6.

1- Neutral Browns and Golds


2- Yellows and Oranges    



3- Warm Greens


4- Teals


5- Cool Greens


6- Blues


7- Purples


8- Pinks and Reds


9- Warm Browns 1


10- Warm Browns 2


11- Cool Browns


12- Greys


All of these swatches are 2-3 swipes of shadow. As you can see, pigmentation is really varied. Shades with more shimmer or leaning towards metallic had the best payoff, while the mattes tended to be a bit chalky. Overall I was happy with the texture and pigment of the eyeshadows but there was one major disapointment. The purples were by far the worst column. Nearly every shade was hard and powdery with almost no color. Even though they range from dark to light in the pans, swatched they look almost identical. Besides the underwhelming purples, I would still say this is a very nice palette if you are looking for a wide variety of fun colors that aren't something you reach for everyday. One of the only other bad things I can say about it is that now it's going to be hard to justifying buying more eyeshadow!

With so many colors at my fingertips when I went to do a look with this palette to test it out on the eyes, I gravitated immediately towards a rainbow! I used mostly mattes for this look and was happy with how they translated when used on the eye. Can't say I as brave enough to wear this out, but it was fun to do!



EDIT: I have more looks to share!

Blue and Purple


Sunset Eyes



Emerald Eyes


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