Viseart Eyeshadow Palettes

Ok, I’m going to kick this one off with a disclaimer. These palettes are $80 each. It’s kind of ironic to be reviewing such a luxury item after my anti-haul inspired post last week… That said, I only bought these two Viseart palettes because I received $150 in Sephora gift cards for the holidays and I thought I should splurge on something special instead of buying a lot of smaller items. So I’m only recommending these if you are looking to get yourself something really special, or if someone wants to buy you a nice gift.

That said, these are really nice palettes and I am glad I decided to buy them!

Let’s discuss the palettes in general, then I’ll get down to specific reviews of the two I have. They come in acrylic cases with a clear lid with a tiny matte slate Viseart logo on the top. The lid hinges via metal pins, so it’s flush and doesn’t have those little plastic hinges that might break off. The packaging feels pretty sturdy. For $80 you might expect something a little fancier-looking, but since these are designed for professional makeup artists, it makes sense that they’d have a clear lid so an artist can quickly see at a glance which palette they’re looking at and what colors they have at their disposal.

And because they’re made for makeup artists, with the idea that you’d buy them all (with some sort of pro discount so you’re not actually paying $80 each…) they’re grouped along themes like mattes or satins, with the idea that you would mix and match to create the look you need. Most of these palettes would not stand alone to create a smoky eye or cut crease look. Instead, consumers like us should choose 1 or 2 palettes that have colors they think they would wear a lot, and then supplement with colors from the rest of our collection. I’ll get into why I chose the two that I did below.

Of the two palettes, I’ve definitely used Paris Nude more often. I chose this one because I thought all of the colors would look really good with my green eyes, and there were a good amount of shades that I didn’t already have. That said, these colors are probably easier to dupe than the other palette I picked out, which is why when I thought I was only going to buy one, I wasn’t going to get this.

I’ve been wearing this a lot because the colors are so versatile. I can add some colors from other palettes to craft a really elegant neutral look for performing, or I can brush 1-2 shades from this palette on for a nice daytime look or an elegant date night eye. All of these colors have a satiny shimmer, and a couple have really fine glitter. Although the colors are a little more subdued, they’re still highly pigmented. I’ve been happy with how they wear. If I wear them all day, they might look a little faded/less shimmery by the end of the night, but the fading is very even, so I just have a softer look than I started the day with, but it’s not patchy.

This is a pretty good palette for traveling. I could pack this and my favorite almost-black color, and have an easy way to go from day to night or even do a performance look.

If you’re only going to buy one Viseart palette, I’d strongly suggest the Dark Matte palette. I haven’t used it as much, because I haven’t been performing as often, but the colors I have worn have really impressed me. These sort of dark, intense matte colors are often poorly formulated in other brands, going on patchily or not appears very dark on the skin. These colors are intensely pigmented and there are some very unusual shades, so this would be a difficult palette to duplicate.

I have to say, I figured I wouldn’t really use the red and orange shades in this palette, but looking at how beautifully that burnt orange swatched on my arm, I am definitely going to be making a look built around that color. It’s gorgeous! I think this palette would be especially good for holding up to stage lights, because the colors are really dense. They’re not going to wash out in bright light, and you can use them to build a really bold look.

Now for the ridiculous confession… even though I’ve worn these two palettes a lot lately, to test them for my blog… I don’t have any close-up pictures of my eyes wearing them. UGH! You’ll have to take my word at it that they look really good on.

Over all, I’d say these are a nice splurge if you’re serious about eye shadow and you want to have one really nice palette that you can build some looks around. I’m pretty sure Sephora will have another VIB sale within the next month and a half, since they usually have one in April it seems, so maybe wait until you can get a discount and then Treat Yo Self!