I took a trip to Walgreens for the soul purpose of seeking out the elusive WnW holiday palettes.  Unfortunately that particular store was a dead end, but since there was a buy one, get one 50% off promotion on all WnW products, I decided to try the Greed and Vanity palettes that have been creating such a buzz online.  I also picked up two nail polishes.

Vanity Palette Swatches

The Vanity Palette is my favorite of the two, and in my opinion has the most usable shades.

The mattes:  The lightest shade, which is repeated in the Greed Palette, is almost identical to my skintone.  It’s quite similar to MAC’s Blanc Type, but the formulation of this and the other mattes in the palettes seems superior.  There is no chalkiness and fallout that I’ve come to expect from matte eyeshadows.  The colors apply smooth and creamy, without skipping.  The second shade is similar, but slightly cooler than, MAC’s Soft Brown.  It will be an ideal blending/transition color.  The third shade is a red brown – the closest dupe I could find is MAC’s Handwritten – and the WnW shade has FAR better pigmentation.  The mattes are definitely the standouts.

The shimmers:  I LOVE the 1st color.  To me it looks like if MAC’s Shroom and Ricepaper had a baby, this would be it – a perfect highlight shade.  The second gold shade is reminiscent of MAC’s Goldmine, but the color payoff is poor.  The third shade is a shimmery brown bronze.  Truthfully I don’t think I’ll get much use of the last two shimmer shades.

Greed Palette Swatches

The mattes: The first shade is identical to the lightest shade from the previous palette.  The second shade is a peach-y one.  I’ve heard that it is similar to MAC’s Texture, which I don’t own.  It will be a great transition shade.  The third is a standard matte black – I’d like to test this against MAC’s Carbon and see if it has less fallout.

The shimmers: The first shade is a sort of Periwinkle with multi-colored shimmer.  As you can probably tell, I got crap color payoff from this shade.  The second shade is a peachy color with shimmer – nothing special.  The third shade is a black silver shimmer.  In my experience these type of shades usually don’t translate to the skin the same way they look in the pan, so I was surprised that there was still shimmer in the swatch.  It would be interesting to see if it will retain the shimmer on the eye after blending.

I also bought two nail polishes – at 1.99 a piece and 50% off the second, who could resist?!

Inferno, Shield, 2 coats

Inferno is a flaming orange that flashes yellowish gold shimmer.  Very fall appropriate.  Shield is a bronzey taupe with bronze and red shimmer.

This is something I’ve been meaning to do a while  – swatching my collection.  Cream eye products are something I use daily as a base for my eyeshadow, on top of my primer.  They give an added boost to your eyeshadows’ staying power and make the colors of your shadow more vibrant.  I mainly have paint pots, but a few other brands have snuck in there as well.

These swatches were all applied with a synthetic brush and no primer.  These pictures were taken without flash.

L to R top row: Painterly p/p, Girlfriendly p/p, Coral Crepe p/p, Fresco Rose p/p, Quite Natural p/p, Benefit Skinny Jeans cream e/s, Delft p/p, MUFE Flash Color No.3, Blackground p/p

L to R bottom row: Bare Study p/p, Benefit RSVP cream e/s, Kryolan White Aquacolor, Kryolan Iridescent Plum Aquacolor

I realized after I started posting this that I had left out one of my browns, Constructivist paint pot, so I swatched it with the rest of my browns and took another picture.

L to R: Constructivist p/p, Quite Natural p/p, Benefit Skinny Jeans cream e/s, Blackground p/p

So here’s some closeups of the swatches.

L to R: Painterly p/p, Girlfriendly p/p, Coral Crepe p/p, Fresco Rose p/p, Quite Natural p/p

• Painterly p/p: Painterly is my go to base and it’s probably easy to see why – it’s very close to my skintone so it will work with any color eyeshadow and because it’s matte and very opaque, it does a good job of concealing darkness/redness on eyelids as well.  Nice smooth texture.

• Girlfriendly p/p: This was a limited edition product (I hate when they do that!).  It’s a matte, dusty pink that would work well with pinks, burgundies, purples, and even browns.  The texture is identical to Painterly.  I don’t reach for this often but I should.

• Coral Crepe p/p: Coral Crepe is a satin-y bright coral.  It looks great under oranges and corals (of course) and brightens up browns as well.  The color is a bit sheer.  Unfortunately this was a limited edition as well, which makes no sense to me – this is definitely a color that is missing in MAC’s permanent line.

• Fresco Rose p/p: This is a light pink shade with a soft shimmer.  Truthfully I don’t think I’ve used it but once or twice – it’s almost identical to Girl Friendly but has the added shimmer.

• Quite Natural p/p: Quite natural is a very matte brown.  The texture is a bit difficult to blend as you can see in the swatch – it gets a little clumpy and isn’t easy to smooth out.  This could be used on brows as well.

• Constructivist p/p: One of my most used and loved paint pots.  This is a pearly brown (not shimmery, but pearly) with a nice smooth texture that blends out great.  I use it as a base for smokey brown eyes or shimmery browns.

L to R: Benefit Skinny Jeans cream e/s, Delft p/p, MUFE Flash Color No. 3, Blackground p/p

• Benefit Skinny Jeans Creaseless Cream e/s: By far, my favorite cream eyeshadow… Skinny Jeans is a silver brown color with multi-colored shimmer.  It look great with browns, silvers/grays, black.  It also looks fantastic by itself, blended out.  The texture of this is amazing – super creamy and easy to blend.

• Delft p/p: Delft is a dark blue with silver shimmer.  I find it to be a bit sheer because I can see my skin color showing through, but otherwise it’s a good base for blues, greens, and even purples.

• MUFE Flash Color No. 3: This silver flash color from MUFE is very creamy, very metallic, and very opaque.  However, it is not a good base for keeping your eyeshadow on and tends to slide around.  This product is better suited for special occasions, Halloween, or New Years when you’re looking for something to stick your glitter on to.  That said, if you can find an effective way to keep this product from creasing, it literally looks like liquid silver on the skin.  Amazing!

• Blackground p/p: Blackground is a creamy black base with multi-colored shimmer.  It’s more blue-black than true-black, which is apparent when it’s blended out, so if you’re looking for something very very dark, this might not be the best color.  This is an all-around good base for smokey eyes.

L to R: Barestudy p/p, Benefit RSVP cream e/s, Kryolan White Aquacolor, Kryolan Iridescent Plum Aquacolor

• Barestudy p/p: Barestudy is a beige/champagne color with shimmer.  I really do not like the texture of the product once it’s on my lid and so don’t use it often.  This is a great base for golds and neutrals that have shimmer.  Some people like to use this as their everyday base, but I don’t like it for two reasons – it has color, and it’s not matte, so it’s going to interfere with the color of the shadow that’s being applied on top of it.

• Benefit RSVP Creaseless cream e/s: This is another champagne color similar to Barestudy, but far superior in terms of texture.  Benefit’s cream eyeshadows are really amazing products.

• Kryolan White Aquacolor: Aquacolors are water-activated and this white one is a great base for bright colors, true opaque whites, or any shade that you need a white base to show its true color (for example, turquoises can look muddy when they’re applied directly to your skin, but they look bright and exactly like they do in the pan when they’re applied on a white base).

• Kryolan Iridescent Plum Aquacolor: Iridescent Plum is a gorgeous, blue violet with iridescent shimmer.  This is a great base for purples or blues.  These Aquacolors have a great consistency and blend nicely.