Part of Maquillage Spring 2010 (maybe Summer too?), this quint was recently given to me by Shiseido Singapore to review. I’ve been playing with this palette for the past few days and to my pleasure, I’ve discovered a plethora of ways to use and work it – it isn’t like the typical Japanese gradational palette and its five disparate shades offers many application possibilities.
At first glance, VI767 reminded me a little of Jill Stuart Seductive Eyes in Sensual Fairy but they are very different in texture and hue. The Jill Stuart quad is intense and very sparkly but this Maquillage palette is soft and glimmery. Instead of obvious shine, the finely-milled multi-coloured micro-shimmer – mostly infused in the taupe and two cream shadows – imparts a pretty twinkle. The effect is subtly prismatic, giving dimension to the eye.
- The violet is a soft cool-toned purple that flashes green. Although this shade is sheerer and more powdery than the shadows I’m used to, its reflective green shimmer is uniformly distributed and shows up beautifully over darker cream bases like the grey in the palette.
- The taupe is quite a marvel – not only does it have copious amount of fine multi-coloured shimmer, its shade is also just right for my socket indent and I like it for natural contouring. If you’re concerned about the coloured shimmer showing up, you could buff it out. I personally like the unique glimmer. :)
- The pale gold is the most intense of the five shades and has an almost-metallic appearance. Buff it on the eye and you will get a soft beige with a glint, making it apt as a highlighter. Do use it with a light hand; it is very pigmented.
- The white cream shadow has a lilac-pink flash. It’s pretty as a base on its own; unfortunately, it has a lot of glide and a silicone feel, which means it has a tendency to crease. As such, I use it over a smudgeproof base. I like I Nuovi’s Eyebase, a nude base, to bring out the flashes and coloured shimmer in this cream shadow. It can be layered over powders for a hint of iridescent glimmer but this has to be done with gentle patting to avoid caking.
- The grey is infused with multi-coloured sparkles and is more intense than the white. Of the two cream shadows, this one is more pigmented but can be layered several times (even over powders) without any caking, unlike the white one. This same quality enthralled me when I used a similar cream shadow in the limited edition Eyes Creator in GR764 at the Shiseido beauty workshop.
Although the swatches don’t capture the fine prismatic shimmer, it shows up well on the eye and stays on, quietly amping up eye looks.
Here is the violet on its own and over the grey cream shadow. I really like the unique green flash. Purples and greens may work well together but green in purple is nothing short of amazing!
Priced at S$69, the palette includes easy-peasy instructions on the back of the box:
1. Apply the white from lash to brow.
2. Apply the violet up to the socket/crease.
3. Apply the sparkly taupe on both sides of the eye over the violet, blending inwards. Isn’t it cute that the illustration emphasises the sparkle? :)
4. Apply the gold on the centre of the lid to pop the look.
5. Apply the grey as a liner on the upper and lower lashlines, tapering it off towards the centre on the lower lash line.
I like the interesting technique of putting the taupe on both sides, over the violet. The taupe blends beautifully over the violet to form a gorgeous shade and this technique creates dimension through layering. ♥
