Thursday, July 15, 2010

Two looks using the Kat Von D Adora Palette


I got a chance to play around with the Sephora Kat Von D Adora palette a little and tried out two different looks. First, a grey look:


Without flash and with flash. I think the flash makes the plum color on the bottom show up better.

For this I used:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Glock on lid
Holy Bible on inner third of lid
Oddfellow in crease
Ace of Spades on lower lashline
Urban Decay 24/7 in Zero for liner
Cover Girl Lash Blast

I was hoping that the multicolored glitter in Oddfellow would show up, but it really didn't. There were a few stray sparkles on the lid, surprisingly no glitter fallout, but the rest of it just somehow disappeared!

To test out the purple I did this look:


Without flash and with. Basically the same look as the previous grey one I did... was hoping it would come out looking a little different!

For this I used:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Glock on the lid
Holy Bible in inner corner and lower lashline
Ace of Spades in crease
Albino in center of lid, applied very lightly to add sparkle
Crucifix cream shadow as liner
Urban Decay Lash Primer
Cover Girl Lash Blast

In the pan Ace of Spades looks like a vibrant red-purple but on the eye it's a black matte with slight red pearl which combines to make a soft plum smoke color. Not really what I was hoping for. None of the glitter shows up on the eye at all.

I was wrong about the pigmentation. The pigmentation on these is excellent and up to par with the previous palettes. The only one that gives me trouble is Albino because it's very flaky, like MAC frost pigments. The blendability of these is excellent- they blend flawlessly without washing out. They're very buttery and silky.

I am extremely disappointed that they chose to include three cream shadows in this palette. I do not like cream shadows and these are no exception. I haven't tried using these particular shades as shadow yet, but the black cream (Crucifix) works very well as a cream eyeliner. At least that's useful. I'm sure Bloodletting would make an awesome lipstick, but I'm not much of a wine lipstick wearer.

I'm also disappointed in Ace of Spades and Oddfellow. The colors look fine on the eye, quite beautiful actually, the pigmentation is good and they blend perfectly, but... The glitter doesn't show up. In the pan they look super glittery and sparkly but none of it seems to transfer to the eye at all. A little like those supremely deceptive NARS "night" series shadows. Maybe I just need to play around with them a little more. I want glittery goodness. Wah.

One more disappointment is that they never seem to include a light neutral highlight shade. I don't want to wear frosty silver, frosty white or frosty yellow on my browbone. It just doesn't look that great. I want a light color with a little shimmer for highlighting and blending. Not all this crazy shiny frosty stuff, which is good on the lid but not so good on my browbone.

But, the texture of the shadows is nice, the packaging is convenient (even though they still put in those completely useless brushes for some reason) and the colors are perfect for doing a super fast no-effort smoky eye. I like it enough not to return it, enough to use it regularly, but not enough to rave about it or call it my favorite. If it didn't have the cream shadows I'd be raving for sure. But it does, and I feel like they're just wasting space that could have been more shadows.

Maybe the next one will be better. No more smudgy, clumpy, creasing, streaking, quick to dry out cream shadows in the next palette, please!

17 comments:

  1. Both looks are great and sexy as hell!

    ReplyDelete
  2. wow wee both looks are amazing i wanna try this <333

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't care for Kat von D or her palettes, but your eyes... Damn you and your cat like wells of awesomeness! *drowning*

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your eyes look amazing. I wish I knew how to apply eyeshadow like that. I need to sit and play around. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  5. The first look is my fave. I checked out the palettes last week at Sephora. When I saw they had creams in with powders I said WTH??? Usually, folks don't like to mix the mediums. So why the hell are they making this faux pas???

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was surprised that after all the customer reviews of people hating the cream shadows and the useless brushes, they still included both in the latest palette. I love Kat Von D's eye shadows, but c'mon...the marketing team better wake up.

    The grey look is really beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Maybe using the creams as a base would grab the pigment/glitter better? The red one under the plum for instance.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love both looks but the purple is my favorite. I don't understand why they put in those darn cremes. Why don't they wake up?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your eyes are so gorgeous I don't know what to say!

    (And the makeup is cool also :D)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great looks. I think I like the second one a bit better, although both are beautiful!
    You have GORGEOUS eyes, BTW.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Scrangie - I used to just worship you as my nail god. Now I see - you are able to create a smokey eye so perfect - it looks like you uses an airgun to perfectly blend your eyes - I am so damn jealous!! Heh.

    I hope you keep posting stuff like this because I love makeup reviews. I only have 2 Kat von D palettes and I thought the same thing about a matt (or less shimmery neutral) for a highlight colour as well. Why doesn't she put one in it?

    Also, the limited edition ones have cream eyeshadow which dries out so quickly it is beyond useless.

    Having said all that your eyeshadow looks SUPERB. Man, this is long - I hope you keep these coming!
    BV

    ReplyDelete
  12. I really do like the looks you put together. They're lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  13. ugh, i totally agree re: including a highlighter shade. so many palettes are released without one, and it drives me nuts! especially when you want to use a palette for travel. great looks! i think i'll be skipping this particular kat von d...but you worked it.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I know you hate cream eyeshadows, but they are imperative for me (I wear gas permeable hard contacts :<) Make up Forever released a line of cream eyeshadows that are positively outstanding. I have the world's oiliest eyelids and they've never creased, even without primer. This is important because the second makeup gets in my eye, it swells shut for a week. You should check 'em out! I love your makeup posts.

    ReplyDelete

Please be respectful. Refrain from using my comments for unsolicited advertising. If you would like me to check out your blog or product, please email me. Thank you!