Review and Swatches of "03-Bridal Satin" Eyeshadow Palette from Viseart!!!

Viseart is a professional makeup brand but over the last 2-3 years it has gained immense popularity among the everyday makeup users, not just professional makeup artists. I bought the Dark Matte Palette in late 2015. I love that palette so much that it made its way to my 2016 Beauty Favorites! When Sephora sent me their holiday bonus coupon back in 2015, I researched a lot and took the plunge to invest in the Bridal Satin Palette. Viseart have a few different satin palettes but this one offered me the color range that interested me the most! 

First thing first, let’s just start stating that I don’t love this palette as much as I love my Dark Matte palette! I will explain in a bit.

Price and Availability: These 12 pan palettes from Viseart retails at 80$. With the discount coupon, I paid around 60$ including tax. I still think it is overpriced. Keep in mind that I happily paid that price for the dark matte palette (check detailed review here). These are available in Sephora, Muse Beauty Pro and Beautylish. For your convenience, here is a little price breakdown.

 

Product	Price and Size	Price per oz. ($)
MAC single pan	10$ for 0.04 oz.	250
Makeup Geek single pan	$6 for 0.064 oz.	93.75
IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Matte Vol. 1 palette	$42 for 0.456 oz.	92.10
Urban Decay Naked Original palette	$54 for 12x0.05 oz.	90
Viseart 12-shade palette	$80 for 0.84 oz.	95.23

While keeping the table above in mind, I strongly believe that there are better and affordable shimmer/satin shades available in the market.  If you have your eyes on these Viseart palettes I encourage you to research and decide which palettes will give you the most usage. And then wait for sales like Sephora VIB sale. So, yes find a sale before buying these; specially the satin palettes!

Formula & Wear time: Now we are at the point where I can talk more about why I don't like this as much as their mattes. As you can see on the pan, these powders are very finally milled and super smooth. When I go in with the brush, I feel like they are a bit dry in texture. When I swatch them on my hands using my fingertips, I can feel the dry texture! 

These are pigmented but I do have to layer it to get the application even and opaque up to my liking. It is probably because of the dry texture. Overall, I do feel a bit of discontentment during the process of application. But once I am done with applying my makeup I always end up LOVING the look! It appears soft and smooth every time; very pigmented but not in-your-face! These are not your typical glittery/shimmery eyeshadows; they are deliciously soft and elegant! Of course, the palette is named bridal satin and has shades suitable for all skin tones. The soft sheen in these shades is magnificent for brides as they complement against the beautiful white wedding dress. I am from India and our wedding dresses are dangerously colorful so these shadows aren’t going to flatter those outfits. Anyway, even though I love how the end looks appear beautiful in real life and in photos, I don’t think I enjoy this palette that much! 

Shades: If you have read my long review on the Dark Matte palette, you will know that I love every single shade on that palette. The feeling isn’t the same for this one. This palette has a balanced mixture of warm and cool toned shades. I am going to number these shades as they don’t have individual names. I know for sure that I am not going to get much use out of the first row and the third column! I am not much into cool toned shades and the first row is a bit pale for my skin tone. I do appreciate the rest of the shades though!

1. Such a gorgeous yellow-toned beige shades. But little too light for me. Same case with 2, 3, 4 as well.
2. This is a dirty, very pale-blue shade. Not a shade that is best for my skin tone.
3. This has a strong, dirty baby pink hue to the shade. Beautiful shade but not for me.
4. This is a soft baby blue shade. I do love this kind of shades but on application, it appears more whiter and less blue than it is on the pan.
5. Now this is a shade that it not very commonly found. Gorgeous soft tangerine coral shade. Very soft, very pretty.
6. Another gorgeous everyday taupe shade. This last year I have totally fallen in love with taupe shades (check my 2016 Beauty Favorites post). This might be my new favorite taupe.
7. I love purple shades too! They are one of my favorite shades to wear on my eyes. This one is a pretty lilac-y purple. I really enjoy it.
8. This is a grey shade with a cool-toned bluish hint. This is a shade that is just perfect for a classic smokey eye.
9. Another easy shade for me to wear! It is almost similar shade to my skin tone but with a gold shift to it. Love this shade.
10. Another favorite. It is a coppery bronze shade.
11. It is a deeper purple with a maroon-y pink shift to it.
12. It is a black with soft subtle multicolored speckles.

Overall, I do love these shades! They are such soft, pretty everyday shades. No way unique though, you will probably find similar shades in much more affordable price range. I don’t regret my purchase; like I said, I love the looks I create with this palette but I am not entirely in love with the palette and will not invest in another satin-only palette from Viseart.

Love,

~Arrru

Happy Bihu Everyone!!

Celebrating Bhogali Bihu the way I do - by sharing my thoughts on the blog here. My cousin sis Deepa sent me the pictures of the laru and pithas they made back home in advance, so that I can include these in my blog! Long back, I planned to post a few blogposts with a few topics that are at the heart of my culture. From those topics, I have covered Narikolor Laru celebrating last year's bihu, I have covered Durga Puja and a few more! I very much intend to do one post on Pithas but I will have to wait for some time for that!

Today I am here to share some pictures! If Magh Bihu is brand new word for you, check here to know more about it. This is one of the few main festivities we celebrated in home, Assam, India! It is conceptually similar to Lohri, Makar Sankranti etc! When we were very little our neighbourhood had the feast together but as time passes, as the world becomes more modern, there are less and less people that manages to come together to celebrate! And I am not surprized about that! My mom sent me this marginally hazy picture of the laru pithas she made! This is the first year that neither me or my sister is home for Bihu. I guess that is making mom a little bit sad but otherwise she is always super enthuasiastic about Magh Bihu! But, I do understand how this is the way life has become! I don't have the luxury of becoming sad reminiscing older days but I do ponder! Here are some pictures from home! 

Wish you had an wonderful Uruka feast among family and friends! If you are in far away place and missing your family, fear not - here is my Narikolor Laru recipe! It takes me a few hours to make this, so its a good way for me to fight the homesickness!

Laru-Pitha made and clicked by Mom

Laru-Pitha made and clicked by Deepa

Laru-Pitha made and clicked by Deepa

Laru-Pitha made and clicked by Deepa

Laru-Pitha made and clicked by Deepa

Laru-Pitha made and clicked by Deepa

Laru-Pitha made and clicked by Ani

:-)
Love,
~Arrru

Sephora Birthday Gift - 2017!!!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope it's off to a great start for you!

I joined Beauty Insider program in Sephora in 2014 and ever since, every holiday season I patiently wait for sneak peaks of the free birthday gift! Being a January born, I am always excited to get the gift way early in the year! We all feel excited about the free makeup but I have to agree, I feel extra excited when it is from a coveted brand. 2016 gift was from Marc Jacobs (reviewed here), 2015 gift was from NARS (reviewed here) &; 2014 gift was from Make Up For Ever (reviewed here); I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them.

I am going to sound like a Negative Nancy, but I am not at all excited about this years gift. I love that this year they gave you 3 options to choose from. Read about it more here. I have been reviewing the makeup product every year so I picked up the Tarte "happy birthday tartelette" Lip and Cheek set. I love Tarte as a brand, but this type of deluxe mini lipstick and blushes were included in so many different Holiday sets that it kind of diminishes the elusiveness or the charm of the gift. May be it just me, but it does not feel luxurious like the NARS or Marc Jacobs sets! Additionally, I am 31 and my dry, chapped lips aren't really excited about another liquid lipstick. 

Keeping my disappointment aside, let's discuss the shades. Both the blush and the lip paint are in exclusive shade!

Amazonian Clay 12-hr Blush in Paaarty: This is a deluxe size, but believe me when I say that this tiny compact is going to last you months, if not years. I love these blushes, I have Tipsy (reviewed here), Flush (reviewed here) and one other shade from the permanent line and I use "Tipsy" quite regularly. Paaarty is a very pale soft nude-y mauvy pink. It has a strong cool-undertone! When I first got it in the mail, I was afraid that it is not going to work on my skin tone. But now that I have tried it on my cheeks, I think I can be easily wear it! But I am afraid that it will not be flattering on skin tones that are few shades darker than me. Also, staying power, pigmentation and blendability feels about the same with the permanent Amazonian Clay blush formula, however as you can see from the picture, it kicks up a lot of powder. I don't see that happening with the permanent blushes.

Tarteist Creamy Matte Lip Paint in Birthday Suit: I am not very intrigued in liquid lipstick so I don't really experiment a lot. But I have had tried a few and I like only a handful of them. I personally feel that all the best liquid lipstick formulas are already in the market and the we don't really need anymore new formula. Anyway, I thought this will be a very very light shade on me and will give me "concealer lip look". I do NOT like that look, at all! But surprisingly, the shade looks ok on me and I actually quite like how it looks on me. The formula however I did not enjoy! It applied nicely, was even in one coat and it was light on the lips. It did not even feel dry on my lips but it appeared so very dry and it made me me look so aged! All the fine lines on my lips were exaggerated. After 4-5 hrs, the inside rim of my lips got even mor dry and it kind of got all wrinkle-y! It is a very embarrassing look! I tried to put on lipbalm, or different lipgloss on top but everything turns out into milky pinky shade! Ughh, it is annoying!

I am not sure if I would wear the lipstick that often but I will definitely use the blush. When is your birthday? What are you going to pick up? Pictured above are the 3 different set available :-)

Love,
~Arrru