14 Aug 2009 6 Comments

Expanding my makeup horizon: Palladio Beauty (Review)

I’ve been a loyal MAC customer since the 1990s and as such have favoured department store makeup brands. Any brands that weren’t found in the department stores were ignored by this girl. Even when I worked as a ‘beauty advisor’ at the local Shopper’s Drug Mart, I never got into the products available to me. At the time, I thought, if it can’t compare to my beloved MAC then why bother? Well, times have changed.

Don’t get me wrong. I still love MAC but I feel I’ve expanded my horizons. These days, I’m trying out everything, from super high end (hello Dior!) to obscure drug store brands and as you know, my new obsession is brands from other countries (ummm, UK makeup anyone??).

So what’s my point. Over the next couple of days, I’m going to be reviewing products from brands I’ve never tried before. First up is Palladio Beauty. For the last two weeks, I’ve been doing a test run of some of the products that were kindly sent my way to try.

When I first saw the products I was impressed visually — everything looked really pretty. That said, I admit I was still a bit skeptical. The eyeshadows for instance reminded me of some MAC mineral shadows but I couldn’t imagine they would be at all close to comparable. In any case, I kept an open mind and went ahead with the review. And you know what, I was pleasantly surprised. Here’s a summary:

Eyeshadows (Caffe Latte Trio Baked Eyeshadow; Plums Trio Baked Eyeshadow)
Pros
- very pigmented and smooth to apply
-easy to blend
-offers a hint of shimmer without being glitter bombs
- reminded me of the MAC mineralize shadows in packaging
- all the colours worked really well together; the Caffe Latte trio is a beautiful neutral palette with a bit of shimmer in each colour; the Plums Trio are very wearable and worked well for my office looks.

Cons
-it did crease for me
-after seeing that after the first use, I ended up using MAC Painterly as a base and it worked very well to prevent creasing

Herbal Lipstick (Surely Pink, Nude, Clearly Coral)
Pros
-creamy and non-drying
-no scent
-very pigmented
- all three colours were very wearable for my skin tone; my favorite was the Nude (if you’re interested in seeing swatches let me know and I can post)

Cons
-staying power was okay but I did have to reapply throughout the day

Blushin’ Baked Blush
Pros
-very pigmented
-pretty peachy/pink colour gives a great rosy glow

Cons
-it faded by lunch time in most cases
-the pan is a bit small in size for a blush. I tend to like to have a bigger pan for a blush. I really don’t know why but maybe so I can dip my brush in ‘properly’. This was similar in size to the eyeshadows

EyeLiners (Brown Felt tip Liner and Black Liquid Eyeliner -Boxed)
Pros
-smooth application
-pigmented
-cute packaging; the brown felt tip is tiny so great to throw in a purse; the black liner reminded me a bit of the Wet N Wild liquid liner packaging

Cons
-Though it lasted all day, the colour did fade later on in the day
-I’m used to gel liners so it took a bit of practice to get these right

Above is a look I created using the Palladio lipstick in Surely Pink, Plum Trio eyeshadow and Black liner. Excuse the blurriness — took this with my phone when I got into work earlier this week. I had forgotten to take a photo at home.

Overall, I would say these particular Palladio products are worth a look. The price points are affordable and the colours and textures to me were of good quality. The Palladio site has more details on the products and colours available.

The products are available at Sally’s (in store and web site) and on Palladio’s web site for Canadian and U.S. orders. For the UK, you can find the products at http://www.beautynaturals.com/ For other countries, or for more infromation, send an email to info@palladiobeauty.com.

If you want me to post swatches of anything leave me a comment.

I am still trying out the lipglosses, lipgloss pencil, bronzers/illuminators and the rice powder products. The next review will be on the rice paper products as many of you have indicated interest in these.