Fenty Snap Shadows Palettes | Great or Gimmick?
ARE SMALL CURATED EYESHADOW PALETTES THE WAY FORWARD FOR 2020?
Fenty Beauty certainly seems to think so, launching 8, six pan eyeshadow palettes last month in curated colour schemes. I love the idea of small, well thought out colour themes after 2019 brought us mega palette after mega palette. The palettes are meant to be travel-friendly with the ability to ‘snap’ two together, which you also get a bundle price when you purchase two together.
Fenty previously hasn’t had massive success with powder eyeshadow as they have with some of the other formulas in their line. Given I found the longevity of the Sun Stalk’r Bronzers really lacking, I was curious of the eyeshadow palettes would fall to the same fate.
I was kindly sent two of the palettes to test out, Peach and True Neutrals (volume numbers 5 and 1 respectively). I’m grateful I had the chance to play with both because ultimately it has affected my opinion on these. But before I get into that, let’s hash out some details:
FENTY BEAUTY SNAP SHADOWS PALETTES
AVAILABLE AT: Sephora Canada | Sephora US | Harvey Nichols | Fenty Beauty
WHAT SEPHORA SAYS: “Achieve limitless eye looks in a snap. Create your own custom combo on the go. From pastels to neutrals, this portable, mini six-pan palette packed with rich, blendable color in a rainbow of matte, shimmer, and glitter long-wear finishes was chosen by Rihanna to deliver the perfect range of shades.”
THE PACKAGING: Each palette holds 6 shadows that are 1 gram each, housed in a plastic white palette that is palm-sized. The mirror is full width and height and really decent. Each palette has it’s number in silver on the front for easy picking and the back of the palettes all have a little tongue and groove in order to be able to connect to another.
THE FORMULA: This varies a bit between the two palettes but in general the mattes are a bit dusty, with the shadows in the Peach palette kicking up significantly more. A stickier base is idea to really grip the matte shadows, which have a tendency to blend away to nothing. The shimmers apply well with a brush or fingers and can be built up easily.
THE FINISH: The brand claims a mix of matte, shimmer and glitter formulas. Neither of mine had glitter, but the shimmer in each palette varies between a barely-there satin and a slightly more impactful duo-chrome. I wouldn’t consider any of the shimmers in either palette metallic or overly bold, but the shimmer shades in the peach palette were bolder compared to those in True Neutrals, which leaned more satin.
MY THOUGHTS: I feel that if I had only tried the Peach palette, I would have been left disappointed; The pigment fades significantly through the day regardless of what primer I use. True Neutrals performs significantly better in terms of longevity and how it fades much more gracefully. The pigmentation on both palettes is wonderful, at first. I found True Neutrals took building to get the impact to the point where I wasn’t blending it away each time I added a new colour. Peach had an impact almost immediately but faded insanely fast. If you’re not a real eyeshadow lover or find it hard to work with overly pigmented shadows, you’ll likely love this formula more.
The ‘snap’ concept plays into a bit of gimmick that Fenty has toyed with before with their magnetic Match Stix. I think the concept is unique and would be great for those who really only want a small selection of shades in their collection (ie, not a makeup hoarder like myself!). It might be for you if you love the idea of keeping things minimalistic; It’s by no means a selling point for me personally though.
Overall, these palettes aren’t bad… they just aren’t great either. They are decent and the price point reflects that well. I would suggest them to beginners, or those who can be a bit heavy-handed, but primer is an absolute must, in my opinion.
