ColourPop Cosmetics Fame Palette – Review and Swatches

Hi, friends! It’s officially less than two weeks until I leave to visit Justin in Australia! Since I probably won’t be posting any blog posts while I’m there, I’m really trying to push them out right now.

My lazy ass is already so behind on posting all of the blogs that I have planned, so I don’t want to get even more behind! There are always so many new products, which is a great thing for a beauty blogger because there is always something to write about, but it’s so hard to keep up with everything! (My wallet also can’t keep up with everything LOL).

For today’s post, I’ll be reviewing the new ColourPop Fame Eyeshadow Palette. It’s been a while since I’ve done an eyeshadow palette review, with the last one being the Kylie Cosmetics NICE Palette that I wrote almost 4 months ago! An eyeshadow palette review is long overdue!

With the market being so saturated with warm-toned palettes recently, I was really happy when ColourPop announced they would be releasing a cool-toned palette.

I really tried jumping on the warm-toned bus and I even tried so hard that I kind of convinced myself that I was a warm-toned girl.

BUT, I was fooling myself, guys. I tend to gravitate to neutrals on a daily basis and even when I try to really warm tone it up with reds or oranges, I think I end up looking crazy.

SO, without further ado, let’s dive into this review!

Details from colourpop.com:

One of our most requested palettes of all time! You’ll be ‘Mrs. Lifestyles of the rich and famous’, in our first ever cool toned eyeshadow palette. We’re bringing you 16 all new cool-toned taupes, plums, and mauves in a range of metallic, satin, and matte finishes. This is the ultimate cool tone essentials palette that can create romantic daytime to smokey, sultry dramatic looks.

The palette contains 16 shades with a mixture of matte, metallic, and satin finishes.

Let’s break down the numbers of this palette:

• Cost: $22.00

• 16 different shadows

• Net weight of each shadow: 1.0 g (0.035 oz)

• Cost of each shadow: ~$1.38

• Net weight of entire palette: 16.0 g (0.56 oz)

• Cost per gram: ~$1.38

• Cost per ounce: ~$36.29

Shade names:

Center Stage: soft matte cream
Extravaganza: metallic cool champagne
Show Boat: satin icy pink cream
Delirium: soft matte beige
The Most: metallic icy rose
Razzle: matte rosy taupe
Dazzle: metallic iced taupe
Stardom: matte mauve
Celeb: matte soft lilac
Debutante: metallic silvery lilac
Clubhouse: matte greige plum
Privy: metallic silvery taupe
Posh: metallic smokey pinky plum
Blasé: matte gunmetal
Piece of Me: satin deep amethyst
Lifestyle: matte smoked aubergine

SWATCHES

First row, L-R

Second Row, L-R

Third Row, L-R

Fourth Row, L-R

Review:

Packaging:

The palette is a standard cardboard palette, which is the same as all other ColourPop palettes (and most palettes from any company). There’s nothing fancy about the packaging, but at the same time, it doesn’t feel cheap at all.

It feels pretty sturdy and it comes in a matching cardboard box (thin cardboard? cardstock? what are those things called?). As for the design on the palette, I can’t stand it. I think it is one of the ugliest designs I’ve ever seen on an eyeshadow palette.

The word “tacky” comes to mind when I look at. That’s just my opinion! It doesn’t suit my aesthetic preference. Sorry if you really love it. Or if you happen to be the person that designed it. Whoops.

But, as we all know, the packaging doesn’t really have much to do with how the product performs, which is especially true for eyeshadow palettes. How the eyeshadows perform on the eye is what really counts.

Oh, but there’s one upside to the packaging. The shade names are printed right underneath each shade. I really like that.

Formula:

So these shadows didn’t swatch the best. Swatching them for the photos above was the first time I ever interacted with these shadows and I was a bit underwhelmed. I had to work really hard for some of those swatches.

You can never be completely sure how a shadow is going to perform just based solely on the swatch, but I think it’s a good indication on how saturated in color it is and how smooth it is.

I was definitely happy with the way the satins and metallics swatched – so smooth and creamy, but the mattes were a bit dry and patchy to me. I hear it’s harder to formulate matte shades than satin/metallic shades, but I’m not a scientist. *insert shrug emoji*

However, despite the lackluster swatches, I am very impressed with how all of the shadows blend out on the eyelid. They blend out beautifully, without leaving any weird patchiness.

I also think the color payoff is really good – it isn’t too pigmented that it explodes all over your eye and becomes hard to work with.

It has just the right amount of pigment in the formula that it allows you to build it up if you want bolder colors, and it also allows you to keep it subtle if you apply it with a light hand.

As for fallout, there’s a little bit of fallout when you tap your brush into the shades (especially the mattes), but it’s a normal amount. Nothing crazy.

Shades:

It actually pains me to say that I’m disappointed with the shades. More so with this palette than any other palette I’ve bought, I feel like the photos on the product page and on social media make the palette look so much better than it really is.

Granted, lighting and editing come into play with any photo you see on the internet, but I still can’t help but feel a little misled. Some of the shades are a little too similar to another shade in the palette, which makes me feel like I can only do a few looks with it.

I recently saw a comment on one of ColourPop’s Instagram posts where someone said that some of the shadows look the same. And ColourPop’s reply was something along the lines of “it only looks that way in this photo, you’ll be able to see the difference in the swatches.”

And that’s totally true – you can definitely see the difference in the swatches. BUT, for the matte shades, specifically the three in the middle (Razzle, Stardom, and Clubhouse), once they are blended out and diffused, there is very little difference.

I usually choose one of those three shades to deepen up my crease and build up some color, and honestly it never matters which one I choose because they all end up looking pretty much the same.

In general, the matte shades are kind of a flop for me. That baby pink (Celeb) is a shade that I’ll probably never use and the other matte shades are just kind of meh. Lukewarm. Boring. Nothing remotely near exciting. The palette could use more mid-tone shades instead of so many light shades, in my opinion.

On the other hand, the satin/metallic shades are all shades that I really like. Like the ColourPop Golden State of Mind Palette, they are best put on with a finger or wet (spray some setting spray onto the brush after packing the shadow onto the brush).

With this method, they are all amazing as lid colors and I can see myself using these very often. I’ll probably dip into other palettes for the matte shades to complete the look, though. I just can’t see creating many different looks with these matte shades. They don’t get my creative juices flowing!

Oh and don’t use Blasé. That is just a bad shade. Major flop.

Other remarks:

I don’t know if this should be marketed as a cool-toned palette… many of the shades have some warmth in them (like The Most and Dazzle, for example). I would probably call this a neutral palette and just from looking at it, I see a few similarities to the Naked 2 Palette.

I do have the Naked 2 Palette, but I haven’t done side-by-side swatches to compare, that was just my first impression when opening the palette for the first time.

Rating:

I’m going to give this one a 2.5/5 because it’s just alright. The quality is really good, especially for such an affordable price. But, it just doesn’t excite me.

Every time I use it, I’m always reaching for something else from another palette. The shades in the palette just don’t do it for me because there isn’t much versatility.

I can see myself using this palette if I’m going for a quick and easy neutral look, but I don’t think it’s something that I’d reach for very often and it’s definitely not a must-have for anyone’s collection.

However, if you’re just beginning on your makeup journey and are looking for something easy to work with, something that will provide you with neutral basics, while also providing you enough shades to do a smokey eye from time to time,  this palette might be a good place to start.

And that’s it for this review, guys! If you bought this palette, I’d love to know what you think of it! Let me know down in the comments. 🙂

Until next time. <3

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