One of the items that has been gaining popularity in recent years has been makeup palettes containing large number of colours, like the 88 colour eyeshadow palettes that have been popular in various forms. The reason why these are so popular is that they are cheap, and have a large variety of colours. I couldn't help but end up with one myself - the ES 26 Colour Eyeshadow and Blush Palette, from this page on the KKCenterHK site.
As you may know, KKCenterHK has been gaining popularity with some makeup fanatics for its wide array of cheap and cheerful makeup items. The 26 Colour Palette cost US$15, which works out to less than a buck per colour. Not bad at all, price-wise. But I was curious as to the quality of the palette, so I thought I'd provide some swatches for a start.
The palette itself comes in a plastic case, that, while not luxe-looking, certainly doesn't seem cheap and flimsy. The palette is also of quite a substantial size - sometimes, with these palettes with humongous numbers of colours, each individual colour can be the size of a dime or something like that. But each individual eyeshadow pan size is only slightly smaller than that of a MAC eyeshadow, which is pretty decent. Here's a photo for comparison. The MAC eyeshadow, Dazzlelight, is placed in between two eyeshadows on the palette. The two larger pans below it are blush colours.
Altogether, there are 21 eyeshadow colours, and 5 blush colours, making that 26. As you can see from the photo below, the colours are mainly warm neutrals, with some bright "sunset" colours (e.g. rust orange, gold) thrown in. Some of the blush colours look a little similar to eyeshadow colours, and a few of the eyeshadow colours are quite close to each other. Generally, though, I'd say the palette colour range is quite decent if you like these types of colours.
Here are swatches of the palette, row by row. The first row is below:
Row 1, L-R: bright orange with shimmer, light tangerine orange with shimmer, warm brown with slight shimmer, matte light pink, bronzey brown with shimmer, brown with a tinge of red with shimmer (think along the lines of Stila's Barefoot Contessa), medium brown with shimmer, which I really like - it could almost be a taupe!
Row 2, L-R: pinky-peach with shimmer (sort of like NARS Orgasm blush in eyeshadow form), burnt orange brown with shimmer, muted neutral brown with no shimmer, rust-red-brown with shimmer (it isn't as red as it looks in the photo, but it is quite rusty in colour), medium warm matte brown, deep matte brown, shimmery brown-gold.
Row 3: Warm orange-pink, shimmery burnt-orange brown, muted matte brown, deep purple with the slightest hint of shimmer, muted neutral brown, slightly darker and less warm-leaning than the previous brown in this row, midtone purple-magenta, and a gorgeous taupey brown shimmer, my favourite eyeshadow colour in the entire palette.
Lastly, here are the blushes.
Row 4: Light peach, pale baby pink-beige, medium pink, deep purple (sort of like the second-last purple in Row 3 of the eyeshadow range), and russet red-brown (similar to the middle colour in Row 2 of the eyeshadows).
Pigmentation and texture of the eyeshadows was actually very decent. In general I didn't have too many problems with pigmentation, and texture was pretty decent. As with some of these palettes, the shimmer colours for some reason were of better quality than the mattes, being softer in texture and better in pigmentation Still, the palette in general was of better quality than expected.
Over the next few days, I'll be showcasing a few EOTDs (Eye of the Days) using this palette, and we'll see what looks I can come up with! In the meantime, if you're looking for a palette of decent quality at a cheap price, and if you like warm colours and neutrals, this palette would definitely be worth checking out.
(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)
