While this is the second purple palette I'm reviewing, it was the first to join my stash. I picked it up when I was contemplating making color a regular addition to my eye looks, and figured for $2.99 (on sale) it would be hard to go wrong. And, while I ended up buying another palette (Tarina Tarantino Fantastical) as well, Petal Pusher has not been entirely pushed aside (bahaha). It does, however, have its issues...
The palette has two sides, each split into browbone, eyelid, crease, and definer (which they say is meant to be used along the lashline).
On the left, the
browbone is a sheer white-pink shimmer with blue shift. It has a nice texture, not too powdery, and the sheerness means it can be worn as a highlight without looking overly bright or weird. The
eyelid is a satin-finish mauve with subtle gold iridescence, though it looks matte at first glance/before being used. It's a very pretty color, but it requires a ton of product to show up (even on my super-pale eyelids!). The
crease shade is a neutral-cool purple shimmer, cooler than it looks in the arm swatch above. It's got decent pigmentation and isn't too loosely packed, so it's easy to build up without worrying about overapplying, though it could be a bit softer. The
definer is a semi-chunky glitter mix of silver and blue in a cornflower blue sheer base. It's pretty sheer, not to mention the fallout from the glitter, but I find it works fine layered over other shades for some extra glitz and shine (and it doesn't suffer from much fallout after application). Here's an EOTD using the shades; I placed them as recommended by the palette, though I brushed the
definer shade over the
crease shade rather than along the lash line.
On the right, the
browbone is a high frost pale lavender-pink. It is entirely too shiny for me to want to wear it on my browbone, but the pigmentation and texture are wonderful and I like to wear it on my inner lid to add some glitz. The
eyelid shade is a warm coppery mauve shimmer with mediocre pigmentation, though the texture is fine. The
crease shade is a blackened red-brown with shimmer, and the
definer is a black with silver shimmer. The crease shade has good pigmentation, while the definer leaves something to be desired. My problem with the two shades is that a) once they're blended out, they look basically identical, b) they're too soft, and whenever I've tried to use them I've kicked up way too much product, and c) blending makes all the pretty shimmer go away! ((c) is a bit of a corollary of (a), but it irks me enough I wanted to mention it separately.)
I make use of the left browbone, eyelid, and crease shades, usually wearing them as suggested, though I also like the crease shade with other shadows in my collection, and the lid shade is also nicely versatile. On the right side, I'll use the browbone as an accent on my lid, as I find it to be too light and shimmery for much else, and occasionally I'll wear the eyelid shade in a warmer look. I pretty much steer entirely clear of the bottom two right shades and use the bottom left shade only sparingly. But hey, 5 shades ain't bad!
I think this palette is a good choice if you:
-are on a budget
-like softer shadow colors
-have light-to-medium skin (I think the lighter shades will look chalky on darker skins, if they show up at all)
I'm happy having it in my collection, but when I strike it rich I'll buy the same shades from, say, Inglot, and kiss this palette goodbye. Until then, purple onward!
Overview
$4.99 for 0.30 oz, available from drugstores
Quality: 7.5
Effectiveness: 3.5 (supposed to have "high pigment and pearl for ultra-impact color", which is overstating things)
Ease of Use: 4
Senses: 5
Pigmentation: 3.5
Duration: 3.5 (it does fade over the day, alas, and creases after a few hours without primer, and after ~7 hours with primer)
Consistency: 3.25
Price: 5
Value: 5
Grade: B-
What do you think of Petal Pusher? Have you tried any Wet N Wild palettes? What did you think?
