Etude House Play Color Eyes Eyeshadow Palettes Swatches and Review

Sunday, February 23, 2014

5 comments
Etude House, the Korean-based brand that is best-known for its girly, affordable products, has released two limited-edition eyeshadow palettes, the Play Color Eyes eyeshadow palettes. There are two shades of Play Color Eyes Eyeshadow Palettes to choose from: #1 So Hot Play and #2 So Chic Play. Both have a variety of shades from neutrals to deep and daring shades.


Etude House Play Color Eyes Eyeshadow Palettes

I also liked that there were a variety of finishes - there are your mattes, shimmers, and metallic finishes that can be worn as-is, but would look awesome foiled for that pop of colour. So with either palette, you have a range of colours and finishes to play around with.

Etude House Play Color Eyes Palettes close up
Etude House Play Color Eyes Eyeshadow Palettes: Back, #1 So Hot Play, Front, So Chic Play

Let's move on to the individual palette close-ups and swatches, and you'll see what I mean.

First, we have #1 So Hot Play. This is the more daring palette of the two (you'll notice the matte red eyeshadow), but even so, it has a good number of easy-to-wear neutrals as well, making the palette more wearable than a first glance might suggest.

Etude House Play Color Eyes Palettes So Hot Play 1
Etude House Play Color Eyes Palette in #1 So Hot Play

Colours are, from L-R: Party Gold (champagne foil glitter), Burning Red (matte red), Temptation (matte wine), Naked (matte beige), Pony Tail (shimmery light brown), Modern City (shimmery steel grey), Chic Blue (shimmery midnight blue), All Night (black with magenta glitter), Snow Queen (white foil glitter), Military Khaki (shimmery olive green). There are roughly 4 finishes in one palette - matte, shimmer, speckled glitter (like in All Night), and a foil-y glitter which is stunning when used wet.

Here are some dry swatches. As you can see, pigmentation is really good on these palettes. All of these are probably no more than 4 swipes each. Naked and Snow Queen aren't showing up on my arm, but that's not because they aren't pigmented - it's just because they are light colours and blended fast into my arm. I suppose both are going to be good all-over lid shades for me!

Etude House Play Color Eyes Palettes Swatches So Hot Play 1
Etude House Play Color Eyes Palette in #1 So Hot Play swatches

Another thing I wanted to highlight about the #1 So Hot Play Palette is that, from the swatches, you can see that the palette is a lot more wearable and neutral than it might seem at first glance. Most people are put off by the red shades in the palette, but there are only two red-based shades (Burning Red and Temptation). All the other shades are either light neutrals, or else dark blackened smokey shades. My personal favourite shade from this palette is Military Khaki - it's a gorgeous pop of colour that's still not too loud for the office, and goes well with all skintones.

The second palette is #2 So Chic Play. As you might guess, this is the more girly/romantic set of colours, with a lot more pinks and glittery foil finishes.

Etude House Play Color Eyes Palettes So Chic Play 2
Etude House Play Color Eyes Palette in #2 So Chic Play

The colours from L-R are: Coco Brown (neutral brown with copper sparkles), Clutch Brown (brown foil glitter), Pop Champagne (beige foil glitter), French Kiss (matte light pink), Misty Rose (matte purple-pink), Diva (purple wine with copper glitter), Glam Forest (silvery green foil glitter), Midnight Star (deep blue foil glitter), Sparkling Wine (pink foil glitter), Leopard Brown (matte deep brown).

You'll notice that this shade has a lot more of those foil glitter type finishes - this palette has five of them, versus two in the #1 So Hot Play Palette. My experience with these foil glitter finishes is that they function similarly to loose pigments - you need a sufficiently good eye primer to hold them in place, otherwise they might travel throughout the day. Also, like some metallic loose pigments, when foiled, they give a gorgeous metallic-like shine that is really pretty on. My swatches are dry, so while you can see the metallic effect on my arm swatch, if you did foil it on your eye, it would look even more awesome.

Now, for swatches. Again, very good pigmentation on this one:

Etude House Play Color Eyes Palettes Swatches So Chic Play 2
Etude House Play Color Eyes Palette in #2 So Chic Play swatches

This is a palette filled with rose-toned neutrals (French Kiss, Misty Rose), and warm neutrals (Coco Brown, Clutch Brown), but despite the feminine colour selection, still packs a punch with the foil glitter shades. So even if you don't think you're the type to wear girly pinks, this palette might just surprise you. My personal favourite shade is Misty Rrose - it's a mix of pink, beige, and lavender all at once, and is the kind of complex-yet-simple neutral shade that you'd find in higher-end brands. I love it!

Now for the difficult question - do you need them both, or just one? Well, if you're a palette collector (like I am - have you seen my Sleek Palettes posts, or my Sleek Palette collection on Instagram?), then the good news is that I think both palettes have diverse enough shade ranges to justify getting both. But if you can only get one, then things you might want to consider include the finish of the eyeshadows (#2 So Chic Play has more foil glitter shades than #1 So Hot Play), as well as the colour range (#1 So Hot Play's neutrals and fiery reds as compared to #2 So Chic Play's rosey shades).

Both palettes are retailing at S$37.90 in all Etude House shops, and they're limited edition, so if you're interested, do get yourself one, if you haven't yet!

Recommended? Pigmentation Texture Application Colour
Yes, great packaging and quality 8/10 7/10 8/10 8/10
The Bottom Line: Nicely pigmented palettes with a variety of finishes, and colours that are also oh-so-pretty to look at.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

5 comments:

  1. I'm in the fence with this palette ....

    I really like both, but I have very pale olive cool skin tone (nc/nw 5 or less :(
    and to make things worse my skin reflect the colors of the walls,clothes etc) and as much as I love orange and browns they look terrible on me because my ph(I think ) make them oxidize and a light pink peach will be on me a really bright cooper even with eye primer :( and now even the pinks are changing on me, to pale pink purple to strawberry red! T_T (lips products too)

    I just bought some Suqqu eye palettes, they were really expensive (I live in Mexico the shipping was a killer) and any of the colors on the pan went true on my skin and I know is normal that the colors change accord of everyone skin tone but believe me, no as much as they changed on me!
    So now I'm very sad and depressed looking at all that beautiful colors that I can't use :(

    Do you know why this happened? It would be a great help to at least know why this is happening to me.

    As a make up lover( addict) this is so frustrating!

    I think I will buy both of the Etude house palettes the greens and blues look pretty and the palettes are quite cheap and I want to see how that red eye shadow will turn on me :)

    Sorry about the bad English grammar etc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Ann: If your eyeshadows are consistently turning orange or reddish on you, then it sounds like (barring things like skin pH and other factors) your eyeshadow shades are too warm-toned for you. The shades turn orange because your pink undertones are clashing with the warmth in those shades. This will be particularly obvious for shades like bronze, coppers, some browns and gold. I suggest picking grey-toned shades, maybe cool-leaning neutrals and seeing how they work on you. Also shades with cool undertones in general (blues, blue-based greys, purples, greens etc) may also look better on you and not appear orange as much. Hope this helps!

      Delete
  2. Wow!!! This is so pretty. I super like the shades for they are light and seem natural on skin. I think its worth the try. I will surely check on this.

    ReplyDelete

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