The Magic

Certifeye – The Tropical Wonders Palette -REVIEW

Yes! Another palette! But, but..: I’m on a journey to Technicolor Land and I have to stash some colour makeup/pigments for my new creations! And this was my first rainbow and matte palette on my way to life in colour.

I’m finally feeling secure enough in my techniques to try full-on colour. And using colour is the hardest to master: too many and you look like a carnival mess, too little and it’s boring. So I’m toiling away in my spare time, practicing my colour scales. 

WHAT ANGELICA MADE ME BUY 
 I needed help to go full on technicolor. Beyond a few colourful shadows and creams from limited edition collections, I didn’t have any proper brights. So I went on Youtube ( I mean where else could I go?) and found Angelica Nyqvist recommending colorful palettes and as she watched away, this palette caught my eye. It had all the major colours in a relatively saturated rainbow selection. Charged, it was, to my credit card! If you want to know what’s out there in terms of colour, follow her channel! She’s way ahead of the game! *Sigh* Thanks for being there girl! 

THE BRUSH
Brushes can make or brake a shadow. But with today’s smoky formula’s being foolproof, you can use any ‘ole brush. But working with strong colours or pressed pigment, you have to change your technique. This brush by Make Up For Ever, the 226 made the application of this palette a breeze. Because it’s flat, you can push the brush into the pans, so kickback is minimal. Then, just pat-on the coulour, and build to the full intensity of each shade. These shadows are on the powdery side, so using the “windshield-wiper” motion will just dust them off.  Also the edge of the brush is fluffy and precise enough for detail blending, or blending edges out while keeping a shape.  The hairs are synthetic, not too soft, not too hard, and the handle is made of wood. I’ve had them for five years and they’ve retained their shape and performance. They are made in Japan and are totally worth it. I have two, and I might get more to work many colours at once. You can find it also at some Sephora’s.

Make-Up-For-Ever-226-Brush  

APPLICATION TECHNIQUE
Again, don’t blend in the traditional smoky technique! PAT THEM ON!!! When I had put the “Dusk” shade all over my lid, the matte finish prevented other shades from grabbing on–even with the patting technique. So if “Dusk” is your crease shade, you really have to apply it precisely ONTO THE CREASE, THEN put the LID colour ON THE LID, or all else it all becomes a powdery mess! Also make sure your eye-primer is the sticky kind; a powdery primer will just make these shadows slip off. I found that if I patted on some kind of cream over the primer, or sprayed the lid with Fix Plus, it helps these pigments to grab onto something.
 
BLENDING OUT
With colour shadows you don’t need to blend it out too much. Unlike beige’s and browns, it won’t blend into the skin tone. So here are 3 ways to blend out, or fade bright colours.
1-With a brush like the Make Up For Ever 226, fluff edges out if you want a softer look.
2-Use peach tones like the ones from the Natasha Denona Tropic Palette.
3-Find a paler colour of the same shade you are trying to blend out. 

THE COLOURS
Waterfall 
is a pale, almost white/cream/beige colour. It has a light shimmer to it.
Dusk is probably the most misleading shade and the most unusual of this palette. It’s actually a chickpea/greenish-mustard shade that has a pastel lemon base! If that makes any sense! Great to blend any yellow, red or orange… even green shades can be blended out into “skin tone Caucasian” and even for some medium complexions.
Shrimp is a pastel bright coral that is more on the red side, great to fade reds or purple/pink shades. It’s much brighter on the skin than in the pan. 
Sunray is a bright yellow shade, with some white, but no green or orange undertones. It’s just pure bright yellow, almost neon goodness, and it’s very buildable if you pat it on.
Toucan is a pastel melon colour, it comes out less orange and paler than in pan.
Red Sea is a fantastic tomato red, just pure bright warm red pigment! Love this one!
Equator is a blue toned red. it’s brighter than what it looks in the pan.
Hibiscus is a cool pink neon-bright shade. 
Firefish is a pinky purple with a beautiful brightness.
Honeycreeper Is a redder version of Firefish.
Starling Is a deep eggplant violet, with a hint of red, very opaque, yet still saturated.
Atlantic Is a sky blue colour, a bit grey.
Coast is a bright pastel cyan.
Bermuda is a pastel teal, more blue than green, it looks darker in the pan.
Fruit Dove is a cream pastel pear/mint colour.
Swamp is a green right on the edge of neon brightness.
Typhoon is a pale blue-grey pastel. 
Bonobo is a sooty deep neutral black. 

Making Up The Magic Certifeye palette review
In the editing of the picture, I tried to make the colours as true to what they appear, flash photography does make them brighter. But these are bright colours and they will photograph as such. The flower is a mid-tone cool fuschia and gives you a perspective on the colours that have pink, red and purple tones.

REVIEW
This palette is great for me, as a makeup artist. I have all my bright colours in one place, it’s perfect to travel: it’s small, and it’s slim. But it’s white, so it might get dirty. It’s a great “transformer” palette, because all the colourful shades are bright enough to pat on top of a smoky looks to intensify. Say you have a burgundy smoky going on, and you’d like more burgundy goodness, then pat on some “Honeycreeper” and “Red Sea” into the crease. Some colours are better than others: everything from Red Sea to Honeycreeper is opaque and very workable on it’s own and without a primer. The blues and greens. as well the yellow need more work to build. The “transition” shades, “Dusk” and “Shrimp” are good too, as well as the black. Typhoon is the weakest shade, being hard to pick up with the brush and quite pale, it needs a lot of work it you want to creat a look with it. The good news was: Angelica had foretold me well! This was a good palette, with bright colours, and no money went to waste.

CERTIFEYE  The Tropical wonders VS NATASHA DENONA The Tropics
I decided to compare the finish of the shadows that were similar in colour: Laguna, to Coast and Atlantic. The finish of “Laguna” is much more creamy, so you can use the windshield wiper technique with it. I found that on the lid, it’s more in synergy with the skin because it has more emollients in the formula. And swatched side by side, “Laguna” is more intensely pigmented and less flat than “Coast” which is the closest shade to it in the Certifeye The Tropical Wonders palette. But the Certifeye palette is still wonderful (and I sort of justified the purchase of that Tropics palette). 

DON’T BE OVER-POWDERED
If you do a whole look with this palette, it might look very powdery if you layer too many colours together. I’m going to mix with cream pigments, and shimmers because matte-bright can look flat on the eyelids. You could also try spraying with a dewy mist the finished look, to remove some of the powdery-ness. To see how opaque they could be, I first tested all of them on my bare lids, which tend to be on the oily side. I felt the shadows seem to look lest dusty when I used them without primer, and the oils on the surface gave something to the pigments to grab hold of, and pack on. I could make all the bright colours opaque without a primer. If your lids are naturally dark, then I would recommend a base. Also some of the pastel colours might need a base , if they aren’t turning out right.

PRICE IS RIGHT
The whole cost of purchasing the palette came to 69$ CAN (with regular shipping) for 18 shades, it comes down to 5.33$ a pan, which is a fantastic deal!At almost 1/2 the price of Natasha or Pat palettes that I have bought. Sorry…. not sorry. I got the palette within five working days. You can buy the palette through the link below.

www.certifeye.co.uk

Sadly, for my bank account, I’ve bought other colourful shades from other indie brands, and I’ll try and do a full review soon. I’m still experimenting with these, so it might take some times before I manage to pull a look together!