I literally bought this palette for the packaging. This. Packaging. Is. FIRE. It’s definitely got a cheap cardboard-y feel to it, but the design is gorgeous. It’s not just another rectangle palette with some stuff printed on it. It’s a whole ass moth filled with coffins. My little grunge heart is SCREAMING.

For $12.50 (before tax) you get 12 0.02oz shades. 6 Matte, 5 shimmer, one…somewhere in between and a small synthetic brush with 2 sides (a defining/liner brush side and a round flat side). The brush isn't great...at all. I didn't use it. The palette is also cruelty-free!!!

The colors: (left to right, top row then bottom row)

Pendulum: medium cool toned beige-y shimmer

Silent Film: medium cool toned beige matte

Eerie: soft off white/yellow with slight shimmer

Amulet: periwinkle gray matte

Tarot: deep teal shimmer

Nightshade: Looks black, applies charcoal or dark gray matte

Moon Phase: midnight blue shimmer

Catacombs: deep mauve purple matte

Memento Mori: dark, cool, fuchsia shimmer

Marionette: lavender matte

Conjure: gray-brown shimmer

Blood Rose: light-ish brick red matte

My favorite colors, going in before I even bought it were marionette and catacombs. I immediately fell in LOVE with those two.

Here is all of them finger-swatched with NO primer or concealer, just my dry arm.

And I gotta say….unimpressed at this point. Right? like they feel great, soft and a little creamy, definitely less chalky than you’d expect from a $12 palette from Hot Topic. I tried to do a look with them and was considering returning the palette. Even wet and built up, they were streaky, unblendable (when I put it on my eye, it literally blended away. it just disappeared), and had really low color pay off.

But determined to make this work, or at least see if I could, I ran a strip of cream concealer (I use Maybelline’s Dream illuminator concealer in 30 light/medium, but you could use any concealer or eye primer) down my arm and swatched over it with an Ecotools shading brush and the difference is astounding. I was really excited to finally see some color pay off. I decided to try an eye look (I don’t have any photos of my eye looks rn because the lighting was SO BAD, will post some later as an edit) and found that they actually blended pretty well. So that’s the secret to this palette, you HAVE to have a primer or base. These will not work on their own otherwise.

SO:

PROS- super cheap, great grungy colors for those of us still scene at heart, good mix of shades for creating a lot of looks from workwear to night wear, buildable, gorgeous packaging

CONS- needs primer to work so maybe not the best for people on the go or people who don’t like the heaviness of primers, a bit more fallout than I like, small-ish mirror with decorations makes it difficult to see what you’re doing

TL;DR/Overall/final thoughts: I think, if I knew what I know now before buying I’d still buy it. The colors are great and it definitely preforms pretty well. I would say this is not an on the go palette or one for anyone who likes their eyes super easy, you do have to do that extra step of primer to get them to behave at all well. The fallout is a little more than I like but it’s not bad and only seems to be on the pan, not around the eyes.

Feel free to ask any questions! I enjoyed reviewing this and may review more of my palettes in the future. I have a TON.