If this palette seems familiar to you, you might remember it from my post where I listed the products that Emilynoel83 made me buy. As I mentioned in that post, I have not gotten the chance to test out this palette as of posting that, and now I have. While this brand isn't all that new, it is definitely new to me and many beauty lovers in the Philippines as this brand only recently launch on Sephora PH.
Since trying out a new cruelty-free brand is always a good thing to do, I decided to pick up their Pretty Birdie palette as it was what appealed to me the most. It's a gorgeous palette, with cute cardboard packaging and pan shapes that resemble a birdcage.
This palette is cruelty-free and is also made without gluten, parabens, and sulfates. If you happen to be allergic to those ingredients, this palette is safe to use. However, this product is not vegan as it does contain carmine and zinc stearate.
Carmine is a red dye made from crush beetles, and zinc stearate can be derived from animal fats. While it can be synthesized without the use of animal by-products, there is no indication on the website or ingredients list if it is plant-derived or not. If you are allergic to these ingredients or have other concerns about them, it is best to avoid this product.
Swatches
Going back to the review now, this palette is predominantly shimmery and only has four matte shades. Here are all 12 shades swatched below on bare skin:
The brand markets this as their colorful palette and my initial thoughts on it were that the color story does inspire you to get creative, but just from swatches, I wasn't too impressed with the shadow quality. While the metallic shades swatch beautifully, the matte shades came off patchy and chalky. While they don't swatch great, they perform excellently on the eyes as I had little issue blending them out.
Also, while the metallic shades swatch well, I won't say that they're all the same quality. Ego for example, has a nice soft and almost wet feeling while Free is more dry and crumbly. The rest of the shimmer shades are rather stiff too. After using this palette for a week, here's what I have to say about it.
My Final Thoughts
If you are looking for a colorful palette that gives you the right amount of matte shades and a wide range of metallic shades for your lid and accent colors, then I do recommend this palette for you. This is especially good if you don't like the guesswork of which mattes go together and simply want to blend one color in your crease and decorate it with the shimmery shades in this palette.
I suggest you don't set your eyeshadow primer if you want immediate color payoff. If you still prefer to set your primer, the matte shades still build up nicely and do blend easier on top of that. However, I will say that if you don't set your eyeshadow primer, the shimmery shades do crease more throughout the day, even if this is a way to get them to look more pigmented.
However, if you would like to use the deeper metallic shades (Songbird and Head Bitch, for example) to add more depth into your look, they are too reflective for that purpose. It's not the best quality palette for what you get and I do feel like a lot of a appeal is in the packaging. I don't think it's the worst palette out there though, I just think it's okay and you're not really missing out if you decide to get it or not.
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