NEW THINGS! NEW MAKEUP!

Look, I have a review of these! I made a good ol’ order on Wet N Wild’s website (here) when I heard they dropped a bunch of new products, because you know, I had to get my grabby hands on them.

The biggest news was that they redid and released all of their eyeshadow palettes, with a new configuration and new formulas. I have the 10-palettes in this review, that are slowly phasing out their big 8 pan palettes.

I have all 4 of them and they cost $4.99 each – just like your old 8 pans.

 

Let’s get into it, because it’s going to be long, with lots of pictures.

They come in sturdy plastic packaging, and are a little more sleek and slim-lined than their 8 pans. You have the normal 8 shades in the middle, with an addition of 2 matte ‘Transition’ shades on each side.

The names are printed really big on the back, and there is also a diagram for a basic eye look using the palettes, so that’s really nice. They close tightly and will be so nice for travel.

I’ll talk about the formula first, since I know that’s what you’re looking for! I found they had pretty much the same formulas across the board – I’ll point out specific shades and notes in each palette as I go – but here’s a general overview of them all right now.

The shades can be split into two families: the mattes (and satins) and the shimmers.

The mattes. Oh my god the mattes. The mattes are surprisingly beautiful all across these palettes. The best thing about these new palettes is that they added 2 large “transition” shades on each end. Shows how far we’ve come from those first days of all shimmer Wet N Wild palettes. They listened to our notes and these transition shades make it easy to complete multiple full looks from the palettes. They’re all mid tone matte shades, and I love them and know I’ll be pulling out these palettes to use the matte shades with other brands as well.

The mattes are pigmented, but not ridiculously so. You can dip into these and not worry about having an unblendable streak of crazy color in your crease. They build up nicely and blend out amazingly. With the way they blend, they’re like higher end eyeshadows.

Definitely tap your brush off – that’s one thing about these, is that they kick up a lot of powder and can leave a little fallout. But if you tap off your brush, and just blow extra shadow off the palette every so often, you’ll be fine. The fallout only comes if you’re digging your brush in and loading up on product and going straight to your eye. It’s nothing too terribly hard to do, and worth it for these stunning mattes. Remember when the drugstore couldn’t do matte shades? How times have CHANGED indeed. The more satin shades are very pigmented as well – especially those dark shades, and are perfect for the outer corners, or all over the lid.

Now, the shimmers. I’m going to be honest. At first I wanted to be more disappointed in these. But then I realize, they have the same formula as Wet N Wild’s previous shimmers. They’re the shimmers that aren’t super metallic or will look foiled on the lid, even with a sticky base. They’re more of a solid color on the lids, and less of a pop of metallic.

The lighter shimmer shades were the ones that were honestly not great (mainly the ones in ‘Nude Awakening’. They were crumbly and chunky, and didn’t spread evenly over the lids. And they just aren’t bright enough for my taste – luckily there’s only 3 or 4 total out of all the palettes that I feel this way about.

For the deeper shimmer shades, you can get gorgeous pops of color built up over a sticky base, and they’re smoother than the lighter shimmer palettes.

The drugstore still hasn’t really done a super metallic powder eyeshadow yet, so I’m still waiting for that. There are really pretty shadows, so they’re definitely not unusable. So if you don’t expect super metallic pops of color, they’re still good shadows.

Overall, I did end up really liking these palettes. I think these are a super good value, and really good palettes from the drugstore. They would travel well, and offer you full looks in a small compact little place. The shimmers are a small part of them, and aren’t even completely unusable, so you’re getting 10 shades for $5. I would pay that just for the mattes themselves. These have one of the better formulas for the drugstore.

So let’s get into the individual palettes and swatches.

First up is ‘Nude Awakening’. This is a basic neutral palette, and has some rosy shades, as well as more of a cooler vibe to it.

In this palette you get 5 matte shades, 2 satins, and 3 shimmers. This was the palette that I found had some of the weakest shimmers of the bunch. Those 2 pink shimmers in the left top row were the most crumbly, and I had to dig into them more a little to get color, and then, they’re more of a subtle shimmer on the lids. So those two were the worst shades of all 4 palettes. Luckily, they’re the only ones.

But those mattes. As you can see, you get a nice cream shade – like ‘Brulee’ – and some beautiful traditional matte shades in a range of tones so you can build up how dark your look is steadily. That burgundy shade can take a little more blending, but that’s normal with these deeper berry shades. Those 2 pink shimmers are a little disappointing, but otherwise the rest of the shades are so nice.

Up next is the one everyone is holding their breath on. The new and improved Comfort Zone.

The original Comfort Zone is one of my favorites, and I remember it being one of the first palettes I sought out at the drugstore after seeing it being raved about on YouTube. Sweet memories. So when they said they were redoing it, I felt very protective, and worried that it just wouldn’t be as good.

It’s the same shades from the original Comfort Zone – in a little different order – with those 2 new transition shades. Those were definitely the one thing missing from the original Comfort Zone, so points already.

I absolutely love that right transition shade. A warm brown transition shade like that is so nice, and I find myself using warm shades like that more and more. Everything honestly swatched really nicely in this palette. You get the 8 shimmer/satin shades like before, with those 2 new matte transition shades.

And *drum roll* it does have the same formula as the old Comfort Zone. Do I find it mountains above and improved? No, I find the shimmers performing the same way as before. So you can breathe. You could even say the palette was improved with those two matte shades.

That brown duochrome shade did take a little more building up on the lid to get the full color and flash, but it wasn’t impossible to work with. So that is my one note on that.

Of course, I still had to compare the 2 so you can see how well they match up. So like you can see, the order is a little changed up, but other than that, everything is there.

And the swatches speak for themselves. Wet N Wild knows they couldn’t touch the Comfort Zone colors. Everything’s there, and everything’s the same.

Another thing to not, your two darker satin shades with the glitter (the 1st, and 6th shades): in the old CZ, that first shade seems to be deeper and richer, while the 6th shade is deeper and more black in new CZ (look at the swatches so this makes more sense). There’s a little more distinction between the two shades in the new Comfort Zone in swatches. But just like the old one, once on the eye, they look the same, so it doesn’t matter too much.

This one I was most excited about when I pulled it out. It was the first one I had to use. This is called ‘Not a Basic Peach’ – heh, I really liked the name too. This is a warm palette, with lovely pops of colors.

You get 5 mattes, 2 satins, and 3 shimmers.

I will say my one gripe with this one is that right transition shade. Now I’m pretty fair, and I could barely get this one to show up on me. I didn’t really see any difference using this as my transition, and if I can’t, no one will. It’ll end up being more of a shade to set my primer, or blend out the edges of other shadows.

Unf, that orange matte in the middle there. That one is just stunning, and worth $5 on its own. Just look at that. It’s so stunning. The mattes in here are perfect for the warm trends that have taken over, and they’re just so beautiful. Like I said, blend beautifully, and just feel so expensive.

The shimmers in this one were my favorite. I used that blue all over my lid, and put on top of a sticky primer, it is actually a super bright pop of color. Way more stunning than I was expecting, and I felt like a mermaid with it on. The coral and gold shimmers are beautiful as well. So the shimmers in here are honestly the best of the bunch. Overall, love this palette the most of the 4. It feels the most unique to me, and had the best shadows all around.

Last but not least we have our darker more burgundy palette, ‘Rosé in the Air’.

This has the most mattes out of all of them, with 8, and then one satin and one shimmer.

This photo is like porn to me. Just look how pretty those look. Just look at those warm transitions, *drools*.

You get a wide range of matte shades that could compliment so many other palettes.

So this has the most mattes, and they’re all stunning. That pink one is a little less pigmented and takes a little more to build up – but normal with a more pink shade, and not completely unworkable.

I’m going to love this palette to pair with others, anytime I’m looking for a certain matte shade to put down before a shimmer. If you want the most bang for your buck, this one is definitely good, with all of these beautiful matte shades. Even that burgundy satin shade shows up well, and that gold is more of a soft wash of gold on the lid.

The 3 shades on the left of this palette reminded me a lot of one of the limited edition trios from their spring collection, ‘Hieroglyphic Heart’. Of course, I compared them for you.

As you can see they’re not quite exact (‘Hieroglyphic Heart’ is on the top, and ‘Rosé in the Air’ is on the bottom). The new palette has a little deeper, more shimmery gold, and more of a burgundy brown shade. But that light purple transition shade is the same, and that was the shade I liked the most. So I love having another.

So those are your new Wet N Wild palettes! To sum them up: the mattes are absolutely stunning – they blend out beautifully and wear wonderfully on the eye. The shimmers are good for a nice wash of color on the eyes – but aren’t going to be super metallic and foiled.

‘Nude Awakening’ had the worst shimmers, while ‘Not a Basic Peach’ had the best ones. ‘Rosé in the Air’ has the most mattes and beautiful transition shades, if you want to pick up one to supplement your shimmer collection.

I do find these last well on the eyes, and last throughout my longer work days. The shimmers can crease a tiny bit on the lids if I really try to pack them on, but I have oily lids – so just use a primer and you won’t have too big of an issue.

I do love that Wet N Wild is coming out with more eyeshadows – I picked up the 5 pan ones to review as well – so hold on for those.

They’re coming out with so many products, and just elevating the quality as they go and I love it. They’ve definitely come a long way from the drugstore brand they used to be so long ago, and they’re really making a name for themselves in the makeup world!

I’ll continue picking up all of their new products and keep reviewing them, because I absolutely love them as a brand. So stay tuned for even more reviews coming up!

 

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