Review! Sephora Collection Moonshadow Palette - In The Night

This week I trialed Sephora Collection, Moonshadow Palette - In The Night.  I loved the In The Nude palette, so I had very high hopes for this one.

Like In The Nude, this one has a hard plastic case.  I think this case has a nicer design than the other one, because it is a 3-D design.  It looks more high-end, and while I usually don't like anything that resembles and animal print, this one is done nicely.

Here you can see how the black spots are raised off of the gold background:

The interior has a full-length mirror, and 10 eyeshadows.

One thing I have seen many other people comment on is the fallout inside the case.  When you use the colors dry, the pigment and sparkle will scatter everywhere, and there isn't anything you can do about it.  There is a simple way to ensure that you don't have any fallout, if you intend to use the colors wet most of the time, though.

Wet a clean eyeshadow brush until it is completely full of water, and then touch the brush to the top of the eyeshadow dome.  It will immediately soak up all the water in the brush.  Re-wet the brush, and then swipe the brush on top of the eyeshadow dome, going all the way around the dome, so that you get the entire surface swiped down with water.  I haven't experienced any fallout in the case when using this method.

This is what the shadow looks like after it has been wet:

And, here they are swatched wet:

Black Gold was a shock - it is a black base, with a gold sheen and gold glitter.  I was expecting the glitter, but not the sheen!  It is really stunning.

Onyx is a matte black, and I feel like it flopped.  It wasn't a deep, dark black.  It wasn't grey, but it was... a soft black?  No, not even that.... more like faded black jeans.  Yes!  Faded black jeans describes it perfectly.  I was really disappointed with that one, but it might come in handy for a grey smokey eye.  Maybe.

And here they are in ambient light.  They look so different depending on the lighting!:

Here is a better picture of Platinum and White Gold.  White Gold was the most shocking.  It looks like a white highlighter in the pan, but once you put it on, it is a white base with a golden sheen and then white glitter.  It is lovely!

Two favorites were Light Gold and Gold Metal.  They swatched out very beautifully with a lot of intensity.  Gold Metal looks like 24K gold:

Applying eyeshadow wet is a technique all in itself, so be prepared to experiment.  It is a lot like painting with acrylic paints, in that you can get a very defined line, but you can also blend the points where colors meet, while on the eyelid, if you work quickly.  I suggest learning on your forearm.  Use two eyeshadow brushes, apply one dark color, and then the light color.  Using the light color brush, try blending the two together where they meet.  You can try it with more water, less water, adding more water after it applied to the arm, etc.  It is a lot easier, and less frustrating, to practice blending techniques on your arm, rather than on your eyelid. 

If you use these wet, I recommend using a primer underneath.  Otherwise, if you touch your eyes after it has dried, the eyeshadow will completely fall off.  The darker colors will leave behind a wash, but all of the sparkle and most of the color will COMPLETELY FALL OFF.  I'm serious.  If you tend to touch your eyes at all after applying your makeup, I'm not sure that I would recommend this palette to get these intense colors (ie applying them wet). 


In my previous review of In The Nude, I didn't mention this, because I never touched my eyes when I was trialing that palette.  When I trialed this one, there was a lot of dust and grime in the air from the early Spring rains dusting up the Winter grime, and my eyes were irritated from that. 

Now, if you use them dry, be aware that you will loose almost all of that intensity.  Regular primer will NOT keep the glitter on, and you will have some pretty bad fallout.

Enter, Pixie Epoxy.  A very thin layer of Pixie Epoxy, over your regular primer, will hold all of the sparkle, and almost all of the color.  I'm going to go ahead and call this a necessity.  When using the Pixie Epoxy, these colors become extremely wearable for daytime looks, and the shimmer makes it transition to night-time without further application.  You can build up your layers, to the point where you nearly reach the "applied wet" intensity.

Here is a comparison:

And here they are after being rubbed with my fingers:

You can see the full review of Pixie Epoxy here.  I have also tried using the Pixie Epoxy and applying the eyeshadow wet.  It does work to keep the eyeshadow on better, and brings the Moonshadow to the staying power of a normal eyeshadow should you touch your eyes.

This look was done with Pixie Epoxy underneath, but I did not build the layers too much, because I needed a daytime look.  The colors are; Gold Metal at inner corner to center lid, Black Gold from outer corner to center lid, and then center lid blended well (the blending lifted more of the black base off, but in person, there was a golden sheen there), and then White Gold from the crease to browbone, Black Gold at lower lashline and lower lid, and finally, Electro Purple at the lower lid inner corner.:

I included the last two pictures to show how the light still catches the glitter color, and that it is brighter from a bit of a distance.  When viewing eye makeup close-up, it usually looks a lot more sparse than it does if you back up a little bit.

And here is a sparkly nude daytime eye using this method:

That is Peach on the inner lid, Honey Brown at the outer corner to the center of the lid, on the crease and a bit above the crease, and on the entire lower lid, and then Light Gold just below the eyebrow to where the Honey Brown ended above the crease.
 
One little idea - if you are new to wearing super-sparkly eyeshadows (or brights, or deep smoke, or whatever you are trying out), back away from your mirror about six feet, and apply your color from there.  You'll have to do a bit of touch-up when you are done and get a closer look (move back to the mirror), but I think you'll be surprised at what point you stop applying product when you aren't a foot or less away from your project.

In conclusion, I love these Moonshadow palettes.  I like it that I can have a very intense nighttime look by applying them wet, and I can also use them dry to achieve a more subtle daytime look.  They probably aren't the best palette for a beginner, but anyone with a little bit of patience can use it.