Hi friends!

Today’s post is all about the Holy Grail palette that has been ALLL over Facebook and Instagram. It has been sold out and restocked soooo many times, but still, it’s in high demand. BUT – is it worth it?

PRICE
Originally, the Violet Voss palettes were only available through the Violet Voss website. Palettes are US$42 with an additional amount for shipping. However, I purchased my palette from British beauty site, Beauty Bay, for AUD$64 (with free shipping). $64 is quite close to the price of Urban Decay and Too Faced shadows from Mecca so I had high expectations!

PACKAGING
The packaging is made of cardboard but has a matte coat on it that attracts finger prints and streaks of shimmer from the shadows. However, it can be wiped off with a cloth. It does feel quite cheap (and looks it too). It has embossed letters and a silver border. The font of the name “Holy Grail” irks me as it just looks so awkward and does not fit with the rest of the front. I guess that’s personal preference, but for a “Holy Grail” palette I thought the packaging would have more of a special feel to it.

There is a mirror on the inside cover. It is fairly decent sized to apply eyeshadow with, but is not practical considering the dimensions of the palette and the ability to hold it up. It has been set into the cardboard but on my palette, it is slightly crooked 😦

Whilst all these individual factors may seem nitpicky on my part, they all add up to present an over all “cheap-ish looking” palette in terms of packaging.
Overall, the packaging is sleek and sturdy.

INGREDIENTS
The webpage for the palette on the Violet Voss site does not explicitly list the ingredients, only stating “Our PRO eye shadows are made with the highest quality ingredients and formulated to allow for smooth blending.”.
But, I found this list from the LaureLee palette which I would assume to be very similar: Ingredients/Ingrédients / Made in PRC –Mica,Mineral Talc,. Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Kaolin Clay, Magnesium Stearate,  Phenyl Trimethicone, Tridecyl Trime-llitate,Methylparaben, Propylparaben. (+/-) May contain: Mica and Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Iron Oxides, ChromiumHydroxide Green (Ci 77288) , Chromium-Oxide Greens (Ci 77288), Manganese
Violet-(Ci 77742), Ultramarines (Ci 77007), Ferric Ferrocyanide (Ci 77510), FD&C Red 40 Al Lake (Ci 16035), FD&C Yellow 5 Al Lake (cl 19140), FD&C Blue 1 Al Lake(Ci 42090).

Some things to note from that slab of info is that the palettes are made in People’s republic of China and the shadows contain Mica and Mineral Talc.

COLOUR SELECTION
This is a warm palette with gorgeous, gorgeous colours. I have to admit, the sole reason for my purchase was for the bottom four burgundy shades.

There aren’t as many browns as I had expected with most of the matte shades being more orange-based. Out of the 20 shadows, only 8 are matte and 12 are shimmer/metallic which I love! I have so many warm matte shades to complement this palette, so I’m glad a majority of the shades are shimmery!

First Row L-R
Crystal, Ploof, Thanks a Latte, Transition & Hashtag
This row is the most underwhelming of the palette. It has some 2 shimmers – Crystal and Ploof that are nice but not very unique.
These are followed by 3 mattes. Thanks a Latte is a cream shade that is quite buttery and pigmented. Transition is a light peachy-brown that acts as a, well, transition shade for a whole range of skin tones. I like to use it to blend out any overbearing shadows around the crease. Hashtag is an orange that I like to use to blend out harsh, dark shades. The last two mattes are very average in pigmentation.

Second Row L-R
Awesome Sauce, Bestie, Toffee, Chill & How U Doin
As you can see from the swatches, Awesome Sauce is as the name suggests, is indeed Awesome Sauce. The shimmer shades in this row are all gorgeous but Awesome Sauce is certainly a winner.
Bestie is a matte warm brown which is a soft shade on my skin tone.
Toffee has a strong shiny, metallic sheen to it. It looks similar to Awesome Sauce but it lighter and more gold rather than bronze.
Chill and How U Doin are more of a muted shimmer and don’t have as much of a metallic sheen but are still really pretty.

Third Row L-R
Bat My Eyes, Cool Beans, R U Kitten Me, So Jelly & On Fleek
I love this row  – mainly for Cool Beans, So Jelly and On Fleek!
Bat My Eyes is a nice bronzey-brown shade but can be found in several other palettes. Cool Beans is a pretty rose gold. R U Kitten Me is another warm brown but a bit darker than the previous shades. So Jelly is such a unique shade! Its a lighter pink-purple duochrome type. it requires a bit of layering and applies best with a finger or wet brush or Fix+’d. On Fleek is a nice copper-burgandy shade.

Fourth, Last Row L-R
Brownie Points, Teddy Bear, Glamping, Cranberry Splash & Wine N Dine
Brownie Points and Teddy Bear were darker both matte brown shades. They apply patchy and take a while to build up pigment. Glamping is a warm brown with shimmer and requires some effort.
Cranberry Splash is certainly a winner in this palette. I don’t own anything like it! Wine N Dine was patchier than I had hoped but is still workable.

Was this palette worth it?
Depends on how much you get it for! It is definitely worth the AUD$64 but I wouldn’t pay any more than $70 as many of these colours can be found in palettes such as the Morphe 35o palette, Anastasia Modern Renaissance and Makeup Geek singles. I have seen these palettes sold on eBay and Facebook groups for ridiculous amounts when you could just purchase dupe singles of the stand outs from Makeup Geek and use matte shades from other neutral palettes.
A lot of these shades are lid colours and are best applied with a finger as that gives it it’s best pigmentation.

Was it my Holy Grail?
It’s definitely an accompanying palette and not a stand alone as there aren’t enough basic shades. So I won’t say it’s my “Holy Grail” but it’s a nice palette!