High-End vs Drugstore: Battle of the palettes
Although I love the drugstore, sometimes the quality just doesn’t compete with high-end (and therefore the money- down-the-drain end) pigmentation, colour range, and packaging. Yet sometimes, the drugstore is hiding a little gem underneath the mound of opened testers, and well… not testers. And that is why I will be comparing the W7 ‘Beat it! – Natural Nudes, Eye Colour’ Palette, with the prestigious Mac ‘Amber X9’ palette.
Firstly, I want to give you some background on what I look for in a palette:
No.1: Boring brown, nude neutral tones.
No.2: Preferably more matte, compared to shimmery boring colours.
No.3: Good pigmentation f boring tones.
No.3 It looks nice.
Now that’s all summed up, lets get in with the review…
Mac – Amber X9 palette
Although this palette is very compact, there is a beautiful colour range, from my favourite brown tone nudes, and warm toned neutrals to sparkly purple and greens, with the shade ‘Don’t Tell’ and ‘Pepper, Please’. Which makes this palette a little more unique!
Full Colour range:
‘Cozy Grey’ – This is a very cool toned grey, with quite a pinky undertone. It is also matte, and is an amazing transition shade for a more cool toned eye look, or just on the eyelid for a subtle wash of colour.
‘Kittie’ – This is a shimmer shade, that’s a pink-champagne colour, with very fine golf glitter running through i. Giving it a rose gold type of vibe. I love this shade for my brow bone highlight, as it gives a super subtle, but crisp glow to the skin.
‘Georgia Peach’ – This is a matte pink, which looks beautiful in the crease as a transistion, for a beautiful subtle and pretty look.
‘RicePaper’ – This is a very warm, yellow shade that has a slight golden shimmer running through it.
‘Creative Copper’ – This is yellow toned gold, leaning towards a copper, it is more shimmery and metallic than ‘kittie’ and ‘RicePaper’.
‘Cork’ – I love this colour for the crease, and as it is a warm brown. It creates a really pretty eye look.
‘Don’t Tell’ – This is such a unique shade, and is a super pretty dark metallic purple.
‘Aromatic’ – I personally use this shade for my outer V, but this hade is perfect for darkening up the crease, or for a more cool toned look. This shade is also quite a lot darker and dramatic shade compared to ‘Cork’, so is suited for more night-time orientated looks.
‘Pepper, please’ – This is a dark, dark brown but has elements of green and gold running through it (in my opinion) and is again, just such a unique and original earthy shade.
All of these shades have relatively good pigment, but the classic matte browns (‘Cork’ and ‘Aromatic’) are super pigmented and stunning!
The packaging of this product, is also super sleek, and I love that the front is transparent, so that you can see all of the colours at first glance.
And I know that this palette is pricy at £25 for 9 shades, but I personally love this palette and yeah, that sit for the Mac ‘Amber x9’ palette.
W7 ‘Beat it! – Natural Nudes’ Palette
This palette is pointing much more in the direction of shimmer shades, but does have a range of rose-gold, peaches, blacks to fiery oranges and reds. So this palette is extremely versatile. There is also 12 shades, compared to Mac’s 9 and at £4.99 to the £25, you get waaaaay more, for your money with the W7 palette.
‘BiG A’ – A matte yellow toned shadow. Perfect for setting your lid.
‘Moon Shadow’ – This is very similar to Mac’s ‘Cork’ and is therefore, a warm toned matte shade. Suited amazingly as a crease shade.
‘Late again’ – This is just an out and out matte black. Which I never really use, as I prefer subtler and lighter eyeshadow looks. But it would be perfect if you prefer those more dramatic eye looks.
‘The full monty’ – This is a super shimmery shade, that is absolutely beautiful. It is within the pink family, but has silvery and gold specs of glitter running though…. Argh, it’s just beautiful!
‘Film Star’ – Now this shade, well, it is very pretty baby pink but then comes along and hits me with a holographic vibe. With reflections of blue and purple. So this shade is incredible unique and different, and I have full respect to W7 for that.
‘Candlelight’ – This has a similar texture to ‘The full monty’, yet this is a lot more gold toned. But again, it’s an absolutely stunning shade.
‘Loved up’ – Okay, I’m obsessed with this shade. It is a beautiful shimmery brown shadow with rose-gold reflects. It is perfect if you want a more dramatic, but still pretty and girly look.
‘Make a wish’ – This shade, for me personally, doesn’t really seem to fit with the rest of the palette. As it is a very cool toned shimmery purple/blue. And although it is a beautiful colour, I never seem to reach for it, as it just so far out of my comfort zone.
‘Teacher’s pet’ – Again, has a similar consistency to ‘Candlelight’ and ‘The full monty’, yet is a lot paler, and has more of a champagne colour towards it.
‘Billboart’ – This shadow is a very dark metallic, warm toned, brown. And would be beautiful if used on the outer and inner corner for a glittered halo eye.
‘Loadad’ – This shade is super pigmented, and is a warm, rusty red with small reflects of gold.
‘The gambler’ – This shade is similar to Mac’s ‘Creative Copper’ and is very pigmented warm yellow, with lots of gold speckles running through it.
Overall the shimmer shades in this palette are absolutely stunning, and are extremely metallic and pigmented. However, the matte shades don’t quite live up to that. This particular W7 palette heads in the direction of rose gold and coppers, which fit perfectly with the tinned, all over, copper packaging.
There is a lot more fall out with palette, and the formulas of the shimmery shades are quite crumbly, whereas the matte shades are just quite chalky. However, I love this palette for the shimmers to add a moment of glam to my face, and the rose gold theme works perfectly with looks I generally wear on a day-to-day basis.
Overall, I love both palettes. With Mac I love the mattes and W7 I’m in love with the shimmer shades. And I know that there is a huge price difference, but Mac does win on the quality of the shadows, on their pigmentation and lack of fall out. Therefore on this occasion, High-end does win, but I still love W7, and I generally don’t understand why it is so cheap. So I would definitely recommend all of my drugstore lovers out there to try out W7 palettes!
Anyways, I know this is a long one. But I really hope you enjoy it and do just want to let you know, that this is actually a collaboration with the lovely Emma Lauren (@emmalauren_xo on Instagram) as she has also just uploaded a palette comparison, from high end to drug store. Including one from Morphe and a Too Faced palette. So if you would like to check that out, then I am sure she would love to see you around. And I will link her blog below!
But as always, if you want to keep up to date, get the latest news from my blog then simply just scroll down to the ‘STAY UPDATED’ section and enter your email address to subscribe. I would also love to have a conversation with you guys, so you can just comment down below, if you want! Oh and I there’s a like button around somewhere, if you would like to smash that heart button! Also for any private business enquiries or any random questions you may have, then just head on over to the ‘CONTACT’ page of my blog.
And with that, I hope you all doing amazing! And have an absolutely wonderful day!
All of my love, Daisy Jane x
Find me on Instagram @daisyjaneblog
Emma’s blog: mylifemypassion123.wordpress.com/