It seems like everyone is launching their own makeup lines these days; celebrities, influencers, randos who no one’s ever heard of. Celebrity makeup artists are no exception (think Charlotte Tilbury, Pat McGrath) and Makeup by Mario is one of the most recent additions to the list. Best known as KKW’s personal makeup artist, his looks have been made famous worldwide. So today we’re reviewing the Makeup by Mario Master Metallics Palette, cuz if there’s one thing Kim does right, it’s her eyeshadow.
The line is available at Sephora and it’s a pretty limited collection of mostly eye products and tools. Several products look like they require some skill to use and the brand as a whole seems geared toward professionals and advanced makeup users.
- Makeup by Mario Master Metallics Palette Overview
- Makeup by Mario Master Metallics Palette Review
- Cruelty-Free and Vegan Status
- Where to Buy the Makeup by Mario Master Metallics Palette
- Final Thoughts
Makeup by Mario Master Metallics Palette Overview
The Makeup by Mario Master Metallics Palette is a 12 color eyeshadow palette that retails for $48. The palette contains 0.36 oz of product and comes in a plastic compact with a magnetic closure. It’s quite a small palette, about the size of an index card, and it does contain a mirror.
Makeup by Mario Master Metallics Palette Review
Color Story
As the name implies, the palette is a collection of all metallic shadows. So no, you’re not getting any mattes, and the palette isn’t designed to work as a stand-alone item. In fact, Makeup by Mario also created Master Mattes palette, seemingly as a sister palette to this product.
As far as the colors go there’s a mix of light to dark, as well as neutral and color. The shades all have the most generic names imaginable (metallic 1, metallic 2, etc.) and they’re only printed on the back of the palette so I’m not gonna reference them.
Your getting two pale shades, one more yellow/champagne and one beige/pink. Then there are a whole bunch of medium shades like copper, rose gold, gold, and olive. And finally there are a few deeper colors like the blue, purple, and cranberry.
As far as the darker shadows go, with the exception of charcoal, the rest aren’t really dark enough to create dramatic contrast, especially considering their reflective finishes. But again, this is supposed to be used as an accent palette, not to create full looks.
For the most part the palette leans rather warm; the only cooler shades are the blue, charcoal, olive, and beige. There is quite a range of bronzey shadows, between the rose gold, bronze, warmer copper, and reddish copper. While none of the shades are repetitive, it’s a lot of one color family for such a small palette and replacing one of them may have been a good idea.
I like the mix of neutral and colors and for the most part, none of the shadows are too intensely bright. I think if you’re looking to add color to your looks but don’t want neon or garish shades you’d probably enjoy these shades.
Formula
So this is really where the Master Metallics palette gets interesting, because the idea is that you’re gonna get these intense, vibrant metallic finishes.
For starters the shadows don’t feel like standard powders. There’s this creaminess to the texture and almost a slight give when you press down on the shadows. It kind of reminds me of Colourpop’s Supershock Shadows but not as soft.
There’s also a difference in the finishes. I’d say at least four of the shadows, the gold, rose gold, blue, and charcoal contain visible glitter and have a more sparkly finish than the rest of the palette. The other shades have a smoother metallic finish however the texture of the actual shadow varies.
For me this was one of the biggest issues, because nearly all the glittery shades, as well as some of the metallic ones, have a chunky, almost crumbly texture to them. If you were to pick some up on a flat brush, it kind of lifts off in clumps that leave heaps of fallout. And when you apply them, you really need to press and smooth the shadow into your eyelid in order to get an even application.
I did have better success with fingers, however as someone who prefers brushes, I really had to take care to get the shadows to apply smoothly and to minimize the fallout. There’s definitely extra skill required to make these work so I wouldn’t recommend them for the average user.
Pigmentation
In terms of pigmentation, it’s a similar story to the texture. The smooth metallics applied in a fairly even layer of pigmentation, though a bit thin so they benefited from a second layer. The glittery shadows and the chunkier metallics like the olive shade, were more patchy and uneven. Again, with the right measures, you can get even pigmentation, it just takes extra work.
I’m not convinced that these shadows are giving you a look that’s leap and bounds above what you could get from other brands. I feel like you can find more interesting finishes that require less work than the shadows in the Makeup by Mario Master Metallics Palette.
Swatches
Cruelty-Free and Vegan Status
Makeup by Mario states that none of their formulas or materials are ever tested on animals.
The Master Metallics Palette contains carmine and as such would not qualify as vegan.
Where to Buy the Makeup by Mario Master Metallics Palette | $48
- Sephora – Free shipping on orders over $50 and free returns.
- Makeup by Mario – Free standard shipping.
Final Thoughts
So overall I didn’t find the Master Metallics palette that compelling. It comes at a fairly high price tag and didn’t perform particularly well. The formula isn’t that easy to work with and I wasn’t super impressed with the looks these shadows turned out.
Pros
- Compact packaging
- Good mix of neutrals and color
- Decent pigmentation on some of the shades
Cons
- Difficult texture to work with
- Lots of fallout from some shades
- Some shadows have chunky textures that result in uneven pigmentation
Thanks for reading, I love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Bye now,
