A few days ago I reviewed one of Sydney Grace’s newest releases, the Southern Spring Eyeshadow Palette and today I’m going to follow up with another of their palettes in this collection, Western Summer. As much as I hate to say this, I didn’t enjoy this one as much.
Western Summer is $36.00 and has nine shades: five mattes and four metallics. It has cardboard packaging with a firm magnetic closure and a mirror. As always with Sydney Grace, the art on the front of the packaging is beautiful. The eyeshadow pans are magnetic so you could easily depot them and put them into another palette. With the basic info out of the way, let’s talk pros and cons!
Pros:
- Almost all of the mattes are excellent. They are so easy to blend and build. I’ve been dealing with some dryness on my eyelids and I still had no issues working with them.
- All of the metallics are beautiful. Extreme Tubing and Chasing Waterfalls were my favorites, especially when combined.
Cons:
- Chasing Waterfalls, while beautiful, is so messy. It creates a ton of fallout and that fallout stains.
- I would have liked for Red Rock to be more pigmented.
- I greatly struggled to blend Surf’s Up. I am dealing with some eyelid dryness right now but even in the spots where I’m not dealing with dryness, this shade was patchy.
Swatches & Shade Descriptions:
These eyeshadows do have names but no shade descriptions so I will describe them to the best of my ability. I’ll be going from left to right, top row to bottom row. These photos were taken with flash to show off the sparkle.
- Extreme Tubing– metallic yellow
- Red Rock– matte pastel yellow
- Golden Poppy– matte tan
- Beach Bonfire– matte brown
- Bridal Veil Falls– matte light green
- Chasing Waterfalls– metallic seafoam green with gold sparkles
- Swimming Hole– metallic turquoise
- Surf’s Up– matte muted navy blue
- Pacific Crest Trail– metallic royal blue
Eyeshadow Looks:
I created two looks using this palette. I love the first one but the second one didn’t turn out because the shade Surf’s Up wouldn’t blend. I don’t always wear an eye primer but I do set my base with a cream colored shadow.
- I blended Golden Poppy into my inner crease.
- I blended Bridal Veil Falls into my crease and smudged it on my lower lash line.
- I deepened my crease with Beach Bonfire and also smudged it on my lower lash line.
- I blended the edges of the matte shadows with Red Rock.
- I applied Chasing Waterfalls on my lid.
- I tapped Extreme Tubing over my lid and applied it in my inner corner.
- I blended Red Rock into my inner crease.
- I blended Surf’s Up throughout the rest of my crease and smudged it over the majority of my lower lash line.
- I applied Pacific Crest Trail over most of my lid and blended it up into the crease.
- I applied Swimming Hole on my inner lid and smudged it on the inner part of my lower lash line.
- I applied Extreme Tubing in my inner corner and blended it into my inner crease, on top of Red Rock.
If you are curious about any of the other products on my face, you can find these looks in my recent posts on Instagram.
Final Thoughts:
I love Sydney Grace’s formula but this palette wasn’t as good as what I’ve come to expect from the brand. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad but I definitely prefer Southern Spring. Thanks for reading!
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