Welcome to the tea party: The Queen Of Hearts palette, by Coloured Raine...

 Welcome to part three of my 'perfect for Christmas gift ideas' shuffle through my unreviewed makeup palettes.Today we'll be focusing on the Queen Of Hearts palette by Coloured Raine. This palette was first released as a limited edition palette last year, which when I picked up mine, then never reviewed as it sold out quickly. 

However the palette has proved so popular that it has just come back as a permanent palette, and can be bought on their site and on Beauty Bay. I figure that now would be a perfect time to write a review and show you unedited swatches and a couple of my favourite looks that I've been constantly re-wearing.

The Queen Of Hearts palette contains 12 warm toned powder shadows, six of which are matte, and the other six having some kind of shimmer or metallic finish; Crown [Pearlescent White with Gold Undertone], Royal Highness [Metallic Purple Toned Taupe], Your Majesty [Rich Metallic Copper with Gold Reflect], Princess [Matte Blushed Pink], Empress [Vibrant Matte Orange], Queen Mother [Metallic Plum with Lavender Hues], Heir [Matte Peach], Royal Prerogative [Matte Terracotta], Noblewoman [Metallic Burgundy with Purple Undertones], Ladyship [Matte Vivid Purple], Duchess  [Matte Milk Chocolate Brown] and Dethrone [Sparkling Espresso with Gold Reflect].

The shades perform much better on the eyes compared to my forearm

The mix of matte and shimmer shades make it easy to pair together for looks; you can pick and mix from anywhere in the palette, but pairing any matte [crease] and metallic [lid] together is a quick and easy option if you feel a bit overwhelmed when you first get it. The shades are just perfect for my current tastes. We get a nice mix of pretty warm-yet-neutral tones for more toned-down 'everyday' work looks, then it is extremely easy to add one or two of the more shades when I want to take my look up a notch [I find myself gravitating towards Empress most of the time - fabulous with blue eyes].

The quality of all of the shadows is very good; highly pigmented, smooth to apply, easy to blend & build up, plus crease resistant - and I rarely use eyeshadow primer. There isn't much fallout, and the shimmer doesn't migrate around my eyes during the day. There is a bit of kick-up when I dip my brush into the pan, but I believe that most good-to-high quality shadows do as they're softer, so I don't think of kick-up as being a negative. I've now used every shade in the palette at least once, and can't think of any outright complaints - my only minor niggle is that Crown is softer then the other shadows and is a bit chunky, so needs applying with a gentle hand.

At first I did think that Queen Of Hearts was a really pricey palette, but now after really getting a little while to look at the sizes of the pans [nearly full-sized] and play around with them & experience the high quality of the formulas, I now think we are getting good value here = around £3.75 per shadow. In single shadow terms it's a bargain, as lower quality singles in a low-to-mid range store like Boots cost more. Admittedly it's not the cheapest in terms of a palette, but a good investment. 

You can get the Queen Of Hearts palette from Beauty Bay for £45, and from Coloured Raine for $50.