Venus strikes back: the Venus II eyeshadow palette, by Lime Crime...

Lime Crime's popular Venus palette contains eight powder eyeshadows in warm shades inspired by Botticelli's classical painting crossed with 90s grunge, and Venus II takes that same theme & amps up the nu-grunge factor with by introducing some neutral & cooler shade selections to the Venus story...

I've had this palette for over a year now (I bought the Venus I & II palettes at the same time),so I've had plenty of time to use all of the shades and form an opinion on them. Is it a winner, or a missable entry in the Venus range?

Pigeon (pearl with brown/green shift ), Filter (luminous cornflower blue satin), Marsh (mossy grey-green satin), Mustard (creamy matte corduroy)

Fly (pearl with ivory/green green shift), Jam (creamy matte pumpkin spice), Mud (creamy matte rich burgundy-brown), Boot (sparkle matte nebula black with multi-color sparkle)

For me the stars of Venus II are the pearl shades Pigeon and Fly, as they're so unique and feel very creamy. I have dark blue eyes, so nearly every time I use this palette I gravitate towards Mustard and/or Jam - they really make my eye colour pop. At first Mud seemed boring and I ignored it, but after a few uses I decided that I love how it is clearly brown, but has a lovely wine-toned undertone to it - it provides a bit of uniqueness to the ordinary. I don't usually like blue eyeshadow, but there is something about this one that keeps me coming back for more. 

I'm not one for using black eyeshadow often, but Boots is so pigmented and doesn't fall out much, and makes a great liner when applied with a damp brush. The shade Marsh stands out for me it has a buildable formula,  rather than the higher pigmentation seen in the other shades - it is fine in terms of appearance and workability, but it isn't something I use as much as the other shadows.

There are only eight shades in the Venus II palette, but the pricing is reasonable enough to excuse this, especially considering the awesome product quality on 7 out of 8 of the shadows. The powders are a pleasure to work with; they apply and blend like butter, don't fade over the course of the day [with or without primer] and I've never had any creasing. The satin, pearl and sparkle finishes don't transfn used in the crease, so that's another plus.

I'll buy Venus II again if I lost as the shades are new-to-me and the colour-story is unique - I think that Venus II is the most authentically curated out of all of the Venus palettes & quads. 

The only downside for me is that the Venus entries [I own everything except the Venus XL2 palette] contain shadow shades that appeal to me all year round, whereas I tend to only reach for Venus II during autumn/winter, but that downside is personal taste, rather then product quality. 

I highly recommend this palette to people who don't mind using multiple palettes for one look to make it more of a "all rounder".

The Venus II eyeshadow palette costs £34 and can be bought from Cult Beauty, Feel Unique and Selfridges.