Take three; the Venus III eyeshadow palette, by Lime Crime...

A new incarnation of Lime Crime’s ardently adored Venus Palette has arrived – and it’s a riot of rapturous lilac, rose gold and mauve shades, anchored by earthy browns. The ultra-buttery formula sweeps on richly pigmented colour that won’t fade or fall out, letting you create make up masterpieces befitting Botticelli himself. With eight matte, shimmering matte, glowing and metallic shades, this dreamy edit is eye-deal for reinvigorating your arsenal, whatever the season.

Venus III is described as being "the heavenly sister" to the grungier Venus palettes and my preferred makeup looks have swung back around to the more traditional 'feminine and pretty' placements and colour combinations, so will this palette hit the right notes for me?

Dreamy [mauve matte], Beam [lilac-with-pink-shift iridescent shimmer], Heavenly [gold iridescent shimmer], Rapture [blush-with-blue-flush satin]

Ecstasy [fig matte], Paradise [fuchsia-with-blue-shift satin], Bliss [rosewood matte], Beloved [mink metallic]

The Lime Crime Venus eyeshadow palettes have quickly become an auto-buy for me, as the brand is generally very consistent with the high quality of their shadow formula, so I'm always confident when it comes to buying them. The pigmentation on [almost] everything is awesome, and the shadow formula is very soft and buttery - and I'm not someone who usually bothers with primer. To date I haven't had any issues with shade fading, or shadow creasing. When I dip my brush into the shadows they do have some kick-up to them, but they aren't patchy and apply with only a little [if any] fallout and blend really well. 

This is something where I can confidently say that I'll continue to use every single shade that is in the palette - there's not a single shade that makes me sigh or go 'eww'. If having a one-and-done palette is a dealbreaker for you, then it's good news; you can make a variety of complete-look-in-one-palette looks with this palette, that go all the way from desk to party. The ratio of mattes to shimmers is another strong plus. At first I wasn't going to even bother getting this palette as two of the shades looked like any other boring browns out there, but I'm so glad I caved in the end - the matte brown [Ecstasy] has a rosy/mauve undertone to it and the metallic brown [Beloved] has a lavender tinge. Both undertones are distinctive and give the shades some uniqueness. Dreamy, Paradise and Bliss are all gorgeous shades that I use, at least one of, every time I open the palette. I think these shades are worth the palette's price alone.  

Beam and Heavenly are both glittery toppers, not opaque shadows, which Lime Crime didn't make clear at first [they have since updated the shadow descriptions on their site] and I'm not keen that they're not totally opaque and are very glittery - I can work with the shadows (foiled and finger application is the way to go), but it's the only formula in all four Venus palettes that has underwhelmed me quality-wise to date, as the glitter is kinda loose.

I really enjoy this palette overall; the quality of nearly everything is great and the shades are all very wearable, so I'm going to use and enjoy everything and I would want to replace this if I lost it. However I admit that my creative side was a bit "Oh. Is that it?" the first time that I saw this palette, as I think the pretty and traditionally girlie colour selection looks more like an extension of the XL palette, rather then being It's own entry into the Venus line.

Venus III costs £34 and is sold at Cult Beauty, Feel Unique and Selfridges.