It had to be sometime in 2016 when those Viseart palettes showed up all over the internet. I found their all matte or all shimmer eyeshadows very intriguing. Over the last year I bought three of them, first the 07 Cool Mattes, then 09 Bijoux Royale and last the 04 dark Mattes. Obviously I do like them, and here’s my Viseart eyeshadow application recommendations and review!
Viseart’s background
Viseart is a smaller french brand, which caters to professionals in the beauty industry. I think their products reflect that. Either all matte or all shimmery shadows are housed in one palette, because it can be annoying to have shimmery bits in your matte shadow. Slim packaging with clear lids, easy to stack and lightweight. To be honest, the plastic doesn’t seem very sturdy to me, the closure on one of my palettes is already loose and it feels a bit cheap as well, like the Hourglass Ambient Light Vol. 3 Palette.
But way more important is the product itself. So are these shadows as good as the influencers claim? Is the formula as unique and great that the steep price point can be justified?
The formula and application
Visearts eyehadows are formulated without silicones, mineral oil and parabens. The ingredient list is remarkably short, but yes, talc is the first ingredient.
The matte eyeshadows are smooth and soft to the touch, but due to the lack of silicones or any smoothing agents there’s none of that often praised creamy or buttery feel. The finish is not completely matte. There is a slight satin sheen to them, which I do like on my more wrinkly eyelids. I’m 48 now and if an eyeshadow doesn’t accentuate those wrinkles it’s a big plus in my opinion. The eyeshadows apply a bit sheer at first, but are very easily build up to true-to-pan colour.
Blending is easy, but if you blend too vigorously the colour disappears. I would say that this is due to the no-silicone, no-oil formula. They last all day without changing the colour one bit. My primer of choice is MAC’s 24h Eye Base.
The shimmer shadows do feel a bit creamier, they are of the more metallic variety and don’t have much sparkly glitter. Building up the colour is as easy as with the matte ones.
Application problems and solutions
There’s one drawback to that formula, especially for people who are a bit heavy handed with their eyeshadow application. If you load your brush up to the max and then apply your shadow you will be disappointed. There will be fallout and patchiness. When you blend too vigorously, the colour disappears. If you try to blend different colours like that, you will most likely end up with a muddy mess. (Like Dorit complained in this post here.)
This might be due to the fact that Viseart eyeshadows are marketed as fully mixable with each other. For example, you like that blue colour in the Cool Mattes palette. But want a lighter version of it, just dip your brush in the off white shade and in the blue and you will get a perfect mixture of the two. If there is a lot of shadow on you lid, the shades won’t layer as much as mix with each other.
In general I find that higher quality brushes like Hakuhodo or Make Up For Ever work better than Zoeva or Real Techniques for example.
These are for you if…
So in the end I like the Viseart eyeshadows a lot. The formula, the colour selection and the amount you get for the price convinced me to purchase more after the first palette. I still like my MAC, NARS and especially my Make up for ever shadows and I don’t think Viseart superior to those. But I’m not a professional at all.
In the end it all depends on your personal taste. If you like shadows that are buildable from sheer to opaque and you don’t need real glitter in your makeup then you will like Viseart. If you prefer the overly buttery and opaque in one swipe type of eyeshadow? There are better options for you out there.
I don’t own any of Visearts Theory Palettes that target the standard consumer, so I can’t say if the formula of those is comparable to the 12-pan palettes. Christine from Temptalia stated in her review of the Amethyst Theory Palette that the formula differs from the 12-pan palettes.
If I’ve made you curious and you want to know more there is a very informative, but one-hour-long, video by Stephanie Nicole. She interviewed Anastasia from Viseart and one of the founders of Muse Beauty Pro in San Francisco. They are talk about the history of the brand, the formula, the packaging and their love for makeup in general.
The 12-pan palettes contain 24g (2g each) of product and they are 72€ in Germany (80$ in the US), I bought mine at kultkosmetik.de.
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