Last spring, Nordstrom capitalized on the K-beauty trend by featuring a number of more obscure Korean brands in their Pop-In shop. Naturally, as it's still a bit difficult to get ahold of lesser known brands here in Vancouver, I went and checked it out. Here's an eyeshadow from Belleme that I picked up:

As you can see, it's on its last legs- I've practically been using it daily since last May. When I first bought it, I'd been a bit worried that it was a bit too bronzey & bright for me, seeing as how I'd been sticking mostly to lighter browns and peaches prior to this. However, I ended up loving the shimmer in it, and it was just the perfect shade for summer.....and then it became the perfect shade for fall....and so on and so forth.

My everyday look.

Now, moving on the main point of this post- I can't remember exactly when and how I stumbled across this Etude House palette, but its packaging instantly got my attention.


I'm sure you can tell that three of the shades are nearly virtually sheer to the point of invisibility, haha. I do actually assume most Korean eyeshadows to be shimmery and sheer, and #7 is the highlighter, so I suppose it's not too big a deal. #1 is probably best used as a underbrow highlight or a transition shade, as it's also barely there. As for #6, which is their gold shade, I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's a bit grittier than the other shadows in terms of texture- it does contain more glitter than shimmer. Slightly disappointing on its own, but it performs much better when used on top of a darker base (so I've been using it with some Julep shadow sticks.)



The darkest colour (#4) is a bit chalkier than I like, and it's a pretty stark contrast to the other shades. #3, is the hardest shade to work with, in my opinion. Judging merely on appearance, I'd thought it would be a bit more of a darker burgundy, but it's actually quite bright and pink-toned, which, when worn alone, makes me look like I'm having an allergic reaction. Pony has done some gorgeous pink/red based looks which I really wanted to copy, but I think this shade requires full-faced makeup to balance it out. #5 was also tough because I'd expected a neutral brown and this one is also quite red/copper based. I've used this palette about 4 times now, and I've settled for using #4 mainly in the crease rather than a total eyelid colour.

All in all, I don't think it's a bad palette- you've just got to spend a bit of time with it and work out the best combos possible. That being said, I'm not sure how often I'll be reaching for it, and it also means I'm going to have to continue the search for a dupe of my favourite shadow.......