Becca of the gorgeous blog The Beauty Sample recently had a series of giveaways for her one year blogaversary, and I was the very lucky winner of the Senna Haute Nudes Eye & Face Palette in Mystic, which is the cooler toned palette (it also comes in Sultry, the warmer toned one). If you’d like Becca’s perspective on the palettes, here is her review of Mystic and her review of Sultry.
The Senna Mystic palette includes a highlighter (which could be used a shimmery blush on the very pale), a blush, and six eyeshadows – two shimmer and four matte. It also has some applicators, which seem to be of decent quality. Personally, I very rarely use included applicators for anything other than swatching – and I wouldn’t use these – but they are softer and of better quality than they appear.
I hadn’t tried anything from Senna before this palette, but had heard mostly positive things. When I swatched the palette the first time, I was absolutely stunned by three of the four matte eyeshadows – they are some of the very best matte eyeshadows I have ever tried. The fourth matte, the black, is good – just not quite as buttery, silky, and evenly pigmented as the other three. I cannot even express how amazing those three eyeshadow are – the quality is just perfect.
As to the other eyeshadows, the black eyeshadow is, as I mentioned, quite good – blacks are hard to do well, and this one soft and pigmented. However, you can see in the swatch that it does not apply as smoothly as the other mattes. The two shimmery eyeshadows are good as well; about what I would expect. They are smooth and apply nicely. The white is quite sheer, but I think that’s intentional – the shimmery taupe is more pigmented.
All shades in palette – with flash
Eyeshadows – natural light (different order, sorry!)
The highlighter was my least favorite part of the palette. The pale pink shade is just a bit too pink for it to be an ideal highlight shade, but it doesn’t have enough pigmentation for me to use as blush (plus, I prefer not to use blush with visible shimmer). It has specks of visible shimmer, and I prefer a highlighter with an even sheen. Thus, I don’t see myself using this highlighter.
unblended // blended
I was a little bit skeptical about the color of the blush at first – I find some pinks, especially cool pinks, really difficult to wear on my skintone. However, when blended out, the blush seems to be a slightly warm, almost coral shade, which works very nicely on my coloring. The texture of the blush is great – soft, smooth, and very easy to blend. Senna has really figured out how to do mattes!
unblended // blended
I used three of the matte shades to do a soft smokey eye yesterday. I actually didn’t use primer because my skin is so dry right now, and the eyeshadow lasted all day without fading or creasing (I would recommend primer if you have oily lids or if you prefer more intense colors, however). This is the pale lavender (top-center) as a wash over my lid and up into the crease, the deep purple-taupe lightly applied on the lid & lower lashline, and the black along the upper lashline. I’m also using Burberry Trench to blend out the edges and highlight.
Overall, I love this palette. The matte eyeshadows & blush are just fantastic, and I will be using them regularly. If you are a matte eyeshadow lover, I would definitely consider this palette – and I’ll also be taking a look at their matte eyeshadows!
You can purchase Senna Cosmetics on their website; I don’t see any other places to purchase it online.
