Finally! Maquillage Eyes Creator (3D) VI367

I've been eyeing this quint since it was released late last year in Asia, and after months of mental debate, I've finally decided to squander my savings on it =P It didn't help that this palette looked so great on Ueno Juri, who was the spokesmodel for this particular color in Maquillage's (MQ) 2009 spring lineup.


Let's start with the packaging. I'm pretty happy with its appearance, which is very simple and classy. However, the size of the palette is huge, especially compared to my thin Shu Uemura Secret Luscious Rose palette which actually contains three more eyeshadows than this palette. To give you an idea, this quint is probably about twice the size of my Kate, Lavshuca, and MJ palettes, and it's not because the eyeshadows in the MQ palette are bigger. From looking at the quint, it seems that a lot of space is taken up by the pans that hold each eyeshadow in the palette. Because the line was designed to allow the eyeshadows in the palette to be interchanged with other individually sold eyeshadows, the makers probably had to design a thicker edge for the eyeshadow pans for durability and a slightly wider gap between the pans so they could be taken out easily. Overall, the size is not a big factor in my opinion since I don't bring my eyeshadow palettes with me for touch ups, but if you do, then that's definitely something to consider before purchasing.

One of the little details I like about this palette is how the plastic sheet that separates the mirror from the eyeshadows cling to the mirror when I open up the palette. This way, I don't have to remove the plastic sheet before I start applying the eyeshadows, though this design detail may be a nuisance to people who use the mirror in the palette. Another great thing about the plastic sheet is that it tells you which applicator to use with which eyeshadow/liner so that you won't get confused by the multitude of shadows and applicators.


The applicators themselves are also pretty good. The sponge tips and brushes are all soft and most everything work really well. The applicator for the cream base is especially notable since its texture is a little different from normal sponge tip applicators. With this texture, the cream base is able to spread easily on my skin without the bulk of the base clinging to the applicator itself, which is what usually happens if you try to apply a cream eyeshadow with a sponge tip applicator. I consider this applicator the highlight of the palette ^^ On the other hand, although I was at first amazed by the very fine line the liner brush is able to draw, it actually doesn't work well in real life. The line that it draws is too fine and the hairs are too soft so that it has a hard time picking up enough color and creating a noticeable line. To produce a dark-enough line, you have to be really violent, meaning you must stab at the liner shade with the brush to pick up enough product.

Now on to the actual shadows/liners themselves. The textures of the shadows all differ a little so I will talk in more detail about the texture when I describe the colors. Just in general, though, the powder of the shadows are very fine and blendable, and the cream base and liner both spread easily. The lasting power of the powder shadows are fine if applied solely over UDPP. However, if I use the cream base over UDPP before applying the eyeshadows , the shadows crease within a 3-4 hours.


The five colors included in this palette are a cream base with large silvery white sparkles (A), a matte pale lilac with some medium-sized gold sparkles (B), a purple-toned shimmery medium brown with some medium-sized iridescent sparkles (C), a white highlight with pale lavender shimmer (D), and a dark eggplant liner with purple shimmer (E). The color payoff are all medium to low, and any color you see for A is due to the sparkles in the cream, not the actual color of the cream. The most opaque shade is, not surprisingly, the liner, followed by C and D, then B, and finally the very transparent A.

As you can deduce from the descriptions, all of the colors are shimmery/sparkly to some extent, and each has a slightly different combination of shimmers and sparkles. However, the topmost layer of each product looks more shimmery/sparkly than the product actually is due to a layer of sparkle/shimmer overlay. This fact is especially apparent with E since I couldn't pick up any color in the liner until I dug past the very top layer of shimmer. Although I am a big fan of shimmery/sparkly eyeshadows, I dislike how the sparkles from color A tend to fall all over my face when I'm applying the eyeshadows. I have encountered a similar problem with Lavshuca's Eye Color Select, but because the sparkle shade is applied on top of everything else, I can make sure to pat gently to reduce the amount of fallout and not touch my eyes after I've applied the sparkle shade. However, the fallout is unavoidable with the cream shade here since it's applied below everything else.


The overall look of this palette is feminine with some understated elegance. Comparing all of my lilac-toned palettes, I would describe MQ's VI367 as spring, Coffret D'or's Trance Deep Eyes 04 as summer, and Lavshuca's Eye Color Select PU-2 as autumn. I've included here the directions for using the palette that's on the back of the box. Even though everything is Japanese, you can still refer to the diagrams on the left, as they are pretty clear even without explanations in text. Please excuse my reflection in the picture; there wasn't an angle where I could take a clear picture of the directions without the box reflecting me.


All pictures in this post were taken under natural light.

In short: I like this palette, though it is behind Coffret D'or, MJ, and Kate in terms of how much I like it. For one thing, people who are looking for high color payoff, matte to low shimmer shadows, and/or portability in their palettes should definitely stay away. If you are looking for a Japanese departments store lilac palette, I would suggest getting Coffret D'or's Trance Deep Eyes 04 Grey Variation because of its better color payoff, no sparkle fallout, and cheaper price.