Suqqu Eye Color Palette

Despite all the fuss with Suqqu, I've only indulged once with Blend Color Eye Shadow EX-21 紫水晶 (Murasakisuishou). Yes, that octet. You can't blame me now, can you?

That holiday season of 2014 also saw the release of the Eye Color Palette trios, which is basically the Blend Color quads minus the loathsome matte base and highlighter, and for a whole 2,000yen less too which is great news for me! There's still that sparkly top wash but whatever, I like the sparklies and I can make do with it. But out of the 3 choices available, 01 橙透石 (Toutouseki), 02 金紫石 (Kinshiseki), and 03 蒼瑠璃 (Aoruri), I'm only interested in 02 Kinshiseki. Even then, upon a closer look I realized all three colors from 02 Kinshiseki are muted versions of EX-21 Murasakisuishou, both colors from the upper left split-pan and the bottom color of the upper right split-pan. So that threw cold water on my lemmings :(

***Stock photo from Hankyu Online Shop JP.

And then May 2015 came along and Suqqu released 2 limited editions EX-01 紅掛空 (Benikakesora) and EX-02 夜彩空 (Yosaizora). These succeeded in reclaiming my attention but I was still going back and forth, because I'm really only getting 2 colors for Suqqu's [out-sized] price. Finally, with a little nudging from Citrine last month, I went for both palettes. Being limited editions, they have mostly sold out on Rakuten JP and I don't want any regrets. I was going to procrastinate on reviewing them, but then I've been using them two weeks and am ready to move on with the next rotation, so here goes.

When I first saw these at the department store counter, the compacts surprised me, being bigger than expected! Don't get me wrong, these Eye Color Palette trios don't contain more product than the Blend Color quads, quite the contrary! The trios have a total product weight of 2.6g versus the quads' 4.2g, which translates to 0.87g versus 1.05g per pan of color. So why is the compact so big? Anyway, these limited editions are in white compacts and not the black ones in the permanent lineup.

Pigmentation is great, and although there isn't any metallic I do love these colors. I need to apologize that my product and swatch photos just don't do these trios any justice at all, and instead rendered them rather flat, bland, and boring. But I assure you they are anything but, especially EX-01 and its beautiful violet-plum liner shade.

The texture feels the same as those in EX-21 Murasakisuishou, superbly fine and silky. As expected, the sparkly top wash is drier and somewhat grittier due to the amount of shimmers, but it's still a whole lot smoother than other top washes with little to no fall-outs. It's also much more elegant despite the high shimmers, and the result is a transparent glistening, sparkling sheen. My favorite daytime look with these trios is to wear a thin dusting of the top wash all over as base, then the lid shade below the crease. For nights I just line with the darkest color, or line and then smoke them out along the upper lash line for more depth. Gorgeous!

All that said, surprisingly enough I still like Lunasol's texture and finish better. Some of my Lunasol palettes just slay me with how buttery they are, and I feel Suqqu don't (or won't?) indulge me with enough metallics. So I still don't get what others see in Suqqu. It could simply be that I'm just not a sophisticated lady (never was, I'm afraid...), nor is my taste refined enough to appreciate Suqqu for what it is. All in all, I'm very happy to have these limited edition trios, but I'm definitely not getting any from the regular lineup.

- EX-01 紅掛空 (Benikakesora): I was less enthusiastic about this trio due to the white sparkling top wash, thinking it would be frosty. Thank goodness it's transparent, and the trio won me over pretty quickly with its semi-translucent peach and satiny violet-plum combo. This one ended up being my favorite of the two, and for the past two weeks I've been steering myself away from it in order to give both a fair trial, which speaks volumes of how much I prefer it over EX-02 below.

- Top: sparkling top wash, shimmer, very sheer. A transparent soft white that eliminates my concerns of frostiness. On lazy days I just dust this all over the lids and still look fresh and sparkly ^.^

- Center: lid, shimmer, medium intensity. A semi-translucent peach with gold and peach shimmers that give a glorious glowy finish. I love wearing this color alone or layer over the sparkling top wash for even more translucency.

- Bottom: liner, satin, high intensity. A lovely violet-plum. I call it satin but it's actually a tad more shimmery and a little less opaque than the navy below. Either way, it makes a beautiful liner and also double as a medium crease shade when blended out. I'm really sorry my photos just "uglified" this color and it's actually quite pretty!

- EX-02 夜彩空 (Yosaizora): I expected to like this trio more but the opacity fizzled the excitement for me--both the lid and liner shades in this trio are somewhat more opaque than those in EX-01 above.

- Top: sparkling top wash, shimmer, very sheer. A transparent pink-tinted white. Believe it or not I like this color best in the trio, and I believe the transparency has a lot to do with it. Lunasol Aurorized Eyes 04 Soft Variation also has a pinky white, but the brush-metal finish flattens its pearly sheen. Whereas the transparency in this top wash plays up the multi-dimensional pink and white shimmers.

- Center: lid, shimmer, medium intensity. A pinky taupe that would have been so much nicer with some translucency. Because as it is, it turns a bit red on my lids, and you can see this redness on the left swatch photo below. Layering this color over the pink-tinted white top wash will sheer it out but will also make it redder :(

- Bottom: liner, satin, high intensity. A pigmented navy. This smokes out to a pretty purple over the pinky taupe above.

EX-01 紅掛空 (Benikakesora) and EX-02 夜彩空 (Yosaizora), with an angled closeup of the top 2 shades.