Kanebo Kate Goldish Eyes PK-1

Happy Valentine's Day! Today I'll feature two of valentine's fave colours, pink & gold (the diamonds will not be present, but there is a diamond-esque sparkle around)

Sometimes I get a slight fascination with colours that are not the most universally flattering nor the easiest to use, but still I am intrigued or beautified by them.

peachy pinks, golden pinks, pinks for lips or eyes...I'm intrigued

Peach is one of them, pinks are the other.

You might say: "well, these are easy to use on lips & cheeks" but there you go: I want them on my eyes.  I love the easiness of most taupe eyeshadows, but a bit of peach or pink has the quality to make various eyecolours a lot more interesting.

Hence, introducing: Kate Kanebo Goldish eyes in PK-1:

Kate's minimalistic black packaging

I have liked Kanebo Kate in the past for a couple of products that are both of good quality and reasonably priced. It's not that everything they launch is a complete hit with me. I can remember some sticky lipglosses that are not up my alley: 

Their eyeshadow palettes are often a (facebookian) LIKE  with me: they come with easy instructions, even if they aren't in English: the illustrations are easy to follow and most of the colours are useable and of good texture/colour.

And now I was curious if their latest release of palettes would live up to this.

"ohhh, shimmery shiny golden goodness!!"

I really like golden hues in eyeshadows so the whole gold line looked really up my alley. As for my pick of the PK-version, well, explained above, I like 'difficult' pinks and I really liked the idea of trying out a pinkish gold, like the variety they have in golden jewellery ♥

So, let's see how that pretty palette above will look SWATCHED (no primer):

VISUALS:

• all colours have a metallic (often golden) idirescence, only the "white" is slightly stark
• "GOLD-yellow" lacks pigment, but is lovely for a hint of glow or layering
• "GOLD-pink" has light to medium pigmentation, also suitable for layering (see most right swatch over "brown"
• "Brown" is the most pigmented
• "Brown"is that cooler sort of brown mixed with a taupe, metallic  hue, so lovely and quite safe universally flattering again ;-)
• "Brown" has the best texture of the 4: buttery and smooth, even after 2 or 3 layers
• Palette: the 2 Golds have that "baked eyeshadow" raised idea in the palette, see picture below:

Side-angle Swatches for different view upon idirescence:

VISUALS:

• "GOLD-yellow" is more of a flecked quality and applies irregularly
• "White" has a slight glow.
• "Brown"(alone) has that soft metallic glow that looks like lit-from-within
• GOLD-pink looks more like a rosy, coppery gold instead of pink.
• Layering "GOLD-pink" over "Brown" makes it more sparkly, more nightime-suitable & gives it a slight rosy edge without making that dramatic pink eye.

VERDICT:

When I first swatched this palette, I was slightly dissapointed for the lack of pigmentation of some colours. After playing with them, layering and wearing them for a while, I found them to be fun and adding that bit of glow on the safer more neutral colours. They wear quite long! I wore only the GOLD-pink without primer (they add similar colour-depth with or without primer, I've tried!) and they even lasted after a shower. That made the boyfriend comment why I wore eyeshadow in bed (proving a. it's visible b. it stays on c. clean eyes better!). The only colour I really find unhandy is the "white", but that's personal preference: it layers on as an equal white with a slight glow so other people might like it as a base for the GOLD-yellow or GOLD-pink.

The only negative is that the GOLDS are raised in the palette, making it slightly messier and spill-prone to the sides of the palette when swiping over.

eyeshadow spill-prone due to raised platform GOLDS

CONCLUSION
I really like this palette and I have nothing in my stash that comes close to it. I didn't expect Kate to come up with the most theatrical type of pink golds which is a good thing for being office-appropriate or just liking fun, glowy makeup without going pantomine. So not all colours are evenly pigmented, however, they have a different function to layer or to add a glow. Even the best rated palettes such a DIOR have some *meh* colours/textures of the ones included in their palettes, so for a reasonable price you get a fun and original type of palette.

Availability:
I bought mine via ichibankao (here) for appr. €16.30 and they have 3 more varieties in Gold, white & blue.

PS: Speaking about DIOR, the lipgloss featured as a partner-in-crime on the pictures has been the DIOR Addict lipgloss in 157, which has a bit of pinkish-gold flecks inside as well: