MUA Elysium eyeshadow palette

When I spotted this eyeshadow palette in the UK drugstore, I was a bit torn. “I already have so many neutral palettes”. “But you use theses type of colors all the time”. “This would be great for traveling or leaving at my parents’”.  It all went through my head. Since Superdrug was doing a 3 for 2 deal and I needed one last product to round off my number of products, I decided to pick it up to see what this is like. A very unplanned purchase and with very unexpected results: I actually truly love this palette.

MUA Elysium eyeshadow palette

I’ve come to a point where I am seriously asking myself whether I need any more neutral eyeshadow palettes, but brands keep bringing them out and I keep wanting to try them, because
I mostly use neutral shades for my day to day make up looks. At only 6 pounds, this isn’t too much money to shell out to give something a try. I tried the MUA Matte palette in the past and I liked that, but thought it was quite powdery. So I was curious to see what this would bring.

Why this caught my eye is because I thought it might be a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette. But once I started playing around with this I decided it is nothing like it. At first glance this may look like a rosy pink eyeshadow palette, but in real life I find these to be a lot more cool toned and more taupy than the shades in Naked 3. However, having played around with this for a week or so, I have found this palette also has a few unique shades that I have not yet seen before. And that is what makes this palette a little bit more special.

The palette has a really nice size. It is slim, contains 10 eyeshadows and the packaging fits right in your hand. The shadows are a decent size and in total there is 17 grams of product. The shades range from a light highlight to some pretty transition shades, good overall lid colors and some good dark shades that can be used as liner or to darken up the crease and outer V. It also comes with a double-ended pencil rather than a brush. At first glance, this is a well-rounded eyeshadow palette.

The colors! And they do have names, so that is a plus. Let’s have a look at the pencil first, before we move on to the palette.

The double ended pencil is a change up from the cheap applicator these type of palettes usually comes with. There is a black and a nude, which is why this could make a great travel palette. Combined with its size and the fact that you get a good number of shades, the pencil is what potentially makes this palette much more versatile.

Close up the pencil looks really good. The question is of course: are these creamy and well pigmented colors?

The swatches are a bit meh. They are creamy and go on nicely in one swipe. However, the black is more like a dark brown and the nude is far too yellow for my skin tone. This would not make a good inner rim liner for me, especially combined with the type of shades you get in this palette. So yes, the pencil works great, but the colors aren’t for me. But that is only a minor infraction and if need be I think I could make this work.

On to the palette! The star of this show. And a star that shines more brightly, the more I used it. Because where at first I thought this could be a good dupe, I now feel like this is a great addition for anyone who is looking for a neutral eyeshadow palette with great shades, that still have something unique about them.

The texture is really soft, yet nothing too powdery. Even the matte shades look great texture wise. Where the MUA Matte Ever After palette gave some problems when it came to texture, these shades will not just blend away within 2 seconds, and are highly pigmented easy to work with shades.

Air – Cherub – Charm – Astral – Grace

The first side of the palette, the left side, contains the pink shades of this palette. But really there are only 2 truly pink shades in this entire palette and that’s Cherub and Astral. But even Astral is not just a straight up pink: it is a dusty rose shade with a hint of cranberry to it. There is a good matte soft brown and a matte dark brown which are always handy to have for blending out colors and to put in your crease. Air is quite possibly one of the best highlight shades ever to be found in a neutral palette.

Air: matte cream highlight shade, perfect browbone highlight
Cherub: shimmery rosy pink shade, great as an inner corner highlight
Charm: matte soft brown, great to blend out colors and also nice in the crease
Astral: shimmery dusty rose shade with a hint of cranberry, stunning all over the lid and the most unique shade in the palette
Grace: matte dark brown, good crease color and also usable as a liner when you build it up

Refine – Entrance – Adore – Smoke – Seraphic

The second half of the palette is a lot darker and here you get some pretty taupe shades as well as a blackened purple, a full on black and a pretty bronze shade. Seraphic and Entrance are probably my favorite two shades here and I also like Refine because that is a good all rounder shade that is good anywhere on the lid. I do not use black much, but it is nice to have that option for making smokey eyes if you want to. The blackened purple seems like a really interesting shade and is almost matte. Seraphic and Entrance are great lid shades and especially Entrance is one of those chameleon shades that seem to turn into a different color when use all over the lid and in the crease.

Refine: matte taupy brown, I’ve been using this for everything: lid, crease, outer V, lower lashline.
Entrance: shimmery dark taupe. Stunning all over the lid.
Adore: matte blackened purple. I like to use this as liner.
Smoke: matte black, good for making smokey eyes or again as liner.
Seraphic: shimmery bronze with a bit of a neutral undertone. All over lid shade.

The entire palette swatched in one picture. These eye shadows blend great, are highly pigmented andare just stunning. Astral, Seraphic and Entrance are my favorite shades and I love Charm and Refine for blending and crease shades. I am pleasantly surprised by the versatility of this palette as well as the shades you get in this. I created 3 different eye looks with this palette in the past week alone.

Seraphic: all over lid
Refine: Outer V
Charm: Crease & lower lashline
Air: browbone highlight
Cherub: inner corner highlight

Entrance: all over lid
Seraphic: dabbed on center of lid
Refine: in crease
Astral: lower lash line
Adore: eyeliner
Air: browbone highlight
Cherub: inner corner highlight

Astral: all over lid
Charm: crease
Grace: lower lashline & eyeliner
Air: browbone highlight
Cherub: inner corner highlight

So I hope these looks show you how beautiful this eyeshadow palette is. I also hope you can see that some of these shades are definitely something new when it comes to the offerings of neutral eyeshadows. Astral is the star of the palette for me. When I first applied that I was thoroughly in awe with the shade and how different it is from anything I used before. The quality is great, they blend well, they stay on all day applied over a primer and for 6 pounds this is truly a must have palette.

What is your experience with MUA palettes? Do you have a favorite? Or would you like to try one?