Rimmel Magnif’Eyes eyeshadow palette

A telling sign of a product’s quality or lack thereof is a product that disappears from the shelves nearly as quickly as it appeared. That is what happened to the Rimmel Magnif’Eyes palettes. These were first released last spring and by now a reformulated version was just recently released. But you can still get your hands on these if you’d like. Online webshops as well as drugstores in other countries do still carry these.

Rimmel Magnif’Eyes Eye Contouring eyeshadow palette 002 London Nudes Calling

The first reason why it is no surprise that Rimmel seems to be phasing out this palette is its price point. Here in The Netherlands this retails for a whopping €12.99. In the UK, this is much cheaper, which would make this palette perhaps a bit less of a disappointment. The replacement palettes they have come out with are not only larger, but also more expensive at €14.99.

The Packaging

The first problem with this product arises with the packaging. This is one of the most difficult palettes to open. Other than that the packaging is fine. There is a small brush that comes inside and the tiniest mirror, which isn’t too practical, but the packaging functions well.

The Swatches

Of course there is a great selling point to this palette, else I wouldn’t have gotten it. And that is the shade range. This looks like a combination of two of my favorite Rimmel quads that I ended up decluttering as I hardly grab for quads, but that I still liked. This seemed the perfect mix of some of my favorite shades from Brixton Brown and English Rose. Especially the copper shade stood out to me.

The Swatches

Let’s talk quality of the palette. These swatches look very promising, but this took a lot of effort. These shades needed a lot of building up with a finger. And despite that, the lightest shades still hardly show up. Also note how two of the shades are nearly identical and don’t really seem to be very distinct. That stunning copper looks very chunky, as does the rose shimmer. The two darker matters felt chalky, especially the deepest shade. The only shade in here that worked alright is the matte in the middle.

The Application

And then there is the look I came up with. This is using each shade in the palette and it looks a muddy mess. Not only that, that copper shade pretty much disappears! Where is that stunning shimmer we see in the pan? It is non-existent and that is after I dug into the shade continuously AND applied it with a finger.

The shadows don’t only look muddy, they apply horribly. The mattes blend away immediately, the shimmers do not build up and everything turns into a murky whole. Staying power was also disappointed. Even with a primer underneath, these shadows started to fade after a few hours.

The Conclusion

Overall, the Rimmel Magnif’Eyes palette in London Nudes Calling was an overall disappointing purchase. I really like the shade selection and this would be a great everyday palette, but the quality just isn’t there. For the price, I don’t think this is worth it at all. If you pay just a little bit more, you can buy a Milani palette that has excellent quality. Here’s to hoping the newer palettes are better than this.

What palette did you try that you didn’t work for you?