An indie makeup brand I heard lots of people talking about for a while was Dominique Cosmetics. Because the brand is US based it was a bit harder to find but after some time Beauty Bay started stocking them and I thought: right, now all I have to do is wait around for them to do a killer color story and I can try the formula. Lo and behold: they released the Celestial Storm palette and I fell in love with the combination of fun brights and warm spicy shades. How does it perform?
Review: Dominique Cosmetics Celestial Storm eyeshadow palette
At the moment I can no longer find this palette listed on Beauty Bay. I believe I paid around €40 for mine, but that was with a discount. On the official Dominique Cosmetics website, the palette is still listed, but it is currently listed as being sold out. So if this ever comes back I don’t know. In any case for around €45 original retail price, you get yourself a 12 pan eyeshadow palette that has one of the most interesting color stories I have ever found. And that is why I still wanted to come on here an review this for you, even though you may no longer be able to find it. So let’s see how we got on.
What does this palette have to offer?
The palette features 12 shades that range from shimmering metallics to saturated mattes. The shimmers and mattes are split equally among the palette which is great. One reason why I wanted to try the brand was the formula. The brand is raved about for their good quality and easy blendability. However, the brand seems to focus a lot on warm toned leaning neutral palettes and I already owned enough of those, so I waited for them to do something more interesting. At the moment, I don’t think the brand is talked about as much any more and I think that is a shame, because they do some lovely shadows for sure!
What is the color story like?
To me this color story break apart into 3 quads. A bright quad with purples and aqua shades on the left, the middle quad consists of cool tones with a bright pink and the last quad is a warm toned quad featuring some spicy oranges. The way this palette is laid out therefore makes it very easy and I like how you get a little bit of each in this palette. That’s definitely what drew me in. Each quad also contains 2 mattes and 2 shimmers which is also helpful. The only thing missing? A good deep shade that can help taking the look to another level. But more about that later.
What do these shadows swatch like?
The finger swatches for these shadows are lovely. However I instantly noticed a difference in quality in some of the shades. The neutral shades perform best with the warm toned oranges feeling very smooth and pigmented. The more I went to the left side of the palette though the harder pressed the shadows became and the more difficult it became to pick them up and get a fully saturated swatch. The cool tones were okay, but here as well the shades weren’t as smooth and rich and buttery as the warm tones.
3 Looks, 1 Palette
If the palette breaks up into 3 quads than let’s use those 3 quads to create some eye looks shall we? I did a look with each quad going from right to left (because I felt those orange shades felt best I figured I could start off on a high note) and I will tell you how I feel about each look I created.
The first look ended up being my favorite. This look is warm and spicy and the shades blended beautifully and went only so easily it was an absolute dream. I instantly understood why so many people rave about Dominique Cosmetics eyeshadows. This is everything you want in an eyeshadow, but there is one drawback. One thing I feel this look lacks is a matte dark brown to deepen up the crease or use as liner. That I feel would have elevated this look more and taken it to a more glamourous level. Right now, the entire look is quite midtoned and since I have deep creases it looks like there is a lot of depth when actually there isn’t. I seem to have used a bit of kohl pencil on the water line to ensure there was a bit of contrast.
For the second look, I used the middle quad that featured cool tones and a pop of pink. I ended up using the pink and the grey in the crease. I don’t like wearing pink eyeshadow that close to my eyes so I usually just pop it in the crease and I feel that worked well. The purple was a bit of a let down for me. The sparkled didn’t stay put and I ended up packing it along the lower lash line so I could create some more impact. This purple is also the deepest shade in the palette, but it doesn’t really go with anything I find. The grey is nice, but I would have preferred a taupe or a cool toned brown as that would have made it go better with the other shades in the palette. The light shimmer was okay, but I have plenty of those and don’t need that in this palette per se.
On to the final look which was done using the bright shades. I tried using the purple matte in the crease but I found it difficult to get it to go on smoothly. So I ended up using some of the bright pink to create a better blend. The same went for the turquoise matte: it took ages to build it up to full intensity and by the time it got there it became difficult to blend and a bit patchy. The two shimmers were also a bit of a let down. They were very sheer, difficult to build up to full opacity and a lot of the pretty sparkle ended up not transferring well.
My final thoughts
The Dominiqe Cosmetics Celestial Storm eyeshadow palette is a bit hit and miss for me. There are shades in this palette that perform really well, but since that is limited to the warm tones which I already own quite a few of my in my collection, I don’t feel this is unique enough. I am also missing some shades of brown to round out looks and create some more versatility. The three quads don’t really mix in my brain and the shade range is therefore quite limiting. Finally, the quality was just very inconsistent and the shades that made me buy the palette are the ones that I know I will never reach for again as I have shades like this in my indie singles palette that perform much better.
Would I recommend Dominique Cosmetics Celestial Storm?
This palette ticks so many boxes, but it ended up not being perfect for me. I think that if you get a palette from the brand that has more consistent quality across the shades you would get yourself a stunning palette that you will love. However, for the brand that consistent quality seems to be limited to their neutrals and I happen to own too many of those to begin with. So I won’t be buying into those. However, if you like what the brand does than I am sure you can find something in the line that you will love. When it comes to this palette I am unsure it will ever be available again and so I would not recommend going out of your way to get this one.