I was able to get my hands on the retro-futuristic Innerstellar palette (which I posted about before in this preview - Sephora's swatches of it really convinced me to pick it up!) and I'm reporting back with an in-depth review.
Should you get this palette or should you skip it? Read below to find out!
First of all, the packaging is absolute amaze-balls. It's psychedelic and reminiscent of the name it shares a homonym with "Interstellar" - it's kind of what space would look like if it was illustrated by a graphic artist in the 1960's and I'm all about that sort of thing. On the back you can see a detailed photo depicting the finishes of the shades (ie. the shimmer shades have little glittery-looking chunks in the graphic).
The external packaging and the outside of the palette itself look identical so I won't bother you with more photos of it. The inside reveals a cool-toned palette with some definite neutrals and even warm-ish shades thrown in. Right off the bat I'm impressed by the mahogany browns and lilac purple shades (my absolute favs for amber/brown eyes).
I've heard some complaints about this palette because although the size appears similar to the Monarch and Chrysalis permanent-collection palettes, this one is 0.6 oz of product compared to the 0.73oz of the older palettes. The price of the palette has remained the same. I still think that for the amount of color and the large size of the palette, the Innerstellar palette is a good deal for the retail price of $46.
Swatches were broken up into quads since I believe that each highlight shade (the large ones at the top) were meant to be coordinated with the 3 vertically-placed shades underneath. The looks seem to range in intensity going from left to right, with the brightest and most metallic shades being at the right of the spectrum. With that being said, each "quad" coordinated look contains some mattes and some shimmer shades.
Gravitron is a white-based pink with a hint of lilac shimmer
Night Crawler is a cool toned taupe satin shade
Dios is a medium gray satin shade with silver shimmer
Lunacy is a dark mid-tone purple with slightly poor color payoff than most other in this palette
Vast is a frosty warm taupe brown
Astrological is a bright lilac with golden shimmer - has some powdery kick-up after swatching
Darkstar is a cool-toned dark purple shade with phenomenal pigmentation - a little goes a very long way
Orion is a satin warm medium to dark brown
Lycan is a matte yellow-toned white shade
3AM is a bright metallic warm taupe with a satin finish
Moonshine is a metallic bright silver shade - this shade was fairly powdery
Killing Moon is a matte black that seems to be the driest and has good pigmentation but skips on the skin, so it requires some extra blending
I think this palette fits a very important niche, it's not quite as "out there" in shade-selection as the Chrysalis palette but it does incorporate a lot of nice cool toned colors that are very wearable from day to night.
The texture of the shadows is buttery and smooth with the exception of Killing Moon which felt somewhat dry and skipped on the skin when swatching and applying. The application and blendability of these shades makes them ideal for beginners and the overall arrangement of the colors makes it easy to create looks.
I highly recommend this palette and I hope we see even more palettes that are a nice mixture between cool and warm such as this in the future!
Stay tuned, I'll be posting looks using this palette in the days to come.
