First Impressions: Elf Prism Eyeshadow Palette

This post is brought to you by an impulsive purchase from Target that had my roommate asking, "Fran, do you actually need this?" and to which I declared, "No, but I'm doing it for the blog!" I saw this palette in a recent video from KathleenLights (or, if it wasn't recent, I at least watched it recently). As soon as I saw the shimmer in the pan and saw that she hadn't chucked it yet for being inadequate, I decided that maybe I should test out this mini palette from the drugstore to switch things up a bit.


At only $10 for six shimmery shades, the Elf Prism Eyeshadow Palette in Naked is a pretty solid deal! It comes with two highlight shades, one that's a pearly white and another that's a more frosty yellow-gold. These are a little bit patchy compared to the other shades, but definitely aren't the worst highlights I've seen quality wise. The four remaining shades in the palette, in theory, would create a really great neutral eye. On my skin, I didn't see a huge difference in the fourth and fifth shade but it could also just be my lighting or the way I applied them. However, this palette comes with a muted rose shade, a light bronze with a hint of gold, a darker bronze, and a deep brownish taupe.

Swatched out onto my hands, I was insanely impressed with these shadows. They were super pigmented, shimmery, and gave incredible payoff. Because of these swatches, I was expecting mega shimmer and drama when I applied them to my eyes. I primed, as usual, with my MAC Painterly Paintpot and packed the third shade onto my brush. When I put it on my lid, I was a bit underwhelmed. There was nothing wrong with the pigmentation. As far as I'm concerned, the palette is still good, it just wasn't as dramatic as the swatches or the shimmer in the pan. I attempted to do the other eye as a foiled shadow with a little bit of water, but by that point, I was running late and didn't have time to fully devote my time to the foiled look. I used the fourth shade in my outer corner and combined the two darkest shades for my crease, but overall, it wasn't as dramatic of a look as I was aiming for.

However, just because the color payoff and shimmer weren't as intense as they were when they were swatched, doesn't mean this is a bad palette. If the swatches were a 90%, the actual payoff is still around a 75% or 80%. It's not the best palette I've ever used, but for $10 from the drugstore? I'm completely happy with it and am glad it's in my collection! I'm definitely going to play a lot more with it as the weeks go on and see how it works as foiled shadows for a more dramatic shimmery look. Who knows, maybe it'll show up in a Things I'm Loving post on a Thursday coming up!

What's your favorite makeup product from the drugstore?