Spring is now in full bloom here in D.C. Also, I am just coming back from a magical week in Japan, and my eyes are still filled of images of beautiful cherry blossoms and sunny ancient shrines (and Buddhas surrounded by deers – the city of Nara). In this full Spring season, nothing better than a light and discreet make-up. I will thus review in this post, the VDL + Pantone Expert Color Eye Book 6.4, an eye shadow palette suited for Spring. This eye shadow palette, is a collaboration between Pantone (the global authority on color) and VDL, a Korean make-up brand. Pantone has been providing influential insights and new understandings of colors and trends since the last 50 years. You had most probably heard about them, from fashion magazines, beauty gurus or, well why not, even home decorators. If you wanna sound like a fashion designer, don’t call “Red” simply red but rather, “Pantone Red 032” or whatever other Pantone red you like (and they are a couple of them).

About the eye shadow palette: This 2016 collaboration, is a limited edition of 12 shades in matte, pearl, metallic and glitter finishes that were hand picked by beauty and color experts. The collection includes the two Pantone color of the year 2016 – Rose Quartz and Serenity. Rose Quartz is a pastel baby pink with a shimmery finish and Serenity a more matt and pale blue. Together they remind cherry blossoms flowers on a pure blue sky. Poetically speaking, and citing Pantone as they are good in that , “joined together, Rose Quartz and Serenity demonstrate an inherent balance between a warmer embracing rose tone and the cooler tranquil blue, reflecting connection and wellness as well as a soothing sense of order and peace“… well you got the point.

The palette includes a mirror (a bit like The Naked eye shadow palettes but wider) and a compact dual-ended brush (which I am not using by the way, but it could be useful in case of emergency). The slim and modern packaging is utterly beautiful, melting the two colors of the year Rose Quartz and Serenity, in a perfectly balanced dégradé on the cover of the eye shadow palette. It kind of reminds me of a James Bond girl stylish gadget with a hidden murderous function. Once open, you can see yourself in a wide and useful mirror while contemplating the 12 gorgeous colors with their nerdy Pantone numbers, and this is how I learned that Rose Quartz is also called 13-1520 and Serenity 15-3919 (so now, where is Agent Q?).

The promise: According to the packaging, the eye shadows are smooth with a buildable texture and high pigmentation. The colors range from pinks, browns to spring pastels. The palette opens on a 140 angle to be more practical to apply make-up from every position.

My judgement: When I first saw the brownish colors, I could not really picture myself wearing Pantone 2041 (that looks to me rather Wine/Pink/Violet) or even “the color of the year” Serenity, as I am not that much a Pastel blue girl. But these eye shadow colors are surprisingly wearable, when you try to understand their purpose. The names of each eye shadow as well as the suggested use is included on the bottom of the palette. Indeed, the palette has been though to mix colors used for the base of the eye, the lid, contour and highlighter, so once you crack the system it starts to make sense. The end result is rather subtle and not too strong (so I would rather disagree with the “high pigmentation” claim) but that makes this eye shadows more appropriate for an everyday use – I wouldn’t use this palette to go out, unless I go visit my Boyfriend’s parents. I also find that this eye shadows, because they are somehow discreet, are not so “picture friendly” – I literally made tons of selfies to try to show you guys different looks, but it all kind of looked the same, so at the end I just kept a few pictures. Nevertheless, in real life, the colors are different once applied, so the palette can create very different looks.

The eye shadows are easy to apply as they spread were smoothly with both a brush or a finger. The stay put for a good couple of hours, but they fade significantly towards the end of the day. Fortunately the palette is portable and travel friendly which makes an eventual additional application on the go possible.

I tried to do some pictures to show you the eye palette colors on my skin, but again I don’t feel the picture really give this palette justice (so I did some color swatches instead). I have applied the eye shadows following the order of the palette starting from the top left shadow called Pantone 7612. The pictures had no filter applied to stay as true as possible. I think my favourite colors of the palette are the 169 which is a warm rose/gold with a lot of shimmer and 7521 that I use a bit as an eyeliner.

I like to wear eye shadows from this palette to work, or to create daytime looks over the weekends, but in terms of quality I feel they are less good than The Naked palette from Urban Decay for example (which is a favourite of Beauty youtubers for a reason).

Where to get it ? I got mine from Koreadepart. But it also available directly on the VDL website alternatively, if you like the two Pantone colors of the year but don’t want to wait (or pay the quite high price of the VDL + Pantone palette) you could try this Sephora + Pantone collection available at Sephora.

But as with all limited edition products, you probably have to hurry. The VDL + Pantone palette will be only available in 2016.