Review: Sephora + Pantone Universe Emerald Capsule Collection

This year Sephora and Pantone paired up to release a collection of makeup based on the colour of the year: Emerald. I know it is the new year already, so I am a little late getting this. There is already a new colour of the year called Radiant Orchid, but here is my review anyways.

The box contains six products and originally retailed for 89.99 I believe, but by the time I was interested in it it was already on sale for 50% off. I am pretty sure that is the price my parents paid for it when they bought it for Christmas. The products inside are a cream shadow product, an eyeshadow trio, a loose pigment, a cream eyeliner, a jumbo eyeliner pencil and a mascara. I will do a quick review of each of these products.

Graphic Sculpt Jumbo Waterproof Eyeliner In Emerald: I have yet to use this product as anything other than an eye base. It is great for that. It really is waterproof and doesn't budge an inch after it dries. I find it isn't really a dark enough or pigmented enough product to use a a real eyeliner, and the end is too fat anyways. This might look really good on the waterline sometimes though. It does go one a bit sheer though, which is my main complaint and also why I think it works better as a base.

Color Watt Mascara In Emerald: This was the most disappointing thing in the box. It was completely dried out when I opened it up for the first time. Maybe this is a symptom of it being old and sitting around on a shelf all year, but this should not have been opened before it got to me ever, so that doesn't make much sense. When I opened it up the wand looked like this:

Does that look usable to you? I added a few drops of contact solution to the bottle and shook it up to see if it loosened anything up and now it is slightly better, but still not really any good. I have tried several times to get some of the product on my eyes but to no avail. Literally no colour will transfer onto my eyelashes. This is a huge disappointment, I was really looking forward to trying a coloured mascara.

Color Code Prismatic Shadow Block In Emerald: This is the only other product in the box that I don't really like yet. When I first opened this one up this is what I got:

See how greasy that is? The entire top had this disgusting oily film over the top of it. I had to wipe several layers off of the top with kleenex to get to a usable patch. Even under the filmy layer of grease though, I still find this product to be oily unless I put an extremely sheer layer on. I have tried this as a base under eyeshadows and it creased after about an hour. Here is the proof:

This was literally after about an hour! Now I might be able to use this as more of a face paint product for costumes and such. If applied to places that aren't likely to crease it does look like a really nice colour. It is more of a grass green than an emerald green though. I will keep playing with this stuff because I love the colour and had read so many great reviews. I must just be doing something wrong.

Bionic Colour Grid Shadow Block: This is an eyeshadow trio that comes in some really amazing packaging. The top is held on by 1 hinge and 3 magnets. you push it aside and the hinge moves and all the magnets let go so it can slide. The bottom also opens the same way to reveal a mirror. Inside there are three colours: Emerald, White Out and Crown Blue. The emerald shade and the blue are mattes and the other is a very frosty, shimmery white colour. I only have two complaints with this product. The first is that the Crown Blue shade is a bit chalky and less pigmented than I would have liked. The next complaint is that I wish the emerald shade was the largest block. Why would they give me the most product in the worst shade? The emerald is smooth and incredibly pigmented and also the colour they were trying to highlight. I wanted mostly that products and a bit of the accent shades, not the other way around.

Lightspeed Glitter Dust In Emerald: This is an amazing loose emerald pigment that is jam packed with emerald glitter. It works really well over a sticky base. I don't have much to say about this product because I really like it. I think the packaging is super cute too.

Color Cube Lid Liner Stain In Emerald: This is probably my favourite product of the bunch! It is a super rich, pigmented cream eyeliner product. This seems like the most intensely emerald out of everything as well. It works great as a cream base for eyeshadows, as eyeliner, on the waterline, basically as anything. Once it dries it doesn't budge until you wash it off too. My favourite combination is this on my lids as a base underneath the Glitter Dust.

Finally, here is a swatch of all of the products on my arm:

From left to right the products are the Bionic Colour Grid Shadow Block (first 3 colours), the Graphic Sculpt Jumbo Waterproof Eyeliner in Emerald, the Prismatic Shadow Block in Emerald, the Color Cube Lid Liner Stain in Emerald, the Color Watt Mascara in Emerald (took a while to get a swatch of this), and the Lightspeed Glitter Dust in Emerald.

So that's it for the review. I really liked 4 out of 6 products which is not bad, and one of the other two is probably still usable anyways. The two standout products for me were the cream eyeliner and the glitter dust. Would I buy this set again next year in Radiant Orchid? Probably not, but there is a chance I will go buy those two individual products again. I would get another eyeshadow trio as well, as long as every eyeshadow has a good formula. I am a bigger fan of emerald than radiant orchid so I'm glad I managed to get one of these boxes!

What do you think? Would you get this next year in radiant orchid?