If you are both a purple lover and a Viseart lover, you probably have heard of Viseart’s Liaison palette — the palette that got away for many of us. Fortunately for those who missed out on Liason, Viseart sought to satisfy our aching, purple-loving hearts by releasing their new Violette Étendu palette. Viseart sent me this palette in PR, along with their Seamless Eye Primer. Both products are reviewed and shown in this post.
If you own Liaison, Violette Étendu may be too redundant for your liking. Embrace, Blushing, Fusion, Bisous, and Haze are all repeats from Liaison. Wink also seems close to Liaison’s Tingle, although it is not a pure silver like its predecessor. Violette is also quite similar to Liaison’s Ecstasy.
If you don’t own Liaison, you may still have some hang-ups about Violette Étendu, especially if you have dark skin. Violette Étendu has a few more light neutral shades than Liaison, some of which will not flatter deep skin tones. These light shadows also mean that Violette comes across as more of a half-neutral, half-purple palette than a true purple palette.
Violette Étendu is a twelve-pan palette in Viseart’s new Étendu packaging, with pans in Viseart’s newest size offering. The pans are magnetized and interchangeable with Viseart’s Petits Fours Collection, in which the new pan size first debuted. The palette is an extension to the discontinued Liaison palette. The colors of the shadows range from “exquisitely pale gossamer lilacs to the provocative splendor of bold aubergines.” It features duochromes and cool-toned “nudes.” The palette, which released in the fall of 2020, retails for 44 USD.
Embrace is very light. It can blend into other mattes if a small amount is used, but too much powder will leave an apparent white cast.
Blushing is a muted, grungy shadow. It shows up on dark skin but will get lighter and ashier as it is packed on. Blending it out in small amounts will make it look less stark against dark skin.
Wink looks silver, almost white, in the pan. On the eyes, its lavender hues come out more than the silver, especially if not much powder is applied.
Jezebel has very sparkly blue microshimmers. It is the brightest shade in this otherwise-muted palette.
Liaison is another very light matte shadow, but I don’t find it totally unusable. It looks decent when blended into a deeper matte.
Passion and Elderberry performed well. Passion is slightly less vibrant swatched and applied than it is in the pan. On my skin, it turns into more of a wine than a bright purple. Elderberry is nice a deep when applied.
The shimmers are generally thin and would benefit from a tacky primer to make them pop.
- Embrace: Light, cool-toned taupe with a matte finish
- Blushing: Medium, cool taupe with a matte finish
- Grenache: Soft mauve with a matte finish
- Fusion: Muted merlot with a matte finish
- Bisous: Light lilac with a shimmer finish
- Wink: Iced lavender with a duochrome finish
- Jezebel: Bright orchid with a blue duochromatic shift
- Liaison: Muted heather purple with a matte finish
- Haze: Soft lavender with a matte finish
- Violette: Cool-toned violet with a shimmer finish
- Passion: Vivid purple with a matte finish
- Elderberry: Deep elderberry with a matte finish
Viseart’s Seamless Eye Primer is a colorless, weightless eyeshadow primer that is intended to ensure true-to-color payoff and crease-proof eye makeup. Viseart claims that the primer is smudge-proof and water-resistant.
The primer has a silicone-like feel, although it does not contain silicone. It applies smoothly and increases the longevity of my eyeshadow looks.
- Seamless Eye Primer
- Embrace and Liaison (inner corner above crease)
- Blushing (above crease)
- Grenache (above crease, over Blushing, and around eye)
- Passion (crease)
- Haze (bottom lash line)
- Elderberry (outer corner)
- Bisous (inner corner)
- ACI22 from Ninhydrin by Adept Cosmetics (lid)
- Love Supreme, a Lip Fetish Sheer Color Balm from Pat McGrath Labs (lips)
- Little Lilac, a Color Drops Serum Blush from Em Cosmetics (cheeks)
- Stiletto, a highlighter from Looxi Beauty (cheeks)
- Chocolate, a Cheeks Out Freestyle Cream Bronzer from Fenty Beauty (cheeks)
- Pro Filt’r Instant Retouch Concealer in 420 from Fenty Beauty (under eyes)
- Translucent Medium Deep Loose Setting Powder from Laura Mercier (under eyes)
Violette Étendu is a beautiful palette, but there are a bit too many light shadows for my liking. Even though I can use shades like Embrace, Liaison, and Blushing (some with a very light hand), I do not like having that many blending-only shadows in one palette. It’s very easy for these shadows to leave a white cast on dark skin, as you can see on the inside area above my crease in the photos of my makeup look.
I found it interesting that Viseart provided skin-tone specific instructions on the product listing on their website. For example, they recommend to use Embrase as an “all over base tone” if you have a light complexion or to highlight your eyes if you have medium to deep skin. They are at least aware that not everyone can use their shadows in the same way, although I’d much rather see them leaving shadows like those out. I’m probably never going to use Embrace to highlight anything on my skin again. “Casper” isn’t quite my aesthetic.
Many of the mattes, including the more mid-toned ones, translate as grungy and muted on me, so they are not the kinds of tones to stand out much against dark skin. This is something else to keep in mind as you think about whether the palette would be a good purchase for you.
Formula-wise, everything performed well. As mentioned above, I think a glitter primer would help the shimmers stand out more.
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