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The ColourPop Fairy Well Palette is a true neutral palette that contains the types of shades that could be used for daily makeup or to use as a neutral pairing palette with other palettes or single eyeshadows. It has a range of textures and depths that make it versatile enough to use for very natural, barely-there looks or you can go super smoky and glam. There are 4 true mattes, 4 shimmers, 2 pressed glitters, and 2 mattes with sparkle. The selection of mattes in here come in different undertones and there is one pretty deep shade to help “complete” looks with depth or definition. As of the post date, this is currently out of stock but still listed on ColourPop’s website for $18.
This palette came out alongside the ColourPop Enchanted palette. Both of these palettes look like the same format as some of ColourPop’s other 12 pan palettes by the layout and shape, however, the pan sizes are larger than the ones in many of their other palettes (like Bare Necessities, Stone Cold Fox, etc.). So, you can’t take shades from this palette and put them into something like one of their 30 pan palettes. The pans fit right in with other 26mm singles I have from ABH, Sydney Grace, etc., but they look like they are about 1/2 as deep and contain less eyeshadow in them. This size does make these better for creating custom palettes with other brands though.
My general feeling about this palette is that I like it but I don’t love it. I like all of the mattes. No complaints there. The shimmers are not bad but they don’t pack as much of a punch as other shimmers I’ve seen from ColourPop, especially the lighter 3 shades. They require more layering, or even using a dampened brush, if you really want them to pop. If you like a subtle wash of sheen, then you might like them as they are. I don’t mind that there are two pressed glitters. I think it adds the ability to play a little and go more glam when you feel like it.
The biggest downside for me are the two matte with sparkle shades. Cozy Cabin is a great light shade to have in addition to the more midtone and deeper shades but the added sparkle makes it so I don’t even want to touch it. The sparkle fallout is terrible and even under the best of circumstances, barely any of that sparkle remains visible on the lid. Hide & Seek has both sparkle and pigment fallout. It can be used over a sticky base to reduce some of that and the sparkle shows up much better in this shade than with Cozy Cabin. It’s just not something I want to deal with though. I’d rather use one of the pressed glitters over top a matte shade for a similar effect.
Note: Below, each shade is swatched twice. Once, just using my finger (on the left) and then again using a brush (on the right) so you can see how they look applied heavily vs lightly. It isn’t always necessary or helpful to see them swatched this way but with some shades it makes it easier for me to see what all is in them. A heavy swatch doesn’t always show if a shimmery shade has large sparkle in it and also frequently makes eyeshadow appear to have more color payoff than you might actually get on the eye. With mattes, I think it helps to give a better idea how the shade might look when blended and sheered out.
Swatches
Pixi Perf – Warm ivory with a soft sheen. Mostly fine shimmer with very few small sparkles mixed in.
Fairykin – Matte cool taupe. Even color payoff, easy to blend and build up.
Cozy Cabin – Light peachy-nude matte base with LARGE silver sparkle. The sparkle in this doesn’t stay put on the lid whatsoever as I’m applying the shade. Hardly any is actually visible in the final result. It also seems to look darker on the skin once it is applied, so it’s not ideal as a highlight on me.
Lil Orb – Light peachy beige shimmer with a scattering of small sparkle. This is somewhat sheer compared to other ColourPop shimmers I have.
Wood Nymph – Light warm beige shimmer. 99% fine shimmer with a few flecks of small sparkle here and there. Sheerest shade in the palette, requires building unless you want a “no-makeup makeup” look.
Into The Forest (Pressed Glitter) – Mixture of copper and gold glitter in a sheer base of fine shimmer. The waxy base itself doesn’t have much of a color to it but the fine shimmer looks like a pale neutral gold.
Faun Guy (Pressed Glitter) – A lot like Into The Forest except this has gold and silver glitter mixed into the same type of shimmery base. Resulting look is maybe slightly brighter and less warm looking than the other glitter.
Pond – Medium pinky brown with a matte finish. Nice quality, just like Fairykin. Color payoff and blending are good.
Flower Crown – Medium warm brown. Has a subtle olive tone to it. This took slightly more effort to apply and blend out evenly. I still like it though.
Willow – Deeper cool bronze shimmer with some noticeable medium-size sparkle mixed it. This had a bit better color payoff than all the other shimmers. Moderate fallout.
Folklore – Deep chocolate brown with a matte finish. Not super warm. Has good color payoff. This is capable of being used without a transition shade as it blends well by itself.
Hide & Seek – Matte charcoal base with LARGE gold sparkles. There are enough sparkles in this that they show up well on the eye but I get LOTS of sparkle and pigment fallout if I don’t apply it over a tacky base.
Looks
To start this out, I used the two lighter mattes as transition shades, the cooler toned one on the inner part of the eye and the warmer one on the outer part of the eye. Then I used the deepest matte on the outer lid and blended it into the outer half of the crease. As an experiment, I applied NYX Glitter Primer over the outer portion of the lid, on top of the deep matte, and then applied Hide & Seek on top of the glitter glue. Used this way, I didn’t have too much fallout from this shade. For a pop of shine, I added one of the pressed glitters on the inner half of the lid. Along the lower lashline, I used Lil Orb on the inner half and Pixie Perf on the outer half. Finally, I attempted to use Cozy Cabin as an inner corner and brow bone highlight but it ended up being a bit darker than I wanted.
This look and the next are super simple 2-shadow looks. This has more of a pinky vibe and the next is more neutral. All I did was sweep Pond lightly through the crease with a fluffy brush and then topped the lid heavily with Lil Orb using just a dry brush.
Same technique as the last look. I kept the matte shade only in the crease, adding none to the lid, and then applied Wood Nymph to the lid with a dry brush for a bright look.
I started this out by lightly blending Pond above the crease to make it easier for the next few mattes to blend out smoothly. To build up some color and depth, I then used Flower Crown more heavily and lower in the crease. Then I applied Folklore over most of the lid using a few different brushes. I started with a flat shader, adding color mainly to the lid at first and then slowly worked the color upward toward the crease as there was less color on my brush. To get a smooth blend, I then used a small fluffy brush to blend this into the previous shade. I used a pencil brush to fill in any sheer spots on the lid and outer corner. I layered Willow mostly over the same area and in the same way that I applied Folklore. Along the bottom lashline, I have Fairykin on the outer half and Cozy Cabin on the inner half. It isn’t easy to see but Pixie Perf is applied as an inner corner highlight.
One shadow look using only Fairykin mainly on the outer half of the eye.
For this one I wanted to do something bright and give Cozy Cabin the best chance to shine. I started by using Pond lightly as a transition shade above the crease and along the lower lashline. I used Fairykin in a thin section of the outer crease for a slight added depth. Then I used a white creamy eyeshadow base on the lid, topped it with some NYX Glitter Primer and applied Cozy Cabin over that sticky base. I was able to get some of the sparkle in Cozy Cabin to adhere but I do wish more of it was visible.
This look at the next are almost the same but I wanted to see how different the two pressed glitters looked from each other. They are much more similar on the eye than they look in the pan. I used Flower Crown on a fluffy brush all over the lid and blended into the crease and layered Into the Forest over it using a small flat shader.
I used the same matte eyeshadow for this one and applied the glitter the same way as well. There was very little fallout from the glitter and it was relatively easy to apply evenly and move around on the lid to get it placed just right.