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The Morphe Underslated ChromaPlus 6-Pan Palette is one of 3 newly released all-matte palettes in the ChromaPlus line. This one is the most neutral of the 3, with a well-rounded selection of shades that feel complete on their own or that can be paired with other palettes or singles. This goes for $16, contains 7.5 g / 0.26 oz of product and is available at Morphe and Ulta.
It comes in a plastic compact with a snap closure and a mirror inside the lid. It doesn’t feel too lightweight or flimsy (I’d say it feels more substantial than recent Essence products I’ve purchased and closer to the type of plastic packaging you get from Natasha Denona). The hinge has a decent amount of tension and stays open at whatever angle I open it to. I can only open the lid to a little past 90 degrees so it cannot lay completely flat on a table. It wasn’t particularly hard to open… didn’t need to pry all that much or use any extra tools to get it to open up. The shadows appear to be glued into the palette and don’t seem to be easily removable. They have an ultra faint “mineral” scent but no noticeable fragrance.
Swatches
Blanc Slate – Pale creamy white with an ultra subtle pink undertone. This is not a pure bright white, but instead has a softer, less stark quality. On me, it’s still very pale against my skintone and just reads as “white”.
Comfort Zone – Medium muted rosy nude. If I just use this as a crease color it creates warmth and has an obvious rosiness to it.
Cashmere Only – Medium taupe with subtle red tones. This one applies with a little more depth than Comfort Zone and looks way more like a true neutral on my skintone.
Street Chic – Medium cool grey with subtle purple tones. This is a tiny bit deeper than the light grey in the Morphe Moon Stone Palette (my review here). When I use this I don’t really notice the purple tones on my eyes, but I can tell when I swatch it next to other greys I have in my collection.
Totally Timeless – Deep brown with neutral undertones. Good pigmentation, applies evenly, isn’t difficult to blend and diffuse around the edges. Has enough grip to easily use as eyeliner.
Pared Black – Rich soft black. This isn’t the deepest or darkest black but it has strong color payoff and applies evenly. Has enough grip to easily use as eyeliner.
Performance
After having this palette for about 2 weeks, I’ve gone back and forth on whether it was a worthwhile purchase for me. When I first saw it online, the idea of it seemed right up my alley: all matte, all neutrals, wide variety of tones and depths, all in a small palette with just enough shades. It seemed like it could be a perfect, easy, not-overwhelming, no-brainer neutral palette I could use quickly. When I received it and actually used it, I started to feel less enthusiastic about it. The thing I get caught up on is the shade selection. The lightest matte is too light for the way I typically use pale mattes. The 2 midtones in the top row are a bit deeper than I prefer for a quick crease color (I like lower contrast looks for easy everyday makeup). The grey just looks odd on my skintone. I have zero issues with the 2 deepest shades as the colors are perfect and they perform well as liner shades.
With what I said above, I do appreciate the quality of the product all-around. The formula is actually great and the packaging is nice quality considering the reasonable price. It still doesn’t meet the desire I originally had for it, but this is a personal preference and not necessarily a fault in the product.
If you have any of the larger 12-pan ChromaPlus palettes, the formula is similar to those. The shadows feel firmer but really smooth to the touch, not dry but also not particularly “buttery”. There is no graininess to the powder and swatching the shades heavily with my fingers did not leave any hard pan behind. They have higher color payoff and grip onto the skin more readily. This means they do not “blend themselves” and require a bit more effort to soften and diffuse around the edges. I thought they were easier to apply to bare lids than to apply over primer. Without primer, they blended much more easily and I had more control over how intensely the color went onto the lid. They are not dusty and do not create a lot of kickup in the pan when dipping into them with brushes. I can get a small amount of fallout from the deepest mattes if I go in heavy handed without tapping excess off my brush.
Wear time without primer was between 5 and 7 hours before they started creasing on me. With primer I was able to get around 9 hours of wear before they creased on me.
Looks
Look 1:
- Comfort Zone + Cashmere Only – All over lid, crease, lower lashline
- Blanc Slate – Center of lid
- Totally Timeless – Winged liner
I mixed a bit of both the midtones in the top row for most of the lid color and layered the matte white over top for some brightness in the center.
Look 2:
- Street Chic – Inner lid/crease, used as blending shade above black on outer corner and above crease, lower lashline.
- Pared Black – Added depth the the outer lid, smudged into upper lashline
- Blanc Slate – Center of lid
Look 3:
- Street Chic – Inner crease
- Comfort Zone – Outer crease
- Totally Timeless – Outer lid
- Cashmere Only – Lower lashline
- Blanc Slate – Center of lid