The Danessa Myricks Groundwork Defining Neutrals Palette is an eyeshadow palette and multi-use product containing 10 shades of neutrals, each split into two formulas. For each shade there is one larger pan with a creamy velvet pomade and a smaller pan with its corresponding powder. You can use the pomades and the powders together or separately. I’ll talk about how I’ve been using the palette and what has worked for me later in the post. It retails for $65 which is a bit steep but feels fair for the amount of product and care that was put into its design. It is available to purchase from several retailers including Danessa Myricks Beauty, Sephora, and Beautylish, among others.

The palette is a bit larger than others I have that are in a similar format but I still find it easy to pick up and hold in one hand. Here is what it looks like next to a handful of other palettes for size comparison:

It’s a bit on the weightier side and feels durable and well made. It opens and closes magnetically and the pans can be removed via a small notch on the bottom right of each shade. The outer part feels like it is made of cardboard with a metallic bronze covering and the part that is actually holding the pans feels like plastic. The shade names are visible inside the palette for easy referencing if that is something that is important to you. 

Swatches

Sandstone – Pale yellow-toned nude. Works okay on my cooler/neutral undertone and is just barely light enough to get away with using as a brow bone highlight. 
Desert – Medium yellowish brown. Similar to Mirage but “cooler”, and greener by comparison.
Mirage – Medium orangey brown.
Chiseled – Medium taupe with subtle red undertones.
Sculpted – Deep neutral brown with subtle olive undertones.
Stone – Medium green-leaning taupe.
Core – Medium burnt orange.
Harvest – Medium-deep brown with strong red tones. Leans almost burgundy.
Bark – Deep warm brown with subtle red undertones. Very similar to Sculpted.
Tourmaline – Soft black. The powder has a bit of a sheen that the other shades don’t have.

Ways You Can Use It

As An Eyeshadow Palette

While you can use it similarly to the way you’d use a regular all-powder eyeshadow palette, keep in mind the shades in here are sheerer. Using the pomades by themselves or the powders by themselves doesn’t give me the best color payoff or wear time. To use this as an eyeshadow palette, I would use the pomades first to place color where I want it and give the powders something to adhere well to, and then go back over the same areas with the powders to set them. This combo results in much more satisfying color payoff. The pomades are more forgiving and flattering on my aging and sometimes textured eyelids than a heavily pigmented powder. The powders are also very lightweight. The combo of the pomades and the powders overall sit very nicely on the skin compared to many other eyeshadows I have. 

One pitfall to using it as an eyeshadow palette has been slightly less wear time than regular eyeshadow and I have to be mindful to use a primer, use the pomades lightly, and make sure to use plenty of the powder shades when going over top to handle oil/moisture that will break through during the day. Another pitfall is that applying eye makeup this way is more time consuming and takes more steps to complete than just using a highly pigmented eyeshadow from the get-go. The trade off is that it just looks better though – less patchy and less heavy.

To Contour Or Bronze The Face

I have used Chiseled (pomade) with my fingers to help define and bring some warmth to the sides of my cheeks and along the top of my hairline. It blends out really easily and looks super natural. I’ve used it a bit similarly on the eye but haven’t worn it all day that way yet. The pomade alone adds just enough color for me to tell that I’ve “done something” but it doesn’t look like makeup… so perfect for for the no-makeup makeup look. I have not tried setting the pomades with the powders when using it this way, mainly because the powder pans are so tiny that I find it impractical to try using larger face brushes in them.

To Fill In The Brows

I have mainly been using the pomade side of Tourmaline to darken and fill in my brows. I use a tiny angled brush and tap lightly into the pomade. It helps but isn’t absolutely necessary to tap some of the excess onto the back of my hand. This is easier to use and sheerer than something like the ABH DipBrow Pomade and it doesn’t set like that does, so I don’t feel like I’m screwed if I mess up and don’t apply it quite right at first. I can go in lightly and build up the color to the intensity I want and I find the whole thing really easy to control. I dabbled in the other shades but found they didn’t match my brows very well or were too red/warm for me.

To Define The Lips

I have only used the shade Sandstone for this to either tap onto the center of the lips for some brightness or to outline around the edges of the lip for a crisper line. I tried using Core as a lip color but didn’t think it was a flattering color on me and the pomade was a little too dry to use that way.

Other Miscellaneous Uses

I have also used Sandstone (pomade) to smooth/brighten the brow bone, tightlined with Tourmaline (pomade), and used Core (pomade) as a blush and color corrector.

Pros and Cons

Things I like:

• Flattering on mature/textured eyelids.
• Wide range of undertones and depths.
• Innovative product design helps inspire creativity.
• More versatile than a regular eyeshadow palette.

Drawbacks to consider:

• Shorter wear time than regular eyeshadow.
• Can be more involved and time consuming than regular eyeshadow.

Do I Recommend It?

Definitely consider the drawbacks but aside from those, I’d still say yes. I have managed to incorporate this palette into my “base” makeup routine (anything that’s not eyeshadow, blush, or lip product) in ways that I’d be sad to not have now that I’ve used it. There are other products I’d rather use strictly as eyeshadow but I’m glad to have these neutrals as well for the fantastic job they did with the undertones.

Looks

Look 1:

• Sandstone (pomade) – Brow bone
• Sandstone (powder) – Inner corner
• Chiseled – Transition, inner half of lid (used pomade and set with matching powder shade)
• Harvest – Outer lid/crease (used pomade and set with matching powder shade)
• Tourmaline (pomade) – Brows, smudged into base of upper lashes, outer lower lashline
• Stone (pomade) – Most of lower lashline, more diffused than Tourmaline

The third and fourth photos in the carousel are what it looks like with just the pomades on the eyes. They’re definitely lighter/sheerer than a regular eyeshadow and using the powders to set them gives me more of the color payoff I am used to from eyeshadow.

Look 2:

• Sandstone – All over lid, brow bone
• Core – Outer crease, lower lashline
• Stone – Inner crease
• Harvest – Inner/outer lid
• Tourmaline – Brows, smudged into upper lashes
• LA Girl Shade Shifter Duo Chrome Eyeshadow in Sunset – Lid

The last photo is an alternative using a shimmer on the lid.

Look 3:

• Mirage – Above crease
• Desert – Inner lower lashline
• Sculpted – Outer lid, crease
• Bark – Outer lower lashline
• Tourmaline (pomade) – Brows, smudged into base of upper lashes
• LA Girl Shade Shifter Duo Chrome Eyeshadow in Jade – Lid

Look 4:

• Tourmaline (pomade) – Brows
• Chiseled (pomade) – Contour, crease, lower lashline
• Sandstone (pomade) – Brow bone, outer edges of the lip, lightly on center of lip
• Core (pomade) – Color corrector underneath concealer

For this one I wanted to show how this looks used in a no-makeup makeup look with a before and after actually not wearing any makeup. I used several other products and have a longer tutorial for this on YouTube if you are curious.

Look 5:

• Stone – Transition
• Tourmaline – All over lid, crease, and lower lashline
• LA Girl Shade Shifter Duo Chrome Eyeshadow in Aura – Center of lid, center of lower lashline
• Fenty Beauty Diamond Bomb Highlighter in How Many Carats?! – Inner corner, brow bone
• ColourPop Creme Gel Liner in Swerve

I wanted to try the black cream and powder layered to see how well they would work for a black smokey eye. I liked this combo a bit better than the cream/powder duo in the Patrick Ta Major Dimension III Palette (review here) and enjoyed the unique finish from the slight shimmer in the powder.

Third attempt with the Danessa Myricks Lightwork 4 Palette. This goes into the category of “I tried”. There are some photos where this looks okay but I wanted to take all of this off as soon as I was done taking pics.

Once I put Heaven on my lid, it started causing the shade underneath to crease. It adheres well and is decently easy to work with but I don’t recommend using it the way I did here if you want your makeup to last. Both of the pressed chrome flakes in the palette remind me of the ColourPop pressed glitters in that I need to spend some time maneuvering them on the skin to get the individual pieces placed just right. Sometimes they go on well and other times, I end up with a bit of a clump that needs to be broken up and spread out. 

Both Espcapism and Out of Body are very shiny and have intense color payoff. They glide onto the skin like they aren’t even powders. I had some fallout from Out of Body on the lower part of my eye. Not sure if that’s because of how I applied it (rather heavily and not very carefully LOL). I haven’t really used this palette for “normal” makeup so, I don’t know what fallout is like with that type of use yet.

Eyes:

• Hourglass Veil Eye Primer (one eye)
• ABH Nouveau Palette
  • Paloma* – Brow bone, inner corner
• Natasha Denona Safari Palette
  • Fata Morgana – All over lid/crease
• Urban Decay Wild Greens Palette
  • Supergreens – Inner corner
  • Kale – Outer edge of Fata Morgana
• Danessa Myricks Lightwork Volume 4 Palette
  • Escapism – Used as accent above center portion of crease
  • Heaven – Center of lid 
  • Out of Body – All over lower lashline
• ColourPop Rock Candy Palette
  • Hot Spot – Smudged into lower lashline
• ColourPop Creme Gel Liner in Swerve
• Covergirl Lash Exact Mascara (lower lashes)
• Benefit Roller Lash Mascara
• Covergirl Easy Breezy Brow Pen in Soft Brown
• NYX Lift & Snatch Brow Pen in Ash Brown

Shades marked with a * are pressed pigments and are not intended for use near the eyes. I haven’t experienced any negative effects from these.

Base:

• Patrick Ta Creme Foundation & Finishing Powder Duo in Fair 2

Cheeks:

• Benefit Blush in Peachin’

Lips: 

• Mac Lip Pencil in Whirl and some lip balm

This second look with the Danessa Myricks Lightwork 4 Palette was an experiment to see how the Aqua Chrome shade Aura would work used as a base. I mainly wanted to know if it would hold up in the crease and if I would be able to apply other powder shadows over top without ruining it. For the first question, the quick answer is no. It doesn’t work used in place of a primer and does not last for very long before cracking and flaking off in the crease. I feel it would probably hold up just fine used as an eyeliner or perhaps the lower lashline, somehwere the skin doesn’t move much and isn’t disturbed much throughout the day. As for applying shadows over top, that worked well. Once it dried down, it didn’t move and didn’t flake when touched with my brushes to apply other colors over it. I tried using  an eyeshadow primer underneath Aura on one eye and that really didn’t work well at all, do not recommend lol. It made creasing/flaking worse.

I applied Awakening over Aura so it was hard to tell how opaque it was but from what I could tell, it seemed to show up well. There was a tiny bit of fallout even after tapping the brush off but it didn’t stick to my under eye area. Angels applies more heavily than I expect for having a clear base. It is *packed* with sparkle, so even attempting to be light handed with it, I end up with more of a solid layer than a dusting of glimmer from it. Paradise is a Pressed Chrome Flake shade and it has a waxy feel to the touch. It picks up fine with a finger but doesn’t stick to a brush as readily. I wanted to use it in somewhat of a more precise way than my fingers could do, so I used a thick eyeliner brush. All this to say that it took me a long time to get it applied the way you see it here but it did stay put all day long.

Eyes: 

• Hourglass Veil Eye Primer (one eye only)
• Danessa Myricks Lightwork 4 Palette
  • Aura – All over lid, taken slightly up into the crease
  • Awakening – Outer lid
  • Angels – Center portion of brow bone, inner corner near bridge of nose
  • Paradise – Center of lower lashline
• Patrick Ta Major Dimension II Palette
  • Devotion – Outer 1/2 of crease
  • Crush – Inner lower lashline
  • Adore – Inner lid
• ABH Nouveau Palette
  • Wisteria* – Inner corner, transition shade above crease
  • Metro* – Outer lower lashline
• Menagerie Cosmetics Iron Grip* Pressed Pigment – Inner 1/2 of crease
• Sydney Grace Snow Queen – Brow bone
• Make Up For Ever Artist Color Pencil in 502 Infinite Sand
• Covergirl Lash Exact Mascara (lower lashes)
• Benefit Roller Lash Mascara
• Essence Make Me Brow
• Jason Wu Brows Before Boys Brow Powder (deepest shade)

Shades marked with a * are pressed pigments and are not intended for use near the eyes. I haven’t experienced any negative effects from these.

Base: 

• Patrick Ta Creme Foundation & Finishing Powder Duo in Fair 2
• Bobbi Brow Corrector in Light Bisque
• NYX Bare With Me Concealer Serum in Light

Cheeks:

• Benefit Blush in Sunny

Lips: 

• ColourPop Glowing Lip in Cockatoo

Here is my first dive into the Danessa Myricks Lightwork 4 Palette. For this look, I paired it with the ColourPop So Jaded Palette because I wanted some colorful mattes to build some sort of “base look” with. The base of this look consists of a matte yellow in the crease and along the lower lashline, a deeper orange on the inner part of the crease and burgundy red on the outer part of the crease. I also used a skintone shade on the inner corner to help cancel out blue veining that was not covered completely by concealer. 

The rest of the shine and sparkle are just a few shades from the Danessa Myricks palette like icing on a cake. The main color I was interested in using was Nirvana, which has a reddish orange tone from straight on and looks more gold when seen from the side. And I thought the yellowy bronze and green in Zen would pair well, so I put that on the lower lashline. Slide through the photos and I have a couple at different angles, trying to capture the color shift of both of those shades. The inner corner highlight is a different, more sparkly formula and doesn’t have a color shift. There was some fallout from both Nirvana and Zen and I felt the need to tap the brush off a little extra before applying them. Both shades had excellent, opaque color payoff and a metallic shine.

Eyes:

• Nars Tinted Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base in Light
• Danessa Myricks Lightwork Volume IV Palette
  • Nirvana – All over lid
  • Zen – Outer lower lashline
  • Divinity – Inner corner
• ColourPop So Jaded Palette
  • My Precious – Inner corner, brow bone
  • Citrine – Transition shade, lower lashline
  • Carnelian – Inner crease
  • Garnet – Outer crease
• NYX Lift & Snatch Brow Pen in Ash Brown
• Jason Wu Brows Before Boys Brow Powder (two deeper shades)
• Make Up For Ever Artist Color Pencil in 500 Boundless Bisque
• Benefit Roller Lash Mascara

Base:

• elf Power Grip Primer
• Nars Soft Matte Complete Foundation in Salzburg
• Bobbi Brown Corrector in Light Bisque
• NYX Bare With Me Concealer Serum in Light
• Soap and Glory One Heck of a Blot Powder

Cheeks:

• Natasha Denona Contour Powder in Light
• Benefit Blush in Butterfly

Lips:

• ColourPop Glowing Lip in Museum Date

Danessa Myricks Lightwork 4 is a limited edition, 14-pan palette containing several formulas of high impact color that can be used on the face and eyes. Formulas include:

• Velvet Chromes: These are smooth metallic shades with high shine and fine, uniform shimmer particles and an ultra buttery feel. There are 8 of them and they are all in the smaller pans.
• Glass Metallics: Two of the smaller pans (Divinity and Angels) are this formula. They have larger sparkle particles and a clear base. They go on more dispersed and with less opacity than the Velvet Chromes but can be built up to nearly the same coverage if desired.
• Pressed Chrome Flakes: These include Heaven and Paradise in the center of the palette. They have a somewhat waxy, squishy feel to them. The pigment comes off in scattered flakes of varying sizes and doesn’t have much of a base color. It is easier to pick them up with the warmth of a fingertip but a brush can be used with some time and patience.
• Aqua Chromes: Intuition and Aura in the larger pans are this formula. These are kind of like water color paints. To use them, you must first add a few drops of water to the pan and swirl with a brush to develop a paste-like consistency. Simply dipping a brush in some water before going into the pan works too. From the little bit that I’ve played with this formula, I haven’t been able to get as much color payoff as easily from them as with the Velvet Chromes unless I allow them to dry and add more layers.

Most of the shades have some sort of color shift to them, some more obvious than others. The Velvet Chromes have the most intense and obvious shift. All of the shades in the larger pans have a more subtle shift, and the two Glass Metallics (Divinity and Angels) don’t shift at all.

Trance

Trance (Velvet Chrome) is a royal blue when seen from straight-on and shifts to purple and then red-violet as the angle of the light becomes more extreme. This one has one of the less obvious shifts in real life. The depth of the red-violet makes it more shadowy and just generally harder to see. It has a sheer, deep grey base color that isn’t too obvious against the color of the shimmer.

Nirvana

Nirvana (Velvet Chrome) goes from reddish bronze to golden yellow to nearly an olive green. The reddish bronze is the easiest to see in the mirror and in photos but the golden shift is pretty obvious in the right lighting. The base color is a sheer deep grey just like Trance and is a little bit more obvious against the shimmer but not distracting.

Divinity

Divinity (Glass Metallic) is a bright yellow gold with larger, chunkier sparkles and a clear base. A swipe of a finger across the pan will give off a heavily sparkling finish that isn’t opaque so whatever color is underneath will show through. It can easily be built up to have more solid coverage.

Sixth Sense

Sixth Sense (Velvet Chrome) has a lighter, beetle green shine from straight on and shifts to blue-green, to periwinkle, to violet in extreme side lighting. It has a subtle, sheer, warm brown base color

Out of Body

Out of Body (Velvet Chrome) starts from a true vibrant green and fades down the spectrum to teal and finally a deeper violet. Green and blue-green are most obvious at most angles with this shade.

Intuition

Intuition (Aqua Chrome) is a warm greenish-blue and shifts subtly to a light periwinkle and finally to lavender. The way I swatched this, it didn’t have as much opacity as the Velvet Chrome shades. When mixing this with water in the pan, if there is too much water, it will thin out the color so it will look more transparent. The more paste-like and less water there is mixed in with the pigment, the more opaque it will look. You can allow it to dry and add another layer as well.

I find this and the other Aqua Chrome in this palette to not have very obvious changes in color in real life. It could be that its mainly blue-to-purple and to maybe my eyes are not as sensitive to those color changes as something like a purple-to-green or orange-to-green.

Heaven

Heaven (Pressed Chrome Flake) sparkles light yellowish green, then goes to an intense almost neon green, and fades into a pale blue when seen at an angle. The yellowish green and bright green are what I see most easily in the mirror and in photos. This sticks well to the eye and doesn’t move once it is placed but the waxy texture causes powder shadows underneath to crease. It is probably best used away from the crease, like maybe on the brow bone, inner corner, or lower lashline.

Paradise

Paradise (Pressed Chrome Flake) starts off as a deep purple, flows to a reddish plum, then a bronzey green and stops at a true bight green when seen from a sideways angle. This one has a much more obvious color shift than the other one of the same formula. On the eye, I see purple most, ranging from a cooler, bluer purple to a warmer, redder purple the most. Because this formula is generally sheerer, it isn’t as easy to see the shift all the way to green on the eye as it is with something that gives off more of a solid layer of color.

Aura

Aura (Aqua Chrome) is a cooler tone blue that fades slightly to a subtle lavender at an angle. This one is similar to Intuition but cooler overall and has an even less noticeable shift in color.

Zen

Zen (Velvet Chrome) very briefly looks orange, then goes to a greenish bronze and progressively becomes a cooler toned green as I see it more and more from the side. At the widest possible angle I can see the tiniest hint of blue but it is very difficult to catch. A range of bronze to warm green is easiest to see with this shade.

Angels

Angels (Glass Metallic) is a sparkling white shimmer with larger particles than the Velvet Chrome shades. The sparkles are smaller and less chunky than the ones in the other Glass Metallic though. This shade reminds me of the Fenty Diamond Bomb Highlighter but with more opacity.

Trippy

Trippy (Velvet Chrome) looks purple from straight on, becomes more reddish orange in the middle, and finally green. This shift is this one is much easier for me to see than with a lot of the other shades.

Escapism

Escapism (Velvet Chrome) is yellowish green in direct light, then looks like a grass green as I begin to turn to the side, and gradually fades down the spectrum to an ocean blue.

Awakening

Awakening (Velvet Chrome) begins as a peacock blue-green, goes to purple, and ends at a reddish plum at the most extreme angle.