Even though this isn’t a beauty blog, I’m doing it again. Oh boy oh boy.

For a few weeks there, I was broke as a joke and looking for a fix. Something. Anything. And then I heard that believe it or not, Wet n Wild has become quite a fair cosmetics brand for budget shoppers. The hell you say, I thought to myself. But when I saw this trio reviewed on Temptalia, I figured I’d track it down.  I bought it the next day after work, and snagged a cheap nail polish, too.

Cute, right?  I mainly bought it for the “eyelid” colour, because I didn’t yet have a shade like that, and I most definitely did not have the coin to drop on MAC Stars n Rockets or Urban Decay Fishnet.  The rest of them were just a bonus in my eyes.  The next day, I put it to a wear test.

But first, we should take a look at some swatches, yes?

The pink “eyelid” colour is a nice fuschia with a slightly blue iridescent quality, much like Urban Decay’s deluxe eyeshadow shade, “Fishnet”, but a wee bit darker in person. Wearability is very good. It takes a bit of packing to get the full colour payoff – I went over it about four times to get it built up to my satisfaction – but I think that’s mostly down to how fine the eyeshadow is.  With that said, once you get it to reach its full potential, it looks phenomenal.

The blue “crease” colour is entirely useless as a crease colour, because it blends out so smoothly that it melts into whatever other colours you’re working with. It may be nice as an eyelid colour, but even trying that was entirely fail for me. I wound up giving up on it and packing something else over top. In my opinion, this is one of those shades that looks nice, in theory, but actually using it is too much of a hassle.

The white “eyebrow” colour is my favourite part of this trio, hands down. In one swipe, it applies as a sheer silver-white shimmer. Three swipes turns it into a nice, satiny white that is perfect for highlighting the inner corner of the eye. Even though I bought the trio for the “eyelid” shade, this was the one that made the trio worth my $2.99

All of these shadows are soft and silky… so much so that it might actually be a fault, especially in the case of the “crease” shade. Blendability is always nice, but not at the cost of colour impact. If you don’t mind going back over your colours to pack a bit more product on in places after blending, you can definitely work this palette. If you’re looking for something quick to work with on mornings when you hit the snooze button too many times… I’d say pass. These tender niblets take tender care.

Wearability was very surprising to me. I cracked into the trio and committed to a wear test after I defeated the beast that was my PSY325 term paper. Nine hours later, nothing had budged. There was absolutely no fallout, no creasing (with primer), and everything looked as bright and frosty as it did when I first applied it.  Nice work, Wet n Wild!

One cute thing that I liked about this palette is that they thought to include a brush alongside the classic sponge applicator. It’s too small and far too soft to use, so it’s really about as useful as tits on a boar hog. Still, I thought it was nice that a cheap brand like Wet n Wild would realize that brushes are the way, the truth, and the light.

While this trio didn’t completely live up to the hype that people give it, I was still extremely satisfied.  At $2.99 a trio, if you can find just one good shadow in it, you’ve gotten your money’s worth.  This one came with one that I adore, and one more that I appreciate, so I definitely can not complain.

Next Up: Wet n Wild Fast Dry Nail Color in “Gray’s Anatomy”

No picture for this, because it is very hard for my poor old camera to understand just what is going on with this colour.  In the bottle, it’s a dark ash grey with a lavender purple to olive green colour shift. In short, it’s a mindfuck in a bottle.  Naturally, I picked it up. At $1.99, what did I have to lose?

I can’t say I’m entirely satisfied with the colour, because the gray doesn’t really come through as strongly as I would’ve hoped. But there are some positives to that let down, honestly.  For example, the first coat applies extremely sheer. While I found this frustrating at first, I thought about how this stuff could add a really cool effect to any sort dark nail colour, like black or a deep midnight blue.  So hey, sheer can work.

You hit your maximum colour benefit at about three coats, and it’s still nowhere near the colour that is represented in the bottle.  On the plus side, though, I manged to wear it for five days without a base or top coat before it started to chip.  Because of the durability of the product, coupled with the low price point, I’m still interested to try more shades by Wet n Wild. However, I wouldn’t recommend this particular shade.

Even though I wasn’t completely and totally satisfied with every aspect of my purchases, I’m only out $5, and I satisfied my burnin’ yearnin’ for some new colour.  I’ll definitely keep Wet n Wild in mind in the future for when I need a cheap fix again.