I placed my very first order with Sydney Grace in November 2019, but the majority of my collection was purchased during their annual Christmas in July sale. The deals were so good, I couldn’t pass them up!

Along with the eyeshadows, I will also discuss one of their blushes and their empty magnetic palette. Overall, Sydney Grace makes beautiful high-quality products. I believe they are worth the prices as is, but if you’re looking for the best deals, they happen on Black Friday and in July. You can also find affiliate codes on many different Youtubers’ videos for 15% off year-round.

Tiny Marvels Palette by Mel Thompson

The quality of the shadows in this palette is the same you can expect from Sydney Grace’s singles. Every shade has a high level of pigmentation. The mattes feel soft and perform like Viseart shadows on the eyes, making them easy to blend, but with the added bonus of swatching well too. Some important things to note are that Scarab is called Red Chameleon as a single, but the other 14 shades are exclusive to this palette. Flutterby seems to be more fragile than the other shadows because it was the only shade that came with a piece cracked off in my palette, and I saw a few others on social media where that was the only broken shadow as well. Pressing it back with liquid works to an extent, but I recently learned in an interview on Behind the Beauty that the binders Sydney Grace uses in their matte shadows are powder only (no liquids)*. So this makes their mattes perfect for the dry-press fixing method.

*July 4th, 2021 UPDATE: I was browsing the website and noticed the ingredients of the mattes I saw had fractionated coconut oil listed, which is a liquid. I don’t know if this is the sole exception to their original statement or if the addition of liquids is a new formula change.

Lastly, Jewel Bee is the only shadow in the palette that I feel underperforms. It looks great on those with lighter skin tones, but there isn’t enough depth in the shade to make an impact on me. It admittedly still works slightly better than pastel purples from most other brands.

*October 1st, 2021 UPDATE – I felt compelled to update this post to say that although I didn’t know Mel Thompson personally, she will be missed dearly. As a subscriber of hers on YouTube, it hurt my heart to learn of her passing and I can only imagine how much worse it has been for her friends and family. I treasured those few moments I had communicating with her via Instagram and the comment section of her YouTube page. It means even more to me now. May she rest in peace.

Chase Your Dreams 9 Pan Palette

This is a great smoky eye or companion palette. The color story isn’t exactly what I expected after seeing photos online versus what it looks like in person, but it is still fairly versatile. The two red/pink and two orange shades are a bit redundant to me, so I foresee myself depotting this into my larger custom palette. The only reason I haven’t yet is because I like the purple glitter print packaging so much.

Eye Swatches: Palettes, Bundle Exclusives, and Individual Shadows

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All the eyeshadows come from the Danny’s Dream Bundle, Autumn’s Reign Bundle, Chase Your Dreams Palette, Tiny Marvels Palette, and all the individual shades I own. In the arm swatch portion that I’m including later in the post, I have it noted which shades are part of a collection.

I used MAC Paint Pot in Groundwork for all of the eye swatches (excluding Beauregarde and Chamellionaire which are over Nyx Glitter Glue). If I used a primer with a white base, perhaps certain shades would look less similar. In my opinion, Sydney Grace is the most consistent brand I know in terms of eyeshadow quality. So, when it comes to choosing which eyeshadow to purchase, it’s more about the particular color and less about performance. However, I will note that Queen of the North and Lemon Cream were a little patchy on me. I don’t plan to keep them in my collection after this review.

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This brand makes arguably the best green eyeshadows (though nothing tops Forbidden from Coloured Raine). Among this batch of shadows are Chamellionaire and Beauregarde, two out of the three pressed multichromes Sydney Grace currently offers.

Compared to Devinah, Clionadh, Terra Moons, and other brands’ multichromes, I honestly like these the least. All multichromes show their black bases/look darker in too much direct sunlight or with flash on. These are beautiful in the right lighting but are the most finicky to capture in photos and the least forgiving in the Florida sunlight. These were the first multichromes I ever owned and the difficulty of use made me better appreciate the formulas of the other brands’ multichromes I tried later on. The texture of these are a bit strange. I don’t know how to describe it. They don’t pick up very well on a brush and they look terrible over bare skin or regular eyeshadow bases I’ve tried. Applying them with my finger on top of Nyx glitter glue is the only way I’ve found to successfully show off their beauty.

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I have to admit, I bought certain eyeshadows purely for their names! I know it’s silly, but there were enough shades I wanted that were named after the 12 Days of Christmas song that I decided to get all the ones available on the website: Pear Tree, Turtle Doves, French Hens, Geese a Laying, Maids a Milking, Ladies Dancing, Lords a Leaping, and Pipers Piping. I have no idea if Calling Birds, Five Gold Rings, Swans A Swimming, or Drummers Drumming are discontinued shades in Sydney Grace’s collection (or Feather River Body as they were formerly called) or if they were just never made.

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In addition to powder multichromes, Sydney Grace also has cream shadows and cream multichromes. Though I don’t like the pressed multichromes, I can vouch for the cream formula being much nicer to work with. However, I’d still prefer to use a Clionadh pressed multichrome over the cream and pressed ones I’ve tried from Sydney Grace.

When I bought the Alexandrite cream multichrome, it came in a 10 ml tube for $25. The period after opening (open-jar symbol) was only six months. Since that time, the brand has released smaller 5 ml tubes for $15 and they say it has a longer shelf life. Shelf life and period after opening are different terms, so I don’t know if they mean to say that the p-a-o date is longer. It’s great to know that they can stay in inventory and be unsold for longer without any fear of it expiring or drying out before you get a chance to purchase them, but I would be curious to know if it still lasts 6 months before it goes bad after you first open it. In any case, this is quite competitive pricing for Natasha Denona’s new Chromium liquid eyeshadows at 2.5 ml for $28 and the same 6 month p-a-o.

It took me so long to do this post that, unfortunately, I have no good photos of Alexandrite. The blurry picture in the bottom right corner in the eye swatch gallery above is what it looked like while the shadow was still good. I only have that photo from my former cell phone with terrible quality megapixels and lighting. Hopefully, you can see that it was smoother while it was still good. My tube of Alexandrite lasted 9 months before it started to have an odd fish oil smell so I stopped using it (excluding this one time for this review). So, on the bright side, it does last a little longer than 6 months after you open it. The other two eye swatches of Alexandrite show what it looks like after 11 months. That’s why it looks strange and scaly. And yes, now that I finally finished this post I have thrown it away. I wanted to at least show that in this instance, regardless of your skin tone, the shade will look pretty much the same on everyone.

Arm Swatches: Palettes, Bundles, and Individually Sold Shadows

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I tried to group these swatches together by color but Celebration and Starfish are not with the other greens because I had already decluttered these two shades (and remembered to rescue them just before making this post). The base color in Starfish was too dark for my liking. As for Celebration, I like it as much as Sutter (and actually think it looks more flattering on me) but I thought they were too similar to keep both. Also, back in January when I only had 30 SG eyeshadows, I asked 8 of my guy friends which purple and green shades they liked the most. Although their responses might be different if they saw my entire collection now, the shades that got 4 or 5 out of 8 possible votes were Totally Worth It, As If, Flannel, Evergreen, Thrilled, and Sutter. Between Sutter and Celebrate, Celebrate only received 1 vote. That’s why I chose to declutter that one, but I have now returned it to my collection!

Eyeshadow Looks

Thinking of You Blush

I didn’t have the self control to take a photo of this blush before swatching it. It’s such a pretty, soft, pigmented, and blendable blush. If I wasn’t already swimming in blushes I would be tempted to try more shades from the brand. This reminds me of MAC’s powder matte formula, which I love, but this only costs $9 as opposed to MAC’s $17 pro pan-only blushes. MAC has had at least four blush sales this year at 30-40% off, so I have been able to get some as low as $10.20.

All blushes in the “Deep” category on the brand’s website are currently sold out. Sydney Grace is still a small company, so it takes them a while to restock items. Due to COVID-19, there are also delays in pigment manufacturing and just a shortage of certain pigments in general.

Sydney Grace Large Custom Palette

I have this Large 40-48 pan Sydney Grace empty magnetic palette on top of my 96 pan Coloured Raine palette for comparison purposes. It has a mirror inside and the outer design has light-reflective rose gold lettering. The same print is sold in 9 pan and 12 pan palette sizes. Since I have too many SG shadows to fit in a palette of this size, it’s currently holding my non-Stained Glass Clionadh eyeshadows. I’ve had no issues with it so far.

Favorite Shadows

I mentioned at the end of the arm swatch segment which shades were the favorites among my guy friends, but my favorite Sydney Grace shadows are a combination of shades that I think look most flattering on me, as well as shades that are just flat out gorgeous and/or unique to my eyeshadow collection.

• Geese A Laying – “A medium matte yellow bright matte”
• *The Dream – Warm Gold
• Mango Tea – “Yellow with an orange undertone”
• The Greatest Gift – “Light pink with a green shift”
• *Mantis – Deepened pastel green
• *Granny Smith – Vibrant grass green
• *Sweetsop – Medium green with gold shimmer
• The Shallows – “Green with a blue shift”
• Evergreen – “Medium green”
• Thrilled – “Dark matte teal”
• Fierce – “Medium blue with purple undertone”
• JB – “Royal blue”
• *Supreme Harvest – Dark terracotta
• *Be Bold – Vibrant terracotta-orange
• Lords A Leaping – “Deep red brown matte”
• *Bug-A-Boo – Matte maroon
• Magnificent Chestnut – warm metallic golden brown
• Golden Rose – “Medium pink with a gold shift”
• Maids A Milking – “Bubblegum pink with a strong blue shift”
• Forever Enough – “Medium burgundy red with a satin finish”
• Orange Slush – “Vibrant Orange with a metallic finish”
• Golden Peach – “Deep peach with a golden shift”
• Lost Princess – “Red with an orange undertone”
• *Amber Jewels – Metallic Cranberry Red
• *Don’t Quit – Metallic Burgundy
• Flannel – “Bright medium purple”
• *The Drive – Warm purple
• Magenta Dreams – “Magenta with a blue shift”
• Deliverer – “Vibrant violet with a red undertone”
• Celebrate – “Yellow Green”

The final important note is that if you’re interested in purchasing from Sydney Grace and are trying to find specific shades via the search bar, just note that it’s extremely inconsistent. For example, if you type “Deliverer” you will get that shadow as the only result. If you type “Orange Slush” exactly as the shadow is called, you will find it on page 4 of the search results.

That’s all for this week! Thank you for reading!

– Lili ❤