Make A Wish: Roen Beauty 11: 11 Eye Shadow Palette Review

One of the perks of quarantine is that I can spend the day wearing two different eyeshadow looks, several days out of the week, and nobody will ever look at me funny. And that’s what I did over the past week and a half with the brand new Roen Beauty 11:11 palette.

The third palette release from the brand, this quad features their unique lid illume formula. Now, you may be a fellow cynic and assume that a “unique” eyeshadow formula probably is just marketing mumbo jumbo, but for once it isn’t! Roen really does have a unique eyeshadow formula that’s somewhere in-between a cream and a powder. They also do not use glitter because the brand is microplastic free.

Price & Availability

$42.00 via Sephora & Roen (hopefully coming to Revolve and Cult Beauty soon for those outside the US)

Packaging

It comes in a sturdy, lil’ plastic compact, with a magnetic closure. And rejoice because there is a mirror, too! The compact is very prone to fingerprint smudges, but I personally don’t mind. It does come with a slip cover which you can use to wipe off said fingerprint smudges. One of my palette pet peeves is wasted space— be it with weirdly shaped pans, useless brush holders, or unnecessary negative space. This is basically my ideal palette. It’s flat so it’s easy to stack, it’s compact but there’s still sufficient room for me to reach pan, and it has a mirror so I don’t have to grab another palette for that. Also, the outer packaging is fully recyclable.

Scent

Mentioning scent in a review for an eyeshadow palette may be weird, but you would be surprised by how many powder makeup products have a perfume to them these days. These, smell like nothing and are fragrance free.

Texture/ Swatches

They’re not quite a cream, not quite a powder— it’s somewhat of a hybrid. As mentioned in the intro of this post, Roen does not use microplastics in their shadows, rather they use small, sparkly, pearl reflecks. They feel really soft to the touch, and the shade “Hashtag” almost feels wet to the touch.

I tried my best to capture these on camera, but I don’t think I did them justice. Because of their unique formula, they don’t have a uniform glitter to them. Rather, there’s shimmery pieces of different sizes which delivers a more dynamic sort of shine. IRL, they translate spectacularly!! It gives that wet, dewy look without actually being wet or dewy.

The shades “Situation” and “Hashtag” have superfine pink and blue reflects in them (you can kind of see it in the final photo at the end of this post), whereas “Ciao!” and “Rose” are more monochromatic.

The following swatches are one finger swatches (aka I rubbed my finger in the pan, then swiped 1-2x on my arm to get the swatch, and did NOT dip back into the pan again), by the way. I think they’re a little more true to life vs the heavy opaque swatches I found via Google Image Search.

Application

These are very much a formula that work best with my fingers. If I try to apply it with a brush, it’s not really able to pick u, a lot of product— similar to the Colourpop supershock shadows. Finger application followed up by blending out with a brush is my preferred method of application, and it’s what the brand themselves recommend. Sometimes I don’t even bother with a brush because they are creamy enough to diffuse out with my fingers. Because I’m applying them with my fingers, I get minimal fallout.

Wear Time

Unfortunately, this is where they falter a bit. Because they are creamy, they are very much prone to creasing. Within a few hours of wear, they start creasing on the lid and crease. After 8-10 hours, the eyeshadow is visible but is noticeably creased. There’s an easy fix for this, though: use your fingers to blend it back into place.

The only eyeshadow primer I have on hand at the moment is the Anastasia Beverly Hills one, which I am not a fan of because it is really matte and really white. But, it does help extend the wear time of these shadows.

Overall Thoughts

I’ve said it before, but my makeup style is very easy, breezy, minimal. A one and done shadow is my kinda vibe 95% of the time. So a palette like this, where I can reach for one shadow and pop it quickly onto my eyes is ideal. However, if you’re someone who likes a properly blended full look, complete with lid, crease, and transition shade— this isn’t the palette for you. If you want dynamic shimmers that will give you an editorial-esque, glossy look with little work on your part, this is a palette I think you would like!