Quintessential Romance is an eye shadow palette from MooGoo Makeup. It is a delightful quad of champagne, rose, and burgundy tones which they claim are “enriched with natural, moisturising oils, and mineral pigments to create a quintessential look and enhance your natural beauty”. I was very curious about this palette, so decided to treat myself and buy it.

Who are MooGoo Makeup?

MooGoo Makeup is an Australian, family-owned brand which focuses on natural and vegan-friendly makeup that is free from synthetic ingredients and preservatives, parabens, talc, silicone, and bismuth. MooGoo Makeup is part of the larger MooGoo company which sell a range of products that are are designed to care for the skin, scalp, and teeth. Overall a really cool brand!

Quintessential Romance

Quintessential Romance is a quad consisting of a “luminescent highlighter” and three “richly pigmented, versatile shades to colour, contour and brighten your eyes”. As of writing this post Quintessential Romance is the only eye shadow palette on their UK site, although the brand does have four individual eye shadows (of which I have two), along with face, eye, lip products, and more (of which I have a few).

Vital Statistics

Amount of Shades: Four
Total weight: 8g
Price: £25
Available: On their website.
Ordering Experience: I find ordering from the MooGoo UK website to be very easy, with the dispatch and delivery within the UK to be quick (the delivery was made by Royal Mail). The box was well packaged and the palette arrived without any damage.
Price Point: I would say that it is more ‘high end’ than ‘drugstore’ when it comes to price point. MooGoo is not a large beauty brand, nor is it a ‘fast-fashion’ brand, so I take this into consideration with pricing. For me this falls into the ‘special treat’ type of purchase. The kind where I’ve really thought about it and what it would bring to my collection.

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The Shades

Champagne Bliss

This is described by MooGoo as a “delicate champagne” which can be used to highlight and brighten the eyes and face. In comparison to the other shades in the palette, I find the finish of Champagne Bliss to be somewhere between the satin and matte finish. When used as a highlighter it gives a subtle glow – anyone wanting to be seen from space probably wouldn’t enjoy using it this way. However, I found it to be a lovely subtle highlight (which is my preferred form of highlight). I really liked it as a light shade on the eye, where it does beautifully brighten the eye.

Peony Petals

MooGoo describe this as a shade with “gold and copper tones” which combine into a radiant, sun-kissed glow. I would describe this as a golden pale rose, with a satin finish.

Rose Quartz

This is described as an “incandescent rose” with a satin finish. The finish on Rose Quartz is similar to Peony Petals, and pared with this shade it gives a lovely light to medium rose colour gradient.

Raining Rubies

This is described as a “rich burgundy tone” with a matte finish. In comparison to the other shades in the palette, I would describe this as a matte, albeit with a subtle sheen. It isn’t as matte in finsih compared to some shadows that I own but in comparison to Champagne Bliss, Peony Petals, and Rose Quartz it is definitely more matte. It is great for deepening the looks made with this palette.

Quintessential Romance: Pros and Cons

Pros

• The colour story is concise, complete, and gorgeous! Each shade works well with the others without unnecessary duplication.
• If you like soft or romantic looks, then this is a palette worth considering. The colour story is just that: soft and romantic. Though I think you could kick up the bad-ass element with liner and/or tight-lining in black etc if you are so inclined.
• The shadows are easy to apply and blend out. I used the Milani primer (it’s in my Project Pan) with the majority of the looks and the shades blended out and applied well over it.

Cons

• If you like a matte crease which is lighter than Raining Rubies then you will need to use other eye shadows to act as transition shades. Personally, I don’t mind using the lighter satin shades in the crease so was happy to use Champagne Bliss or Rose Quartz as a transition shade.
• Having said that, I did find that I preferred to blend out the satin crease with a matte shadow similar to my skin tone as I found it softened the look. However this isn’t a deal breaker for me as I own plenty of these shades!
• I found the shades started to fade in the crease without primer. Therefore I would recommend using a primer with this palette, especially if you have oilier lids. Again, this isn’t a deal breaker as most eye shadows crease on my eyelids.

Comparison to MooGoo Makeup Single Eye Shadow.

As I mentioned in the introduction, I have two single MooGoo shadows: Paper Bark and Dark Cacao. So therse are the two shadows that I can compare with Quintessential Romance.

MooGoo describe Paper Bark as a “subtle, metallic shimmer” in a “delicate and iridescent shade of soft gold”. Compared to Champagne Bliss, there is a difference, with Paper Bark is more gold when compared to the more peachy champagne of Champagne Bliss. Although when blended out this difference wasn’t as noticeable and the two appeared similar.

Dark Cacao is described as a “rich shade of mahogany that has been pressed and lightly frosted with a blend of pink and gold micas”. You can see flecks of pink and gold in the pan, though once blended on the eye they become very subtle. Compared to Raining Rubies it is definitely more brown than the burgundy and the two look different when blended out on the eye.

Quintessential Romance: The Looks

Quintessential Romance: Final Thoughts

Overall I am happy with my purchase of this palette. I have no problem with the quality of the eye shadows. Most of those ‘Cons’ aren’t really cons for me as I use primer more days than not as my eyelids can get oily. I also don’t mind reaching into other shadows for a matte transition or skin tone shade. Personally, I adore the rose tones of this palette and the looks that I can create with it. I think that it would make a great go-to palette when it comes to dependable and quick looks that are more ‘work-place’ suitable. For me this is where this palette adds value to my collection. I really like that MooGoo Makeup has a focus on natural makeup that is free from synthetics ingredients etc so this is a definite bonus!

Do any of you own this palette? Or would you be interested in it? Please let me know your thoughts! x