So...do we see something similar? Not at all? Not even a little bit? Catrice has been a little bit of a copycat over here...But we love a good affordable dupe so let's dive into these palettes!
The Catrice 5 in a Box Mini Eyeshadow Palletes are very, VERY similar to the Natasha Denona mini palletes and honestly it's not the first time that drugstore brand is trying hard to copy someone's homework. But let's focus on the product. These are mini palettes which come in 4 variations where each ones goes for a different look type. There's the Golden Nude Look, Soft Rose Look, Warm Spice Look and Modern Smokey Look.
Each pallete is 109 Crowns and I got them on on xobeauty.cz. There are 5 shades inside each of the palettes. Each one has 3 mattes and 2 shimmers. The formula has rose oil which should be caring and help with the blendability. The swatches on Catrice website look mighty good so we'll see how these shadows really perform. I really like the Catrice mono-eyeshadows but I've never really tried their palletes.
I have 3 of the four palettes. The 010 Golden Nude Look wasn't available at all and honestly it didn't even speak to me that much. On the first look these look exactly like the Natasha Denona palettes, they are also the same size. The packaging is quite sturdy and feels like really nice quality for the price. The colorstories are just mesmerizing. I am in love with all three of these shade-wise. Let's look at them one by one now.
020 Soft Rose Look
This palette is so beautiful. I feel like this type of palette is really missing on the market right now. I love rose and mauve tones and this pallete has that nice neutral-cool vibe to it. There's a Champagne shimmer, dark mauve/brown shimmer and three mattes. We have a very dark brown, beige and a mauve pink. Absolutelly stunning selection of shades, the shimmers are unreal, especially the dark one. I've never seen a shade like this before, I think.
030 Warm Spice Look
I was very excited about this one when I saw it in person. I was a little hesitant to buy it because I don't wear warm shades that often but this palette...oh boy. It's almost like rusty, I love it so much. In the pictures it looked kind of basic and just a little warm toned but in person it's amazing. You get a gold/light copper shimmer, rusty red shimmer and again, three matte shades. There's a deep warm brown, rusty medium toned burnt orange and a warm cream/beige. What a stunning selection of shades. This is such a nice spin on the usual boring warm toned palettes. I am impressed.
040 Modern Smokey Look
This pallete is the most smokey and the most cool toned one. You get a beautiful champagne cold shimmer, dark grey-blue shimmer and three mattes which are cream, deep blue and medium toned taupe. I think these colors go really well together and could do a great cohesive look. None of these shades seems off nor am I missing any. Overall I think this looks like a nice and well made pallete.
I feel like the cool toned pallete swatched the worst but honestly it doesn't really matter as long as it performs good on my eyes. The matte shades in all the palletes are overall quite buttery and smooth. The shimmers are absolutelly stunning and I am so mad that my camera cannot capture them right. They are like high-end quality shimmers. Quality-wise they are very similar to the e.l.f. Bize Sized Eyeshadow Palettes which are absolutelly amazing.
020 Soft Rose Look
Look 1
For the first look I went a little smokey but very simple. I started with the pink mauve shade in my crease with a large blending brush and built it up a little bit. Then I took the deep brown on a tiny packing brush and packed in on my outer corners. Then I placed the darker shimmer all over my lid, about 2/3 in with a flat brush. Then I smoked out the upper lashline with a little bit of the deep brown. On the bottom I put down mauve gel liner and buffed it out with the deep brown with a very small brush and then buffed it a bit more with the mauve pink.
Look 2
For the second look I went very simple glam and smokey. I started with the beigein my crease, deepend the outer corners and the lower crease with the deep brown and cut the crease with my eyeshadow base about half way. Then I took the lightest shimmer and set the first half of the placed base. The second base got set with the dark shimmer. I added a black wing as well. On the bottom I just took a little bit of brown gel liner on my outer corners and buffed it out with the deep brown and then the beige a little lower.
Look 3
I know that this look is very similar to one I did with the smokey pallete but I just wear this type of look very often. I started with the deeo brown on the inner and outer corners and blended it upwards into the crease a bit. On the middle I placed the lightest shimmer and then started blending out the edges with the mauve matte shade. On the bottom I took a mauve matte gel pencil and put it in my waterline. I followed by buffing the pencil out with the mauve matte shade.
030 Warm Spice Look
Look 1
I went for a smokey liner look, I do this one a lot. I started with the warm brown in my crease and then took the deep brown to create a smokey wing. On the lid I took the light gold shimmer with a flat brush. On the bottom I just placed some brown gel liner in my waterline and buffed it out halfway with the deep brown shade and then lower down with the warm brown shade. I slightly adjusted the edges with the cream beige shade at the end.
Look 2
I went for a very soft look today, just the good old Zoom call type of look. I started with the cream shade all over my inner crease and lid. Then I took the medium warm brown and blended it into the outer half of the crease and packed it on the outer corner as well. I blended the edges into a more winged shape. Then I took the light gold on a flat brush and placed it on the middle of the lid where the two mattes meet. On the bottom I just put some nude liner into my waterline and buffed the outer 1/3 slightly with the medium brown. I smudged just a little bit of the deep brown near my lashes to make them look thicker on the outer corner.
Look 3
I just had a little vision in my head and all I needed was one shadow. So I took the copper shimmer and just placed it all over my lid into an extended wing shape. On the bottom I just put rose gold gel liner in my waterline and that's it.
040 Classical Smokey Look
This pallete is very smokey and dark and also quite cooltoned. I really like its vibe and it seems to be the most original one from the three I have. It's smokey but neutral at the same time. With one middle toned brown you can do wonders and if you add a couple pretyt shimmers you have yourself a perfect pallete. This is a great day-to-night pallete as well. The deep shimmer adds such a good punch to any look and making smokey eyes is so easy with this pallete. You have everything you need right there.
Look 1
I started with a fluffy blending brush and the cooltoned brown shade in my crease. I blended it out into a winged shape and kept in my crease and above. Then I took more eye base and cut the crease all the way. I set the base with the matte cream shade and created a little smokey wing with the deep blue/grey in the pallete. I added nude liner in the waterline and smoked the bottom out with more of the brown.
Look 2
I created a quick smokey eye using a black gel liner all over my lid, patting it up and blending the edges. Then I placed the deep blue shade all over the black liner and blended it into my crease. On the middle of the lid I placed the dark grey shimmer with a brush and added some lashes to the top. On the bottom I just used the same black gel pencil in my waterline and smoked it out with the deep blue. The gold shimmer is in my inner corners.
Look 3
I started with packing the deep blue on with a small flat brush on the inner and outer parts of my lid and slightly into the crease. Then I took a fluffy blending brush and slowly started blending the brown into the crease, buffing out the edges of the deep blue. I took the champagne shimmer and packed it on the inner portion of the lid and on the inner corners. I also mirrored the shades on the lid down at the lashline.
Final thoughts
I would say that Catrice really did something with these palletes. They are super affordable, great quality, amazing blendability and lasting power and the color stories are just *chef's kiss*. If you like the looks of these, go and get them, they are truly amazing and I was surprised by them too. They really are comparable to high-end palletes I own.
My favorite is probably the 020 Soft Rose Look palette just because the darker shimmer is just unreal. I've had or seen a shade like this, it's absolutelly stunning and just showstopping. But I like them all and I am quite glad that I have a versatile palettes like these I can just throw in my suitcase and have a full portfolio of looks with a couple shades.
I love that each palette has everything you need. There's a light highlighting shade, deep matte shade, transition shades, staple shimmer...there's everything and in great quality. If you cannot tell already, I highly recommend getting these as they are truly a drugstore gem.
Do you have any favorite drugstore palettes? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!