Make Up For Ever Black Tango Palette

The exterior of Make Up For Ever Black Tango palette – black lace fan against a deep red background – reflects the Aqua Cream shades in the interior of the palette which are all smokey shades barring the highlight shade. This is a limited-edition palette and the shades are all new. The Aqua Creams are in jewel tones of blackened plum, blackened green, blackened blue and ivory.

Each of the shades has its own cover so that you don’t expose all of them at the same time. Even so, I was surprised that the shades have dried up so fast (I received the palette in July) and the 1st shade has dried up so much that it has shrunk. It appears smaller in size than the rest of the shades. Since July, I have opened up the palette less than 10 times. Every time I thought of taking out the palette to use, I didn’t have an occasion to wear a smokey eye look.

The dual-ended brush inside the palette is quite good and serviceable, much better than those ubiquitous sponge applictators anyway but however good a brush is, it can only do so much with cream shadows which have dried up so much that application and blending took a long time to get it right. It is especially hard when the shades are dark and smokey.

The covers over the 1st and 2nd shades don’t shut as tightly as the 3rd and 4th shades. While the pigments in the shadows are fabulous, the Aqua Creams in this palette have dried up far too quickly for my liking.

Aqua Creams are waterproof and they really do stay on all day or night if need be but with a palette like this, I’d expect them to be used for at least a year. At the rate the shades are drying, it doesn’t look like I’ll get much more mileage out of them, perhaps not beyond this year.