I’ve been curious about Viseart’s eyeshadows for some time now, but haven’t been able to convince myself to pull the trigger on their regular 12-colour palettes. It’s not so much the price alone that’s deterred me as it is the combination of blah packaging, lack of finish variety per palette and price.

I know their main line of palettes were designed for professional use and the functional packaging, plus the all-matte/all-satin shade combos do make finding the shade you want a no-brainer. But looking at them doesn’t exactly make my heart sing, and that’s a real issue when I’m dropping USD$80 on something. So no matter how many good things I’ve heard about the quality of the shadows themselves, I’ve just never felt compelled to own anything from the brand before.

When the Petit Pro Palette was released however, I perked up. Clever packaging, a mix of matte and shimmer finishes, and $30 for 6 colours? Sign me up!

It was smaller than I expected – about the size of a credit card – so if value is important to you, this ought to be a really quick and easy pass. I didn’t mind though, because travel-friendly is always at the top of my priority list and pan size is dead last (I prefer variety over quantity).

You get 8 shadows for $30: 4 mattes and 4 metallics, which is enough colours to cover all your bases whether you’re after subtle daytime looks or dramatic evening ones. The overall tone of this palette is warm, and I felt the combination of shades was very well chosen. My pans seem to have been glued in kind of crooked (or “higgeldy piggeldy” as my mother would say) compared to most of the other photos I’ve seen online, but meh.

My first impression from swatching this palette is that the formulas were very smooth across the board but most of the colours were not as pigmented as I expected. The metallics were definitely punchier than the mattes, with the purple being the best performing and most true-to-pan of all 8 colours.

On my lids, the smoothness of the shadows made them ideal for seamless blending, as did the slight sheerness of the mattes. The metallics were easy to work with and built up with a little bit of work, but weren’t as punchy as I’d hoped, even over primer. Overall there was nothing wrong with these shadows – there just wasn’t anything particularly compelling about them. In my opinion, there are better warm palettes out there if you’re willing to spend a little more. At $42 for 14 colours, Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette easily outperforms this, as does Too Faced Sweet Peach Palette at $49 for 18 colours.

Face: Make Up For Ever UV Bright Cushion in Y225, Cle de Peau Beaute Concealer in Ivory, Koh Gen Do Loose Powder // Cheeks: Cle de Peau Beaute Cream Blush in 02 Pale Fig // Eyes: Viseart Petit Pro Palette, Lancome Hypnose Mascara // Brows: Make Up For Ever Pro Sculpting Brow Palette // Lips: Cle de Peau Beaute Enriched Lip Luminizer in 239 Raspberry Snapple

This post contains affiliate links.