Louise Young- Essential Eye Palette Two

The first Louise Young Essential Eye Palette is one of my desert island products. An all-matte neutral palette with a little twist that offers many options. So I was glad to add its sequel,  Essential Eye Palette Two, to my collection. The palette has three matte shades and two satin ones with very soft and subtle shimmer.

 Louise Young has a practical approach to makeup, both in her excellent brushes and in the colors she offers. The shades are classic, wearable, and can be mixed, matched, and blended together to create many different looks. The texture is soft and finely-milled, saturated with pigment and a true pleasure to work with. The shades aren't very complex, but they're pretty universal.

 Louise Young- Essential Eye Palette Two contains the following eye shadows:
Drifted- matte white.
King Bee-  matte dark brown (darker than the one in the first Louise Young palette).
Swanson-  matte navy.
Mockingbird- shimmer champagne.
Pie- shimmer peach.

The palette comes with a thin sable brush, like the one in the original palette. I used it for the swatches above, so you can see that it definitely works well to pack on the color (it can't blend, though). The colors are long lasting over a primer-- they don't fade or budge (Edward Bess eye base works well with the palette and brings out the colors wonderfully). The sleek and compact packaging is easy to slide into makeup bags, making it another great travel companion.

Bottom Line: I'm already wishing and hoping for a third palette.

Louise Young- Essential Eye Palette Two (£30.00, about $45 in today's exchange rate) is available from louiseyoungcosmetics.com. They ship internationally-- it took about 10 days for my order to get to NJ from the UK. By the way, Louise Young brushes are now available from Nordstrom (online only, as far as I know).