little white truths

You should be able to tell that the surfaces of all six shades look different in the before and after shots (although admittedly it's hard to see that with Tempera, given it's a cream-coloured shade that my dodgy old camera struggles to focus on).

Golden Ochre has the most use of the mattes, and indeed I can't remember using this palette without incorporating that shade! Must be my favourite.

Tempera, Raw Sienna, Burnt Orange and Vermeer are all showing more use, although the surface changes aren't huge.

The biggest news in this section of the palette is that I've hit pan on Primavera, although it's a tiny speck of pan in the middle and you mightn't be able to see it in the photos. I use Primavera every time I use this palette - I find it to be a lot more useful than Vermeer - and although yes I prefer golds anyway, I personally think that Vermeer isn't the right highlight shade for this palette. On me, it's too cool and it clashes with the warmer tones in the rest of the palette. Surely if Vermeer had a warm/neutral pink or mauve undertone, it would be a better fit? Or maybe that's just me.

Now for the middle section.

Three weeks ago:

Now:

Now, enhanced for clarity:

We've dealt with Vermeer and Primavera so let's look at the other four.

Buon Fresco is my most-used shadow in this section of the palette, and you can see I've got a decent dip in the centre. Indeed, I won't be surprised if I hit pan on this shade soon enough.

Antique Bronze is also showing a nice little dent. As I've mentioned before, I personally feel that this shade isn't the right bronze for this palette. It's too flat and it doesn't suit the richness of the other colours - or perhaps it's just too flat on me personally (it doesn't do anything for my brown eyes, and most bronzes do a lot more for me). I can however mix it with shades like Red Ochre and Realgar of course, and that's what I've been doing. Still, I wish it were a different bronze.

I've used Red Ochre and Venetian Red quite a lot over the denting period, but I only use a little each time because I prefer soft eye looks - which is why we're not seeing much progress on either of these shades.

Last up, the right-hand side of the palette. Here's how it looked three weeks ago:

Now:

We've already dealt with Antique Bronze and Venetian Red, so let's look at the other four shades (all mattes).

Both Love Letter and Cyprus Umber looked untouched in the before shots, but they don't look that way now. I don't use dark shades often so I can see Cyprus Umber being the last man standing in this palette, but I have used Love Letter a lot - and turns out I can actually wear it without looking overdone. Who knew?! It looks fantastic on the lid and blended upwards to meet Buon Fresco through the crease. Love.

Warm Taupe I always use to pull back the warmth of the stronger shades in this palette, and I use it a lot. You can see a change in the before and after shots, but it's not a huge change because I mainly use a dusting of this over the warmer colours, rather than eg packing it on the lid or in the outer v.

Realgar is showing very little progress, but that's because I'm currently panning a very similar orange via Pan that Palette so I wanted to avoid using orange during this round of Project Dent: I've used enough orange shadow this year already so I needed a change. I do love the colour though, always have.

In sum

That's all from me!

It's been a good round of Project Dent: I've learned plenty of things about this palette that I didn't know before and I've really enjoyed using it daily for the last three weeks.

I'll definitely be denting it again later in the year and also reviewing it next time, so stay tuned for that if you're interested.

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x