MUA Tropical Oceana Eyeshadow Palette Review / Swatches

MUA announced back in the summer that they were in the process of reformulating their entire product range, so that their entire product range is 100% vegan from the 1st of November 2019. I already featured their reformulated Lip Collection, and reformulated Essential Eyeshadow Collection here on my blog and today I have one of their larger eyeshadow palettes to show you; the MUA Tropical Oceana Eyeshadow Palette – which is a beautiful vegan eyeshadow palette.

MUA used to have twenty five pan eyeshadow palettes which were £8, and I have the MUA Natural Obsession Palette and the MUA Cashmere Collective Palette, but it looks like they’ve completely discontinued the twenty five pan palettes now which is a real shame. The new palettes have only twenty shades, in square pans whereas the older twenty five pan palettes had circular pans. The palettes are both the same shape, and they’re both £8 so I feel like these newer palettes should have been cheaper as we’re getting five less shadows than before.

There are now currently only four different large palettes, but I guess MUA will launch more as time goes on. I was kindly gifted the MUA Tropical Oceana Eyeshadow Palette which I have to admit isn’t a palette I would have bought with my own money as I just don’t do colourful makeup looks, but I know I’m probably in the minority as colourful palettes have become so popular this year.

The MUA Tropical Oceana Palette contains a mixture of matte and shimmer shadows, which are laid out in colour co-ordinated rows, which I think is a really great idea rather than a palette full of random colours, I feel like it’s a little more cohesive in this format, especially when trying to decide on a makeup look. The palette includes a row of peach and oranges, a row of pinks, a row of purples, a row of greens and a row of blues.

None of the shades within the MUA Tropical Oceana Palette have shade names, but the original 25 pan palettes didn’t either. The reformulated shimmer formula is seriously amazing both in this palette and their individual eyeshadows. It’s honestly the best shimmer formula I’ve ever tried from a drugstore brand, but the mattes are really disappointing. In some of these swatches it looks as if I’ve left gaps in between the swatches as they’re so pale, and lacking in pigment.

I used the same amount of swipes just like I always do, and every other MUA palette I own has had decent quality matte shadows. If anything, they used to be more impressive than their shimmers. I don’t know if it’s because it is now a vegan formula, but every single matte shade is poorly pigmented which I feel is even more noticeable when you try to use them alongside shimmers that perform like foils – just look at those blues.

Although the mattes have been disappointing, I have been so blown away by the crazy good shimmers that I’ve gone and ordered the Molten Metals Palette and it looks as if it only contains shimmers so I’m hoping it’s a little more consistent than this Tropical Oceana Palette. I couldn’t recommend this palette with such disappointing mattes, but if you already have a decent colourful matte palette, the shimmers are very pretty but their individual shadows really are brilliant in comparison.

You can purchase the MUA Eyeshadow Palettes over on their website and on Superdrug.

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