June 12, 2018

Etude House Trench Coat Showroom Play Color Eye Palette Review & Swatches

4 stars out of 5

Etude House Trench Coat Showroom Play Color Eye Palette is one of three new 15-pan eyeshadow palettes that launched for the Spring/Summer 2018 season which represent warmer and cooler shades. Each palette is priced at 29,500KRW or roughly $27 USD. Etude house doesn’t do a lot of larger palette launches so I took note of these when they started marketing them across Instagram and purchased them as soon as they became available from online sellers.

Since I don’t like ordering from Etude House’s US portal (things always arrive broke and it’s hard to get a replacement) I got mine from my favorite ebay.com seller, F2Plus1 for $23 plus free shipping.

Out of the three palettes launched the Trench Coat Showroom Play Color Eye Palette is the warmest with assortment of warm browns, creams, taupe, and khaki shades in a range of metallic, satin, matte, and shimmer finishes.

The palette arrives in a light khaki green ox that has a closeup shot of a trench decorating the front. The actual palette is the same light beige khaki shade with a tartan border that gives the look of a trench coat as well. Inside is a generously sized mirror and 15 eyeshadows that are 0.03 oz each. It’s visually presented very nicely and when you open the palette up a sense of rainy Fall days comes to mind for some reason. The colors really do evoke London, fog, rain, and a tall elegant young woman dashing across a street in a trench coat. It’s weird but truly these colors inspire a trench coat.

Etude House Trench Coat Showroom Review and Swatches

Unfortunately, the colors also left me scratching my heads because like Urban Decay’s latest Born To Run Eyeshadow Palette I felt at a loss which shades would work well together. There’s really a mismatch of shades here. At first glance they all look lovely but once you sit down and start trying to create a look they can be a little bit overwhelming if you lack creativity when pairing shades together. I am thee worst at contrasting shades and I really need obvious color pairings to get things to work together correctly. Throw me into a palette like this one and I’m at a loss.

Etude House Trench Coat Showroom Play Color Eye Palette Swatches (Basic Coat, Display, Silver Button, Miltary Look, My Trench Coat)

Etude House Trench Coat Showroom Play Color Eye Palette Swatches (The Collar, Woolen Coat, Belted Coat, Gold Button, Showroom)

Etude House Trench Coat Showroom Play Color Eye Palette Swatches (White Shworoom, Spring Coat, Coat Hanger, Room Lighting, Autumn Coat)

I did instantly take to the warm golden brown shade called Belted Coat and instantly knew it would work well with Gold Button a coppery bronze. These are the two shades (as well as one of the highlighter shades) I used to create my look in this review.

All these shades look lovely all their own but at some point you’re going to want to combine a few together and I’ll be the first to admit I did struggle a bit getting them together correctly as it felt like there was no rhythm or reason to the line up. I’ll have to play a while more and see what looks I can come up with.

Although the shade pairings puzzled me the formula was quite good. Play Color Eye Palettes aren’t Etude House’s strongest eyeshadow formula. I’m sure you’ve ready many of my reviews for the smaller palettes they’ve done like Wine Party, Peach Farm, and Juice Bar. I tend to collect these palettes but the formulas are so so.

Etude House Trench Coat Showroom Play Color Eye Palette is in no way as good as the single shadow shades that the brands does nor as good as the Personal Color Palette but it holds its own and has a fairly consistency and good formula across all the shades included.

The mattes are a little firmer and drier than I expected with good pigmentation but a bit of a patchy blend that needed a good primer to look smoothest. The shimmers, satins, and metallics were all very soft and easy to blend with excellent color pay off and some fall out but nothing too messy. The colors are surprisingly not soft and chunky so you aren’t getting a bunch of powdery kick up when you press your brush into them. Etude House Eyeshadow Palettes are pretty well known for kicking up a good think of chunky flakes and powdery kick up but I experienced none of that with this palette. I was able to apply the shades and blend quite easily. The colors didn’t need build up either as all were quite nicely packed with pigment.

Etude House Trench Coat Showroom Play Color Eye Palette was quite well down. I have to admit, I have a tiny little inkling of disappointment as I did think this palette would have the same soft, silky consistency as the Personal Color Palette. That palette is one of my favorite formulas from Etude House and I thought this would be the same consistency and texture. But none the less, I still enjoyed this overall and felt very at home using it. I do wish I was a bit more creative with the color line up though! That I’m stilling struggling with but I can still see myself really enjoying this palette when Fall arrives!

Where to buy

E-bay

Etude House Trench Coat Showroom Play Color Eye Palette is one of three new eyeshadow palettes that launched in Korea this month that includes 15 shades each weighing in at 0.03 oz per shade and priced at around $20 to $30 each palette. This particular palette is the warmest palette in the launch with shades of brown, khaki, taupe. I struggled a little with pairing and contrasting shades as the colors seemed mismatched for me but the formula and pigment proved fairly good overall aside from the mattes which felt a little dry and patchy during application. The shade selection doesn’t really offer anything truly unique to someone’s makeup collection if you already own a large assortment of warm eyeshadow palettes. But a shade assortment like this is a bit unique to the Korean market.

Pros

  • A great selection of shades for Fall looks.
  • Anyone who loves warmer eyeshadow shades will adore this.
  • Anyone who isn’t keen on the Play Color Eyes Palettes will be pleasantly surprised by this formula.

Cons

  • A little challenging to contrast and combined shades.
  • A bit of dry patchiness on matte shades.

Who

Etude House Trench Coat Showroom Play Color Eye Palette should be a hit with anyone who really enjoys warm shades. It’s an easy pick up for people who want an all-in-one eyeshadow palette with a variety of warm nude shades that are work friendly and great for evenings out.

About the Muse

Isabella MuseIsabella is just an average everyday geeky girl who doesn’t blend her eyeshadow correctly, wears too much blush, and hopes she never finds her holy grail products because she likes the thrill of the chase so much. Her mission is to bring you super honest reviews on makeup, skincare, fragrance and all things beauty. She’s in no way an expert on the topic and she sure as hell isn’t a super model. But she’s passionate about makeup and is seeking like-minded individuals that like pina coladas, getting caught in the rain, and ones that enjoy spending hundreds of dollars at Sephora without feeling buyer’s remorse. If you’re that person feel free to reach out and leave a comment or follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Bloglovin‘.

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Comments

  • Christina

    It’s not you, Muse. I consider myself pretty color savvy, but this palette just lacks variety and depth. There aren’t enough deeper and rich tones (or lighter, for that matter) to bring in contrast, and the ones that are darker seem dusty and weak–that’s if you’re trying to pair shades. I think the way you’ve worn them looks lovely, as single lid shades.

    • Isabella Muse

      I’m glad to hear it because there are days when I’m like, “Ok you’re obviously not experienced enough to see that there are pairings here!” It seemed like the shades were very much mismatched. I managed to create a three color look with this but I honestly struggled to create any three or even two combo looks with it!

  • Kish

    Oh wow, this is so beautiful. Reminds me of some of the colors from the Too Faced Natural Love palette. Also, I cannot get that UD palette out of my head haha. I really need it. I haven’t felt that way about a UD palette since Naked 3. I just destashed a ton of stuff with the intent of having a smaller collection and I’ve already mentally replaced all of it lol.

    • Isabella Muse

      I got it yesterday and I’m still at a loss the best way to use it lol! ;-D I hope once I swatch it I’ll feel better about it ;-D

  • Agona

    Yeah, I think they could’ve done this color story in a smaller palette. But now I’m eyeballing their Prism eyeshadows…LOL

    • Isabella Muse

      I have a few that I didn’t get a sec to review yet!!!!!!!

  • kjh

    Now THAT is clever packaging. Funny, I like the pan, but the swatches, not so much. Reminds me of a more midtone Fame palette in the pan. want to check out the ‘cool’ one.

  • kjh

    Etude House site: shipping free over 70? And not many choices? I guess people got used to resellers on amazon and the bay, and their site is a bit redundant for US market. Going to check your bay fave.

    • Isabella Muse

      their shipping is the worst, always broke, hard to get a refund, nothing in stock! thanks but no thanks!

  • Mikki

    I wish I checked your post before I bought one of the new palettes! I just bought Lingerie Backstage after mulling over whether I should get Trench Coat Showroom too, but decided against it. Just couldn’t decide whether I could justify getting the colors cause most online pictures/swatches seem more taupey and cool-toned and those look muddy on me. Glad that it has decent pigmentation and is more warm-toned though!

    Do you think it’s worth trying out? I’m tempted cause the packaging and colors kinda speak to me, but the swatches kinda remind me of Too Faced Chocolate bar (but w/ more taupe). And I already have the TF chocolate bar, and browns from my Tartelette in Bloom.

    • Isabella Muse

      Honestly, I’d skip it. It really didn’t leave any lasting impression on me and I felt I had all of these shades already! See what EH does for Fall! You can always revisit this later if the lemming strikes! I suspect it’ll be around a bit!