When it was announced that Wet N Wild was going to be discontinuing their 8 pan palettes and replacing them with 10 pan palettes, I can't imagine that I was the only one who braced for losing the Comfort Zone palette, which I think has long been one of the best larger palettes in the drugstore, though it was sorely missing matte shades. Luckily, the company knew what they were doing and decided to release a newly reformulated 10 Pan Comfort Zone Palette that included two new matte shades and maintained all of the shades that were in the old palette. Of course, there was the question of whether the reformulation would stand up to the old palette.

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Honestly, I wasn't really planning on buying this palette... but then I looked at it. I mean, how could I resist? One thing that I love about this palette is that, although it's neutral, it's absolutely something different from most of what's neutral in the drugstore. The addition of the matte transition shades really did just make this palette kind of the more complete version of what it used to be, in my opinion.

When it comes to curation of this palette, I'm mostly really happy with it. I think that the matte shades were well chosen to go with what already existed in the old Comfort Zone palette. My personal issue with the curation is actually two of the old shades. In the pan, the two deepest shades on the left side of the palette look quite different, with one leaning more brown and the other more green, but because they have that dark base they both end up looking pretty much identical on the eyes. I would have actually loved to see them change one of those shades in these new palettes, either to a metallic or to a matte, something to really distinguish them from each other. 

First, let's talk about the transition shades, shall we? First, on the top of the palette (right side of the photos) we have your basic must have peanut buttery warm-but-not-too-warm transition shade. I feel like everyone can benefit from having a well formulated shade like this in their collection and it fits really well with the shades in this palette. The transition shade on the bottom of the palette, though, is the real winner for me because it's so unlike anything else in the drugstore. This rosy brown shade is absolutely gorgeous and really does help to make this palette feel a lot more versatile to me. Also, though, I would legitimately just put this shade all over my lids, deepen up the outer corner with one of the deep shades, and call it a look. I like it that much.

Now for the top row moving left to right (which feels wrong, but whatever.) The first shade in the top row is a deep brown matte base packed full of bronzey gold shimmers and the formula isn't my favorite. The texture feels a little bit dry and though it's quite pigmented, it doesn't blend out nearly as well as the deep matte brown in the Not A Basic Peach Palette. Next is a gorgeous rose gold shade that is basically everything. The formula is creamy, smooth and pigmented and I'm kind of in love with it all over the lid. Next is a sort of golden beige that's in the same formula as the rose gold and it's also gorgeous. Smooth, creamy and pigmented, love! Finally in this row we have a satin finish champagne shade that I wish had that same formula as the other two. This shade is nice, but a little bit more sheer and powdery. It certainly works on the eyes, but it's not my personal favorite formula from Wet N Wild.

The bottom row of this palette starts out much the same as the top row. The deep green shade is a matte base and is absolutely packed with gold shimmers. I find it to be a lot more pigmented than the very similar shade above it and if I had to choose between the two, it would absolutely be this one. Next is the classic blue-brown shade and I think it actually might be my favorite in this palette. The formula is really smooth and creamy and the duochrome is absolutely incredible on this. I also find that if I apply this shade wet, it pops a beautiful almost peacock teal glow. It's gorgeous and I love it. Next is a classic midtone golden brown shade. It has a really nice formula, great pigmentation and a really smooth finish, so I really can't complain about it at all. Just doesn't necessarily pop in this palette, but not everything has to. Finally is the sage green shade satin with a golden sheen. This formula is very similar to the champagne right above it, though I think it's more pigmented. It's a little bit powdery and I would definitely recommend to apply it wet, but it has good colour payoff and it works.

Why don't drugstore palettes have shade names????

I think my issue with this palette, far more glaring in this palette than other new 10 pan palettes I've tried from Wet N Wild, is that it seems to have four different formulas and I really only love two of them. The matte shades are absolutely gorgeous with creamy formulas that blend really beautifully and have a lot of pigment. The metallic shades, which tend to be through the middle of the palettes, are absolutely gorgeous as well with really smooth, creamy formulas and a lot of pay off. The shades that are matte bases packed with shimmer, however, tend to be a dry and patch and the satin shades are quite powdery and hit and miss on the pigmentation. I feel like these differences in formula are really obvious in this palette, since there seems to be a two of each of the formulas that really aren't my favorite in this palette, where Not A Basic Peach had more consistently good shades than this one.

For this look, I started out with shade 2 on my brow bone and then went in with shade 1 through the crease on a large, fluffy brush. Next I went in with a slightly smaller fluffy brush and shade 10 and deepened out the crease a little bit more, really focusing on the outer half and deeper into the crease. Next, I used a small flat brush and applied shade 8 all over the lid wet - using this shade wet makes the blue in the shift really pop a lot more than using it dry. Finally, I took a very small amount of shade 5 on my fluffy brush and added a little bit more depth to the outer corner and made sure that the blue/brown shade was blended out. 

I was going to do comparison swatches, but I actually depotted my old Comfort Zone palette and I didn't label the pans, so I didn't want to mess it up. However, Chelle from Makeup Your Mind did a really good set of comparison swatches, so I highly recommend you head over to her post if you want to see how they hold up against each other.

Overall, I feel like this palette is good, but very hit and miss for me with the formulas. I feel like maybe they were restricted by the fact that they were redoing the beloved Comfort Zone palette and it just didn't hold up. I think that for $6.99 this is still a worthwhile palette, but it just doesn't get anywhere near Not A Basic Peach as far as formula is concerned.

The new Wet N Wild Color Icon 10 Pan Palettes are popping up in stores in Canada now, so keep an eye out if you're interested in picking them up!

Thanks for reading!