Review & Swatches: Soothing Sista XO Memebox Eyeshadow Quad in #Eyelove SF

The Soothing Sista XO Memebox #Eyelove SF Palette is an eyeshadow quad made up of neutral rosey brown shades. They're supposed to have double-coated pigment technology for long lasting color. If you don't know, Soothing Sista aka Stephanie Vila is a YouTuber that mostly does fashion and beauty videos. She created this palette and named it with a Bay Area / San Francisco theme. The palette contains 4 grams / 0.141 ounces of product and retails for $17. Each pan is about the size of a quarter. 

The names of the shades are on a plastic insert. I prefer the shades to be printed next to the individual shadows, but it's not a huge problem. I originally thought the pans were magnetic, but they were all held down by some glue. They are easy to remove to put into customizable magnetic palettes though.

Here are the initial arm swatches! I used a color dropper to match the text color with the eyeshadow color. 

Sutro is described as a "light dusty rose matte." In the pan, it looks more brown but swatches to a nice subtle dusty rose. 

Valencia is described as a "medium pinky-brown matte." It is basically like a darker version of Sutro with more pinky to it. 

Surprisingly, the mattes are amazing. They're soft and even have a nice creamy feel to them. Sutro is a bit too light to show up as a pigmented shade on my skin tone. Since Sutro and Valencia are both so similar, I would've liked a cream highlight kind of color instead. 

The mattes are hands down the best out of the quad. For both of these shades, you don't have to use a primer if you don't want to if you have normal lids. The colors show up fine even without any help. 

Candy Rain is described as a "metallic rose shimmer with silver micro-glitter." I don't see the silver micro-glitter, but it is a pretty metallic burgundy rose shade. 

Bae Area is described as a "metallic pink shimmer with iridescent glitter." This is a full on pinky gold glittery shade.

Candy Rain is harder than the mattes and so it does take more work to build up color. Once it's on the lids, it is pretty but not the best burgundy shade I've worked with. I would use a primer with this shade so that it's easier to build up color.

Bae Area is the worst out of the palette. It has chunky glitter that just falls all over the face if you don't use a super tacky base. The base color of the eyeshadow is pink and the shimmer/glitter is more golden to create a pretty color when swatched though. It is very similar to Maybelline Expert Wear Eyeshadow in Pink Wink (review here) in that they're both a pinky gold with chunky glitter. 

Here is Bae Area in another light. In indirect light, the pinky base is more apparent. 

Here is an eye look using the palette. 

Sutro on the inner third of the lid

Valencia in the crease and on the outer third of the lid

Candy Rain on the outer half of the lower lash line and a bit in the outer third of the lid

Bae Area on the center of the lid, but applied with LASplash Splashproof Sealer Eyeshadow Base

I was wearing this out and I can't stand having glitter all over my face. Even so, there was still a bit of fall out but less than if I hadn't used the sticky base. 

Final thoughts: If you're a fan of the Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette but don't want that many shades or pay that much, you might want to look into the #Eyelove SF palette. The matte shades fall in line with Limit and Nooner too. Candy Rain is decent, but I have an eyeshadow from theBalm Balm Jovi that is so much better. Bae Area is really disappointing and if you're only interested in this shade, it's better to just get the Maybelline eyeshadow I mentioned in this review. I do sometimes take this palette for a weekend away to use the three decent shades though. It's definitely not my favorite palette to use though since I have the Naked 3 plus other rosey browns / nudes shades I've accumulated this past year.