I can’t get enough of the Colourpop 9 pan palettes. I’ve been stocking up on the monochromatic palettes, but I wanted to switch it up and I added the sea themed Mar palette to my collection.

Like all of the other 9 pans, The Mar Palette is available for an extremely affordable $12, and features a variety of shimmer and matte shades, in colors reminiscent of a trip to the beach. The shades are described as the following:

• El Rey: metallic soft peach with gold pearl

• Wild One: metallic rich orange copper

• Detour: matte cobalt

• Boozy:metallic orange with gold pearl

• Gridlock: bright teal with silver & teal glitter

• Sorbet: matte peachy soft brown

• Hwy: satin sea foam green with a gold sheen

• Top Down: matte dark chocolate

• My Way: metallic true vibrant bronze

What drew me to this palette were the pops of blue, teal, and seafood green. While they swatch beautifully, the one drawback I noticed immediately is that some of the shimmer shades started developing hardpan fairly quickly. This isn’t a deterrent because that can be scraped off. However, they get the most impact from being applied with your finger so you’d have to scrape the top layer off quite often.

Eyeshadow Look

Since the pops of blue/green are what drew me to the palette, I wanted to create a look that had a pop of teal. Here’s how I achieved the look:

• I started by adding Top Down to my crease in a wing shape, inner third, and outer third;

• I diffused that color, just below my brow bone, using Sorbet;

• After using concealer to create a halo shape, I applied My Way on the edges of the concealer for a smoother transition to the deep brown;

• I applied Wild One on top of the concealer;

• I added Boozy to the very center of the concealer;

• I highlighted my inner corner and brow bone with El Rey;

• I applied HWY to the inner half of my bottom lash line;

• I used Gridlock for the outer half of my bottom lash line, and connected it to the deep brown.

Final Thoughts

While I liked the shades in this palette, it is primarily shimmers, so there aren’t many transitions to work with. I feel it would be great for deeper skin tones, but if you are my shade or lighter you may have to dip into another palette for lighter neutral brown and nude tones for a smoother transition above the crease.

Since I purchased this primarily for the teal and seafoam shades, I would have rather purchased those two as single pans. But at $12 for the palette vs. Colourpop’s $6 singles, you can’t really beat the palette price.

I will continue to play with it some more to see what other types of looks I can create. Let me know below what you think of this palette in the comments section!