Review: Manna Kadar Cosmetics Eye Palette in Diamonds Darling

I'm a gray eyeshadow lover. Give me an ombre gray palette and I'm fifteen minutes away from looking like a slutty black and white photograph.

Manna Kadar's Diamonds Darling palette not only has the right color scheme, it has a name reminiscent of Nicole Kidman sitting on a sexy swing in a cabaret venue.

I will assume that this is a language translation and not merely a way to confuse people who don't know the difference between 'palette', 'pallet', and 'palate'.
The very plain packaging is not appealing, but I was hoping for a diamond in the rough, especially given the palette's $45 price tag.

Sadly, there was no diamond to be found. Given the texture, I am pretty sure that what I got was a mix of craft glitter and kosher salt.

In the picture, it looks so damn pretty (dusting of fallout aside).

My swatches, though, will probably serve to dissuade you:

LOOK AT THAT BULLSHIT. LOOK AT IT.

That looks like quality that I would be disappointed to find at the dollar store.

The first shade, which should be a brilliant, glittery white, is basically the eyeshadow equivalent of one of those glitter nail polishes where each coat gets you like four flecks of the glitter. You would get equivalent pigmentation by brushing past one of those white, glittery, fake trees that are put on display around Christmas.

The second shade, which should be a light gray glitter, is somehow even less pigmented. I could use it as a setting powder on days where I want to look just very slightly undead.

The third shade is a slate gray glitter. It's probably the least crappy of the shades in the palette, but it's in such bad company that this is sort of damning with faint praise. It looks like I am looking at my arm through a single layer of gray cellophane.

The fourth shade is a matte black. There are a million matte blacks in the world, and this one is terrible. It's splotchy and patchy and badly pigmented.

Finally, the last shade is a matte black with a purple glitter. This was the biggest disappointment in the palette not because it was the worst shade, but because I was expecting it to be a gorgeous, shimmery purple. Nerp. Never have hopes and dreams, as they will only be crushed by the terrible eyeshadow you purchase.

A few looks that were cobbled together using this atrocity of cosmetics:

Manna Kadar eyeshadow palettes retail for $45 for 0.33oz, putting them at a slightly pricy $136.36 per ounce. Since literally everything about this eyeshadow palette is awful, that is exactly $136.36 more than you should ever pay for an ounce of this makeup.