Discovering Monolith was clearly a good move, since I keep coming back to it. For my bank account, on the other hand, it was not a good discovery. My first order already came with a mini palette from Glaminatrix Cosmetics tucked in, but a review never happened. Something about ordering quite a lot. In the meantime I've since gotten a second order in, with yet another mini palette, so I'd qualify for free shipping. On top of that, using Entrancing Eyes left me deeply impressed with the quality. So I also ordered Elegant Eyes. There are currently still two mini palettes available; Elevated Eyes and Exquisite Eyes, but I didn't really need any more coloured eyeshadow. No matter how good the quality is.

Glaminatrix Cosmetics

Normally I research the brand itself on their own website. How did they get started? Where does the brand come from? What's their vision? Except on their own website I can't actually find a page where they talk about their own brand. Monolith doesn't leave me much wiser either, since they also don't have an 'introduction' on the Glaminatrix page. What I can tell you is that this is another indie brand, but this time from Australia. That means that for anything you order through their own website, you'll have to pay import fees and taxes once it arrives here at the border. To make things a bit easier for us in Europe, Monolith is Glaminatrix's official sales partner in the EU.

Glaminatrix Cosmetics: Entrancing Eyes

The first mini palette I received has nine shades, with purple and neutral tones. I've actually been on the hunt for good quality neutral eyeshadow palettes, since right now I barely have any in my collection. I've genuinely been on a very colourful makeup journey. Which I still think is really cool, but isn't always the most practical or easy to combine. This palette isn't super neutral, but the purple tones make a nice change from brown.

Anyway, the mini palette comes in a cardboard sleeve. The back has the required information. Once you take off the sleeve, a fairly luxurious piece of packaging appears. There's still plastic wrapped over it for protection. Under the plastic is a faux leather exterior, with stitched 'cushioning' on top and a metal logo in the middle. For a palette that was on sale for €17.50, I'm genuinely blown away. There's even a mirror on the inside. The palette feels heavy and high quality.

On the inside, six well-chosen shades appear that genuinely pair beautifully together. I immediately knew how I wanted to use the palette for the first time. The top row is three glitter eyeshadows, and the bottom three are matte.

First row left to right, all glitters;
Entrancing: light pink, champagne glitter.
Bewitch: rose gold, a bit of a salmon shade, glitter.
Captivate: deep purple with a black base, glitter.

Second row left to right, all matte;
Gorgeous: beautiful matte, neutral base. Builds up nicely.
Splendid: raspberry, matte. Very pigmented.
Enticing: aubergine purple.

Entrancing Eyes eyeshadow palette, Glaminatrix Cosmetics, €17.50 sale, via Monolith

Elegant Eyes

The packaging of this mini palette is exactly the same as Entrancing Eyes. Only the colour of the exterior is a bit more brown. Entrancing Eyes' exterior colour was more reddish-brown. Both also close magnetically. Ooh, I love that in a palette.

On the inside you'll again find six eyeshadows. This time they're genuinely neutral shades in the brown family. So I think this is the perfect palette to take travelling. The top three shades are shimmery and the bottom three shades are matte again.
By the way, I was a bit 'thrown' by the colour difference in the eyeshadows between Monolith's photos and when I actually opened the palette. Cultivated is a lot 'cooler' in real life than in their photos. I think they must have photographed it under pretty heavy flash.

First row, left to right, all shimmery;
Elegant: very soft, pale pink.
Cultivated: golden brown.
Sumptuous: dark brown.

The second row, left to right, all matte;
Ornate: pale beige base.
Graceful; autumn leaf orange/brown.
Divine: dark brown, with a black undertone.

Elegant Eyes eyeshadow palette, Glaminatrix Cosmetics, €17.50 sale, via Monolith