The Green Eyeshadow Palette Showdown

It is finally here! The green eyeshadow palette comparison post that I have been hinting at for honestly way too long at this point. But here we are. When the Kaleidos Makeup Futurism collection launched, I got so many requests to compare it to the Melt Cosmetics Gemini Palette (you can see my comparison posts here and here). Then, Give Me Glow Cosmetics released their version of a green palette, the Juicy Olive palette. So, I decided to compile a comparison of all three palettes, along with which palette I would suggest, here on the blog!

Quick note: I purchased all three palettes myself. All opinions are my own. Also, none of these pictures are edited. Skin is what it is, folks! Finally, “GMG” in the swatch pictures stands for “Give Me Glow.”

This review will be structured as follows (because it’ll be a long one!): First, I will show swatch comparisons of the similar shades in the three palettes. Then, I will talk about the three formulas. Finally, I will talk about which is the closest dupe to the Melt Gemini and which palette I would suggest overall.

SWATCH COMPARISONS

In my initial instagram post showing the swatches between the Kaleidos Makeup Futurism I palette and the Melt Gemini palette, you can see that the Kaleidos palette is pretty close to the Melt.

The green shades from the Kaleidos palette definitely appear slightly lighter than the Melt shades, but the undertones are spot on. This holds true for the green metallic shade – Kaleidos Glamora – as well. The warm mustard shades (Kaleidos Radioactive and Melt Lorelei) are exactly the same. Yep! I literally cannot tell the difference between the two of them. The black shades are also spot on. Forgive the swatching here – the Kaleidos swatch went over a tendon which made it all screwy.

So, as you can see, Kaleidos is pretty close overall. I was definitely pretty pleased with how close the shades came.

Now enter Juicy Olive, by Give Me Glow Cosmetics. I already had the other two palettes at this point, so I just swatched the matching shades from all three palettes side by side. Note, though, that when I first saw Juicy Olive on Instagram I doubted that it would come super close to the Melt Cosmetics one, like the Kaleidos one did. The tones in Juicy Olive did seem to different to me right off the bat, and as you will see, they are indeed different.

Above, I swatched the two metallics from Juicy Olive, the two metallics from Juicy Olive mixed together (third swatch down), Melt Goalz, and Kaleidos Glamora. Neither Juicy Olive metallic alone matched Melt Goalz perfectly. Mixed together, though? It gets really, really close. This is how I wore the metallics from Juicy Olive on my eyes for the formula testing (pictures will come later in the post, promise!). Kaleidos Glamora, again, matches the undertone of Melt Goalz, but appears lighter swatched.

Then, I compared the corresponding green shades among the three palettes. In this first picture, you will see Juicy Olive Vodkatini, Melt Fire OG, and Kaleidos Smog. The Juicy Olive shade comes nowhere close to duping the Melt shade. It is lighter and of a completely different undertone. This is not to say it isn’t a beautiful shade – it is – but it’s not what you are looking for if you are searching for an alternative to the Melt palette.

In this next picture, I compared Juicy Olive Dirty Martini, Melt Leo, and Kaleidos E.T. This is the only shade in the Juicy Olive palette I feel does a great job duping the corresponding one in the Melt Gemini palette. In fact, I think it’s an even better dupe for the Melt shade than the Kaleidos shadow, because it is of the same depth as the Melt shade.

Juicy Olive didn’t have a black shade or a warm mustard shade to compare to the Melt Gemini palette, so we move on now!

FORMULA COMPARISONS

Let me start off by saying that I do enjoy all three formulas in all three palettes. That being said, I do have a favorite, which might surprise some people. It’s also important to note that I got the very first generation (release) of the Melt Gemini palette; I have heard that later releases were of a better quality. Take that as you will, and let’s get into it.

I created the same look with the three different palettes, and took pictures of each look I created. On the eye, the looks honestly all look the same. I sent these to Liv to see if she thought they were good pictures, and she couldn’t tell I was using a different palette in any of them (she thought I was using the Kaleidos one the entire time). So there’s that. On the eyes, the palettes will look the same. Which means that in a certain sense, they perform the same.

But do they really? Even though they all look the same on the eyes, I definitely had some trouble with some shades in certain palettes and a significantly easier time with other shades in other palettes. So here it comes down to personal preference. I’ll do my best to describe how the formula worked for me and what techniques I used to make each formula blend, and you can decide what might work best for you!

First up: the Melt Gemini. Like I mentioned, I got the first round of this palette, so I had some shades that didn’t work as well for me. Leo, in particular, is really tough to blend out, and it skips a lot on me. Fire OG does the same, albeit at a much smaller level, so I don’t have as much of a hard time with it. Both also have a tendency to blend away, so I always make sure to use a very light hand with this palette, clean my brushes frequently, and pack on the color before blending out the edges. The metallics are beautiful, though the Gemini shade does benefit from a product like the Pixie Epoxy underneath.

Overall, I definitely love the Melt palette. The green shades are tricky, but the looks I create with the palette are always beautiful, and the more mustardy-brown side of the palette is just perfection!

Second: the Kaleidos Futurism II palette. Out of the three palettes, this palette has the driest matte formula, though the metallics might be the creamiest out of the three formulas. I actually was pleasantly surprised by just how much I love this formula. I truly was not expecting much from the Futurism collection, especially since it was my first time trying the brand, but I actually adore it! It is a very buildable formula – definitely not as full pigment as either the Melt or the Give Me Glow shadows – but I actually like that about this formula because it means it’s easier to blend out.

The metallics are absolutely stunning, very creamy and full on pigment right off the bat. My favorite way to apply them is with my finger. They just pop all on their own, no problem. And, they last all day, no creases. I also love that the palette is such a concise color story. I’ve been really loving smaller palettes lately, so this checks all the boxes!

Finally: the Give Me Glow Juicy Olive palette. This has the classic Give Me Glow eyeshadow formula: pigmented af and nice and creamy. The metallics are absolutely stunning, super bright right off the bat, and another formula I can just apply with my finger. The matte formula is closer to the Melt formula than to the Kaleidos formula, so the mattes are pigmented right off the bat. I suggest using a light hand with this palette as well, but the shadows don’t skip or get patchy, they are just so pigmented that you really don’t need much to get the look you want.

This is a great palette, and the formula from Give Me Glow is always so fun to work with.

THE FINAL VERDICT

All three palettes definitely have their own pros and cons, but all three are also very beautiful to me, and I’m genuinely happy that I was able to pick up all three of them so that I could compare them all for y’all! (Because really, you only need one of these in your collection if you are interested in these types of greens.) So, here is who I think would enjoy each palette the most!

Melt Gemini: If you absolutely love the brown side of this palette just as much as the green half, and you are looking for a palette that can be used for both neutral looks and more fun looks, I think this palette is for you. The formula is fine (and since the first release, I’ve heard it’s gotten better) and it really does stimulate the creative juices. It is the most expensive of the three, so if you were really only interested in one half of the palette, whether it was the mustard side or the green side, I would not pick it up.

Kaleidos Makeup: If you are looking for a cheaper dupe of the green half of the Gemini palette, then I would say this palette is absolutely for you. It costs less than half of the Gemini palette, and the formulas, both matte and metallic, are phenomenal. The packaging is also very sturdy, and the mirror is great. I love the brightness the Glamora shade (the green metallic) lends to the eye so much. Just a special shout-out to that shade, because I was shooketh when I first applied it.

Give Me Glow Juicy Olive: If you are into the super grungy green look, and you aren’t interested in the neutrals in the Melt palette, this one is for you. The undertones to this palette are definitely more gray than the ones in the other two palettes. In fact, when I sent the picture of the look I created with this palette to Liv, she told me she had noticed the gray and absolutely loved it. Also, you get two stunning metallics in the green family compared to just one in the other two palettes.

And that’s the end, folks! I hope this mega post was helpful to you, and good luck on your green eyeshadow journey to y’all!

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