Hung Vanngo - Color Story Passionate Purple Eyeshadow Palette

Imagine my delight upon seeing this launch. As a creative color enthusiast for near 15 years seeing a resurgence of high pigment vibrant eyeshadows on the shelves of Sephora stores was a beacon of hope. What is the first thing you should do when you see a release you love? Buy it. If we want brands to make products we love, we need to vote with our dollar and let them know that the release is wanted and appreciated. While Hung Vanngo is a popular makeup artist, in the grand scheme of things I'd consider him somewhat unknown. I sincerely hope this makeup line sees success.

All that being said I did end up returning this palette. Shortly After buying this I also received the Nomad PNW palette and the contrast in usability and enjoyment was stark. So stark that I decided I would rather have my $49 back than try to love the Hung Vanngo Purple Passion palette. I felt bad about it.

Value Breakdown

Retail Price $49 ($6.13 per shadow)

Makeup palettes have increased in price over the years but in the current market of 2025 this Color Story palette is a decent deal. The monochromatic nature of the color story might be seen as a downside to some buyers but, you do receive four finishes. Personally I feel all the matte finishes are the same and I don't feel much difference in the 3D Mattes and regular Mattes. Packaging is sturdy, suitable for travel and includes a large mirror on the interior of the lid.

Swatches

First impressions swatched with a finger with no base or primer are that the colors are vibrant, medium pigment, and generally finely milled, meeting a “high” standard of quality. Purples are notoriously difficult to formulate and even on first impressions I found that to be true of this palette. These are dry. Much dryer than modern eyeshadow formulas. You will not get a satisfying creamy touch from this palette.

I consider these formulas to be very similar to the Makeup by Mario Master Mattes palette, patchy. If you own that and have success you are likely to enjoy the Hung Vanngo Color Story as well. Personally the dry texture is not my favorite and I found it difficult to use. If I had three hours to mess around with my makeup and slowly blend out each particle of pigment then maybe I would find value in this.

#1 3D Matte - Though I feel there is not much difference in the 3D and regular matte formulas, the color of this one is my favorite due to the saturation of the shade.

#2 Satin - Meant to be used with #1, in my opinion. Also the most versatile and impactful satin shade.

#3 Matte - Quite grey and cool toned, this color can be difficult to use and gets muddied quite quickly in the blending process.

#4 Metallic - Meant to be used with #3. Light and soft in color with light reflecting particles.

#5 Matte - Simple eggplant color great for crease or liner details.

#6 Metallic - Ugly in the pan, beautiful on the lid. Overall a rather difficult color to use.

#7 Matte - Most uninteresting color in the palette, this may have been better off reading darker and more red toned. I find this too similar to #3.

#8 Satin - Fine white glitters with very delicate color payoff. Even being the lightest color in the palette I did not find this shade having enough contrast to use as highlight.

Performance

Not going to sugarcoat it here, even as a seasoned makeup user of 15 years, these formulas are difficult to use. The mattes require a slow and intentional build up and become patchy easily. I feel this might be specific to the Passionate Purple and potentially the Radicle Reds and Pink Color Story palettes, as these colors are especially difficult to perfect in matte finishes. However, that does not make this okay. Being released to a consumer market in Sephora and not marketed directly at makeup artists, I can see people purchasing these palettes for the simplicity and being faced with long winded struggles trying to learn how to use the formula.

Hung Vanngo makeup tutorials are lengthy and detailed and I do believe the end user of this palette will need to make the same time and patience to achieve a satisfactory look.

Overall Thoughts

I want this brand to succeed and I want creative color cosmetics to thrive in today's market. I do wish this palette was more user frinedly. Reviews on the neutral tones have been better and I'm to wonder if the patchy performance issues I experienced are solely due to color. As mentioned I did return this palette to Sephora for a refund. Compared to my Question Beauty Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 that are so fun and a dream to blend, the Hung Vanngo palette was, well, bad.

If you'd like to own this palette purchase it directly from the Hung Vanngo Beauty website to intentionally support the artist behind the idea.