Maybelline The Nudes Palette

Although I spent the weekend working on a lovely post, my camera is still acting up and the photos are not good enough to be allowed into the world. Instead, I opted for a review of the new palette by Maybelline – The Nudes Palette.

I purchased this in the States a couple of months back and haven’t used it much until my last vacation. It’s the perfect travel size and offers many different shades to create different looks. The back of the palette also includes a possibility of combinations in which to use the shadows (in duos, trios or quads, which is a nice touch for such lame make-up users like me). All of these are the reasons why I thought I don’t really need to bring anything else as far as eyeshadows go to my holiday. Was I sorry? Read on…

So basically the palette includes a mix of matte, shimmer and velvety/satin colors.

The upper row is filled with a bunch of lighter shades and two darker ones – the fourth and last shade. These are also the only colors that are a bit more pigmented, while only the fourth shade (from the left in the upper photo, 3rd from top in bottom photo) could claim the prize for being highly pigmented.

Upper row – swatches from bottom to top as from left to right in the palette
If I compare swatching these shadows with the swatches I did for the Chocolate Bar palette a couple of days back, I can easily say that there is no real comparison – I had to pull 3-4 times on each shadow to get a normal swatch. The loser in the upper row in my opinion is the 3rd color from the left (which kind of seems light pink) – I actually made a dent in the palette while trying to get a decent swatch out of it.

I was also disappointment with the last (very dark/black) shade in the upper row. I though it will be the perfect crease color for a neutral look, but it’s far less pigmented as it seems.

As for the row below, things are a bit better but not by much. I really like the middle two colors (shimmery gold and shimmery brown), while the rest are nothing to write home – or to you – about.

Bottom row – swatches from left to right as in the palette
I was especially disappointed with the last shade – I was happy to have a really dark black shadow for the smoky eye, but it was a massive fail as you can see from the swatch. Also not really worth mentioning is the light shimmery color next to the black – it is almost identical to the first shade in the upper row.

If we take a look at the palette as a whole, I can say I was very disappointed. As mentioned, only two of the shades are of decent pigmentation and when swatched the colors are so similar that the palette could easily only be a 6-pan palette instead of the 12 colors. I was also not impressed with the way some of the shades were difficult to blend out – and don’t even get me started on what the outcome was when I used it without eyeshadow primer… 🙁

Although being very compact and therefore useful for everyday make-up purse or travel, I can easily say that I think this was a waste of money, even though it only cost about $10. I will probably keep this palette in my bag in case I need to correct any make-up, but I doubt it will get some serious use.

What are your thoughts on this palette? Do you have it? Use it? Love it or hate it?

Until next time, stay beautiful.

Chocolate bar palette

So while I’m enjoying my vacation you guys get to read about my oh-so-pretty and oh-sooo-expensive palette which I picked up while in USA. It’s the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette ($49 in Sephora online store, not available in Slovenia of course). The shades are made with cocoa powder which makes them smell heavenly. I am not joking either – every time I open up this palette I stand there for a good 10 second just smelling it. Weird? Don’t judge – you would do it as well, take my word for it. I could probably get away with eating this palette – the shadows are formulated without parabens, sulfates phthalates and all that other icky stuff.

You can see it’s being well loved, even though it IS a little bit dirty
I was really hesitant to spend this much money on a single product but when I swatched the eyeshadows in Sephora I knew this babe was coming home with me. While the packaging leaves me quite cold (I would prefer a sleek palette with better closing patent, not a juvenile chocolate-bar looking packaging), it’s what’s on the inside that counts. I can also mentioned that I dropped this palette twice now from about 1,5m high and there were absolutely no consequences to the shadows or to the packaging, so the quality is obviously there (but I still need to work on being less clumsy).


Let’s get into it – first, some swatches of the two larger shades – the illuminators/highlighters. Mind the names of all the swatches – it’s another palette where they put a lot of thought into coming up with name ideas and I LOVE them.


White chocolate is the top larger shade. This I normally use under my eyebrows (on the browbone). It’s a soft white with a little bit of fallout (especially when using EcoTools brushes, so maybe I need to replace those), but still a nice illuminating shade. This color could also be used all over the lid as a primer for something more intense.

The right one with the quite poor swatch (Champagne Truffle) is the bottom larger shade. This I use in the tearduct but I also used it as a cheek ilumminator and it worked just as well. It’s not too crazily pigmented which is probably why it works so well in any circumstance. View Post