Perfect Palette TAG!

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

I have loved watching these tag videos on YouTube, so I thought I would go ahead and do this tag myself. 

One of the things that was really fun for me while I was putting together this post was pulling together the pictures. I used the ones I already had, so it shows how my photos have changed since my blog started. I've used a variety of backdrops and lighting setups over the past two years. 

On to the palettes!

1. Best Packaging

I'm going to choose theBalm's Balm Jovi palette for best packaging. It is nice and slim. Best of all, theBalm has figured out how to include both cream and powder products in a palette without it creating a huge mess. 

You can check out my review of this palette here. 

2. Best Color Payoff

I'm going to choose the Urban Decay Vice 2 palette for the best color payoff. All of the colors are well pigmented, and there aren't any glitter bombs! 

Vice 2 Palette - Row 1 Swatches

Vice 2 Palette - Row 2 Swatches

Vice 2 Palette - Row 3 Swatches

Vice 2 Palette - Row 4 Swatches

 I haven't reviewed the Vice 2 palette. Would anyone still be interested? I just checked, and it is still available.

3. Most Versatile

Unfortunately, the palette I consider to be most versatile was limited edition. I love the Too Faced A Few of My Favorite Things palette. It has a really nice mix of finishes. It has the basics that include a matte cream a and few matte brown blending shades. It has neutrals and brights. As a bonus, it also includes two blushes and two bronzers.  

You can check out my review of this palette here.

4. Best for Traveling

I'm going to break the implied rules here and choose Z Palettes for this category. The ability to choose the exact shades that you want and put them all in one palette is the ideal, which is precisely what a Z Palette provides. With the different size options, I can travel with just a few shadows or a wide range of them.  

5. Biggest Regret

I regret buying the Too Faced Naked Eye Collection. Most of the colors aren't very pigmented, so I didn't use it very often. It has been listed on my blog sale for a while now.  

6. Best Color Names

 I was trying to choose a different palette for each of these categories, but I have to give this one to theBalm's Balm Jovi palette too. I love how they play on band names and use musical terms. They just put together their theme really well. 

7. Least Used

I think theBalm Shady Lady palettes are my least used palettes that I'm still keeping. The shadows themselves are beautiful, but it didn't seem like there was much of a plan when choosing the shades. I couldn't come up with many looks from those alone because the shades seemed so random and disconnected. I have them depotted at this point, so I need to start playing around in my Z Palettes to work on pairing them with other shadows in my collection. 

Shady Lady Volume 1

Shady Lady Volume 2

Shady Lady Volume 3

8. Most Used, Most Loved, Desert Island

This category has to go to the original Naked palette. I got it within the first year of it being released, and it is still my go-to palette when I don't know what to wear.  

I never actually reviewed this palette individually because I had it long before I started this blog, but you can check out my post where I compare it with the Naked 2 palette here. 

I'm going to be lazy and tag EVERYONE to do this tag! :-)

Have you found a perfect palette yet? What is it? If you've done this tag yourself, please let me know so I can check it out.

bareMinerals Mix Master Palette - Review and Swatches

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

My poor wallet is starting to protest against all of my shopping lately, but it is just so hard to resist the fantastic sets and deals around the holidays.

One of the palettes that I knew I had to have was the bareMinerals Mix Master Palette. I love their Ready eye shadow formula, and the concept of the palette itself seemed really nice. Since I had a lot of Ulta Rewards cash to spend, it was really a no-brainer for me.

Price

This product retails for $48.

Packaging

The  packaging is something that sets this palette apart. Although it isn't completely unique, it is still relatively unusual.

The palette itself is nice and compact. It is made of black plastic and has a geometric pattern on the top. The finish would be easy to keep clean for those who are concerned about that sort of thing.

The way that this palette takes a detour from the usual is that each of the eye shadows can be popped out and rotated into the center of the palette, which can then be slid out of the rest of the palette. You've then got a customized eye shadow trio that you can take with you on-the-go.

I think the concept is fantastic! I also think the execution is pretty good. This is a lot less bulky than the Urban Decay customizable palettes. The only change that I would make is having the shadows lock in a little more firmly. As they are, they rattle around when I'm using the shadows, which isn't a huge deal. However, when I'm using the palette, I have to be careful, or else I'll press on the back of the shadows too hard, and they'll start to pop out of the palette. It isn't a huge inconvenience, but it does mean that I would be careful when taking either the whole or mini palette with you traveling. I wouldn't just throw it in a purse or bag without some other protection.

The palette comes with a dual-ended brush with a crease brush on one end and a flat liner brush on the other. For being a mini brush included in a palette, it actually feels really nice. The bristles are relatively soft, and I like the nice point on the crease brush end.

A pamphlet with three looks is also included. As I've mentioned before, I always like these because they give a good starting place for how to use the colors in the palette.

Product

The formula of these shadows is really nice, just like the other Ready shadows bareMinerals has released. They are smooth and creamy, and they blend easily on the eyes. They last all day over primer.

The eye shadows in this palette are all named and labeled with how they were intended to be used: base, crease, or liner. They are labeled on the back of each pan as well as on a clear insert included in the palette.

The base colors from left to right: Muse, Mixologist, Stealth, and Daydream.

Muse is a pale pink with a satin finish.
Mixologist is a satin champagne shade.
Stealth is a matte, dusty peach shade.
Daydream is a matte, soft brown shade.

The crease colors from left to right: Max Volume, Hot Commodity, Custom Made, and Embellish.

Max Volume is a shimmery green with a blue undertone.
Hot Commodity is a shimmery light bronze.
Custom Made is a shimmery medium pink.
Embellish is a shimmery cool-toned medium brown.

The liner shades from left to right: Perspective, Panorama, Maven, and In Vogue.

Perspective is a dark brown with really fine multi-colored glitter.
Panorama is a charcoal grey shade with the same really fine multi-colored glitter.
Maven is a dark navy blue that is completely matte.
In Vogue is a dark purple with the really fine purple glitter.

The fine glitter in both Perspective and Panorama practically disappears when applied. As you can see in the swatches above, In Vogue appears to have a bit of sheen but the rest appear matte.

I like the color selection in this palette, but I don't love it. I wish they had included at least one matte crease shade. I'm also not in love with Stealth. It's just not a color that I'm going to reach for very often. Since it is matte, it doesn't work very well as a lid shade when the crease colors are all shimmery. It's too dark for a highlight shade on me, and it's too orange looking to be a crease color for me. Beyond that, I do like that they tried to give an equal number of base, crease, and liner shades.

Final Thoughts

I really like this palette, and I'm glad I picked it up. It isn't an all-in-one palette for me because I would generally grab for a matte crease shade and my standard matte cream highlight color. The color selection is easy to wear on a daily basis, and the formula is wonderful. If you are a fan of neutral looks with subtle pops of color or are in love with bareMinerals Ready shadows, this palette is worth checking out.

Will you be picking up this palette this holiday season? Is your wallet about to start whimpering like mine is?

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

theBalm Balm Jovi Palette - Review and Swatches

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own. I used my Hautelook invite link in this post.

Everyone else seems to be doing it, so here's my reminder that Google Reader is going away after this weekend. If you want to make sure you still see my new posts, which should start going up more regularly again, I highly suggest following me on Bloglovin'. It's a simple site to use. I'm also loving a new feature on Bloglovin' that allows you to mark posts as favorites. I know I'm going to use that feature a lot to check back on posts because I want to see if my comment was responded to or if I'm interested in the conversation going on in the comments.

Now that I got that out of the way, on to the review!

I'm a child of the 80's, so I grew up with Bon Jovi. Then I had one of my first experiences feeling old when I was in college. Bon Jovi had released their album Crush with the hit single "It's My Life." One of my friends was in WalMart and overheard some younger kids talking about Bon Jovi saying, "That Bon Jovi band is pretty good. They're going to make it big." D'oh!

With my affection for 80's hair bands, and Bon Jovi in particular, I was immediately drawn to the cute concept of the Balm Jovi palette. I resisted for a while but caved when theBalm had their 50% off sale. The full price for the palette is $39.50, so I got it for $19.75. The nice thing is that theBalm shows up on the website Hautelook (affiliate link) frequently, and their permanent products are marked down around 50% on there as well, so it's not too difficult to get a really good deal on this palette (or any of their other palettes).

Packaging

 
theBalm always has fantastic packaging. They are creative with it, but they don't make their packaging bulky.

One of the best packaging features for this palette is the divide that you can see about 3/4 of the way down the palette. Why is that a good feature? The top flap covers the powder products, and the bottom flap covers the cream products in the palette. This means that you don't have to worry about powder getting into the cream products. Love it! I hate when palettes combine powder and cream products because it creates a huge mess.

Another nice packaging feature is the mirror on the inside. It isn't a great mirror, but it would work in a pinch. Besides, they integrated it into the design so well that it's super cute.

The flap that covers the cream products has four suggested looks formatted to look like a Top 20 hits list, which is cute and helpful if you aren't sure how to combine the colors in the palette on your own.

Product

 
This palette includes 12 eye shadows, a highlighter, and a blush (and the two cream lip/cheek products that aren't pictured here but will be pictured later). The eye shadows are divided into three color groups: Heavy Metal, Classical, and Alternative.

Heavy Metal Shades:

From left to right: Metal-ica, Iron Maid-in, Lead Zeppelin, and Alice Copper

Metal-ica is a classic silver shade, and Iron Maid-in is a soft gold shade. I think I've used Iron Maid-in the most out of the all the shades in this palette. It's a great, easy lid shade.

Lead Zeppelin

My camera has a bad habit of dulling down shimmer and complexity in shadows. If anyone has any tips to help with that, I'd love to know. Here's a better shot of Lead Zeppelin to show that it does has shimmer in it. There's muti-colored shimmer, but most if the shimmers are gold like the ones you can see in this picture. The base shade is a dark forest green.

Alice Copper

Alice Copper is a burgundy purple shade with silver shimmers, that didn't even show up well in this picture. There is less shimmer in this shade than there is in Lead Zeppelin.

Classical Shades:

From left to right: Adagio, Allegro, Moderato, Presto

The classical shades are all matte shades, which is great. Adagio is a classic matte cream shade. It's a little too dark for my vampire-fair skin, but for most people, it will be a perfect highlight shades. Allegro is a great mid-tone brown that leans slightly warm. These types of shades are my favorite for the crease. Moderato is a deep purple, and Presto is a dark chocolate brown.

Alternative Shades:

From left to right: Blink 1982, The Stroke, rem, and Third Eye Blinded

Blink 1982 is a dusty light purple shade with subtle shimmer. The Stroke is a deep navy blue with blue shimmer. rem is a light lilac shade with a gold sheen, and Third Eye Blinded is a dusty soft pink shade.

Here's a picture that shows the shimmer in The Stroke a little bit better.

Another picture to show the gold sheen of rem. Sadly, even though this shade swatches really nicely, when I tried using it on my lids, it applied really patchy, and it was hard to work with.

Highlighter and Blush

Left to right: Solid Gold and Don't You Want Me?

Solid Gold

Solid Gold is a standard gold highlight shade that is almost identical to theBalm's Mary Lou-manizer highlighter. Don't you want me a a standard peachy-pink shade that is matte.

Lip and Cheek Colors:

 

Left to right: Milly and Vanilly

Milly is a dusty rose shade, and Vanilly is a sheer red. 

I've never been a huge fan of cream lip products in palettes. There's the mess issue when they are in the same palette as powder products (thanks for solving that one theBalm!). There's also the convenience factor. I don't want to take a big palette with me to touch up a lip color. Because of that, I like that these cream products can be used on the lips or the cheeks. I haven't used them much yet. I think I've tried both once on the lips, and I used Milly on my cheeks one day (I applied it with a stippling brush). It was actually a nice cheek color that seemed to last pretty well. I wouldn't consider these a selling point for the palette, but they aren't a detractor from it either.

Final Thoughts 

Overall, this is a really nice palette. It's got a great mix of shades and finishes. theBalm's powder products are good quality, and the cream products in this palette are decent and are stashed in their own section, so they don't make the entire palette look like a mess. Since it is somewhat regularly available on Hautelook for around $20, it's a great steal.

Will you be picking this up the next time it goes on sale? What are your favorite products from theBalm?

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own. I used my Hautelook invite link in this post.