BARE MINERALS | AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER PALETTE

To justify the sheer about of eye shadow that I already have, plus what I know I will be getting for both my birthday and christmas this year, I have come to the conclusion that you really can't have too many eye shadow palettes; there's always going to be a slightly different shade or finish that you just need and therefore need to buy the whole palette - obviously!

This palette is no different and as an added bonus, Bare Minerals are known for being a mineral based brand and all of the products contain ingredients to help the skin. The eye shadows in this palette contains a complex composed of positively charged antioxidant rich sea minerals, with cold pressed borage oil, caffeine and cucumber. How lovely does that sound?! The ingredients help nourish the eye area, by reducing the appearance of puffiness, for a softer, smoother and revitalised eye area. If that's not reason enough to need this palette, I don't know what is!

Packaging
First things first, the packaging is gorgeous! It is a slim rose gold compact, with a reflective surface which actually works very effectively as a mirror - bonus! The down side of this is it does highlight any finger prints which doesn't look too great. The mirror inside is very reasonably sized, so if need be, you could use it on the go to do your make-up. The palette is very travel friendly as it is very lightweight and compact.

Colours, texture and longevity

As you can see the tones in this palette are very cool and consist of all pink, mauve and silver shades, with a taupe colour and a white. The colours are nothing like the picture on the back of the product which is slightly strange, however, they are still very pretty shades. All of the shadows are very smooth and creamy to touch and well pigmented. Although it looks like a very shimmer-glitter based palette, when applied the shimmer and glitter are a lot more subtle. The eye shadows give a beautiful amount of colour, however if you were using the palette alone to create your look, the shadows are not going to give you a very intense eye look as they are quite soft in tone, which does make them perfect for those who like a natural neutral eye but want something a little prettier and more romantic, with a splash of colour. 

To clarify, the shadows are very pigmented they are just so soft in tone that they can't produce darker looks alone for those of us who like a more intense eye. One of the colours is similar to Satin Taupe by MAC (2nd from the left, top row, 'Valet').

When I wore this palette recently, I decided to pair it with a dark berry lip colour, which really complimented the eye shadows. As I normally focus my make up looks around my eyes, it was nice to still have pretty, sultry and slightly smoky eyes but have them natural enough to still be able to pull of a dark lip. 

The longevity is very good; I didn't have any creasing and the shadows stayed put all day. I used my painterly paint pot by MAC, like always. The brush included is not too bad considering the quality of most of the brushes that come with palettes. IT is double ended; one end is a flat shadow brush, which applies the shadows really easily, it could be slightly softer, but for packing the colour on this isn't really a problem. The other side is more of a pencil/smudger brush. I like the idea of this brush being in the palette, however it is slightly too rough to use so close to your eyes, but it would do the job if necessary. 

I need to get better a swatching! The second photo below shows the shimmer/glitter in Romance better than the top one does.

And finally, some photos of the eye shadows in action. I applied Debutante in the inner eye lid, with Valet on the outer lid, blended with Romance and a tiny bit of Swept Away in the centre of the lid. I used Curtsy under the brow bone and in the inner eye area. To be honest I was just using as many of the shades as I could! They are very easy to work with and blend which makes the application very quick ans seamless.

Oh just a few photos...

I think in the future I will definitely be using this palette alongside some of my other shadows, possibly some darker matte shades and then use the palette to add some pretty shades. I really like this palette and especially like the skin care ingredients that it contains. I would recommend it to anyone who likes cooler tones or anyone who likes the natural look and wants to add a hint of colour to their look. The palette is exclusive to Debenhams, so you can find it in any Debenhams store, with a BareMinerals counter, or online (however it is out of stock online atm). It is also limited edition so if you do want it, act fast!

What do you think of this palette?