This palette was a massive impulsive buy in the sales that I could not be happier with. I think the RRP is £35 but it was in the sale at Debenhams for £17.50 so when I got a glimpse of the rose gold packaging I jumped at the chance to own it. It's a 'Ready Eyeshadow 8.0' palette meaning its basically 8 shadows which aren't loose like other bareMinerals products, like your conventional style palette in that way. It's also the first bare minerals shadows I've every used and I'm impressed. So without futher introduction, here it is!
The inside of the box has a little description about the shadows, it reads: "BareMinerals Ready Eyeshadow provides exceptionally vivid long-wearing color in an ultra smooth, silky texture for effortless application and seamless blendability. Powered by our proprietary SeaNutritive Mineral Complex, this formula delivers a softer smoother, revitalized eye area." I haven't really noticed anything about revitalized eyes but the shadows are pretty good.
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shades left to right: (top row) Curtsy, Valet, Debutante, Romance. (Bottom row) Waltz, Caviar & Cake, Swept Away and Revelry.
The shades are generally all quite soft let you create quite romantic looks.The shadows all have taupe tones making them ultra flattering and wearable. As well as being able to create soft light smokey looks with the peachy-pink, light purple and white shade you can also go a bit darker and really smoke things out with the darker shades. A very versatile palette if these shades are your kinda thing. The shades are also listed on the reverse of the palette and not just the packaging which is great - I hate when you shadows don't have names on the palette!
I've committed the ultimate blogger sin and used the shadows before photographing so they don't look quite as pristine as they did when I first got it. This brings me to one con of this palette; there are no matte shades in this palette. If you're like me and you love shimmer then you won't be too concerned but just be warned if you need a good matte you won't find it here. The shades Curtsy, Romance and Revelry are seriously glittery and you will almost definitely get fall out when using these shades. They look b-e-a-u-tiful on the lid but be warned you may want to do your eyes before your base if you're gonna use these colours. Something like Mac fix plus could fix that a bit better i'm sure. Valet and Debutante are more of a satin finish as are Waltz, Caviar and Cake and Swept Away.
The palette also comes with two little mini brushes but I seem to have discarded mine!
Now on to some swatches:
The lighting here isn't great at definately washes out the colour a bit but all shades, bar the first very white shade, are impressively pigmented and easy to blend. I found Curtsy had very little actual colour pay-off compared to the other shades and I couldn't use it on its own. I did however think it had a beautiful sheeny effect and used it to press over my lid and onto the center to add some dimension. It's the only shade I had any difficulty with however. The rest are soft and buttery in texture and working with them was easy-peasy.
So that's my thoughts on this palette, I have to say it's definitely a great addition to my collection and i'm very pleased to get some softer purple-hued shades. I got a great bargain too which helps, perhaps if it were full price I never would have bothered looking at all! I'd be more than happy to do some different looks with the palette as well if you're interested .
What do you think? have you tried any bareMinerals shadows?
Much love,
Natalie xx
