Review : All About Nudes and Absolute Matt Eyeshadow Palettes

by - 22 December

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This 2015 I've gone past just watching beauty Youtubers creating gorgeous eyeshadow looks and thinking "How pretty." then watching another makeup video or doing something else. I've had a few shadows in the past but I've never really been past the two (or one) colour look I wasn't also a big fan of practicing at home. I mean I just had to take it all off again. And knowing myself, I would have to take off several attempts before giving up for the day. I seriously tip my hats off to makeup artists.

But I can safely say that now I know a trick or two. I know how to blend, what works for my eye shape, eye colour, what colors works together and what I personally feel like doing at the time.

Adding to the Kate Tokyo palette that I love, are these new matte and shimmer palettes from well-known high street/drugstore brands.

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Both Essence Cosmetics and Catrice Cosmetics are known for carrying affordable products that are good nay sometimes even amazing for their price.

I thought buying Essence's All About Nudes for my shimmer and Catrice's Absolute Matt would be better for storage and variety of both colours and textures. Alternatively I could've gotten any of Nyx's, L'Oreal or Maybelline's neutral palettes that also have both shimmer and matte. But this came out a tad cheaper and like I said it's easier on me for storage as well as giving me the option to just carry all matte or all shimmer which I've done before.

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The plastic packaging is pretty solid and feels secure to the touch. The small size (about 3 inches) easily fits in the palm of my hand. The shadows aren't glittery. But they give off a little glisten —an understated shimmer that I really like. All are shimmery except the first cream colour in the swatch, which is more of a satin. Smooth and very pigmented even without a primer, they do kick-up a little powder (same as the Catrice one) but nothing a little tap of the brush won't fix.

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Swatches of the first three colours at the top (starting from left) followed by the bottom row .

As for longevity the darker colours last long past an 8-hour day without creasing while the two cream colours (one a more beige-y satin and one a little more shimmery and pink) have already faded a little. But that can be expected from not using primer and from the colours themselves (light creams). As for the colours, the only one I would classify as "warm toned" is the bronze-y colour. The rest are more neutral or cool-toned. All-in-all it's a solid little palette wherein you don't really have to have another matte palette or matte colour as a transition. All the darker ones work just as well and it won't look too shimmery and glittery in your crease/outer corners. Buying two palettes is just me being...me.

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I've read every blog post and watched every video about this palette, even ones that are in German I think. The first time I swatched this, I was a little disappointed, because it was more powdery (because soft shadows tend to be powdery) than I anticipated. But it's not a total deal-breaker as the pigment, smoothness and softness are really good. My sister has the Maybelline The Nudes palette and I find those shadows to be a little hard in the pan. They're decently pigmented but they're hard to get to. Like you really have to dig in. I just didn't like the texture. These are way better in terms of texture, blendability and pay-off. The whole palette is cool toned and reminded me of the Naked Basics by Urban Decay actually, this might be a pretty good dupe for it based on pictures I've seen and reviews I've read.
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I'm quite happy I picked these up. They're just right for me who only needs basic neutral colours. I find these to be excellent buys for the price whether you're a beginner or a full-fledged beauty expert.

Have you tried these? Or do you have anything else you can recommend from these brands? I picked-up the Essence XXXL lipglosses on sale for half-off. So I bought two to test out. I like the texture so far. :)


xx,
CJ

Price - Catrice : around Php400; Essence : around Php 300 at department stores/Watson's
Online stores like instagram and ebay might have them a few bucks cheaper. I bought mine at @beautyshopph / www.beautyshopph.com

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