Usually I am not a fan of drugstore eye shadows. They’re
usually too sheer, too chalky or gritty and don’t blend out well. Then Maybelline
came out with their nude palette and I was pretty excited about it. The colors
were nice, there was a nice mix of mattes, satins and shimmers, but it was
just terrible. Pigmentation was awful and any shadow that decided to show up didn’t
blend AT ALL. So then when I heard that L’oreal was coming out with their own
palettes, I really didn’t even give it a second thought. I believe they had a
UK release in November of last year and with mixed reviews, I just wasn’t too
interested. Well, just two weeks ago, I saw that my local Walmart had both of the
new palettes, the La Palette Nude 1 and 2, and I decided to buy them to try it
out. My reasoning was since L’oreal and Urban Decay (amongst other brands) are both by the same
company, maybe they’re palette will be similarly good in quality. Happy
surprise! These are actually pretty good. From the website:
“Inspired by makeup designers ‘Must Have’ palettes, the La
Palette Nude offers everything you need to master the art of nude eyeshadow.
Makeup Designer Nude looks curated exclusively for each palette with step by
step instructions and live tutorials. 10 highly pigmented shades range from
light to dark to flatter every skin tone in 3 shadow finishes: shimmery satin,
buttery matte & lustrous sheen.”
Starting with the packaging, both palettes are cases in
sleek black plastic, with a clear window to showcase the shadows. The back of
the palettes has a number guide of each shadow (they don’t have names), as well
as a diagram with examples of how to place the shadow for different eye looks.
The palettes themselves feel quite heavy and good quality and not at all cheap
like some drugstore items.
Opening up the palettes, each one has ten different shades
and a small rectangle mirror. They also come with a little double ended
applicator, one side being a typical sponge applicator and the other being a
natural haired brush. It’s a pretty ineffective tool to place or blend shadow, so I didn't use it.
The price on these is a little shocking; Ulta has them on
the website for $19.99. Even $15.87 at Walmart is a little much, but luckily
there are always some good sales at drugstores/mass retailers as well as
coupons (I had a buy one, get one 50% off coupon), so you should have the opportunity
to buy one of these for less.
Let’s take a look at each one individually.
The first one, the La Palette 1 is the warmer of the two.
It has ten shades and out of the ten, it only has three mattes and seven
shimmery or satin shades. It has a nice mix of highlight shades, a few shades
ideal for transition colors and some deeper colors for definition. I wish there
was a dark chocolate brown or even a black however, to line the eyes. This palette
definitely lacks a good dark shade. There are a few shades that I really like
however, like the ninth one in from the left which is a really pretty pewter gray
shimmer shade, and the second one in, another shimmer shade only this one a
gold/champagne shade. A few of them were kind of hard to blend, which I was
honestly expecting some kind of trouble. For the most part though, the eye shadows
were quite bendable, not too chalky and actually quite smooth and almost creamy
in texture, which can be hard to find with matte eye shadows.
Moving on to the second one...
The second palette, the La Palette Nude 2, is the cooler,
and my personal favorite, of the two. Most of the shades are purple and mauve
toned. This one has mix of 6 matte shades and four shimmer or satin shades.
Unlike the other palette, this one has two deeper shades that I really like. One
is a deep burgundy-purple and the other is a very dark, almost black purple. The
pigmentation on this palette was better than the other one, but I did find that
the shadows felt a little chalkier. A few of the shades, including the dark
purple, blended away to almost nothing when I used it, so I had to keep going
back in over and over to get the color
payoff that I wanted. Pack on color, blend, pack on color, blend. After doing
this for several cycles, it eventually just looked like a purple muddy mess.
However, a primer did help with that problem some.
So some final thoughts…
For a drugstore palette, I really like them. I like that
affordable brands are starting to catch up with products from high-end brands, like
palettes and such. The shadows themselves are quite good quality and are very
user friendly, with the exceptions of the few shadows I had difficulties with. However,
with that being said, I feel like $20 is pretty close to the “not worth it” category for me. A lot of people prefer drugstore because it is so cost friendly, and this one isn't very cost friendly for those on a budget, and I feel like
maybe this isn’t geared towards the everyday person that likes L’oreal products. But with that being said, these have found a happy place in my collection amongst my daily essentials lately and I'm definitely glad that I picked them up.
What are your thoughts? Are these palettes a hit or a miss with you? Let me know your thoughts and have an awesome day everyone!
Thank you so much for writing a review of these palettes! I had thought about buying them but the price point threw me off & as you've shown, some of the shadows didn't work as well as the others. It might be a better investment to save up for something like the UB Naked palettes that work and last. Thank you again for the review!
ReplyDeleteThese palettes are ok but for drugstore I would definitely just pass and like you said, invest in a high end palette that you know is good quality ;)
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