Bobbi Brown Nude Eye Palette: Amazing-ness!

I have always been a bit weary of matte eyeshadows. They are not pretty in the traditional sense, and they are much harder to blend well for a makeup novice like me. Plus, very few makeup marques actually make nice matte shadows, so the quest for a fine, smooth matte shadow is much more difficult than the quest for a top quality shimmery shadow. Well, if you are looking for good matte shadows, look no further, Bobbi Brown (BB) is your answer. BB is seriously the only brand I have ever encountered that makes matte shadows appear so amazing, I actually want to buy them. This reason is (partly) why I ended up purchasing the latest Nude Eye Palette from BB's Nude Collection for summer '09.

The casing for this limited edition (LE) eyeshadow palette is very basic and modern. Nothing to complain about, but nothing to be excited about either. One good thing about the packaging of this new palette is that when the shadows run out, I can go out and buy regular BB shadows to stick into the palette. Not that these shadows will run out any time soon since they are pretty big for my standards. Too bad this LE palette doesn't come with a BB brush like in previous LE palettes; it would have been nice to have a "free" brush when purchasing the palette.

Moving on to the shadows themselves, all of which are absolutely gorgeous. All three matte shadows are smooth, finely milled, and very pigmented. The three shimmer shadows are equally amazing, with the exception of the light silver shade which is just a tad less smooth. I have no problems with these shadows creasing on me as long as I apply UDPP underneath.

The color of the shadows in this palette are a matte off-white (Navajo), a shimmery pale silver, a matte khaki, a shimmery pale gold, a shimmery bronze, and a matte brown-black. Navajo is great for subtly highlighting the outer corner of the lower eye area for a more wide-awake look. The matte khaki works well for adding subtle contours in the crease, and the matte brown-black makes for an awesome eyeliner, especially wet. I also love using the silver on my lower lashline for a more doe eye look. Overall, the entire palette works well to create a very pulled-together look that is understated but still accents the eyes well.

All photos in this post were taken under natural light.

In short: Although a bit expensive, the Bobbi Brown Nude Eye Palette is worth every penny. From the silky smooth matte shadows to the gorgeously shimmery metallic shadows, this palette is the quintessential Bobbi Brown palette in that it provides an understated look of natural beauty.