NYX palette

Recently, I wrote a review for the Beautycon box and then a specific one on the Maybelline Rock Nudes palette where I promised that I would write a review of a NYX palette. Yup, this is it.

First off, I have to put the disclaimer that I am rather a fan of NYX. And I'm super glad that Ipsy often has NYX products in their bags. So I was of course delighted when I received this palette with lovely warm neutral tones.

Interestingly, it looks like it might be an Ipsy exclusive, as I don't see a palette that matches exactly on their website. I love the high pigmentation of the NYX products and they are generally not too expensive so it is a very good purchase for the price. I know, though, that it can be hard to find the products depending on where you live but you can order from their website and get free shipping after $25. I have recently purchased from their website and they were fairly quick. They also have more options on their website than what you can find in stores.

Here is how these shadows look on me. And if you want to do a comparison with the previous blog entry with the Maybelling Rock Nudes, you'll see that this below look pops more.

Maybelline Rock Nudes Palette

As I mentioned in an entry last week, I received the Maybelline Rock Nudes palette in the Beautycon Box.

As I mentioned in the previous entry, I was a little disappointed to receive something that can be found at a drug store. It retails for $9.99 at Ulta. I will admit to my bias against drug store products as they generally don't have enough intensity when applied. And, sadly, for all that some of those colors looked pretty intense, they weren't as intense when I applied them.

On my eyelid and crease, I used the last two colors on that top row, with the blue on my eyelid. It's okay but it's not as blue as I had expected it to be. I did apply a primer underneath but I guess it might have needed a further boost from a colored creamy base. It certainly did not look as intense as it does in the ads that I've seen for the palette.

I tested that theory where I did my makeup (using different colors than above) yesterday with just the primer underneath and it looked washed out as above (I forgot to take a picture). I tried again today but with a golden creamy base on the eyelid and it does look better, though it took A LOT of effort to pack the color. I used the middle 2 colors from the top row for the eyelid and crease and the white at the left of the top row on the brow bone.

There are a lot of colors on that palette and the folks at Maybelline decided to help the customer out by putting hints on how to use the colors in a quad, trio, and duo scheme. Great idea. However, you gotta pay attention to the actual numbering, which is in super tiny font. See, the numbers are not always in the same order. The palette was clearly designed to be used in a duo scheme and then someone went "but wait... we can also do trios and quads"... which, anyway, if you are used to makeup application, you can figure out for yourself. And if you're not used to it, the numbering would be confusing, honestly. So A for effort but C on execution.

I also noticed this morning that, for all that there are a lot of colors, there are 3 browns (1 in the top row and 2 in the bottom right) that are either identical or very close to being identical. It's likely that this happened in order to have the different looks but I generally prefer to have all different colors in a palette. The whole point of getting a palette is to have more options.

Would I recommend this product? Not really. Granted, the price is really low but instead of buying that product, invest a bit more on a palette from E.L.F., NYX, or POP. If you use an eye primer and a creamy base, you may be able to get something out of it but it seems to be a lot of work for not enough payoff. Again, sometimes you're better off putting a little more money on makeup to get better results... and use less product... so it ends up pretty much evening out anyway...