Review - The Balm Nude ' Tude Palette
I've always used drugstore eye shadows so during the Black Firday / Cyber Monday deals I decided to dip my toes into the world of higher ends eye shadows and see what the faff is all about. The Balm is more of a mid range brand, not quite drugstore yet not high end either, but boy would I be wiling to spend a lot more for this gem that is the Nuda 'Tude palette!
Starting with the packaging, It's sleek, sturdy and definitely travel friendly. The card board doesn't look or feel flimsy at all and the magnetic closure actually does it job and keeps the palette shut when you are not using it, so no danger of the palette opening accidentally and all the gorgeous eye shadows inside chipping! What I also love about the packaging is the thin slide-able sleeve that it comes with, just an extra layer to protect the packaging from getting all grubby and dirty!
Now there are two variants of the palette, the first is the 'naughty' one which I have with all the cheeky ladies, the other is the 'nice' one, which is the exact same palette and everything but without the scantily clad ladies haha. I love the mirror, it more than enough to do your makeup if you're getting ready in a room with four to five other girls for a wedding and there's a waiting list for the mirror haha (this actually happened at my best friends wedding lol) It also come with a double sided brush but I only really use the liner side of the brush.
Coming on to the shades, there is something for everyone in this palette. Unlike other 'nude' palettes which usually house the same hues from one particular color family, this is pretty diverse. You get beautiful shades to highlight with, then you have variants of silver/grey shade, a lovely khaki-ish/ color along with a perfect crease shade and a dark, burgundy one among others. When it comes to the finished there is alot of diversity since you have the shimmery shades, the satin finishes, shades loaded with glitter and then fabulous matte ones as well! This palette is literally the definition of an all-in-one.
Here are the swatches for the first row of shadows. All of them are incredibly pigmented and so easy to blend, especially if eye makeup is not really your forte. I love the shade 'stubborn' as an inner corner highlight, 'selfish' for a quick all over wash of color and 'sophisticated' to darken up the edges just a bit. The shades' sexy' and 'serious' are amazing matte ones, and in the image above they've only been swatched once, no crazy layers of building up the colors required. 'Serious' is a super matte black which I substitute for liner quite alot due to its amazing staying power!
Coming to the bottom row my favorites hands down are 'sultry' the perfect crease/transition shade, 'seductive', a stunning gold/bronze/khaki shade that is my most used one from the palette, and 'silly' a dark brown with copper-ish under tones and specks of gold glitter! I've never been one for really dark and intense smokey eyes, so this is perfect for people like my who want that smoke-y eye effect but can't work with black alot.
Here's a super quick eye look that I did with 'stand-offish' as the inner corner highlight, 'seductive' on the first half of the lid and a combination of 'sultry' and 'sophisticated' at the outer corners and a bit on the crease. I've also lined the lower lash line with a bit of 'silly'. ( My dead old point and shoot washes out my eye looks like no other so just pretend that the colors are a bit more vibrant than they seem in the eye look pictures, and excuse the brows, time to get them shaped haha! & excuse the dark circles, the only editing I do on my pictures is a bit of cropping and clicking the auto-correct button, how I wish Photoshop were my friend! )
These super pigmented, highly blendable and long lasting shades (without a primer as well, but apply an eye primer underneath, and these will stay on all night!) make this an ideal on-the-go palette. I only took this palette with me for a friends wedding ( a three day event ) and seriously didn't feel like I needed any other shadows, this palette had all the colors that I would actually need and use!
I would recommend this palette to everyone - from beginners to somewhere-in-between people like me, and to professionals / MUA's. It is that high quality!
Price- $36 ( A bargain for the quality that you get, plus keep an eye out on The Balm website since they do have incredible sales from time to time. I got mine for 40% off, woohoo! ) You can also order from local stores like Makeup & Accesories, Beauty Hub & HASH.
Hope you liked the review. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below! I love going through them :)
Until next time, tc.
