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| theBalm Meet Matt(e) Eyeshadow Palette |
TheBalm's Meet Matt(e) is a palette of 9 eyeshadows and a small brush. Each eyeshadow is called Matt + last name. Cute idea! :) According to my sister, the guy on the front looks like a creeper. I don't think so. Shirt and tie. All good. All nine shades are matte or close to matte. Nine shades are Matt Smith (pale beige), Matt Gallagher (light brown), Matt Ramirez (dark warm brown), Matt McDonald (darkened blue with greyish tone - satin finish), Matt Horowitz (cross between navy and blue again with grey tone), Matt Chung (pale pink), Matt Batali (reddened dark brown), Matt Chilling (greyish teal), and lastly Matt Patel (medium brown with strong grey). Overall many shades have greyish tone to them, and there are more darker shades than lighter shades.
Formula is great for matte eyeshadows. Matte eyeshadows are usually more difficult to work with than shimmer, satin shadows but these perform just as well as some good shimmer shadows. The shades are buttery and pigmented except Matt Chung. These are not particularly prone to fall out but since majority of shades are quite dark, I would be careful to tap off the excess and etc. There is a bit of excess powder kicked off when you use it but not much.
These last well over good base. I do notice the darker colors like Matt MacDonald looking slightly muddier and faded after 6 hours of wear.
Packaging is cardboard with magnetic closure. The magnet is strong enough for palette to not fling open unless you open it. :) Since it is cardboard with off white color, it gets dirty quickly. :(
Pictures!
.JPG "theBalm Meet Matt(e) Palette") |
| theBalm Meet Matt(e) Palette |
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| From left to right: Matt Smith, Matt Gallagher, Matt Ramirez |
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| From left to right: Matt McDonald, Matt Horowitz, Matt Chung |
-palette-swatches.JPG "Meet Batali, Matt Schilling, Matt Patel") |
| From left to right: Matt Batali, Matt Schilling, Matt Patel (Note: Matte Schilling has more green in real life than it appears in the pic) |
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| From left to right: Matt Smith, Matt Gallagher, Matt Ramirez, Matt McDoland, Matt Horowitz, Matt Chung, Matt Barali, Matt Schilling, Matt Patel (With flash) |
+Eyeshadow+Swatches.JPG "theBalm Meet Matt(e) Swatch") |
| From left to right: Matt Smith, Matt Gallagher, Matt Ramirez, Matt McDoland, Matt Horowitz, Matt Chung, Matt Barali, Matt Schilling, Matt Patel (Without flash) |
This is a great set of good quality matte eyeshadows. Matte shadows are very useful for people who have to wear very toned down and restricted makeup for work. And the color selection would work for that, but it doesn't offer whole a lot of variety. This calls for neutral eye and then blue smokey eye. Of course if you are creative, you can do more looks but more obvious ones are those two types. The dark colors have tendencies to look a little muddy but overall it's a nice palette to have because nice matte shadows are hard to come by. I wouldn't want this to be the only palette I have though.
Price: 34.50 USD at theBalm website
Weight: 0.33oz/9.5g
Rating: B+
I love theBalm shadows but only buy them when they're seriously discounted. I recently picked up 4 at only $6.99 each, but they're all shimmer shades.
ReplyDeleteNYX makes killer matte shadow singles. They're better than any of the MAC, NARS or any other more expensive matte shades I own. They're extremely pigmented, not at all chalky or dusty, and wear all day - for a fraction of the price. The nice thing is that you can pick the specific shades out that you want, so you're not stuck with any you won't use. That's the problem I find with most palettes. Too many shades go unused.
Definitely try them out if you're on the hunt for matte shades. I love every single NYX matte shadow I've bought so far. I've got about 12 in my collection so far, in addition to my many other NYX shadows.
One other brand that is surprisingly great when it comes to eyeshadows is Avon's Mark brand. They're $7 each and come in nearly 30 shades. Both their matte and shimmer shades are gorgeous, very pigmented, and can be easily fit into a Z Palette as they're sold as individual pans shaped like Inglot shadows. They can also be used wet or dry & have a spectacular formula. I've collected about 10 so far & have ordered more. They have 4 formulas in these, total. Matte, shimmer, metallic & satin. They're all really really nice. I haven't yet bought one that I don't like.