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Sunday 8 July 2012

bareMinerals READY Eyeshadow 8.0 The Cocktail Hour - Review and Swatches


I have been meaning to do a blog post/review on this for so long. I can't believe it took me until now. I really wanted to try each and every colour before I passed judgement so that is part of the reason why it took forever and a day. Anyway, I bought this palette because when I swatched the colours in Sephora, I fell in love. I had all kinds of crazy visions - I pictured this as a palette that I would take on a cruise and work exclusively with it for 7 days and always look glamorous and ready for cocktails. I am sad to report, that although I do like the palette, it ain't all that.


What I do like about this palette to start off is the case. It is sleek, as are most of the bareMinerals READY palettes. I love the colour and the big mirror that is inside of it. It is very 1970's, very Charlie's Angels, very cool. Ok, maybe I am dating myself here. All of the colours are shimmery except one, Black Tie Optional. If you don't like shimmer, you won't like this palette. The palette comes with a dual ended brush. It looks more useful than most brushes that come with palettes, but to be honest, I haven't even tried to use it yet. There is a total of 8g or 0.28 oz. of product here. So 1g per eyeshadow. The cost, I think, is off the wall. I think Sephora was charging around $55 Canadian for it. I believe it retails around $40 U.S. I had to have it at the time and I had a V.I.B. coupon so at least I got a discount.
The colours are from the picture above, left to right, starting at the top, Black Tie Optional, Icebreaker, Swanky, Spiked, Elixir, Invite Only, Libation and Shaken Not Stirred. So Black Tie Optional is a dirty greyed black which is matte. Since it is a universal eyeshadow colour, it has it's uses, but it's nothing to get excited about. Icebreaker is a crisp shimmery white. It's a good brow highlighter and inner corner sparkler. It is super crazy sparkly though so beware. Swanky is my second to favourite colour in this palette, It is a really nice mid toned purple with gold flecks in it. I am thinking NARS has a colour like it, but don't quote me on that. It reminds me a bit of MAC's Trax but it's less burgundy more purple. It blends well. Spiked is ummmm......pumpkin. Big ol' jack o' lantern in my books. It's a rusty orange and while I can work with it come say autumn, it isn't a favourite eyeshadow shade in my book.

Elixir is a pink purple shimmer which I swear bareMinerals already used in their READY 4.0 The Dream Sequence palette only the colour in this 8.0 palette is more subdued. Invite Only is moss green. A bit yuck for me. Makes me look sick and tired. Not a winner in my book. Libation is my favourite colour in this palette. It is a peach fairy dust colour. Mega shimmer and glitter but it is cool and I have never seen anything like it. Looks great on the lid on its own. Finally, we have Shaken Not Stirred. I thought this colour was going to be the bomb. Oh it bombed all right but not the way I had wanted it to. It is a shimmery navy with electric blue shimmer. Looks gorgeous in the pan and not so bad swatched. It has fallout issues and it does not blend well at all. When I blend it, it blends out to a grey colour. Very disappointing. It works well as eyeliner though but the shimmer is almost undetectable when it is used this way.

My humble apologies but I swatched the colours badly, (i.e. in the wrong order because I ran out of arm....so lame to say I know). They are top to bottom, Invite Only, Elixir, Spiked,  Swanky, Icebreaker, Black Tie Optional, Libation and Shaken Not Stirred. In retrospect, the colours as a package don't make tons of sense as a group to be used together. An insert comes with the palette which shows or suggests 3 looks. I tried two of them and was not impressed. Two of the three use the moss green, Invite Only, as the base lid colour. Yuck! Not with my colouring I am afraid! In fact, I am hard pressed to think of anybody's colouring which could rock this colour. If I ever create an eyeshadow palette in my life, moss green will be no where near it. The pigmentation is good though for almost all of the colours. No scary ingredients here. I wished I had passed on this one and saved my money. I wish I could have found an honest review on this too before I took the plunge. Well now I have done for all of you!

Rating: 5/10  

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