Friday, March 29, 2013

Review! SEPHORA COLLECTION - Moonshadow Baked Palette - In the Nude

The Moonshadow Baked Palettes from Sephora are awesome.  I love the high-sheen and rich colors.   Today I'll show you the "In the Nude" palette.

One thing I have seen many other people comment on is the fallout inside the case.  When you use the colors dry, the pigment and sparkle will scatter everywhere, and there isn't anything you can do about it.  There is a simple way to ensure that you don't have any fallout, if you intend to use the colors wet most of the time, though.

Wet a clean eyeshadow brush until it is completely full of water, and then touch the brush to the top of the eyeshadow dome.  It will immediately soak up all the water in the brush.  Re-wet the brush, and then swipe the brush on top of the eyeshadow dome, going all the way around the dome, so that you get the entire surface swiped down with water.  I haven't experienced any fallout in the case.

EDIT: All of that said, I don't recommend using them wet.  If you want the intense color, and keep it in place all day, you will need a special primer; Pixie Epoxy.  A very thin layer of Pixie Epoxy, over your regular primer, will hold all of the sparkle, and almost all of the color.  I'm going to go ahead and call this a necessity.  When using the Pixie Epoxy, these colors become extremely wearable for daytime looks, and the shimmer makes it transition to night-time without further application.  You can build up your layers, to the point where you nearly reach the "applied wet" intensity.  This post has been edited to reflect further use of these shadows, finding that they flake off when applied wet.

The packaging is hard plastic case, and on the entire inside of the lid is a mirror.  The case is difficult enough to open to assure you that it's not going to fly open in your makeup bag, but not so difficult that you'll have to wrestle with it.  The top has a golden lace pattern screenprinted on it.

You can use these shadows wet or dry.  If you use them dry, you won't get much color out of them, but you will get a very pretty, very sheer, glittery look.  You have to use primer when using them dry, otherwise none of it will stick to your lid.

If you use the colors wet, the pigments become very intense, and the finish is a very high sheen, and almost foiled looking. 

To use them wet, first get your eyeshadow brush really wet.  Place the bristles on the top of the eyeshadow and let it soak up the water.  Gently start patting at the eyeshadow, and see if it starts to move around and look more like a cream.  If not, re-load your brush with water, and try again.  Before too long you'll get a little puddle on the top of your eyeshadow dome, and it will have a creamy consistency, and that is what you apply to your eyelid.  Your little puddle will dry up pretty quickly, so you may have to apply more water to finis your application.  It sounds like a lot more work than it really is, and you'll get faster at it the more you do it.

This is what the shadow domes look like after you get them wet. 

With flash:

All of the swatches were applied wet, without primer.  I had so much fun swatching and photographing these colors.  They are truly beautiful in person, and became kind of mesmerizing as I was inspecting the swatches.  They shimmered differently in different lights and different angles.



One thing I really like about this palette is that the names are descriptive instead of cutesy.  When I'm thinking of what colors I want to wear, I'm actually thinking of colors, not brand names.  It helps me to know what the color will be once I have applied it, as colors can often look different when worn versus when in the pan.

Here is one look; a soft gold and purple that really makes green eyes pop.  All of the colors were applied wet.  Soft Gold above the crease, Deep Brown in the crease, Plum on the lid, Cream at inner corner.  To blend the colors together and make them a little less shiny for the office, once the shadow had completely dried, I swept over the entire application, from inner corner to outer, one time lightly with a clean kabuki brush.  It lifted just enough glitter off to make the look more office appropriate.  Finally, I did add some more Cream, dry this time, to the inner corners to put the glitter back on there.  Since you make your little eyeshadow puddle on the top of the eyeshadow dome, you can just take some dry shadow from the side of the dome. 

This application was done over primer.  Because I applied it wet, I should have skipped the primer.  I put the primer on because that is part of my automatic routine.  The color lasted for about 4 hours before it started to fade.  The very center of my lid faded almost completely off, while the rest of it just dimmed a bit.  The inner corner and my lower lid did not fade or dim, which makes me think the problem was either using primer underneath, or swiping it with the kabuki brush.

Overall, I love this palette.  I'd buy it again.

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