Shimmer Eyeshadow Palette - Born Pretty*

Not long after Christmas I received this beautiful eyeshadow palette from Born Pretty and I remember thinking damn I could've used this before Christmas!  Just look at how sparkly those eyeshadows look, they'd be perfect for the Christmas party season.  I decided to try and create some more subtle looks with it though so it can be used all year round.

First of all lets talk about the packaging.  The eyeshadows come in this this super gorgeous copper case with a good sized mirror and it is a nice size for just popping in your handbag.  One of the main problems I have with affordable eyeshadow palettes is the quality of the casing.  I know it's mainly about the quality of the product but there's nothing worse to me than a flimsy plastic case where the lid breaks off after a week.  The lovely copper casing on this palette though feels really sturdy and there is no sign of the lid snapping off any time soon.

Onto the product itself, as you can see they are fairly nicely pigmented (especially the darker colours) and the gold glitter running through them gives them a really pretty shimmer.  The only one I was slightly disappointed with is the white shadow as I would like it to have a little more colour to it rather than just the shimmer.  On the other hand though this does work great over matte eyeshadows if you want to add a bit of sparkle to them.  When it comes to eyeshadow I'm not the bravest and tend to stick to neutrals like golds and browns so I haven't really used the last four shades much but I'm loving the first four brown/golden shades.  What I also like about them is that when you apply them with a brush it really softens the colour and sparkle making them a lot more wearable for the daytime and then if I want a little more intensity and glitter I like to press it on with my finger.

To create the eyeshadow look above (which is the one I most like to create with this palette) I applied a very light matte brown from my Make Up Revolution palette to create a base.  Then I applied the darkest brown to my crease and outer corner and blended it out with my blending brush for a softer colour and edges.  I then applied the pale golden brown (the centre colour in the swatches above) to the centre of my lids and blended that out into the darker shadow to soften it even further, before adding a little more of the darker brown to my outer corners for a little more definition.  I then used the white shadow on my inner corners and brow bone to highlight them slightly.

What do you think of this look?  Do you like to use shimmer eyeshadows?  Unfortunately this palette is no longer available on Born Pretty but you can find lots of great alternatives here and you can also get 10% off your order with the code "SAK31".