Maybelline The Blushed Nudes Expert Wear Shadow Palette Review & Swatches
A review and swatches of the new Maybelline The Blushed Nudes Expert Wear Shadow Palette ($9.98) seemed a good way to start off Friday! You might be pretty darn excited about the Maybelline The Blushed Nudes Expert Wear Shadow Palette as people are calling it a dupe of the Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette across the blogsphere.
Of course, I have my reservations since I tried the Maybelline the Nudes and the Smokes Expert Wear Shadow Palettes and so far both of them disappointed.
But guess what?
This one isn’t TOO bad!
The Maybelline The Blushed Nudes Expert Wear Shadow, from my understanding, is exclusively available at Walmart but don’t quote me there. Variations of the Nudes Expert Shadow Palettes have been cropping up everywhere with exclusives to Walgreens and Target.
The Expert Wear Shadow Palettes have 12 shades which makes them quite a unique palette to drugstores. Not many drugstore brands embrace such larger palettes but it does seem a trend at the moment especially considering that L’Oreal just recently introduced the La Nude Palette 1 and 2. Bot Maybelline and L’Oreal’s releases are unique and different for drugstore makeup.
I don’t typically love rose shades. Visually, I think they are beautiful! But they always quite work as well for my skin tone! This palette is actually really easy for me to use. It’s not dominate my plummy shades of rose and pink. It does have a mix of taupes, grays, cranberry, bronze, and softer pinks and creams. It’s a really nice mix of shades with colors that work very well together.
This comes housed in a very pretty compact as well. It’s a rose gold plastic compact which features two dual sided sponge applicators. Inside are twelve eyeshadows with a total weight of 0.34 oz. The compact actually has a very nice look to it. Not cheap or cheesy! The back features a break down of looks you can create using the shades. They actually break the color into quads of color, trios, and duos that would work well. They also include a little eye chart showing the best placement for the colors. This is very helpful if you’re unsure which shades would work we ll together.
You get a mix of matte, satin, and metallic shades in this palette. I ran into uses with density and dryness in both the Nudes and the Smokes Palette and I think some of that translates to the Blushed Nudes but it isn’t nearly as bad as those two palettes. I should probably say these aren’t dense although they do run a touch dry but as you can see from my swatches they aren’t TOO bad at all. They are workable and they apply fairly well without being patchy or looking dry. Application was fairly smooth for me and the texture was softer on these shades than the other palettes. Pigment runs from sheerer on some of the mattes to fairly pigmented with some of the metallic and darker colors. I had issues with two of the darker shades being a LITTLE patchy but nothing too bad. Colors look and wear best with eyeshadow primer in my experience as they remain crease free and intense for several hours. Without, well, they are workable but I experience some creasing and fading within the first several hours of wear so primer is a good idea.
Maybelline The Blushed Nudes Expert Wear Shadow Palette
Maybelline The Blushed Nudes Expert Wear Shadow Palette
Maybelline The Blushed Nudes Expert Wear Shadow Palette
Maybelline The Blushed Nudes Expert Wear Shadow Palette Swatches
Maybelline The Blushed Nudes Expert Wear Shadow Palette Swatches
Maybelline The Blushed Nudes Expert Wear Shadow Palette Swatches
Maybelline should consider reformulating the shadows in these palettes. Something a little softer and silkier like the La Nude Palette from L’Oreal might garner more interest and save makeup lovers from disappointment.
I have to say I didn’t expect a lot going into this purchase because I’ve already been fairly burnt with the two prior palettes. But the Maybelline The Blushed Nudes Expert Wear Shadow Palette is a fair improvement. I’m still not convinced I love anything Expert Shadow Wear related 🙂 But I’m glad I purchased this palette and I do believe I’ll get a good deal of use from it.
Would I recommend a purchase?
Yeah, sure. If you can get it on sale even better still! It’s not too bad at all! Not great but not bad either!
Anyone try it?
Do share your experience!