Paula's choice The nude matte eyeshadow palette worth the hype?

As you know I recently placed an order on Paula's Choice website testing three products, two of which being skin care. I tried to review this palette quite fast since it's a limited edition.

The nude matte palette is a palette consisting of 11 matte shade and one shimmer highlight. The palette has true neutral shade, meaning that you won't find plum or green leaning neutrals. In that sense it is a true basic.

I have to say that I did carefully read the reviews prior to shedding 40 euros on that palette. All reviews except one were raves. A couple of mature ladies even said that they will throw away all their other eyeshadows, because they finally found something that was working for them!

This palette is average, the eyeshadows are not chalky on the skin, the colors accommodate a variety of skin tone and the quantity of eyeshadow is quite generous for the price. You get 17 grams which is about 1.4g per eyeshadow (MAC eyeshadow contain 1.5g as a comparison). BUT I wouldn't be as crazy as some of the review. The palette comes in quite a cheap cardboard packaging and the eyeshadow do not compare to my make up for ever or bare mineral ready matte eyeshadows. To be honest they aren't the easiest to work with. I could not get any decent swatches, so I'm sorry for the lack of swatches pictures. The eyeshadow were really sticking to my (dry skin!) fingers and refused to transfer.

What you do get though is a no nonsense palette, that's very wearable and that can be combined to your heart's content.  I'm particularly found of the lighter shades, which are smoother and have a better pigmention. The black is also very pigmented, but it doesn't blend very well. I will save that one to use as an eyeliner. I tried to do a smokey eye with it  and it was a major fiasco.  This palette was created with the help of the youtube beauty guru Wayne Goss, which I've been following for years.

You can easily go for a soft and understated look

That grey shade is the worst of the bunch it took me 15 minutes of worth for that eye look!

Overall, this palette is nice but not a must buy, unless you don't have a lot of neutrals in your collection. The shades are easier to apply tapped with a flat brush (like mac 239) than swiped, because they are very hard to blend, especially the darker half.  Personally, this palette could have been a must have if the shades were easier to blend. When I'm in a rush in the morning I don't have time to fight with my eyeshadows, because they stick a bit too much to the lid.