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Thursday, June 26, 2014

Swatches & Comparisons: NEW Maybelline The Nudes Palette

This isn't an official "review" since I've only had this new palette from Maybelline for a few days now. But I wanted to share with you some swatches and first impressions (and some dupe comparisons!) as soon as possible since I know we have all been quite curious about this one. So let's get right to it!

Maybelline The Nudes Palette 
(retail: between $9.99 and $12.99 depending on the retailer, 0.34 oz)

I purchased this palette at Rite Aid, where it was $12.99 (I believe it's $12.99 at CVS and Walgreens too). I have heard from readers who have purchased it at Walmart for $9.99. The best deal of all would be to wait for a 40% off Maybelline sale at Rite Aid, CVS, Ulta, etc. and then use a $1 off Maybelline coupon. In that case you could snag it for around $6.75. And if you had store rewards, you could get it for even less.


For those of you who haven't seen this palette in person yet, it is NOT the same size as the old Maybelline 12 pans--it's bigger. I grabbed a Wet n Wild trio and snapped the above pic to give you some perspective. 


Looking at the back of the palette above (you can click to enlarge that photo if you want a closer look at the ingredients), you can see that the way that Maybelline has configured the shadows in this palette is quite helpful. I don't know about you, but sometimes when I get a palette that has a lot of colors in it, I don't even know where to start, or which shades to use together. So Maybelline tells you that these shadows are arranged in quads, trios as well as duos, depending on how you look it it.

I LOVE THIS because it helps you figure out which shades to use together depending how much time and effort you have to devote to your eyeshadow that day! Only want to use two colors? Refer to the Duos diagram. Have a bit more time and want to use four colors? Just look at the Quads diagram. You obviously don't have use these shadows together, but it's nice to have a guideline on those days when you don't really want to think about it.




I'm going to tackle this palette by breaking it up into quads, as suggested on the label. NOTE: all of the shadows below were swatched using the accompanying sponge-tip applicator and no primer was used beforehand. I swiped each shadow two to three times for each swatch.

The first quad in this palette contains neutral shades:



The neutral quad above is not my favorite, but there are some noteworthy things here. First, the shade that appears to be white/cream when you're looking at it in the pan is actually a cream shade with a very pretty peach flash to it, as well as iridescent glitter. It's a lot prettier than what you see above and would make a gorgeous brow bone shade. Another noteworthy shade in the quad above is the brown matte on the far right. It doesn't look like much in this swatch, but on the eye, it has some excellent pigmentation and I absolutely loved it as a crease shade when I wore it that way yesterday. It's smooth, easy to pick up with your brush and it's not powdery. The other two shades are a little sheer for me, but they do get better with primer.

The second quad in this palette contains warm shades:



The warm shades in this palette are the true stars of the show. For me, these are the standouts that totally make this palette. The nude matte on the far left is so close to my skintone that it feels sheer to me (but it could just be that it's blending in with my skin). But those other three shades? OH YES. They are all beautifully pigmented. The bronze and brown shades have a nice, smooth texture, but the gold shade is a bit flaky in the pan (like many other golds of this nature). I've been wearing the bronze shade all day, without primer, and it has only faded a little bit so far. Love, love, love it.

The third quad in this palette contains cool shades:



As you can see, the cool-toned shades above aren't as knock-your-socks-off fabulous as the warm shades. But the dark taupe shade (second from the left) is actually much nicer on the eye and it's more cool-toned than how it's translating in my picture. It's a matte with a teeny tiny bit of fine sparkle, and the texture is quite nice--very smooth and creamy. The major dud in this palette is the matte black on the far right--to me it's quite dry and it goes on sheer and streaky. I would probably only use this shade to line my eyes for a smoky look, and only on top of primer.

Comparisons:


The moment I saw this palette, there were three shades that stood out to me as possible dupes for shades in the Urban Decay Naked 1 palette. so here are some side-by-sides.

Three shades from the Maybelline The Nudes Palette
vs.
Urban Decay Smog, Hustle and Half Baked

As you can see, there are no true dupes in these shades, but the three Maybelline shades definitely provide the same "feel" as these three shades from the UD Naked 1 palette. By the way, none of these shades were swatches with primer--they were all swatched on bare skin.

PRELIMINARY VERDICT: Do you "need" this palette? No. I think that the shadows in this palette are not consistent enough across the board for me to say, "Run and get this NOW." But that's not to say that there aren't some  gems here. The three shimmers in the warm quad are fantastic to me, and there are a few mattes in this palette that are also quite lovely. But there are also some shades here that are sheer, powdery, dry and/or not as pigmented as I would like them to be. Overall, I think this would be a wonderful palette for someone who is just starting their makeup journey, or perhaps does not own many eyeshadows or hasn't experimented with nude shades before. For the rest of us, I do not think it's worth $12.99, but it's certainly worth $6.75 or so, if you wait for a 40% off sale and have coupons. I can see this being a nice travel palette (I would personally consider taking this with me on vacation) but I would definitely wear an eyeshadow primer with these shadows. As I mentioned above, there are a few shades here that you can wear without primer (such as the shimmery bronze), but overall, these shadows all seem to perform much better over eyeshadow primer.

Do you already own the new Maybelline The Nudes Palette? If so, how is it working for YOU?

The products featured in this post were purchased with personal funds. For more information, click here.
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19 comments

  1. I think I am going to try this one when I catch it on sale. I always use a primer and usually a base so pigmentation shouldn't be a problem.

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  2. I found this palette my local Target for around $10, thing is I heard they had 3 of these palettes coming out and so far I have only seen this one. I did pick it up but I haven't used it yet, I am actually excited about giving it a try for Summer.

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  3. Only a few of those catch my eye. Not enough for me to go out and buy this. I'll stick with my UD Naked palette. Thank you for this review!

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  4. I just wish that I wasn't allergic to Maybelline eye shadows because these are beautiful!

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  5. Just purchased this tonight at Ulta for $9.99. Haven't even opened it yet, but I had a $1.00 off coupon and the Ulta $3.50 off $10 so I figured, what the heck...I certainly don't need this either but I like how Maybelline sectioned it off for duos, trios and quads like you mentioned. I also always use primer so that won't be an issue for me either. Can't wait to try it though. Thanks for the mini review, G. ;D

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  6. I purchased this palette at Target for $9.99 about a week ago. Overall, I am pretty pleased. I haven't used it much, but I like the feel of the shadows (mine are all pretty silky) and the pigmentation hasn't been a problem for me (I have fair skin and usually use a primer). I think your review hit it spot on that this is a great option for someone, like me, who is just getting started with their makeup collection or just getting started trying new looks. I also really liked the price -- I've been wanting a palette but just couldn't pull the trigger on something as $$$$ as the Naked palettes, particularly since I know that I wouldn't use all of the shades. I'll be interested to see if Maybelline comes out with this in different colors.

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  7. I love that this palette has a diagram in the back to help with grouping the shadows. As much as I love nude shadows, I'll be skipping out on this one, since I won both Naked 1 & Naked 2 palettes. But this could be a good buy for those who doesn't want to spend $50 on a palette.

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  8. It's very similar to the comparison, but looks pretty enough x

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  9. I purchased mine at Ulta for 9.99 and I have used this palette only twice so far but I am pretty impressed.I wasn't expecting much since I didn't remember maybelline shadows to have ever blow me away in the past. The shimmery colors are beautiful, very pigmented and apply very easily. I like the mixture of shimmery and matte shades and although I have not used every shade yet or even swatched all of them, I think it's a great buy! And I can see myself reaching for this palette on daily basis, instead of using my UD Naked palettes.

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  10. I think I might pick this up to swatch and maybe for my cousin, I definitely don't need this since I have my naked palette but I think she can get a lot of great use from it!

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  11. This was a very thorough review...as usual ;-) It's a pretty palette, but I don't think I need anymore neutrals. This is why I rarely buy palettes. There's always tons of colors in them that I won't use. I prefer to stick with buying things like Hot Pots from Coastal Scents to customize my own palette. T

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  12. What a great, helpful post. Thank you.

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  13. This reminds me of Smashbox's palette...

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  14. Maybelline products will be 40% off at Rite Aid starting this Sunday! I'll be picking this palette up and a couple of the new Leather Color Tattoos!

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  15. Finally found one!! My Walmart had a bunch of them in stock, whereas my CVS had only an empty display!

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  16. I just got this palette at CVS for $3.99 using my extra bucks!

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  17. Purchased at Walmart for 8.99! LOVE IT! I like subtle eye color and the shades allow me to create to beautiful neutral smokey eye. ONE WARNING: the collections on the back (i.e the numbers) are a misprint. If you go on the Maybelline website, they have a correct numbering system labeled.

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  18. Not a fan. I love how this palette looked and bought it thinking that it could be a cheaper version of the nude palette (UD smog is one of my favorites so after reading this review I had to get this palette). I was disappointed. The colors seem too light for my brown caramel colored with yellow undertone skin. They also seem a bit too cool and tend to look somewhat ashy. I'm returning.

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  19. I don't think this palette is very suitable for those with a darker skin tone. As an Asian, three of the neutral shades barely showed at all when I swatched them on my arms. But I do like the darker colors though.

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