Review: Ulta Nude Eyeshadow Palette

Purchased by Me 

Back at the end of October, Ulta released their new Nude Eyeshadow Palette. I posted about it then and I couldn't get it out of my head (I'm such a sucker for nude eyeshadow palettes...I must have them all!). So I ordered one from the Ulta site shortly after my intial post (I haven't been to an actual Ulta store in a while so I'm not sure if it's also available in-store).

So let's take a look...

Ulta Nude Eyeshadow Palette

(retail: $12, 0.45 oz)

The palette comes wrapped in a plastic safety seal:

For perspective, here is the palette compared to a Revlon Moisture Stain. You can see that it's about an inch longer than the Revlon lip color:

Made in China

No mirror

As you can see, the colors in this palette have a quilted design, and there are no plastic dividers separating one color from the next:

First five shades swatched over Too Faced Shadow Insurance:

Second five shades swatched over Too Faced Shadow Insurance:

The first half of this palette consists of lighter shades while the second half contains deeper shades. All of the shadows in this palette pretty much have the same finish. They are all quite shimmer and, over primer, many of them are almost metallic. There are no obvious repeats here--each color is pretty unique compared to the others. Overall, this is a very warm-toned palette so if you prefer cooler tones, you'll probably want to skip this one. And if you don't like shimmers, this palette is definitely not for you. 

A few of the shades contain some fine, sparse sparkle, but there are no glitter bombs here. I've worn all of the colors in this palette in various combinations and you know what? I'm far more impressed with this palette than I thought I would be and it has exceeded my expectations.

First of all, there is little to no fallout when you're picking up color with your brush. It's almost strange, because I'm so used to seeing some fallout in my eyeshadow palettes, but there really is no mess at all even after using several shades to create an eye look. Another thing I like is that I only need to swipe my brush back and forth a few times against each strip to pick up enough color. The pigmentation, for a palette like this, is quite impressive. And the colors don't turn muddy when blended together--they stay quite vibrant. Also, the staying power over primer is better than I thought it would be--I can get about 6-7 hours before I see some fading.

I also want to mention that I have worn these shadows without primer as well, and they are softer--and less shimmery--without primer. So I like that you can control the shimmer a bit if you so choose. 

And because I (along with some of you) thought that this palette kind of looked like a Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick, I wanted to show you what the colors look like blended:

For the swatches above, I used my e.l.f. Small Stipple Brush and brushed it back and forth against the first five shades (top swatch) and then brushed it back and forth against the second five shades (bottom swatch). As you can see, the first five shades create a light pink highlighter type of color. The second five shades create a bronze-y higlighter type of color. On the skin, these blended colors aren't dramatic--they're nice if you're just trying to add a warm sheen to the skin. I've worn both combinations on the tops of my cheeks and they're subtle, but quite pretty. 

FINAL VERDICT: Is this palette worth $12? No, I think the price point is too high. But since this is an Ulta house brand palette, that means it will be on sale constantly, and you can use the $3.50 off a $10 purchase coupon (which Ulta has on their homepage all the time) with this product to at least bring it down to $8.50. I think that, instead of $12, the retail price should have been around $7.99--I would probably say that it's worth a purchase if the price was in that ballpark. However, if you're a shimmer fan and you're drawn to the colors in this palette, I would definitely consider waiting for the next sale (and/or use the Ulta coupon) and give it a whirl. I was afraid that this palette would be a fallout-heavy, glittery, sparkly mess, but it really exceeded my expectations. Little to no fallout during application, easy to apply, easy to blend, nice pigmentation and no color repeats within the palette. Plus you can use it as a subtle highlighter. You must love shimmer and you must love warm-toned eye colors to really get some use from this one, but if you love both of those things, then I think it's worth considering when you can get it on sale and/or use the Ulta coupon.

Do you own the Ulta Nude Eyeshadow Palette? Do you agree (or disagree) with my assessment? I'd love to hear from you!

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