I caved in… I got a new eyeshadow palette. This Burgundy Bar Palette from Maybelline is an exceptionally pretty looking eyeshadow palette. What can I say in defense? I’m an eyeshadow palette magpie and the autumnal hues spoke to me.
I hasten to add I certainly didn’t need Burgundy Bar, but you know, it passed the 72 hour test.
Side note: I got home and realised the palette has similar hues to my Urban Decay Naked Heat palette and I have several MAC and Makeup Geek eyeshadows that, on balance, are near enough dupes. Sigh.
Anyhoo, I now own Maybelline’s Burgundy Bar palette so, best I play around with it and share my thinking in an unbiased, non-sponsored review. Side rant, there aren’t enough of these unsponsored beauty posts doing the rounds at the moment. For clarity – I paid for this palette myself. It cost me NZ$33.
What is it? The deets
Maybelline’s Burgundy Bar eyeshadow palette has 12 rich, high-pigment shades. Maybelline’s PR spiel is “Eyes go edgy and luxe. Create 13 eyeshadow looks with deep burgundies and glimmering golds, soft browns and bold coppers in one palette”(I’m curious why they reckon you can do 13 looks, but I’m being pedantic).
My thoughts?
The good
- Show us your colour: The colours pack a lot of pigmentation when you swipe them with your finger, for example, onto the skin (keep reading, this is also a bad).
- Bang for buck: The price is pretty decent for 12 eyeshadows ($2.83 an eyeshadow according to Excel).
- It’s versatile: You can achieve a variety of different eye looks if you are so inclined.
- Great travel sized palette: I travel a fair bit and always pack too much makeup which means I limit my ability to shop at the destination (ha) so I tend to look for travel friendly makeup items. This falls into the ‘bang it in your bag and have heaps of room left’ category.
- Durability: The colours stay pretty much ‘put’ on my eyelids with minimal fading. That said: I have oily eyelids and use an eye primer EVERYTIME a coconut. My favourite eyelid primer, incidentally is NARS Smudgeproof eyeshadow base. Every other eye primer pales in comparison. I always get mine from Mecca Beauty.
The bad
- Chuck out the applicator that the palette comes with – immediately. It is pants. Why do manufacturers still put these shit things in?!
- All of the shimmer shades apply best not with a brush, but with your finger… I don’t like getting messy fingers, so this is a con for me. I own a load of brushes that do a lot of the work for me in achieving a gorgeous eyeshadow look… Messy fingers leave me cold (plus I accidentally got eyeshadow all over my new top – #$%^* coz I didn’t wash my hands properly).
- There’s a bit of fallout! In Lou form, I tried to wear not 3 eyeshadows at once, rather six. I found, even though I tapped the excess off my brush, I had a bit of eyeshadow fallout from the shimmer shade on the top of my cheekbones. I looked like a unicorn had farted on my face. My recommendation is, therefore, when using this palette, do your eyes first, clean up, then move onto base (foundation/concealer and all that malarkey). Do your eyes LAST.
- I’d have like to have seen one more matte shade in the palette, there’s only 2 out of 12. The key, I reckon, to a good eyeshadow look is balance: A bit of matte, a bit of sparkle. Too much sparkle and you can look like a disco ball.
- I think the dark brown matte shade in here is rats – it’s chalky with poor colour pay off.
- I’m getting really anal now, but I must add: The colours photograph badly. What I mean by this is that the colours on my eyelids pack a tonne of punch in real life: The photos don’t do them justice. This reminds me of my Max Factor Masterpiece Golden Nudes palette – the shadows look mint on, but crapola in photos (if you aren’t planning on having a lot of photos taken – you’ll be sweet as!). Trying to take a selfie for this to show you the colours…What a palaver.
A couple of notes, in terms of a work around with the fall out issue and the colours not applying well with an eyeshadow brush: Spray your brush with MAC’s Fix Plus before you pick up some eyeshadow. Problem solved – and your eyeshadows will apply extra sparkly (goregous!).
All in all?
I know I’ve just had a bit of a whinge, but the question is ultimately, Would I buy it again? YES is the answer, it’s a fabulous little palette and I’ve used it nearly daily for the past two weeks. Given I own enough palettes to sink the proverbial battle ship, this is quite the impressive statement. Note, If you have warm tones, or green/hazel eyes – definitely get in. This’ll look amazing. For those of you that don’t wear a lot of eyeshadow and like to go “gently gently”, I think you’ll find thecolours and high shine lend itself to more of a night time palette. Me? I rock shine in the day-time, that’s how I roll. Might as well wear shimmery day eyeshadow looks as I hardly go out at night – unless going out to the neighbours twice a week for food and drinks counts…?
One more grumble. Just one. Ultimately, I’m such a cheapskate, if I’d bought this palette on sale, I’d be even happier. What do I mean? I note, looking at Maybelline’s USA website that this palette costs in the USA the NZ equivalent of NZ$17.32. What did I pay? I bought it for NZ$33. I know we have to ship cosmetics to NZ and that incurs an extra cost, but at nearly the twice the price? This makes me Grumpy (note the capital G).
In summary, Maybelline’s Burgundy Bar Palette gets my big thumbs up. It represents decent bang for buck and if I were Julie Andrews I’d sing from the hills about it. This sharply contrasts with other Maybelline eyeshadow palettes, namely The Nudes range, all of which I think are crappy quality: I reckon Maybelline has absolutely upped their eyeshadow game in terms of their formula with this Burgundy Bar palette. For this, they must be commended. I’m mildly excited to see what comes out next (not that I’ll necessary buy…)
Have you tried Maybelline’s Burgundy Bar eyeshadow palette? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
