Neutrals from NYX

 Of course after last week's rant about the over-abundance of neutrals, I would have to review a neutral-hued product! I've actually had this mini-palette for quite a while and have been meaning to give it a good look. It's from NYX's Love in Paris collection and is called "Parisian Chic." I chose this particular one because it had a nice combination of shimmery and sparkly golden colors with some nice taupes, too. I figured it would be a good one for me to use to do a neutral smoky eye, like so:

I used four colors from the palette to create this look, and topped it off with a little Urban Decay 24/7 liner in West. I applied the colors dry over a base of Urban Decay's shadow primer and then spritzed myself with some makeup setting spray and headed over to troupe practice. After an hour of building up a good sweat, I came home and found that I had a little color loss. I had also noticed this after wearing it all day on a non-dance day last week.

So far I'm not really convinced that this eye shadow can stand up to hardcore dancing. However, I do really like to use it for daily wear when I want to look nice. A quick swipe of a couple colors from this palette gives me a slightly glamorous neutral eye look that is great for daytime meetings with clients or fellow dancers. I also think this might be a good choice for the student dancer who is only going to be dancing for a few minutes at the recital and wants something she can make use of outside of her dance life, too. The packaging is compact, sturdy, and closes securely, so it should travel well. NYX offers 10 different Love in Paris palettes that are each only $10 for 9 colors, so they're worth a try, especially since they are Cruelty Free.

Pop Beauty Palette

 A few months ago I saw this palette from Pop Beauty at Ulta and was impressed by how pigmented the colors seemed to be, so I decided to wait until I had a coupon and pick it up. This "Bright Delight" set would add some much needed vibrancy to an eye shadow collection that is largely dominated by darker, more subdued colors.

The packaging makes it seem a little cheap, almost like a kids or teens brand, even though Ulta keeps it in the prestige cosmetics section of the store (which meant I had to wait for the rare coupon that wasn't limited to drug store brands). This palette especially reminds me of those cheap water color sets you'd always get as a kid. On the other hand, the big round pans really show the colors well and are quite generous. The brights are really pleasing to the eye.

 I started doing a green look for Open Stage last week and while I was impressed by the level of pigment and I really liked the colors, I realized this was going to be too light for the dimly-lit Sky Bar so I covered it in glitter instead. These greens could serve as good accent colors for a more intense green, or use them for a daytime performance where you want a brighter, friendlier look. I used the lighter yellow on my brow bone and it makes for a nice neutral there.

Last night I decided to give the palette another try and stress-test it at class. I was really impressed by the intense teal. This was a dry application, so the color must be insane when it's applied wet! I added the pewter color to make it a smoky look, then topped it off with some glitter liner because I felt like it. 2 hours of dance class including a cardio warm-up and it held well. I had a little color loss in the crease which is typical for me, but otherwise it looked pretty good at the end of the night.

At only $24 for a generous palette with a decent double-ended brush, this is a really good deal. The colors give good pay-off and have a really nice texture, going on smoothly. The case latches really securely, so you can throw it in your makeup bag and know it's going to hold up, making it ideal for travel. For the beginning dancer especially, this is a reasonable way to add some good, vibrant colors to your existing makeup collection as you learn how to do performance makeup. I'm happy with my purchase and look forward to making good use of this palette.

Are those e.l.f. palettes any good?

 We've all seen these at Target or other department stores, right? The super-affordable e.l.f palettes with their really intense colors. I'd heard that they were actually not bad, so at only $6 I decided to take a chance and pick up the Little Black Beauty Book "night edition."

Look at those colors! You'll have to forgive me for not hand-swatching them, but it would have to go all the way up to my elbow at the very least. I like this palette because it has a great range of colors running from light to dark, plenty of neutrals, some mattes and some sparkles. The individual pans are pretty small, but hey, it's $6.

I'm a bit iffy on the packaging. It's cute, compact, and easy to carry, but it doesn't always close securely. If you want to just throw this in your purse, I'd wrap some ribbon or elastic around it or maybe tape it closed, just to be on the safe side. The outside color is actually very much like a thinner version of a hardback book cover. It dents and scratches very easily, so it won't stay pretty, but again, it only cost $6, so what do you expect?

On Tuesday I decided to do a nice daytime look with two colors from the palette, a nice soft bronze and medium green. It held up for two hours of dance and some shopping and driving around. This is actually how it looked at the end of the night. Not bad!

But we're here to talk about its suitability for performance makeup, so how about a look at some of the more vibrant colors?

Yeah! Colors! Turquoise, green, and blue, with a light shimmery neutral along my brow bone. I was surprised by how well-pigmented these brights were. I'd just like to point out that I managed to put together a better emerald eye look with this cheap department store palette than with the much more expensive Sephora eye shadows I bought earlier this year.

Sorry about the up-the-nose shot. That's all eyeshadow from this palette, including using the green as liner. Well, I did add just a touch of some sparkly UD shadow over the teal because I wanted some glitter. There's also some green mascara, because hey, why not wear green mascara for daytime wear? It's just sitting there in my train case, I might as well use it.

Despite using primer potion and makeup-setting spray, I did have some color loss after two hours of dance class, but most of the color was still there. I like these colors enough that I'm going to try again, maybe apply a little more and pat it in better, or try it wet.

I feel like these colors probably wouldn't hold up well to dancing all night, and they probably aren't intense enough for big stage makeup, but if you're just doing a single number at a hafla or recital, you'll be really happy with these. You could probably even use them for a restaurant gig if you're not prone to sweaty-face. I'd definitely recommend this palette to the newbie dancer who hasn't previously worn colorful makeup and doesn't want to spend a fortune at Sephora or the MAC counter. It would also be perfect for those days when you want to experiment with some of the crazy looks you see on-line... there's enough different colors to play with, and then when you figure out a look you want to use for the big stage, you can go out and buy more expensive, hardier versions of the colors.