I talked about this before in my monthly favourites but I figured a more detailed review would be a good idea. I have seen this palette at Canadian Drugstores for 13-14 dollars, although I picked mine up when Physician’s Formula was one Buy One Get One Free at Lawton’s (not that it matters to anyone). The palette contains 0.26 ounces of shadows, divided into 9 shades. Like its namesake, there is no separation between the colours in the palette (all nine shades reside in a single pan). According to Physician’s Formula, the nine shades are divided into three looks, “natural” (the lightest three shades), “playful” (the three shades in the middle) and “dramatic” (the darkest three shades residing on the left side of the palette) and each look includes a highlight shade, lid colour and crease-colour. The darkest shade in each look is made slightly narrower in each of the looks for some reason. The palette comes with a sponge-tip applicator with an angled top with the intent that it could be used to apply a shade as liner as well as shadows. The packaging is pink plastic covered by sheer black lace with a nice pink bow on the front and “Nude” written on pink written. It is smaller than the size of my hand and opens from the side to the right. The palette is magnetic.

The brush is alright; I have used it to apply the shadows and I think it is better than some other sponge-tip applicators but I much prefer to use my own brushes.

I’m going to describe each shade and my thoughts on it from the left to right as to provide clarity because they are not named. The first shade is a matte black with some silver micro-glitter running through it. The pigmentation of this shade is not phenomenal (it is not the blackest black by any means) and it is a bit chalky, however it is definitely a usable black shade for lining the eyes, darkening the outer-v and the like. The next shade is a shimmery medium-dark taupe-brown with purple undertones. I would say it is a close match for Urban Decay Hustle in both colour and quality. It is nicely pigmented and has a smooth texture that is easy to work with. The following shade is a light shimmery taupe with golden undertones. The texture is nice and smooth, pigmented and a really great shade that in my opinion is fairly unique. The crease-colour for the “playful” trio is another medium-dark taupe shade with the same sheen to it but with grey-undertones. Because it is so similar to the other medium-dark taupe shade, I also find it similar to Hustle – but I think it is not as close as the other shade but a picture will be included below. I think it is almost a darker version of MAC Satin Taupe. The middle shade in the palette is a shimmery light taupe with grey-undertones. It is very similar to the third shade from the left. It has good pigmentation and a nice texture to work with. The lightest shades in the palette are sheerer than the rest. It would be redundant for me to say it with each shade so I’m mentioning it now. They all have the same smooth texture. There is a baby-pink with golden sheen running through it. The adjacent colour is an outlier, however; it is a light warm brown with warm undertones and good pigmentation.The next shade is a shimmery warm light gold and the lightest shade is a golden-toned white. All of the shades have good longevity (the darker half a bit better than the lighter half) and they have a really impressive texture. I do have an issue with the shade range, however; I find too many of the shades to be similar and all of the shades have the same shimmery finish and due to these issues, this palette has limited ability to be an all-inclusive palette. Also, I would not agree with the claim that these eye shadows can be used as liner – the only shade dark enough IMO is the black.

I really like the packaging. It does not look cheap by any means and I think it is aesthetically pleasing. I also like how compact it is. It holds nine 0.03 oz (appx) eye shadows while being very small – 0.05 oz are the full-size of a MAC or Urban Decay shadow for reference.

Final Verdict– Not that I have any sort of grading scale or anything of the sort, I would say that this is a “B” product”. I think it is a nice palette but its downfall is how similar the shades are, the lack of different finishes and the sheerness of some of the lighter shadows (and chalkiness of the black). However, I think the shades are fairly unique. I quite like that the shades are taupey. In this sense, the shades are along the same lines as the ones in Naked 2 (which I don’t own). I would recommend this palette to anyone who likes shimmery shades, is looking for taupes and is of a light to medium skin tone (because they lack the pigmentation to easily work for those with darker skin tones) and frequently wears natural-coloured looks. This is a great, portable “toss it in your makeup bag” kind of palette.