Bright Eyed Beauty Blog: *Review and Swatches: theBalm's Meet Matt(e) Palette

Hello!

Are you sick of shimmer shadows (blasphemy!) and looking for a palette to meet your matte shadow needs? This is it. Meet theBalm's "Meet Matt(e)" palette.

theBalm's Meet Matt(e). Pretty cute :P

*Updated Review

The back of the Meet Matt(e) palette.

Opened up Meet Matt(e) Palette

Close up of the Meet Matt(e) shadows in their pans.

swatches of theBalm Meet Matt(e) Meet Matte palette

Swatches of the Meet Matt(e) Palette (L-R): Matt Smith (3 swipes),
Matt Gallagher (2 swipes), Matt Ramirez,
Matt McDonald, Matt Horowitz, Matt Chung (3 swipes),
Matt Batali, Matt Schilling, Matt Patel. All shadows apart from
those noted required only one swipe with
a sponge applicator to produce the swatch.

Review:

Packaging: this is standard theBalm packing. Sturdy cardboard palette, cute retro theme. Decent sized mirror, if you're changing your look or applying it on the go. The great thing here is that this is truly compact- it's just a little bigger than the palm of my hand. Fantastic use of space! It also comes with a dual ended brush (one a eyeliner-like brush and the other a shadow brush).
Colours: There is a nice range of colours here. They run a little more to the cool-toned side of the spectrum.

Matt Smith: the is a light yellow-based beige. I found this the most powdery of the lot, but even then it still wasn't powdery. This and Matt Chung had the worst pigmentation- I needed three swipes to get a decent swatch. I'll admit my paleness gets in the way of you really seeing this colour, but even then it's sheer. It was easy to blend out and it was soft.
Matt Gallagher: light brown, warm undertones. Far less powdery than Matt Smith, this was smooth and blended out easily.
Matt Ramirez: medium brown, very pigmented. This was the point where I started to be impressed by this palette and from this point on, apart from Matt Chung, I only needed one swipe with the sponge applicator to get the swatches (above). It wasn't powdery and it applied smoothly. Very nice.
Matt McDonald: dark asphalt-blue (strange description, I know, but it's not quite grey but not quite blue). Highly pigmented, smooth, not powdery.
Matt Horowitz: light-medium blue with a purple tinge. Highly pigmented, smooth.
Matt Chung: very sheer light baby pink. It took 3 swipes with the sponge applicator to get the swatch and even then, it's sheer. It was also more powdery than the others (save for Matt Smith).
Matt Batali: deep eggplant with red undertones. Highlighly pigmented, smooth to apply.
Matt Schilling: medium teal colour. Though this took only one swipe, it's not as pigmented as the others which also only took one swipe. Still, it's good pigmentation, just not great. It's a pretty colour and it applied well.
Matt Patel: this is a mauvey-taupe colour. It was soft and smooth and had good pigmentation.

Longevity: I was a bit worried about longevity because with previous theBalm palettes (Shady Lady vol. 2) I found some colours meshed into one indistinguishable colour on the lid. Thus, I tested this palette by choosing two deliberately similar shades, Matt Schilling and Matt McDonald. Worn over UDPP in Original, these were still two different shades 9 hours after application. They had faded in intensity just a little bit, but they were still the same shades I had applied 9 hours earlier. I must admit that I have little faith in most matte shades, but these pass with flying colours. Apart from the fading, these stayed in place without any creasing at 9 hours. Pretty good.
Cost: This is USD$34.50 for 9.5g of product. I bought it online (theBalm does free international shipping with orders over $100) and I've just spent the last 5 minutes trying to find how much it retails for in Australia to no avail. theBalm is available at David Jones but isn't searchable on the DJ website. This palette decent value for money. There's more eyeshadow for your money in the Shady Lady palettes (17g for AUD$49.95) but they're not all matte, which is kind of the point with this palette.