theBalm Nude Dude Palette

theBalm Cosmetics has always been a particularly attractive brand to me - I put it down to the sassy, retro-inspired packaging, innovative and high quality products and pretty reasonable prices. For Christmas I received theBalm's Nude Dude Eyeshadow palette, which retails for £30 (I  got it for £27 in the feelunique.com sale).

The palette contains 12 stunning, highly pigmented eyeshadows - 4 matte shades ('Fearless', 'Flawless', 'Feisty' and 'Friendly'), a couple which have a hint of glitter ('Fine' and 'Fierce'), and the rest are either iridescent or glittery which I absolutely love. All of the shadows are really wearable and blendable and can be mixed with water to create a much more pigmented effect for a bold eye or coloured eyeliner. theBalm website also says that the shadows are 'triple-milled' which would explain their velvety, creamy feel.

Among my personal favourites are 'Fit', a burnt-orange/copper shimmer, 'Firm', which is more pink-toned and 'Fine' which is a dark warm-toned brown with a barely-there hint of glitter which is perfect for a brown smoky eye.

Personally I'm not a big fan of including little brushes in eyeshadow palettes - although this is one of the better ones I've seen (does anyone actually use those little spongy applicators?) - so I don't think this one will be getting much use from me, especially now I have my new Zoeva brushes! The shadows apply and blend so nicely with a fluffy brush.

The packaging is very slim and perfect to slip into your handbag, but perhaps wrap a hairband around it first, because it is just thick cardboard, held by (relatively strong) magnets. There is also a huge mirror which spans most of the palette (a hundred beauty points to theBalm!) which makes it ideal to take on a night out to touch up your whole face, not just your eyes.

Have you ever tried anything from theBalm?

Love, Milly xx