Tuesday 6 August 2013

TheBalm Shady Lady Vol 2 & 3 review and swatches

At the moment David Jones has an amazing theBalm gwp - spend AUD$27.95 and get your choice of Shady Lady Vol 2 or Vol 3 free! Volume 3 is pictured below:


The Shady lady palettes retail at AUD$49.95 and represent outstanding value, with nine eyeshadows and a big mirror included. Read on after the jump for swatches of both palettes:



theBalm eyeshadows are uniformly excellent - I have three palettes and every single shadow is very pigmented and buttery soft. You have to watch for a teeny bit of fallout with some of the darker shades because it's easy to pick up too much shadow on your brush, but overall these are up there with Urban Decay and MAC in terms of quality - I can highly recommend them! And with the gwp, for $27.95 you can pick up a gorgeous blush and a free 9-pan palette - that's cheaper than "drugstore" brands!

I have had theBalm's Shady Lady Vol. 2 for a while now, it's become one of my most-used palettes and it's looking a bit beaten, it's been dropped repeatedly and one shadow has cracked, but it's hanging in there!

 The colours are quite similar to Urban Decay's Ammo/Ammo 2 palette, so if you've been coveting that one and finding it hard to get, this is a great substitute. There are lots of beautiful, smoky, muted colours in this palette,  and a couple of outstanding highlight shades.

Each shadow was swiped once on bare skin - no primer.

The Shady Lady Volume 3 palette is a bit lighter and brighter - with gorgeous highlight shades of icy blue, cream and pale pink, soft pale khaki and taupe, vibrant teal, purple and copper, and a sparkly black.

Again, one swipe on bare skin.

Both palettes are fabulous, there isn't a bad shade in the bunch! The one "negative" is that they are all shimmery to some degree, there are no matte shadows included. I personally don't care because I love shimmer, but some people prefer a mixed palette.

Anyway I hope this has helped some of you make up your minds about which palette to buy - or maybe you need both? I did!

8 comments:

  1. ooohhh...all the pretty colours *longing sigh*

    Love the greens and the gold and the pinks and the purple....yummy

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  2. You'd love volume 3, it has nice light everyday shades, plus a few brights to have fun with :)

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  3. What gorgeous shades! I am desperate to try more Balm products. I especially have my eye on the mattes palettes they do but these both look gorgeous too!

    Sarah xx

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    1. I the new Mattes palette is calling my name but I'm resisting for now, I seriously have an eyeshadow hoarding problem! I almost bought it to get this palette but I got a blush ("Down Boy") instead.

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  4. Awesome swatches hon - the best I've seen around, bless you :-) Can't rave enough about the Meet Matte palette - I still have a few scrapes left in the pans, but it's time for a new one, good timing I'd say ha ha. But I love both of these palettes for different reasons, so I'm in a total pickle as to which one to choose. Will probably go for Vol 2 though, as I love the green, the blue and that funky orangey shade :-)

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    1. Did you see the Meet Matte Nude palette? Cheeky name but beautiful shadows! I think Shady Lady Vol 2 would be great for you, there are some unusual colours in it that I love :)

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  5. I cant believe that I still dont own a TheBalm palette!! Its so sad :(
    The swatches look gorgeous. My faves are the cream, green and purple. So pretty.
    Thats such a fantastic deal going at DJ. Shame that there isnt one nearby.

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    1. It's also available online if you get desperate ;-)

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