Every holiday season Bobbi Brown releases beautiful palettes and I think they're usually packaged in a similar way with black lacquer casing and a gorgeous embossed crest. This year is my first to finally try a couple! :D I picked up the Deluxe Cheek and Eye Palette and Rich Caramel Eye Palette. Both are limited edition palettes. There's also another eye palette that's a cooler version of the two should that tickle your fancy.
Below are the product description label on the bottom of each palette that has the names of each of the powder products - very useful! :) [Click on the images to enlarge].
Here are more close-ups of the products inside the palettes. Both palettes are made of plastic so they're fairly light and easy to carry. They also contain a handy mirror and a dual-ended eye brush. One end of the brush has natural bristles for applying and blending eye shadow and the other is a flat synthetic brush for applying the darker eye shadow(s) as an eye liner.
The Deluxe Cheek & Eye Palette is two-tiered with the top tier housing all eight eye shadows and the bottom tier which conveniently slides out contains the two blush powders.
Top row of eye shadows (L - R):
// Ivory: creamy beige (matte)
// Cement: grey beige (sparkle)
// Lilac Haze: bronze heather (matte) - palette-exclusive shade.
// Mica: deep heather grey (sparkle)
Bottom row eye shadows (L - R):
// Golden Bronze: pink champagne (metallic)
// Steel Grey: deep grey (matte) - palette-exclusive shade.
// Pale Rose: pale grey pink (matte)
// Caviar: rich black brown (matte)
Blushes (L - R):
// Desert Rose Blush: light dusty rose (matte)
// Pale Pink Blush: bright cool/blue-toned pink (matte) - one of my all-time fave eye shadows that has amazing longevity on the skin!
Eye shadows (L - R):
// Cream: creamy beige (matte)
// Rich Caramel: mid-tone brown bronze (shimmer wash) - palette-exclusive shade.
// Bellini: golden peach (shimmer wash)
// Toasted Cinnamon: rich copper brown (sparkle) - palette-exclusive shade. I adore this shade and it's very festive!
// Rich Caviar: rich brown black (matte)
Swatches
For reference, I've swatched them (with a dry finger and without primer) on my current summer complexion - medium to tan (~NC30-35), olive skin tone and all were photographed indoors using a strobe.
Above: Deluxe Cheek & Eye Palette swatches.
Above: Rich Caramel Eye Palette swatches.
All the eye shadows swatched with moderate pigmentation and applied even softer on the eye lids with a brush, so some may not find these sufficient enough - especially if you have medium to darker skin tone. There's not a great deal of contrast between the shades either. I personally don't mind all this, particularly for every day wear when I just want to very quickly add a bit of definition without spending ages applying and blending away strongly pigmented colours. There's always the option of applying them with a damp brush if needed. On my eye lids that have normal skin condition (neither oily or dry) the colours lasted about six hours until they started to fade, which isn't too bad.
Overall
I'm fairly happy I finally got to try the Bobbi Brown Christmas palettes this year. I think they're both fairly safe all-rounder neutral palettes that would suit most if not all skin tones if you don't mind the moderate pigmentation. Both are great last-minute gift options. However, I highly recommend the Deluxe Cheek & Eye Palette out of the two as it comes with an "all-rounder" (word of the blog post so far! ;) ) blush and one of my all-time fave pink blush. ^_^
Hope this was helpful. :)
OMG! Only SIX days 'til Christmas!!! >_< Keep safe! x