The Balm Nude 'tude Eye Shadow Palette: Review + Swatches

These days, everyone's getting Naked or Nude or Nearly Naked or Nude on Nude. What's going on, yo?

But I gotta say, I kinda dig it! :-)

For a while, I've been seeing The Balm Cosmetics palettes all over the beauty-sphere and I thought to myself, "Self, this is a good time to try it out!".

So I went ahead and purchased the Nude 'tude palette, which is a 12-shadow collection of beautiful neutral shades. What really drew me in was the fact that there were dark, matte colors included. A matte black basically sold me; as well as the deep plum shades.

I don't buy ready-made palettes often because they are usually filled with a ton of light or cool-toned colors that wouldn't suit my skin-tone and purchasing a product I know off the bat that I will only use about 50% of the shadows just doesn't make sense to me. So, I was excited that probably with the exception of Sassy, a bright white, I could use all the colors included in the Nude 'tude palette.

First off, I love the packaging! It is quite similar to the Naked palette by Urban Decay with a magnetic flap lid and a large mirror on the inside. It's made out of sturdy cardboard and is pretty easy to wipe down to keep clean (unlike the Naked). The print is of a luxurious bedroom on the outside and inside of the flap. I was a little disappointed that I got the 'Nice' version of the palette because I ordered the 'Naughty' version with the ladies on the inside. But, I quickly got over it since its not a true deal-breaker.

Also, a mini shadow/liner brush is included that is surprisingly soft.

The colors are for the most part, universally flattering and will probably appeal to most skin tones. On the lighter half of the palette the shades are:

Sassy: A bright frosty white

Stubborn: A matte light pink

Selfish: A satin taupe-grey

Snobby: A pale, shimmery yellow-gold

Stand-offish: A light, shimmery champagne-pink

Sultry: A matte medium brown

On the darker side, we have:

Sophisticated: A shimmery greenish-brown with gold flecks
Sexy: A matte deep plum
Serious: A matte black
Seductive: A satin bronze
Silly: A glittery deep purple with gold and purple flecks
Sleek: A deep matte brown

I created 2 looks with the shadows - a neutral, everyday look and a darker, smoky look.

For the neutral look, I used Snobby and Seductive on the lid and blended with Sultry and defined the outer corner and crease with Sophisticated and Sleek.

For the darker look, I used Silly and Sexy on the lid with Sultry to help with the blending and Serious on the outer corner.

Overall, the shadows are very soft and blend easily. The color selection is great and I like that they included some plum shades (which are my favorite) instead of 12 varying shades of brown.

Unfortunately, I found most of the shadows to apply a bit powdery. Snobby and Sophisticated gave me quite a bit of fallout but that was easily brushed away. No biggie.

Silly was the biggest disappointment, however. This is because all of the glitter that shows so beautifully in the pan fell right out and did not transfer to my lid. After carefully patting the shadow on, only a handful of flecks were visible on the lid and the remaining were brushed away after light blending. All that was left was a sheer dark, almost black shade.

I will try spraying the brush with a bit of MAC Fix+ before applying Silly and see if that works.

Sexy is my favorite shadow in the palette. It applies the most smoothly out of all the shadows and gives the best color payoff.

Lasting power is on par with just about any eye shadow, but this factor depends on how oily your lids get during the day. I always apply a primer and have gotten no creasing with this product.

For the final analysis, I think this palette is simply OK. After all the hype I heard about it, I expected better and was honestly a bit disappointed and think there are tons of drugstore products that would show this up. At about $36 on thebalm.com (and $29 on Amazon where I purchased it) it is still a good alternative to the Naked palette if you don't want to spring for the 50 smakaroos it will set you back or prefer the more varied color selection in Nude 'tude.

If you are debating between these two palettes, also bear in mind that the Naked comes with a mini primer , full-sized brush and larger shadows. Nude 'tude includes only a mini dual-ended brush.

Just sayin'.

I'm bringing back the L&P Scale and give the Nude 'tude palette a rating straight down the middle of 3 out of 5 for the reasons listed above.

Thanks for reading!

What's your favorite 'Nude' eyeshadow palette?