Barry M Natural Glow Palette | Review

Last year, Barry M brought out a range of four eyeshadow/blush palettes designed to cater for "every occasion and every outfit". I'm a little late to this particular party but there's good reason for that- they've always been either out of stock or the stand has been a complete state any time I've seen them in Boots or Superdrug. I was in the UK recently however and by god, do they know how to keep a tidy make up stand. It was great to be able to swatch all four palettes and pick my favourite, which is clearly the Natural Glow Palette. There's also Smokin' Hot, Summer Love and Glamour Puss. And yes, overall I hate the names.

Speaking of which, the shadows/blush have no names which irks me slightly. I mean, it doesn't take away from it that much, it's just always nice to be all "hmm, I think I'll wear a mixture of rusty pipe and lizard trampoline this evening", or you know, whatever other insane names brands inexplicably give eyeshadows. But whatever. 

Packaging wise, it's actually quite a nice little box, made of hard card with a mirror on the inside lid and those god-awful sponge applicators. TWO OF THEM. I'd like to think no one has used those since 1989 but I suppose you never know. It has also been pointed out on my Instagram that this does bear more than a passing resemblance to a certain nude-y eyeshadow palette and I completely see that but the difference really is quality. 

So we have four shimmers and two mattes. That pink on the left is a shimmer, the next two are mattes and then the last three are shimmers. Two of the paler browns are basically the same colour but one is shimmery. The pink blush is a bit shimmery too and could easily be used as a highlighter as it is quite pale, almost too pale for me to use as a blush to be honest. It doesn't do a whole lot for me when it's actually on my cheeks. 

The shadows themselves are great shades but the fallout from some of them is just ludicrous. The darkest shade at the end in particular is a nightmare to put on. I think I'm probably a bit spoilt from using my Nars shadows so when I went to use this for the first time I did all the rest of my make up first before doing my eyes. That was indeed, a mistake. I pretty much had to redo all the make-up under my eyes and some of my cheeks too. Some of them are just super crumbly and I really don't have the time, patience or inclination for something that inconvenient. 

There they all are swatched, as they are in the palette, left to right with the blush on the end. 

While I do really like the shades and some of them are OK to use, for me this feels like one of those situations where you take your 40 quid, spend it on a load of cheap make-up which you may or may not get a lot of use from. You could take that same 40 quid and buy a more high end palette that'll be highly pigmented, a dream to apply and last for ages. This obviously is not always true but in this instance, I feel like buying the cheaper palette was a bit of a false economy. It was only six pounds but if I get practically no use from it then can you still consider it a bargain? 

So, eh, after that glowing review...have you tried any of the Barry M shadow & blush palettes?

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