Making Up Reasons

Impulse Purchase: Bareminerals Ready Eyeshadows

[All purchased by me]


Ulta is a total vacuum for the money in my wallet.  Their gifts with purchase, buy one get one and other promotions sucker me into spending more time and money in that store than is humanly necessary. I purchased an eyeshadow quad and two eyeshadow duos from the Bareminerals Ready line and have no buyers remorse.  Do I wish I spaced out my purchases?  Maybe.  But when you're recommending these eyeshadows to a friend IRL and not just through this blog, you also get tempted into treating yourself to a few.  

The Bareminerals Ready eyeshadow formula is something I'm already familiar with since I bought The Star Treatment 8-pan palette around the holidays.  As people who've reviewed or used this formula knows, the color payoff, blendability and lasting power is outstanding.  These are definitely some of the best eyeshadows in my collection and I think if you purchase the 8-pan limited edition palettes especially, the value for money is worth it for the medium-high range price.  My only complaint about the original palette I owned was the complete lack of matte shades.  I prefer shimmery shades but we all know sometimes a matte is just necessary for blending out an eye look.  There are still only a couple mattes in the new palettes I bought but it's enough to appease me for now.

L to R: The Happy Place, The Epiphany, The Phenomenom

I'd wanted The Happy Place palette since it was released and I was especially drawn to the grey-purple matte color in the bottom left and the bright metallic coral in the top right.  If you remember my last post, I LOVE pinky orange colors for the Summer. 

Top Left and Clockwise: Peace, Imagine, Euphoria and Exhale

Sorry about the shadow cast in these photos.  If I didn't use the lid to create a shadow over the palette the colors became very washed out.  This is a pretty good representation of their actual real-life shade.  

Next, The Epiphany is an absolutely knock-out neutral duo.  The metallic shade is reflective, smooth as butter and packs a punch.  I think this creates an amazing smokey eye when using the matte shade with a heavier hand and it also can be toned down by using less for daytime.

L to R: A-Ha and Foreshadow

Last but not least, the most impulsive of all of these was The Phenomenom.  I dragged my feet about buying more of these eyeshadow palettes for a while because the shades never jumped out at me besides the two palettes above.  The whole motivation for this purchase came from a buy two get one free deal above the display of these shadows.  This duo is colorful yet not gaudy at all.  I really think people who are scared of color should consider these types of shades because they're flattering and not showy.  I like using the light dusty purple all over the eye up to the crease and then blending out the gold shade above the crease.  Purple and yellow is one of my favorite bold shadow pairings but this duo makes it much more wearable and approachable.  Almost ethereal in a way which is a really nice way of describing any makeup look.  

L to R: Azure Iris and Golden Iris

I swatched all these colors together and you can see how the metallic shades really pop out.  The closest in formula to those shades would probably be the L'oreal Infallible eyeshadows that are essentially tightly packed pigments.  Bareminerals is known for their original pigment eyeshadows but none of the "wow" factor is lost in the pressed form.  Can you tell I'm a big fan?

Top Row: The Ephiphany (A-Ha, Foreshadow) The Happy Place (Imagine, Exhale, Peace, Euphoria)
Bottom Row: The Phenomenom (Azure Iris, Golden Iris)