It Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Matte Eyeshadow Palette

I think everyone needs to invest in an all matte eyeshadow palette. It is a great tool to use for everyday looks as well as contour the shape of your eye/socket for a natural no-makeup makeup look.  But many of the matte palettes on the market today are either unpigmented, chalky, too sheer or very hard in texture and difficult to blend. So is this IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Palette worthy of a place in your makeup drawer?

For now...all signs point to not really...

I recently just got this palette in the mail and I couldn't wait to start playing with it. I have to admit, I thought the colours would be more neutral so I was a little disappointed to see so many pinks and purple toned shades. I will admit that I most probably won't touch the pinks or purples as I have no idea how to actually incorporate it into my eye look to create a subtle and natural colour. Whenever I use purples, it looks like someone has punched me. Not very attractive at all.

There are fourteen matte shades and one shimmer eyeshadow. The shimmer shadow is labelled Transforming Pearl which you are actually meant to mix with the matte shades to transform it into a pearlescent finish. I may as well tell you that this theory is just that, a theory. Doesn't work at all. It just dims the vibrancy of the eyeshadow colour. It does work well as an eyebrow or an inner corner highlight though.

Here are the swatches...

As I said earlier, I wished there was more brown neutral shades rather than neutrals from all ends of the colour spectrum. There are four shades that I was interested to test out and they were Warmth, Mocha, Sunrise and Java. I applied them and blended and blended and blended. But somehow the colours just looked so muddy and flat on my eyelids. I used my Tom Ford Eyeshadow Blend Brush and I'm wondering that maybe the density of that brush is not compatible with the texture of these eyeshadows? Everybody on Youtube seems to love this palette, am I doing something wrong?

I definitely want to watch more tutorials on some looks that I could try to achieve with this palette and figure out a way to like this palette more because for this price I could've bought a Lorac Pro (which I'm now thinking I should have). The blend ability was ok. I find that I like my Laura Mercier's Artist Palette's Matte colours more and find that Laura Mercier blends together much easier too. The colour Mocha from Naturally pretty was quite blotchy and patchy and inconsistent which annoyed me because once an eyeshadow becomes blotchy, you have to start again. There's just no way you can perfect that eye look from there on. I am a huge brown neutral lover and if the browns in a palette don't work, then unfortunately it won't be a match made in heaven.

In terms of texture, the eyeshadows are super soft and pigmented. But they are also quite powdery. Which means that you will be wasting quite a bit of your eyeshadow as well as getting fall out on your cheeks while you blend it. Below I captured some photos to show just how powdery the shadows can be with a finger swatch and a blending brush dip.

These two shadows have been lightly swatched with my fingertips
and you can easily see just how much eyeshadow comes loose

Java has been dipped in twice by my Tom Ford Eyeshadow Blend
Brush and all that eyeshadow came loose. Which means if I
didn't store this palette flat, all that eyeshadow would transfer and
fly around my palette.

This palette can be purchased from PM Studios online store if you are in Australia for $49 + $7.50 postage ad available in Ulta for people living in America.

Have you tried this palette? What are your thoughts on it? What's your favorite look to create with this palette?