I love my nudes and neutrals so when I saw this available for sale online, the $125 price tag didn't hinder me at all. The urge to buy this palette also comes at a time when I'm obsessing about using only one particular product to complete my brow and eyes. (The fact that it comes with a blush is just an added bonus). All my current palettes cannot accommodate both my brows and eye makeup. (Even though I don't travel all that often, I've just made it my mission recently to find practical palettes like this).
The eye palette consists of four matte eye shadows, three metallic eye shadows and one sparkle eye shadow which I think is a good combination. The only downside for me is that the colours Chino and Hot Cocoa are very very similar. They are both light coloured matte eyeshadows. Chino is more grey based whereas Hot Cocoa is a bit more brown based. However, they really could pass as the other colour if not compared closely.
L-R: Cream, Velvet Plum, Chino, Nude Beach
L-R: Hot Cocoa, Pink Dusk, Sandy Pearl, Black Chocolate
The blush in Bellini is a gorgeous gorgeous colour. It is a perfect peach pink that brings a natural pink glow to the cheeks. It has a similar colour to NARS Orgasm without the golden shimmer. I have been wearing this blush on a daily basis.
Packaging: Front
Packaging: Back
I purchased the Holiday 2012 Oyster & Caviar palette last year and for me, the Hot Cocoa palette is much more wearable. O & C is more cool toned which I don't really know how to work with for my olive skin tone. The blush is more of a sparkle highlighter which is definitely ok for your annual christmas party but not so much on a daily basis throughout the year. The packaging is identical so it's a little like trying to find a particular Nars product out of a bunch. The eyeshadows from both the palettes are 0.85 grams each but the O & C blush is 5.1 grams, slightly bigger than the 2013 Hot Cocoa blush which is 4.5 grams.
Holiday 2012 Oyster & Caviar palette
This is also the perfect time to stock up on your Bobbi products as they offer free shipping for purchases over $100, 3 random samples with every purchase as well as mystery deluxe samples with purchases over $75. Free gift wrapping is also offered at Checkout.
This seemed a much better incentive for me to buy online as my David Jones counters never have decent samples let alone deluxe ones! The samples that I got were:
* Soothing Cleansing Oil 15mL
* Instant Long-wear Makeup Remover 30mL
* Hydrating Eye Cream 3mL* Extra Repair Eye Cream 2 x 1.5mL
* Intensifying Long-wear Mascara 3mL
