Bobbi Brown Chrome Palette Review, Photos, Swatches
Posted On: 11/2/09
Posted in: Bobbi Brown, Eye Products, Eyeshadows, Lip Products, Lipgloss, Makeup Palettes, Product Photos/Swatches, Reviews
Bobbi Brown Chrome Palette ($75.00) is the stunning eye and lip palette include with Bobbi Brown’s Chrome Collection, and it is also limited edition (of course!). The palette includes ten shades of eyeshadow and four shades of lip glosses.
For Eyes
- White Eyeshadow is just that, a matte snowy white. It’s slightly cool, but it isn’t frosty or cold.
- Polar Ice Eyeshadow is a soft, light gray with a blue tinge and silver shimmer. It goes on a bit sheer, but it can be layered for a slightly more solid look.
- Storm Cloud Eyeshadow is a sparkly medium dark brown. It doesn’t really have anything special about it to make it unique, but it still looks pretty (you just may already have something similar in your stash).
- Iron Eyeshadow is a matte slate gray. It didn’t go on as smoothly as the White eyeshadow, and it felt a little more dusty.
- Thunder Eyeshadow is a glittery dark gray with a touch of black and silver shimmer. This reminded me of MAC’s Knight Divine, though not quite as glittery or gritty.
- Moonlight Eyeshadow is a glittery soft pink with a little champagne tone. Bobbi Brown describes it as a cool purple sparkle, which is clearly not. The back of my palette shows that this is where Moonlight is supposed to be, but I really feel like this and Foil were misplaced/mislabeled.
- Cyber Grey Eyeshadow is a slightly purple tinged smoky silver shimmer shade.
- Foil Eyeshadow is a glittery soft purple-gray — very similar to Cyber Grey, but it has more of a glittery texture. As I mentioned earlier, I think this is really Moonlight and Foil is the other one… as Bobbi Brown describes Foil as “a pale bronze.” Again, I’m just going off the back of my palette (and Bobbi Brown’s website).
- Chrome Eyeshadow is a silver with a little brown thrown in – kind of reminds me of Pewter Chrome Eyeshadow, but not nearly as pretty. (Sorry, I *love* that eyeshadow, so not much can compare.)
- Charcoal Haze Eyeshadow is a matte medium gray-black. This one had the same texture as Iron, but it did seem a little smoother.
For Lips
- Pink Mist Lip Gloss is a medium yellow-pink with multi-colored sparkle. It’s pretty sheer, but I found I could actually see some color when I swatched it on my skin (which I barely could with the Earth Metal palette).
- Winter Bronze Lip Gloss is a copper sparkled bronze shade. On lips, it looks a bit burnished, but it’s not ultra pigmented so it’s more wearable than it looks.
- Berry Lip Gloss is a muted plum-berry with soft sparkle. I liked this shade the most, as it seemed opaque enough to add color to lips, but still soft as I’d expect from Bobbi Brown.
- Chrome Pink Lip Gloss is beige-rose with gold sparkle. It’s pretty, and it’s a shade I could see people loving for everyday.
You know me — I don’t like lip palettes. I don’t like them alone, and I don’t like them when attached to eyeshadow palettes, either. They’re just a no-go for me. I will say that the gloss in these are more pigmented than in Bobbi Brown’s Earth Metal Eye & Lip Palette, which is a plus. I’m not going to drop points on this product because of that personal bias, so I’m judging on the product included itself, which is better than a lot of lip palettes I’ve tried.
In the palette, you get 10 eyeshadows, each weighing 0.02 oz. (total weight of 0.20 oz.), and you also get four lipglosses, each weighing 0.03 oz. (total weight of 0.12 oz.). A single Bobbi Brown eyeshadow retails for $22 for 0.10 oz. and a single lip gloss retails for $20 for 0.14 oz. The reason for all these conversions is to see exactly how much you’re paying for what and whether it’s worth buying a palette if you like a few shades or if you should look towards Bobbi Brown’s permanent line-up instead. The eyeshadows (by weight) would yield about $44 in value, while the lip glosses yield about $17 — which gives you a total “value” of $61. The palette is priced at $75, so I do think it’s a bit steep, even when you consider the fact that you’re getting a variety of shades all housed in a pretty chrome palette.
I also don’t think there’s quite enough variety between the ten shades of eyeshadows — a few are quite similar (like Cyber Grey and Foil). This is definitely a cool smoky eye palette with a little purple kick. I like that they included three different matte shades in the palette, because I think mattes are often missed in palettes. I do wish they had included a highlighter shade, as I think the White eyeshadow will be too garish on bolder skin tones to work well as a highlighter. In a palette of this size, I’d expect a really obvious highlighter shade.
For me, this palette is just okay. It’s not the best value, and I think Bobbi Brown has better shades (or the equivalent) available in her permanent range. In fact, I definitely recommend her Chrome Eyeshadows (and duh, my #1 recommendation would be for Pewter!) if you’re not liking the majority of the shades in this palette. The eyeshadows are soft, have a smooth texture, and they’re all pigmented. There is nothing wrong with them, but I’m just not loving the color combination overall. Nice but not amazing, you know?
Bottom Line: for those who DO love the majority of the shades in the palette and don’t mind lipgloss in pan form, I think you may like this. It’s housed in chromed-out package (which does hold fingerprints, FYI!), offers plenty of smoky eyeshadow combinations, and is appropriate for the upcoming holiday season. I also think Bobbi Brown fans may enjoy this more than I did, and I think it’s worth at least a peek next time you’re near a Bobbi Brown counter to see for yourself.
If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ! :)
- Product: 24/30
- Value: 7/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation:
Availability: Bobbi Brown, Nordstrom
See more photos and swatches…
Top row: White, Polar Ice, Storm Cloud, Iron, Thunder
Bottom row: Moonlight, Cyber Grey, Foil, Chrome, Charcoal
Top row: White, Polar Ice, Storm Cloud
Bottom row: Moonlight, Cyber Grey, Foil
Top row: Storm Cloud, Iron, Thunder
Bottom row: Foil, Chrome, Charcoal
Eyeshadows: White, Polar Ice, Storm Cloud, Iron
Eyeshadows: Polar Ice, Storm Cloud, Iron, Thunder
Eyeshadows: Moonlight, Cyber Grey, Foil, Chrome, Charcoal
Lip Glosses: Pink Mist, Winter Bronze, Berry, Chrome Pink
Lip Glosses: Pink Mist, Winter Bronze, Berry, Chrome Pink
Monday, November 2, 2009
Thanks for this Christine! Wow, I always thought these palettes were cheaper than buying individual shadows, not more expensive! I do love it though and if I find it cheaper than £59 (that’s about $85 in the UK!) I might just get it. I love Bobbi’s palettes and this one is so pretty. :)
Monday, November 2, 2009
No problem! I’m happy you like it — see, I knew Bobbi Brown palette fans would probably love this. I find that I like her individual products a lot, but few of her palettes really strike me!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Great :) :) :)
Monday, November 2, 2009
Will you be picking one up for yourself, Cylin?
Monday, November 2, 2009
a lot of the greys do look overly similair
Monday, November 2, 2009
Yeah – just a lil’ too similar to really present a value-added palette, you know? If you love yourself some silver/gray, though… that’s another story!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Thanks for your lovely review. So puzzling, why a great company like BB puts out sub-standard products in a high-profile palette. This is clearly the star of her holiday collection, but I agree this is not her usual quality. For example, her blushes and two of the greens from Ivy League are spectacular products. This one seems similar to the NYX smoky palette that sells for about—$10 I think? Or the UK Sleek, which has a new smoky palette for around the same price. Bobbi–whoever designed or made this for you needs to go!
Monday, November 2, 2009
I really do find Bobbi Brown to have some stellar products (like I adore, adore, adore the Pewter Chrome Eyeshadow), but the palettes never get me too excited. They’re not bad, even good, but just never great for me. I keep hoping, LOL. Eternal optimist? Perhaps… when it comes to makeup.
Monday, November 2, 2009
I was about to say the same thing about the NYX palette! ;) I have the smokey palette & it’s love. The NYX palette has more browns and an obvious highlighter shade. It was so handy when I was moving because I had all of my good stuff packed away.
I’m sure Bobbi Brown eye shadows are better, but the colors are similar to items I already have. Plus I don’t like lip palettes either. I need to go get Pewter though. Thanks for the review :)
Monday, November 2, 2009
As long as you get Pewter, I’m happy :)
Monday, November 2, 2009
Haha, of course I am! I’m hoping to get it after work on Wednesday. Just hope they have it in stock and I don’t get suckered in to buying more stuff. :)
Monday, November 2, 2009
Let me know if you score it AND if you’re able to resist anything else!
Monday, November 2, 2009
I like silvers, but other than that none of the colours really capture my heart.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Seems like it’s a hit for some, but a miss for others like you and me, Amy!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Thank you so much! There aren’t many sources for BB reviews and you do always great detailed reviews. I hope you’ll do more BB reviews :)
Monday, November 2, 2009
My pleasure, Cristina! Definitely will be keeping BB on my radar :)
Monday, November 2, 2009
Maybe you can also make some swatches of the regular stuff of BB sometime? Like you did with Nars. That would be great ;)
Monday, November 2, 2009
Oh — all those swatches of NARS… not stuff I owned! I went to Nordstrom and did it there :) I’d die if I owned that much, NARS, haha!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Hey Christine, i am difinitely gonna get pewter!!! it look so fabulous… As of the palette, i don’t think i will be getting them… I bought the earth metal one a couple weeks ago and wasn’t too impress with it… the lips part aer absolutely useless for me. The eyes parts are pretty decent i think. Not much variety in term of colors for me. What do you think of the eyes part in EM palette Christine?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
I did a review for the Earth Metal palette last week – http://www.temptalia.com/bobbi-brown-earth-metal-lip-eye-palette-review-photos-swatches
I’m glad you’ll be getting Pewter, Liz!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Christine, when will you have the lipstick colors swatched out?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Right now, I don’t have plans to review them!
Monday, November 9, 2009
i bought the palette this past weekend because it was so pretty!
BUT i find that the shadows are not that pigmented?
i used painterly to prime my lids then the colors…but it didn’t seem to give a lot of color.
i’m thinking of taking it back? but i’m not sure…i want to make it work before i really say, “i give up!”
any suggestions Christine?? i do like the lipglosses, but like yourself, i hate lipglosses in palettes especially because i can’t exactly take it everywhere i go.
what do you think i should do? thoughts?
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
I used Soft Ochre paint pot and didn’t really feel like I had pigmentation problems, to be honest! Maybe try a silvery base? That’s all I could think of!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Thanks Christine!
I’m not sure – maybe it was just the way i applied it.
i’ll try again tonight. i don’t want to give it up so easily.
I read your review after i purchased… :( that’ll teach me a lesson!!
It’s so pretty though….I don’t “collect” the bobbi brown stuff, but i couldn’t help it. total impulse buy! i’ll see if i can get it to “work” tonight.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Aww :( I hope you can find a way… let me know how it goes, Bonita!