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Bobbi Brown Brights Palette Review, Photos, Swatches

Bobbi Brown’s Brights Collection really grabbed our attention with its star product: Bobbi Brown Brights Palette with 35 shades of bright, matte eyeshadows. The pricetag for this dreamboat is $70, which is not quite the deal many of you were looking forward to, because this palette is indeed quite small. It’s just a little shorter in height than UDPP, which makes it around six inches tall. The shadows themselves are approximately dime sized or perhaps even slightly smaller.

BARGAIN BUY OR OVERPRICED?

Let’s discuss whether this is truly a bargain buy or if it’s way overpriced and something you should skip if only for the pricetag. Bobbi Brown consistently releases palettes each season, and they all range around $50-60 a pop. Sometimes they’re all eyeshadows, but other times they are a mix of blushes, eyeshadows, and lip colors. Each Bobbi Brown eyeshadow goes for $20 each for 2.5 grams of shadowy goodness, and if I recall correctly, each shadow is around an inch in each direction.

Now, if you’re a beauty addict, you quite possibly have more shadows than you’ll ever use in your lifetime (cough, that’s me!). Coming from that side of the spectrum, getting 35 colors for $70 isn’t a bad deal–especially because I’m unlikely to use any of these all up. I’ll use as much from one of these as a single $20 eyeshadow in all likelihood. What if you’re not a beauty addict? If you’re just starting out, this is a great opportunity to fill your collection with 35 new shadows. Talk about doubling or tripling your collection in one fell swoop!

I bet a few of you are thinking, “But Coastal Scents has a palette with 88 colors for $20!” I actually can’t personally vouch for it, but I know enough respected beauty bloggers have reviewed it with raves, so I’ll assume it’s true for the purpose of this comparison. You’re totally right–Coastal Scents is a way better deal and bargain. It’s going to be pretty hard for any high end brand to compete with that price tag, even the much adored MAC shadows costs much more.

There is at least one good reason I can think of for going for Bobbi Brown’s instead: size. What? Small size is a good thing? When it comes to traveling it is! Instead of taking several palettes or pots of shadows, you can take 35 vivid colors in a compact palette. It’s truly a travel-friendly way to bring a ton of eye makeup with you without taking up a lot of space.

So in the end…

Yes, the palette is worth it relative to Bobbi Brown products (so we don’t get into a quarrel over pricing, bargains, etc.).  The price is in line with comparable Bobbi Brown palettes and products, and I feel this is one of the best measures of “value” aside from comparing against other brands.  You just gotta buy what you love, what works for you, and what you see as a better value for you.  Overall, Bobbi Brown did a fantastic job of making her mattes smooth, more buttery than chalky, and the majority of the shadows have great color pay off. I found the pinks had the least vivid pay off, but the greens, blues, and purples were much more pigmented. I swatch everything without a base, because I believe in seeing what you really get. A good base often elevates any mediocre shadow to at least average, but a good shadow shouldn’t need the best possible base or combination of bases to look good. I like to see color pay off and good pigmentation sans a base to make sure I like what I’m getting!

See more palette photos as well as swatches!

NORDSTROM.com Shop for Beauty Gifts with Purchase

46 Comments

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Liz Avatar

Thanks so much for posting this, I was really curious about this palette. I don’t own any BB eyeshadows and have read reviews that they’re not highly pigmented and have texture problems, but the blue/green/purple swatches definitely look nice, and I love colorful mattes. I think I can pass, though – I definitely don’t need more shadows at that price point!

Alyson Avatar

Hey Liz,

I have a few BB palettes and some singles and I find the shadows pigmented and blendable. My fave formula is the shimmerwash shadows. They’re worth a look. 🙂

Alyson Avatar

I don’t use brights enough to justify the price tag. I’d rather get a cheap plaything if I want to experiment with brights, so I vote for coastal scents. I also don’t travel nearly as much to justify dropping $70 for the size convenience (although I do agree that’s a huge plus for me too).

Rochelle Avatar

Mine is arriving in the mail tomorrow, I’m so excited. I’m an MUA and this will be really handy for my kit. I rarely use brights as I mainly do bridal work, so these are an ideal size.

claudine Avatar

i think i might get it for travelling im not sure though since i dont know how much i wanna spend on new MAC stuff lol
tough desicions lol

Heather Avatar

Haha me too! I feel the same way, Erin! Plus they’re all matte finishes, which doesn’t appeal to me at this point.

Christine – are you getting or did you purchase this palette?

Elisa Pacheco Avatar

1. Super aggreeee something similar to the nude palette would be awesome
2. I do like the palette but im the more natural color person so doubt i would ever use any of these but if i had the extra cash it would be good just to have lol

Glosslizard Avatar

Thanks so much Christine!

I was ogling this palette as a way to amp up my collection while getting some colors I wouldn’t normally try out! Unfortunately, the reds/oranges/yellows (the ones I don’t normally get) are fairly underrepresented and the colors there seem a lot more conservative than I would’ve liked. I would have loved to see one or two true reds, deep oranges and tropical yellows! The greens, blues and violets are very pretty, but my collection is already super-skewed in that direction *cough* *Cool Heat* *cough*! I think I’ll save my moola this time!

Vivian Avatar

hey, Christine. nice review and swatches. Actually, I was thinking of getting Coastal scents ones because me and matte colors are not meant to be together… I prefer eyeshadow to have little pearl, shimmer in them. nevertheless, I’m glad to see Bobbi brown palettes colors have variation and pigments.

Bottom line: mattes look weird on me… but they are great for bases even for an oily lid lad like me!

Manda Avatar

I have the Coastal Scents shimmer palette and I LOVE it! I am a MAC Addict but the CC palette gets its fair share of use.. I actually have it on today.. The shimmer is gorgeous and the quality is awesome. They’re milled very finely so you grab alot of color when you use them. I wish the palette pans were deeper because I really love some of the colors but for the price, can’t complain! The case itself is nice too. I highly recommend 🙂 I can submit some pics if you want 🙂

cloudburst Avatar

It’s a cool idea but I don’t see myself picking it up – there is still holiday stuff at BB I want! I think I would rather buy the exact colours I want then have a whole bunch of brights that I may or may not eventually use.

Victoria Maria Avatar

Hey girls, well Bobbi Brown is not a brand that is aiming at the “younger” crowd, like MAC and Stila f.ex. so thats why the shadows are all matte….. you’ll learn later in life, that the worst thing to put on your eyes when you’ve started getting those horrible lines….is glitter, and shimmer shadows…

Victoria

Danielle Sharkey Avatar

You certainly have a good point there because shimmery/sparkly shadows are known to settle into the creases and wrinkles of older eyes and thus excentuating these signs of aging.

Danielle Sharkey Avatar

So true…I can’t blame them though…I freakin love shimmer and glitter eye shadows! I swear I’m like a pixie or fairy or something lol

Brianne Avatar

The texture doesn’t look that good in the swatches, I’m hoping to see you do a look with these so that I can see them used for real and judge then! 🙂

Jennifer Avatar

I got the Bobbi Brights palette as soon as it came out – I think it’s really nice to have, and as you point out, it’s perfect for travel. I travel a lot, so I need as many small things that don’t have to go in stupid clear plastic bags as possible. I take full-seized neutrals, obviously, but I always feel guilty carrying around big purples and blues when I know they’re only going to be worn once in the span of a few months. Bobbi Brown… solving my “travelling with makeup” problems since 2009!

Luna Avatar

I think you should do a review on the Bobbi Brown Brights Palette that came out this year 🙂 I like the color selection on this years edition.

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