Review! Stila In The Know Palette

After buying a lot of eyeshadow palettes, I started to notice I was lacking in matte eyeshadows.  Matte eyeshadows aren't really my thing.  I've always thought they just made my eye look dirty or bruised.

Regardless, I bought several matte palettes, and I find myself falling for these discreet little numbers the more I get into them.

Today, I have Stila's In The Know palette.  It consists of 10 matte shades, and one waterproof eyeliner pencil.

The top row of shadows are almost all really, really, really close to my natural skin color.  Air, wind, desert and clay are all nude shades.  We darken up with earth, driftwood, rain, smoke, and ebony, and then they toss in a curveball, fire.

Stila describes the colors as:
Shades:

• air - matte beige
• driftwood - mid tone brown
• wind - soft matte peach
• fire - matte brick
• desert - soft matte tan w/warm undertones
• rain -matte brown
• clay - matte warm light brown
• smoke - matte charcoal grey
• earth - deep matte chocolate brown
• ebony - matte black

Stila also includes a little booklet with directions on how to use the shadows to achieve different looks.  If you are familiar with blending colors, this will probably not be much help to you.  However, I would suggest trying them all out anyway, because you never know, you may find that something you didn't think would work actually looks great on you.

I did swatch these out on my arm, but I didn't think it really showed how well the colors apply and blend.  Bluntly, after swatching them, I didn't want to wear them on my eye.  I tried them anyway, and just loved how they applied.  I experienced hardly any fallout when applying these, and I apply them with eyeshadow brushes.

Here is a very simple, fast, and easy look, using air all over the lid up to the eyebrow, with driftwood in the outer crease.  I did push some charcoal brown Sormeh into the top lashline and waterline, and Princess kohl eyeliner pigment (previously called Nude Sormeh) on the lower waterline.

I used Urban Decay's Primer Potion, and the color lasted all day without creasing.

I compared this palette to Urban Decay's Naked Basics, and I think this one wins, hands down.  The colors are more varied, and they aren't all just various shades of pale vanilla, like Naked Basics strike me.

I can't think of a single negative thing to say about this palette, except that I still don't like cardboard containers.  Otherwise, I think it's a good deal at $38, and would last anyone a long time.  the colors are wearable, blendable, buildable, and versatile for day or night.