Monday, June 17, 2013

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.

7 comments:

  1. I love that you review Matte palettes!! I feel like they don't get enough love in the beauty community, so thank you!

    Would you say this is better or worse than Kat Von D's ladybird? I can't decide between naked basics (although boring!!), ladybird, or this one! Stila also has a 20% off for f and f and free shipping so this review came right on time!!

    =) Thanks for all you do!

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    1. Hi Mandy! :-)

      I think the quality is the same on both palettes. If you choose only one, I would base it on your skin tone. If you were reaching for a tinted moisturizer, and your choices were Fair, Fair-Medium, Medium, Medium-Dark, and Dark... which would you choose? If Fair or Fair-Medium, I would say the Stila palette, as it has the shade "air", which is lighter than any shade in Ladybird, and you would need for your highlight color. I use "air" almost every day now. Stila's palette, overall, is lighter and brighter than Ladybird.

      If you are darker, then you will find that Ladybird has "Vespertine", which would be your highlighting shade. It is a bit darker and more peach than "wind". Ladybird is great on darker tones, because nothing is light enough to look powdery or chalky on the skin. For a fair toned girl, Ladybird is more dramatic, but doesn't look dirty on the skin.

      If you don't care about a highlighting shade, then the biggest difference between the two is Ladybird has a purple shade, while Stila sticks with neutrals all the way.

      I'm so happy to hear you are enjoying my blog! :-D

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  2. Thank you for the response!! and I love your blog!! It's such an easy read and I find the things I would want are the things you review so it's perfect for me!!

    Oh and I am darker toned so maybe I will stick to Ladybird (that's what I was originally going for anyway) did you like naked basics? I love ud eyeshadows, and the price point is nice but I know the first three shades will make me look ashy lol.

    Thank you so much for the response! and keep up the fabulous work!

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    1. I swatched UD Naked Basics, and while their formula is nice, I wasn't impressed with what you get for the price. You only get 6 colors, and one of them is black. I don't like getting black shadows in nude palettes, mostly because I have plenty of black shadows already. I want creams, tans, and browns, and toss in one color if you must. Anyway, I think they really missed the boat by not making a different palette for each color depth (meaning, Naked Light, Naked Medium, Naked Dark), or making another long Naked palette, but keeping it all matte. UD has such a wide fan base, and it feels like they tried to squeeze us all in to one palette.

      I really can't imagine ever plunking down the nearly $30 for UDNB, especially when there are other matte palettes out there with so much more variety.

      Keep me posted on what you choose!

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  3. Hi! 23 yo female here from Manila! Thank you so much for your review! I was browsing reviews online because I'm trying to decide between Stila In The Know and UD Naked Palette. At first I thought I'd go with the UD Naked even if I have to purchase online and it would be more costly (we don't have a UD outlet here in the Philippines) so thank you for pointing out the differences. I think I'm going with Stila, which is available locally. Thanks much!

    Xo,
    Claire

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    Replies
    1. Hi Claire! I think you'll be much happier with the variety you will get with the Stila palette. Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for the comment! :-)

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  4. Yay! I want to include this palette in my collection!
    xo,
    ~Pauline @Kallony

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