bareMinerals READY Eyeshadow 8.0 - Review, Swatches, Looks

So, as you saw from my last Haul post, I am the proud owner of 4 new eyeshadow palettes!! The first one on the review list is bareMinerals READY Eyeshadow 8.0 in The Finer Things. I picked this one up a while back (during after Christmas sales - $25!!), but I think it's already been discontinued!! They have a new edition now, called The September issue ($40 at Sephora), which has some intriguing colors as well. But I figured I should review this one anyway, and I'm sure you can find it online somewhere if you're big on these colors. So, here goes...

bareMinerals READY Eyeshadow 8.0 in The Finer Things

That's what comes in the box - the eyeshadow compact, which includes a brush, and a sample-size tube of bareMinerals Prime Time eyelid primer.

 


The palette packaging is nice, I like the reflective cover (and no, all that stuff isn't a design on the cover, it's actually a reflection of my jewelry tree! Lol!). It is prone to getting fingerprinty, but this one already has a lot of my fingerprints on it and as you can see, it's still pretty fancy-shmancy looking.

This is what it looks like on the inside:

In not-so-great light

In better light

The compact's got a mirror in it too, you just can't see it in the pictures. As you can see, it comes with a two-sided brush that has a blending side and a smudger/crease brush side. I'll say right now, my opinion of the brush - no bueno. Both sides are really stiff, and make it hard to distribute the color evenly and blend it well. In fact, the first time I tried this palette, I used this brush and I blamed the eyeshadow for being creasy and difficult to blend. After reading rave reviews though,  I decided to give it another try with my own brushes, and that made a huge difference.

Top Row, left to right:

• Penthouse - Black with a little bit of sparkle (as you can see on the swatches below, it's not a super deep black, it's got a little bit of a brown undertone to it)
• Custom Made - Very pale pink with shimmer
• Chateau - Matte gray (good for smokey eyes)
• Truffle - Golden brown with shimmer (looks really good on brown skin!)

Bottom Row, left to right:

• First Class - Shimmery gold with greenish undertones
• Upgrade - Shimmery gray with purple undertones (also good for smokey eyes)
• Five Star - Matte white (a little TOO white as a highlight for brown skin, but not bad if blended well with other colors)
• Private Isle - Deep royal blue with subtle shimmer

Swatched:

Same order as in palette... it looks like my arm has a disease!! AAAHH!!

Look #1: (sorry about the weird lighting!)

In the above look, I was originally going for rose gold blended with black, but as you can see, the pink (Custom Made) is a lot paler than it looks in the palette, so it came out more like pale gold blended with black, haha. The colors are nicely pigmented though, and easily blendable with the right brush.

Look 1:

• Too Faced Perfect Eyes Waterproof Eyeliner in Perfect Black on upper lash line and lower waterline
• Too Faced Size Queen Mascara on upper lashes
• Anastasia Brow Powder Duo in Strawburn on eyebrows
• bareMinerals Prime Time eyelid primer on lids
• Truffle on lid up to crease
• Custom Made blended with Truffle on inner half of lid up to crease
• Penthouse blended into crease and on outer half of lid
• Penthouse lining lower lash line

Look #2:

This look is a lot simpler, and easy to do every day. The photos unfortunately don't do justice to the blue-ness of the shadow. I'm a big fan of blue, though, especially for brown eyes!


Look 2:

• Too Faced Perfect Eyes Waterproof Eyeliner in Perfect Navy on upper lash line 
• Too Faced Perfect Eyes Waterproof Eyeliner in Perfect Black on lower waterline
• Too Faced Size Queen Mascara on upper lashes
• Anastasia Brow Powder Duo in Strawburn on eyebrows
• bareMinerals Prime Time eyelid primer on lids
• Five Star all over lid up to brow bone
• Truffle on lid up to crease
• Private Isle contoured in crease and on outer half of lid

Overall....

Primer - Eh, it's not bad, but it's not amazing. It's a little on the dry side and hard to spread evenly, and it makes the shadow harder to distribute and blend. I had much better results with the shadow using a different brush and different primer. It does hold the color fairly well, but overall, I think there are more cons than pros. I'd recommend Too Faced Shadow Insurance or Urban Decay Primer Potion over this one. But in a pinch, it's better than nothing.

Shadow - Big fan!! This is a great palette for every day looks, especially if you're bored of going neutral all the time. The pigments are all very rich, but still easily blendable, and they're not so bold that you can't use them for a day at the office. It also contains the right colors to make a nice smokey eye. My only wish would be that the pink was a little deeper pink and not as pale, but hey, you can't have it all.  :-)