Nip+Fab Sculpted Eye Shadow Palette Review

After sharing a photo of this beautiful palette on my instagram (@Gracexkate) a few of you wanted to see a review of it. I have been trialing this out for the past few weeks and so I have a few of my final thoughts to share with you. Nip+Fab, I have always thought of as a skincare brand but very recently they have came out with a whole makeup line which all seems incredible. Since this was my first Nip+Fab product, I wasn't too sure on what to expect but I went with something I know and love, eye shadow just to get a feel for the quality and standard of the brand.

Starting off with all of the information, so Nip+Fab is sold in Superdrug, both their skincare and makeup ranges so as always the link to this exact product will be left below. They currently only have one eye shadow palette on the market which is the Sculpted palette and this is what I will be reviewing. Within their whole makeup range they have all sorts from highlighters to primer water to liquid lipsticks so their is definitely something for everyone.

This palette retails for £10.95 which I do think is quite an awkward number but never the less it is very affordable and you get a total of 12 shades which I think is great value. On the Suprdrug website it says "The mother of all eyeshadow palettes to take your eyes from subtly sculpted days to strong, smoky nights. Featuring 12 highly-pigmented warm and shimmer shades that glide on for maximum impact and ultimate sass."  From looking at the palette, there are, 2 shimmer shades, 1 semi-shimmer shade and 9 mattes and all the colours range from something light to something darker.

For packaging, it reminds me of just a typical drugstore eye shadow palette, and that's not say it is bad, because it's not, but it is just very simple and standard. This palette comes with no mirror, which I don't really mind but you might want to take that into consideration if you are a constant traveler and need a mirror in your eye shadow palette, personally, I have a mirror is several more of my compacts. The palette is not big, it is a small, compact size, perfect for travel but the pans for ye shadow are not too small either which I love. The packaging is super sturdy so I can't see it breaking which again is a super big plus if you are constantly on the go. Just another side note, there are also shade names behind the palette but they don't show colour, just order so I am slightly confused by that but never the less, they are there so that you can refer to the colours.

In terms of shades, this palette really caught my eye instantly just because of the beautiful range of colours. You all know I am a warm browns and orange kind of girl when it comes to eye shadow so this palette was right up my street. Saying that, there is also the odd more neutral cool toned shade in there also which I really love because it give me the ability to branch out a little more. Most shades are very generic I would say, there is nothing that unusual apart from the orange on the top row but apart from that, quite basic colours. I do wish that this palette contained more lighter shades, because as you might be able tell, the two bottom rows just seem to be different shades of brown which is useful, but I don't think that there needed to be that many. I would have liked to see a shimmery inner corner higlighter shade just to add more variety but apart from that, a decent selection of shades.

For the finishes in this palette, I was quite pleased that they made it majority matte but I think a lot of people would have wanted more shimmery shades and I can totally see that. You only get two shimmery shades, a light golden brown and a darker more purple brown but I think they should have made room for a lighter shade or maybe even a pop of colour. You also get a sort of duo chrome, shimmer shade which is a bit of purple and it shifts to a cooler grey/blue shade but again, this shade confuses me because I wouldn't use it on the lid but because of the slight shimmer, I don't know whether I would use it in the crease. 

Generally, the shade range and finishes are a little disappointing but I still think you can create many looks with just this one palette. I also think that this sort of range is great for beginners but if you already have quite a collection of eye shadows, you probably won't need this palette since I am pretty sure you will already have most of these shades.

For formula, once again quite generic for a drugstore palette if I am being blunt. Initially swatching them, you can tell by the picture above, they are pigmented but you might also be able to tell that you do get a little kick back. On the eyes, I would say that if you want the colour in the pan, you need to build these up in terms of pigment but I will say that they are not patchy and they blend beautiful, it's just the pigment straight onto the eyes is not spectacular. One thing I will say is that the mattes are lovely to apply but the shimmers are a little disappointing. I always apply shimmery shades on my lid with a dense flat shader brush and these just don't show up as metallic as I had hoped. They are definitely there but the finish is not the most beautiful so I would recommend building them up if you want a little more shimmer but you will get a lot of fall out.

In general, I would say that the formula is nice and the mattes are great in terms of their blend-ability and their pigment but the shimmery shades let this down. I say that because, you get a lot of kick back from the pan, only making it cause fall out all over the face but even then the pigment is still pretty sheer.

You can obviously judge yourself on whether you like the look of the swatches but I do think that the shimmery shades might be better applied with a finger (like these swatches) rather than on a brush.

Overall, I will say that this palette is okay, not awful but not amazing. I don't think I needed this in my collection just because it is quite a standard palette and I have several other palettes with a similar range that I prefer. I will say though, if you are a beginner and just need one eye shadow palette to play with, this is for you. My collection of eye shadows and palettes is constantly growing and so this is nothing special to me but if you are a complete newbie to eye shadow then you will find this palette easy to use and you have enough shades to create and experiment around with. I think I will get my most use out of this palette when I am travelling just because of the basic shades that are essential. 

For £10.95, I think the palette is worth it, especially since there are almost always offers going on over on the Superdrug website, but also because the palette is sturdy and nice to use.

Have you tried this? What are your thoughts?

Grace xx

Links mentioned:

Palette reviewed - http://www.superdrug.com/Nip-Fab/NIPFAB-Make-Up-Eyeshadow-Palette-12g-Sculpted-1/p/730749