I Couldn't Resist: bareMinerals The Posh Neutrals Eyeshadow Palette

Admittedly, I've become a bit of an eyeshadow palette snob: these days it takes a spectacular one to set my heart aflutter. But, you know my love of bareMinerals READY eyeshadow formula, documented here, here and here, so as soon as I saw that they had released two more Limited Edition colorways in their Neutral 8.0 range, I knew I had to get my hands on one.

After much deliberation, I settled on READY 8.0 Eyeshadow Palette in The Posh Neutrals ($40 for 0.24 oz), which I belive has the most clear cool undertones out of the three variations. The name is a bit ridiculous and reminds me of my Spice Girls fan days, but I guess that doesn't really matter - for inside the sleek rose gold compact, you find eight beautiful neutral eyeshadows in a variety of depths and finishes.

The shiny compact comes in a simple cardboard envelope with the names of the shades on the back (though notice the inaccurate shade representations both on the outer box and the back of the palette itself) and three eye look suggestions on the inside. I like the packaging of these palettes, even though they're a bit of a finger print magnet - the compacts are small but sturdy and come with a big mirror inside, which makes them the perfect travel eyeshadow palettes. I traveled with both The Finer Things and The Posh Neutrals now (I took it with me on our recent trip to Colorado) and I was very happy with my choice.

I like the rose gold theme, however now it slightly bothers my collector's soul that I have given away the yellow gold Power Neutrals palette, because together with the silver Finer Things, they would have made a beautiful precious metals trio. But, alas - I'll have to deal with the fearful symmetry of just two READY 8.0 palettes.

Now for the important part - the eyeshadows inside. Similarly to The Finer Things, The Posh Neutrals has quite a range of different formulas and textures. Here we have a silky matte (warm beige Promise), mattes with microglitter (Curtsy, white with silver flecks, and Romance, blackened aubergine with gold and copper glitters), satins (light peach Debutante, dusty mauve Waltz and silver sage Caviar & Cake), and high shimmers/ metallics (warm taupe Valet and Sizzle, a light bronze with silver microglitter).

It's a bit difficult to spot those differences in finish in photos, so I've decided to include a couple shots in full sunlight, hoping to capture the more complex shimmers. In terms of pigmentation and texture, these shadows differ quite a bit between the finishes, with the one matte and two metallics being the most opaque and soft, the satins equally soft but less pigmented, and the mattes with microglitter the most sheer and dry in consistency. None of these shadows are bad though - I find all quite easy to work with, even if I have to layer to get more pigmentation. Overall, I like all of them, but find the darkest Romance and bronzy Sizzle the most problematic, as the microglitters have a tendency to migrate and fall down my cheeks.

Shades swatched in diffused natural light in the same order as in the palette.

Swatches in direct full sunlight.

In terms of shade selection, I think The Posh Neutrals is going to suit light to medium skintones the most, both on the cool and warm ends of the spectrum. You can absolutely create a complete eyeshadow look with just this palette, although I wish there was one more medium depth transitioning/blending shade; in lieu of that, I've been using Promise, the only matte in the palette, to soften the edges and tone down the shimmer of other shades. I find the satin shades, especially the muted tones of Waltz and Caviar & Cake, to be the most unique and difficult to replicate, although fans of bareMinerals READY taupe shades will be very content with Valet and Sizzle as well.

Here's a shot comparing The Finer Things and The Posh Neutrals - you can see that the latter has more watercolor tones and less contrast than The Finer Things. I'm sorry I don't have The Power Neutrals anymore to give you an idea of differences between the two, but from my memory (and photos), The Power Neutrals was both a bit more grey and warm. On my fair cool skintone, I do prefer the muted pastel shades in The Posh Neutrals palette.

My favorite eye look using The Posh Neutrals palette is the silvery sage Caviar & Cake on the inner two thirds of the lid with plummy Valet in the outer third and softly in the crease, further blended out with matte beige Promise around the edges. I also applied flecky white Curtsy in the inner corner, light bronze Sizzle along the lower lashline, and used the darkest Romance wet to line my upper lashline. It's quite subtle, but luminous and pretty, and when I tilt my head, you can just about see the copper microglitters of Romance between the lashes.

I hope this was helpful to anyone trying to decide between The Posh and The Sexy, or just generally on the fence about these two new palettes. From what I've seen on Temptalia, they are supposed to be limited edition, although The Power Neutrals was a limited release at first too, and then became a permanent part of the range. Have you been tempted by the new READY 8.0 palettes?