I recently made an impulse purchase at Ulta -What else is new.- and picked up this awesome beauty box! (Post about that shopping haul here.)

I bought it because it was cute, and also because if I bought it, I could get a gold compact worth $25 for only $10... So the choice was obvious...

Now I know I normally only swatch nail polish on I Heart Nail Art, but I do love make up, and thought it would be fun to branch out. I also wanted to make this little makeup series because I am normally quite subdued with my makeup -Read: Boring.- , So I figure this will make me test out the bolder colors, and maybe give them a try. 

I will start with the powder eye shadow. this box comes with four different shadow color palettes, I will be swatching the first one, with is a row of warm browns and nudes, and a row of cool pale pinks.

Molten: A shimmery charcoal brown. Though it looks almost black on skin. Very opaque, my swatch was created using three swipes. Would make a great contour color.

Brown Sugar: A warm light brown color that looks matte in the pan, but then gets a subtle gloss on skin. This is my favorite shade of this group, I think it would look gorgeous in a smokey eye look.

Camel: A light, matte taupe shade. Very chalky, and hard to apply. As you can see in the swatch it flakes easily. It looks darker on skin than it does in the pan.

Lustre: A golden brown shimmer shade. Very smooth, though a bit sheer. Would look great with Glittering Sand.

Glittering Sand: A shimmery tan shade that has an almost green undertone on skin that I'm not that thrilled about. But it applies smoothly and evenly.

Bone: a very pale tan/cream shade that basically shows almost white on skin. I plan on using it as a highlight under my brow bone, inner corner of my eyes, and on my cupids bow.

I included some swatches on blank white paper, so you could see what the shades look like on their own. As you can see, Bone looks very tan and smooth on a blank surface, but on my skin, it looks pure white and chalky.

Wide Awake: a pretty bubblegum pink in the pan that is on the chalky side, and washes out on my skin.

Pink: Very original name. :p Pink is very similar to Wide Awake in the pan, just with a brown undertone.

Love: Love I love, pun intended. It is a brighter pink shade, that is still on the neutral side. It's matte, and applies very smoothly.

Hopeless Romantic: A brown based medium pink shade with a slight shimmer. On my skin it looks very glossy, and way more brown than it does in the pan.

Amethyst: a dark, dusty, shimmery pink that I love in the pan, but it sadly doesn't register the same on my skin. It looks way more brown, and the glitter doesn't blend in very well.

After Hours: A violet based dark pink with the slightest hint of shimmer in the pan. Another disappointment when on skin, it just turns into a brownish/purple mess, that frankly looks like a bruise! It still would work as a contour color for a purple smokey eye look.

On a blank surface After Hours still looks very bleh. But Amethyst almost matches how it looks in the pan, and the glitter looks much more vibrant. If only it looked like that on my skin! It's just so pretty!

While I was sad that some shades didn't match up to the pan when I swatched them, I still feel that the shades were really pretty, and most of them were very smooth and easy to apply. For a makeup box this was surprising! Most sets like this are made with very poor makeup, but this one is of really nice quality. 

My favorite shades would have to be Amethyst, even though it was a bit of a disappointment, Love, Hopeless Romantic, on my skin more so than in the pan, Brown sugar, and finally Lustre was just so pretty when swatched.
I normally stick to matte shades, but the soft shimmer most of these shadows had started to really grow on me. I never thought I would like the dark Amethyst, but actually making myself swatch it for the blog showed me how pretty it was! Baby steps...

Thanks for reading! I hope you liked my first steps in the world of makeup blogging!
Like I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I plan on making this a series, there are way more shadows to swatch, as well as cream shadows, lipsticks, glosses, and even blushes and bronzers. Hopefully you like it! If your interested in seeing the rest of this series, let me know in the comments.

- xo Brittany

What shadow was your favorite? Let me know in the comments!