Stila's "In the Know" Matte Eyeshadow Palette - Review
Thursday, November 06, 2014
In my search to widen my matte eyeshadow collection, I came across Stila's "in the Know" palette. I already have the "In the Garden" palette which I love so i thought what the hell? It also helps that I managed to pick it up on BeautyBay.com on sale =^_^=
The In the Know palette contains 10 matte neutral eye shadows ranging from a super pale off white to a deep smoky black and a Stila smudge stick eyeliner pencil in a matte grey colour called Halfmoon. It also contains a mini lookbook with 8 different looks to try out with the shades contained in the palette. It's RRP on Stila's site is $39 and can be found on third party retailer sites as well.
The shades are described as:
air - matte beige
driftwood - mid tone brownwind - soft matte peachfire - matte brickdesert - soft matte tan w/warm undertonesrain -matte brownclay - matte warm light brownsmoke - matte charcoal greyearth - deep matte chocolate brownebony - matte black
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| 'scuse the scuff marks and dents, it got thrown in my handbag with who knows what LOL |
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| close up of the first 4 shades |
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| close up of the last 6 shades |
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| swatches L-R: air, wind, desert, clay and earth under bounced daylight balanced flash |
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| swatches L-R: driftwood, fire, rain, smoke and ebony under bounced daylight balanced flash |
I found the smudge stick to be less smudgey and more waterproof than the claims it makes LOL. It looks great as a day time top lid liner, and stays put for an 8hr day with no transferring or smudging. I'm also really digging the cool matte mid-grey shade too, I haven't got anything like it in my stash.
One thing to look out for is the wind up mechanism only goes up, if you wind up too much you can't reverse it back down!
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| the included smudge stick in the shade halfmoon |
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| close up of the nib - be warned, you can't wind it back down! |
The packaging is lovely; the palette is made from sturdy cardboard that's light weight but feels solid, it has the shadow names printed on the back which I find really handy, a huge mirror on the inside (a big step up over the In the Garden palette) plus a quote by Sarah Lucero that says "when a woman knows, she knows".
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| sturdy cardboard construction with a embossed foil printed label on the lid |
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| all the shadow names are listed on the back - I love the earthy vibe/theme |
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| side by side comparison of In the Know and In the Garden palettes |
Overall performance of the shadows is the usual Stila high standard - buttery soft and easy to blend with just the slightest amount of dustinesss/kickup when you dip a brush in them. As far as the matte texture is concerned, I'd say 8 out of the 10 have a slight satiny-ness to them with Air and Wind both being really matte-matte and slightly more powdery.
The biggest triumph I find with this palette though is the selection of colours. There's a great mix of cool and warm browns and two great off kilter shades (Fire and Smoke) to mix it up with, plus the always important inky matte black workhorse. I can definitely see me throwing this in my travel bag because its such a no brainer, has all the mattes I could need and its a handbag friendly size.
So if you're looking for an inexpensive, everyday, practical palette or trying out mattes for the first time and want some variety, checkout Stila's In the Know palette.
Bambi xox
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