This year NYX released some new goodies to their line… from their Butter Lipsticks and Colored Mascaras to some new and fun palettes.  Included in some of those new NYX palettes is the Adorable Palette, Sex Bomb Palette and Dream Catcher Palettes.  I have been testing out these new palettes for the last couple of months and wanted to share my thoughts on the products themselves as well as swatches and photos.  Check out my video review embedded below or click here to watch it directly on YouTube.  Keep reading on below the video for swatches and my thoughts.

Let’s talk Sex Bomb Palette.  This palette comes with six gorgeous shades that are perfect to create a bold and sexy smoky eye.  This palette retails for $7.50 on NYX’s website and was released along with the Adorable Palette (pictured below).  Most of the shades on this palette offer great color pay-off and pigmentation.  They can be a little powdery – but still apply nicely with a great base and/or primer.

The shimmery taupe shade is probably the least of my favorite in this palette as it is very shimmery and leaves behind quite a bit of glittery fall out.  I definitely suggest applying that shade over a creamy/sticky base to keep the shimmers from falling but also to keep from the shadow disappearing after applying.  This shade lasted the shortest on my eyes and creased very easily, even if over my best base and primer.  I attest it to the shimmer and while it can be a pain, it’s still a gorgeous shade.  The black and cream shade in this palette is absolutely awesome – giving you great color pay-off and the matte taupe is a favorite to use all over the lid or as a transition shade.  The red looks like a red in the palette but it did seem like a red with a pink tone to it when used on the eye or swatched.  It’s not a shade I would use often, but it is gorgeous and I love that it is matte.  The charcoal shade in the palette has shimmer, but looks great for smoky looks.  Overall I’m impressed with the NYX Sex Bomb Palette and think it would be a cool addition to any collection, especially at its price point.

Next… the NYX Adorable Palette.  Similar style in packaging to the Sex Bomb palette (and the Natural palette released last year), the Adorable Palette includes soft neutral shades to create an every day neutral eye or even bump it up for a smoky eye.  This palette includes 6 shades in a selection of soft shades to create gorgeous eye looks for those that are looking for a palette that does not include bold bright colors.  If you are someone that loves neutral/nude colors, this would be a great palette for you.  Like the Sex Bomb Palette, this retails for $7.50 and can be found on NYXcosmetics.com, Ulta.com and select stores that carry the brand.

This palette is probably my favorite out of the three that I am reviewing here.  The shades are the most universal for me since I do not use bold shades often.  Even if they look like soft neutral colors, you can easily create a bold and daring look with little effort.  I created the smoky eye below using this palette and it was easy and fun.

A tutorial for the look above can be found here and products used can also be found here.

I’m quite impressed with the colors and their quality in this palette.  The shades are pigmented and you can always build them up easily if you are going for a deeper, bolder look.  While some of them may be a tad bit powdery, blending was easy and the color pay off was great.  The shade that was not my favorite would be the Shimmery brown shade, while absolutely gorgeous with its gold shimmer, you lose the shimmer while blending and you can experience some fall out.  The base for that shade (the dark brown) is still pretty pigmented however, so if you are not interested in the gold micro glitters that are in that color, the dark brown works well.

I love that the Adorable palette is like an all-in-one.  It not only offers you lid and crease shades, you get transition, highlight and even an outer-v shade to create a plethora of eye looks.  I think this palette is probably my favorite because it allows me to use one palette to create a look instead of dipping into my collection to pull for a transition shade or highlight – which I often do with other palettes I own.

The Dusk Til Dawn Palette (Dream Catcher Palette) comes with 10 shades.  It is one out of 3 Palettes that is included in the Dream Catcher Palette Collection.  These are said to be Limited Edition though they have been available on NYX’s Website, Ulta and various Drug Store locations for the last few months – so I’m not too sure if they will hang around a little longer.  Each palette in the Dream Catcher Collection retails for $15 and include rich neutral shades that you can use to create smoky eyes or every day looks.  The particular palette I received (Dusk Til Dawn) includes neutrals and a purple toned shade to create looks.

While the shadows appear to be very pigmented and have a buttery texture, they do offer a heavy amount of fall out and can be very powdery when applying.  I felt that it was quite a challenge working with the shadows because of how powdery they were, but the shades themselves were absolutely gorgeous and offered a great variety for creating a daytime/neutral look or smoky eye.  When working with these – I needed to apply them over a sticky base and I also needed to consistently build up on the color to get the color pay off that you see in the swatches above.  Overall – I think the shades could use a little work, but I would love to see NYX come out with another one similar once the formulation on these shadows are fixed.  As I said before – the colors are gorgeous, they just don’t offer the pigmentation and buttery quality I look for when using eye shadows.  Staying power was also an issue as after just a few short hours, even the dark shades were faded on my eyes over a great primer.

Final Thoughts

I have been using NYX products since 2007 and for the most part, I am always impressed with their quality – especially since the brand is affordable.  For the most part, I think these palettes are pretty good – though I do think the Dream Catcher palette could use a little tweaking in formulation.  If you are just starting off or are seasoned in makeup, I think any of these would be great additions to your collection.  Do you own any of these palettes?  If you do, I would love to know your thoughts on them and if you don’t… what palette do you have your eyes on?

Have you seen my review on the NYX Butter Lipsticks?  Check out my thoughts and stay tuned for a write up with swatches of some NYX Butter lipsticks not yet posted.