35O or 35no; Is the morphe 35O palette worth the hype?

I had been lusting over the 35O palette on Instagram for far too long. Everywhere in the UK was sold out of this palette and I HAD TO have it which meant extreme measures - purchasing from the US. I decided to buy this palette and some other  products directly from the Morphe website which in-turn meant some extortionate customs and shipping fees. So, is this palette worth the hype?

The palette itself: The palette itself is fairly robust. It arrived completely in-tact (thanks the lord) and on first inspection did not disappoint. The palette is a hard black plastic with 35 neutral and orange toned shadows inside. I immediately began to look at the colours I would not  be using purely because they were far too bright to fit into my comfort zone.

The colours: The colours in the palette are absolutely stunning. A mixture of matte and shimmer shadows mean this palette can easily take you from day to night. As with most palette, my initial thought was - are these shadows going to have the colour pay off they appear to have? The colours in the palette are so bright and vivid, I feared they may lack colour pay off. I swatched a few of the shadows - a mixture of matte and shimmer and immediately fell head over heals for this palette. The colour pay off is amazing and the shadows themselves feel so buttery on the skin - not at all powdery like I expected for the price of the palette.

Swatches:

The 35O palette. Swatches are taken row by row, left to right.

Row one - left to right is fairly disappointing when swatched on the arm (obviously shadows aren't meant for the arms). The colours are very pale and neutral in tone and do not show up particularly well on the skin - they do however make an ideal base colour for the lid.

Row two - left to right again is very light when swatched but on the lid they make a beautiful transition colour. The shadows quite honestly look a lot better on the eye than on the arm when swatched (also my lighting is terrible). The swatches do not do the colours justice by any means.

Row three - left to right is a lot more pigmented than the first two rows, The colours gradually become more warm and pigmented in my opinion as you make your way down the palette. Each row is beautiful in its own way for different things. This particular row begins to really focus on the orange hues in the palette, these tones are definitely an easy winner for warm and bright autumnal looks.

Row four - left to right is a lot more warm toned and brown. The colours are gorgeous pigmented and make great crease definition colours (please not, I enjoy makeup and am in no way a makeup artist). I love this row for adding definition to the outer part of my lid when doing a subtle smokey eye.

Row five - left to right has to be my absolute favourite of them all. The pigmentation is incredible and the orange shimmer on the end is amazing. This row is very dark but equally as beautiful as the rest of the colours. I use the majority of these colours as a crease shade when i have applied eyeliner and mascara to darken an eye look. The glitter shades I use mainly on the lid to add a little something to the eye look. The shimmer shades can be applied dry or with a wet brush and give two different but beautiful effects on the eye. I tend to use the light champagne-peach shimmer from row three as an inner corner highlight.

Easy of application:

My eyelook using the palette - as mentioned previously, I am not a makeup artist and have no desire to be, I just have a love for makeup (that doesn't mean I'm any good at applying it!) This picture is taken in my bathroom as it has the best lighting and please not i'm in comfy and warm clothes cause it is most certainly a cold September day in England today!

Of course, I couldn't do my makeup without taking a picture using a snapchat filter. I decided to pop on a dark lip colour (Limecrime Salem) to help make this look a truly autumnal one. I really enjoying doing this look and wanted to share it with you as it used this palette.

Final verdict:

I've owned this palette for well over 3 months now and I can honestly say it is one of my top 3 palettes. It's so versatile and easy to use - the shadows are extremily easy to blend and make doing your eye makeup a pleasure. This palette can be used to create a very easy day to night look. Pop on some lashes and your good to go. This palette gets a solid 8/10 rating from me. My only problem with this palette was how hard it is to get hold of! Cult beauty and beautybay.com do stock it on rare occasions but I have been on a cult beauty waiting list for close to a year. It's easy to get hold of from America if you're happy to may the customs and shipping fees which take this palette from a very affordable £20-ish to close to £35 which still isn't bad for the amount of colours and the quality but its slightly more than its normal price.

I hope this blogpost has given you a little insight into this palette and has made your mind up if you were on the fence about buying it - DO IT, you will NOT regret this purchase.

B x