Hello, all! Hope your weekend is going well. My Saturday is pretty tame so far. The nugget wanted Burger King, so we went and found out their broiler was broken. So I drove to the next closest BK and ruined my diet with a Whopper. Don’t judge me! hahaha I got a call from my fiancé earlier who went with a couple of his friends to the Harry Houdini museum in Scranton. He tried to move his car and the key wouldn’t turn. Several other people tried, including a mechanic. He ended up needing a new ignition. Couple hundred bucks. Ouch. So he was really excited about the museum, but it’s apparently a guided tour, so he missed a lot. Major bummer.

Welp, onto the reason I’m writing this blog! I received from Influenster a free Maybelline City Minis palette. All of the following opinions are my own.

Maybelline City Mini eye shadow palette in Urban Jungle

I was pretty excited to receive this and there were a few different ones I was hoping I’d get. More on that later.  The 6 colors in the eye shadow palette, Urban Jungle, are very pretty. They are all either shimmery or glittery except one. There is a description on the back that tells you what colors go where, i.e. as a base, on the lid, etc. When I opened it I was surprised to see that there were no applicators. Nary a one. I know I’m way behind on the whole make up brush thing. With the amount of space I have for my make up, it’s easier for me to use the applicators. Luckily, I already had a pack of them because the applicator in another eye shadow palette had come apart.

The base color is an off white shimmery shadow, which I applied all over my lid and brow area. For the lid, there are two colors- one is a shimmery mustard yellow/gold and the other is a dark glittery olive. I applied the yellow over my whole lid and the olive to my outer lid. Next are the crease colors- one is a shimmery olive leaning bronze and the other is a matte(yay!) deep olive green. The sixth color is a liner and is an almost black olive with bronze glitter. I used the liner only on the outside of my eye because I DO have a lining brush, but couldn’t find it. I then lined my eyes with Almay’s black eyeliner and applied some Mary Kay mascara. It turned out pretty cute. The glitter wasn’t an overwhelming aspect of the shadow once applied. I took a picture of the finished product, but it looks terrible as I don’t know how to take make up pics. Plus my camera picked up every damn pore in my face, so it wasn’t very flattering.

I had been hoping to receive one of the matte palettes as I think I’m past my glitter years (not in polish, obviously). I’m 38 and don’t have the look anymore to pull that off. Maybe if I lost 40 pounds. Right now, though, mattes flatter me most. Plus, shimmery shadows show up terribly in flash photography. I don’t have the paparazzi following me, but you never know when a photo op will pop up!

I may use this again, although browns and purples play up the green in my eyes most. The colors were very pigmented, buildable and blended nicely. All in all, the City Mini palettes seem to be a good buy!  The only reason they lost points with me was the lack of applicators. Get thee to Rite Aid (or wherever) and pick up one of these palettes.

Thanks for stopping by the blog!