Stila In The Light Palette Review and Swatches

I long to find a natural/organic eye shadow palette with great colours and colour payoff for a decent price.  I have never had a palette nor have I ever had more than a couple of shadows at once.  Yes, I am a real girl...I was never big into makeup.  Don't judge! I usually find a colour and stick to it, then I play with my lips and cheeks.  I'm a simple kinda gal but am branching out more each day and this palette has definitely helped me.  I wanted a good mix of matte and shimmer shadows to play with.  This palette is wonderful and although it isn't natural, it is cruelty free.

Description: The new In the Light palette is a beautiful collection of Stila's award-winning eye shadows in (10) wearable, neutral shades for every skintone that can be worn wet or dry.  The palette also includes an exclusive Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Damsel, a matte chocolate brown, and a 6-page look book with detailed how-to tips and tricks.

For starters, I don't particularly like the packaging.  I find it sorta of cheap since it's a cardboard box type thing and the shadows are glued in (I believe).  I'm scared the palette will fall apart while traveling or just from constant use.  There's also no mirror, which I normally wouldn't mind but I sometimes find myself looking at where the mirror should be to see how my shadow looks.  The look book is great for someone like me, who's not a makeup guru, because it allows me to try a bunch of looks I otherwise wouldn't.  I used one of the looks for a wedding I attended and got so many compliments on my makeup.  I now create looks without the look book and will try to do some faces of the day soon :).

The shadows are nicely pigmented, for the most part.  There are a couple that I find disappointing, such as Gilded Gold, Luster, Night Sky and Ebony.  They aren't very pigmented when you first apply them but are buildable.  I just find them disappointing because I don't want to have to build up the colour, I want them to apply evenly without having to work too hard to create a look. There is some fallout with these shadows, but it's easy to work with. I tend to use Bare, Kitten, Sunset and Bubbly all over my lid (not all at once) with bliss and sandstone in the crease on a daily basis.  I also use Sandstone to fill in my brows sometimes. I absolutely love all of these colours and this palette in general.   

Top row from left to right: Bare (matte ivory), Kitten (shimmering nude pink), Bliss (matte nude), Sunset (copper shimmer), Sandstone (matte neutral brown)
Bottom row from left to right: Champagne (pale gold shimmer), Gilded Gold (bronze with gold shimmer), Luster (deep gray with gold shimmer), Night Sky (slate blue with silver shimmer), Ebony (matte black)

Left to Right: Bare, Kitten, Bliss, Sunset, & Sandstone

Left to Right: Bubbly, Gilded Gold, Luster, Night Sky, & Ebony
Below Shadows is the smudge stick in Dasel

All of the colours as listed above

I haven't really used the smudge stick very much but it is very creamy and doesn't budge once it's on.  I use it along my upper lash line just to make my lashes look thicker but liner isn't something I use regularly.

This is a better swatch of Damsel, it's a matte chocolate brown but when you apply more than one "coat" (can't think of a better word at the moment), it almost looks black as you can see from the top swatch 

All in all, I'd highly recommend this palette.  The great combo of neutral matte and shimmer shades (although some have chunky glitter) got my attention and why I picked it over the Urban Decay Naked palettes. Go check it out!

Retails for approx. $50 CAN and can be purchased at Sephora.  I had a store credit and only ended up paying like $20 CAN, good deal eh!?

What's your favourite shadow palette (natural or not)?