theBalm The Balm and the Beautiful Palette Review & Swatches

So you know the frustration you get with those palettes that mix cream and powder products together so when you get the tiniest bit of fallout it magically attaches itself to the cream product? That's not a problem with this theBalm palette because they are super smart about their packaging and I can appreciate a company that thinks not only about the product itself but how it works with their packaging.

The smart thing that theBalm does is have separate covers for the cream products and the powder products which helps to prevent fallout from messing up the cream products. The covers are magnetized and it is not difficult to open at all.

There's ingenuity in the design and it's something I honestly wouldn't mind other companies copying. It looks like the design isn't exclusive to this palette, as their Balmbini palette also had separate covers for the cream and powder products.

It's also the little details that count. If you can see in the picture above, there's a small piece of ribbon underneath the brush and it's there to help get the brush out of the crevice easier. You simply pull on it and out comes the brush. Honestly, such a small thing and while I may never use the included brush it's good to know that they think of ways to make it easier for me as a consumer to use their product.

As I said in my 2nd to last post, this is the same as the Muppets palette, only in a "TV Soap Opera" theme. I think the Muppets palette is rather cute but it's limited edition (only 1000 were made) and has a price point of $44.50

Anyway, this palette consists of sixteen eyeshadows, two lip/cheek stains, and one lipgloss. Unfortunately my camera is eating up the purple tones in "The Brain Surgeon" and making it look very blue toned.

Note the separate cover and the design ideas on the inside of the cover.


So eyeshadows first. These were done with a swipe of my finger over ELF Mineral Eye Primer. This is the first row of swatches. From left to right; The Oil Tycoon, The Estranged Mom, The Supermodel, and The Bad Boy. The Oil Tycoon is a little more red toned in real life.

The second row. From left to right; The Southern Belle, The Mother-In-Law, The Guy Who Died But Didn't Really Die (an awesome name for an eyeshadow by the way!), and The Mistress

The third row. From left to right; The Step Brother, The Coma Patient, The Police Man, and The Brain Surgeon


The last row. From left to right; The Neighbor, The Stockbroker, The Basket Case, and The Older Woman. The Basket Case is a real contender for being a Stila Kitten dupe but I have yet to compare the two. The Stockbroker is one of the best opaque shimmery whites I've ever seen, it's amazing.

When it came to the eyeshadows, the only one I had trouble with was The Coma Patient, the pale lilac/pink in the second row. I felt I had to do a little more work to get it to work but it's still a decent color. The rest of the eyeshadows are smooth, buttery, pigmented and I didn't get oodles of fallout with it. They're also not too soft.

Now onto the lip/cheek stains and the lipgloss. On my oily unprimered skin, I got six hours of wear time. On my lips, I wore it for two hours, ate pasta and some of it was still there afterwards, although a little uneven. My lips do not feel dehydrated at all after wearing it on my skin. It dries to a nice soft matte finish on the lips.

From left to right; The Drama Queen, The Perfect Man, and the Evil Twin. The Drama Queen and The Perfect Man are the lip/cheek stains.



Here are some lip swatches too. By the way, you can really build up the color to make it brighter, I chose to do a sheer layer on my lips.

Bare lips

The Drama Queen. This is a really pretty watermelon pink type of color, something I think would be flattering for most people and it has no shimmer or glitter.

The Perfect Man. This seems to have silver glitter running through it.


The Evil Twin, a nude color with no shimmer or glitter.


Of the two lip/cheek stains, I prefer The Drama Queen only because I think the color suits me better. The Perfect Man is a little more bubblegum pink/purple tinged with glitter which I think doesn't work that great with my skin tone plus I don't think it'd be friendly with the enlarged pores on my cheeks. Both are still good products, colors that I can build up but can also apply sheerly. I hope theBalm decides to release these two lip/cheek stains separately.

I'm not sure about how I feel on The Evil Twin lipgloss. I don't know if it is a little too light for me but I shall keep wearing it to see how I like it.

All in all, a fantastic palette and a positive first foray in theBalm. I may need to check out the rest of their brand because I'm so impressed with their eyeshadows. I think that theBalm has been a very underrated brand and right now I'm convinced that I need to see the rest of their products.

This retails for $44.50 and you get 28.8 grams of eyeshadow, around 1.8 grams per shadow, 4.4 grams of lip/cheek stain, so 2.2 grams per color, and 2.2 grams of lip gloss. If you were thinking about getting an eyeshadow palette, let it be this one. I'm actually skipping out on the Urban Decay Book of Shadows because I'm much happier with this one.

The eyeshadows are comparable to the Shady Lady eyeshadows but for the rest I can't find anything. Either way, it's worth the $44.50. To put it in perspective, MAC eyeshadows retail for $15 and have 1.5 grams of product. For the price of around three MAC eyeshadows, you're getting sixteen eyeshadows, two lip/cheek stains and a lipgloss.

Hope this helps to sway you one way or another on whether you want this palette or the Muppets one (this is the same palette but just in different packaging).