Review: The Balm Shady Lady Vol. 3

While having a shopping frenzy on Bloom.com, I came upon this new palette of pretty shades from a company I had never heard of before called, The Balm. I was initially intrigued by the 9 good size shadows being offered to play with that was attached to a “steal” of a price (thanks Bloom),  and then of course the color selection sealed the deal. If you have never heard of The Balm before, it was founded by Marissa Shipman who came up with the idea after purchasing 11 books off of Amazon and researching how to make cosmetics.  Then of course she went completely “Suzy home-maker” and started mixing colors and product in her kitchen. That’s normal right? I wish I was this cool. Now her products are being sold all over the world (even Sephora) and have had mentions in all of our top favorite magazines like Shape, Lucky, and Glamour.

As you can see, the casing is a 4 by 4 square that is made of a sturdy cardboard material which makes it very easy to carry with you anywhere. When you open it up, it has a nice sized mirror for touch up’s and a magnetic strip hidden inside the casing to keep the shadows secure.

I like the shades of the colors chosen for this palette, they all go very well together plus there are so many combo’s to choose from. You really could choose a different look for every day of the month if you wanted to.

Left to right: lusty lee/envious erin/racy kacy

Left to right: safe bet/runaround rebecca/come-hither heather

Left to right: open to offers olwen/all the way annie/guilty gwen

Here I am rocking my “shady lady” look. I definitely think that you need to use a shadow base before putting on these shadows. I did not do that as I wanted to get a good feel for these shadows and what they do on their own. At first I was sort of disappointed with the color pay of, it wasn’t as much as I thought it would be since they looked so vivid in the packaging and the swatches were so pigmented. But I ended up getting by brush damp and then dipping it into the shadow to get more color which seemed to do the trick. With that said, I would still recommend using a primer to forgo the hassle of the water situation.

So here is how I got the look:

1. Use Envious Erin under the brow bone and into the tear duct to create highlight.
2. Place Safe Bet Annette into the middle section of your lower eyelid and towards the tear duct. This creates a nice soft pop of color and dimension.
3. Using a blender brush, sweep Racy Kacy in the contour of the eyelid blending towards the inside.
4. Next, gently sweep Guilty Gwen in a sideways like “V” to add some mystery and depth.
5. I really wanted to incorporate the turquoise color called Open To Offers Olwen since it was calling my name. So I placed that along the base of the eyelid next to the lash line with an angled liner brush to pull out the color in my greenish-blue eyes.
6. Not shown in the diagram is the black liner I used to give me more of a “night time” look. With  your black liner, trace along the upper and lower lash line, connecting the end’s together. Because I wanted the outside’s of my eyes to be the most intense, I only took the lower lash liner in about a half of an inch.

Pro’s and Con’s

Pro’s:  I love the easy casing as I am a mom and need items that are simple to carry around without the worry of the packaging falling apart. There are 9 shades from neutral to colorful, so it will fit any mood swing I might have. I mean…mood change, I don’t have mood swings. Well, okay, it’s possible they happen from time to time.  Moving on- the normal price tag for this palette is $39.50 which makes them $4.38 a shadow, a killer deal!

Con’s: My biggest “con” for this product is that the shadows have glitter specks in them. While it makes your eyes look pretty, the glitter found it’s way to lot’s of places on my face which then made me have to do some “post shadow” damage control. So, Unless someone has a trick up their sleeve that I don’t know about, I would suggest doing your eyes first, sweeping off the speckles, and then doing your foundation, concealer etc. Also- the shadow color’s were more subtle, but that is easily fixed with a little water or primer.

Final Thought’s

Would I purchase this product again? Yes, I would! This is the only product I have ever tried from The Balm, so far, so good. I have used this palette nearly every day since I received it, so it has been a good purchase for me! I have heard the lip product’s are amazing from this company, so that is the next item on my list from them.

To purchase these products, or to check them out further, go to: www.Thebalm.com.

*Note- This item was purchased by me and are my original thoughts and opinions.