Barry M ‘Natural Glow’ Eyeshadow Palette | Review & Swatches

Barry M Palette 1 Barry M Palette 2 Barry M Palette 3Ever since writing our post on the Barry M new releases I was feverishly excited to try out the new products. Despite some misses (Brow Pen, we’re looking at you), Barry M are a brand we both love and so I was eager as the proverbial beaver to see them work their magic in their latest products.

I was particularly interested in the eyeshadow and blush palettes, so when I was in Superdrug recently I nearly jumped for joy when I saw that this was finally in stock. I chose the ‘Natural Glow’ palette as, let’s face it, neutral colours will always have my heart and loins. Plus, it had the nicest blusher shade of the three so I was completely sold on it.

On first impressions, this is a gorgeous palette. The packaging is sleek, sturdy and contains an extremely useful and good sized mirror in the lid. It also comes with two applicators, which I don’t think anybody ever really uses but, well, we’d moan if they didn’t include them, wouldn’t we? I like the colour range (though if I was being picky I would like them laid out from lightest to darkest, but Barry M weirdly didn’t ring me to ask my opinion on this) and the equal mixture of shimmer and matte.

So, all is looking positive. And then we move onto the application…

988716_10152481766502565_895789291_nand very unfortunately the product falls down a little bit for me. The pigmentation is simply not as good as I was expecting. It’s much better on the shimmer shades than the matte, but as I’m more a matte girl anyway this isn’t much comfort to me. I mean, really, can you even see that first shade? It just looks a bit like a bruise, and that’s not reeeeally a look I go for.

I’ll hold my hands up and say I’m WUBBISH at applying eyeshadow, so I really need quite strong pigmentation to actually be able to see what I’m doing. People who are naturally more skilled in the eyeshadow department (i.e. everybody, probably even my neighbour’s dogs) will probably be able to get more from the palette, but for me it’s a bit  too much of a struggle trying to work colour into the crease for quite little payoff. I think maybe I’ve been spoiled by MUA’s Undress Me Too (which you can see me rave about here) which is just amazingly pigmented.

On the bright side, this morning I realised that the third shade along is actually the perfect match for my light eyebrows so I’ve used it to fill them in a bit. It took quite a few layers to actually, er, see it at all but I’ll definitely get some good use out of it in that respect.

996935_10152481766547565_892204057_nThe blusher is a bit more pigmented than the shadows. It’s still quite subtle, but that’s better with blushers anyway because at least you can’t get carried away and end up looking like a clownish idiot. As you can see, it’s a nice pale pink with a slight glimmer to it so I’m much happier with this part of the palette.

These retail for £6.49, which is still an excellent price for six shadows and a blush, and to be honest it still makes a good addition to my makeup bag as a product I’ll turn to now and again. Kind of like if I was a Victorian man and had a mistress – you know, like I’ll never really love her but she’s good for a bit of a change now and then. Yep, that’s my analogy and I’m sticking to it.

Have any of you tried the Natural Glow palette from Barry M? What did you think of it?

14 Responses

  1. Kat October 11, 2013 / 10:21 am

    Ahh shame it’s not very pigmented as the shades are really nice! You can’t fault good old Bazza normally xx

    • Claire October 11, 2013 / 11:12 am

      Definitely, considering even their lipglosses are so colourful I definitely expected something a bit more noticeable! xx

    • Claire October 11, 2013 / 11:13 am

      Ahh glad you found it useful – I always feel quite bad listing the negatives of a product, but I really appreciate it on other blogs as it stops me wasting my money too 🙂 Saying that though, it might be worth swatching a tester in store to see whether you have the same opinion as me – I’m sure some people will get on fine with this xx

  2. liza October 11, 2013 / 10:47 am

    Such a shame about the pigmentation i expected more from Barry M really, and why on earth they didnt call you about the palette layout I’ll never know!
    Liza | Glambeautys | YouTube

    • Claire October 11, 2013 / 11:15 am

      Same, it’s a shame when a brand lets you down a bit! Maybe the other palettes are better though, I suppose when it’s called ‘Natural Glow’ maybe more subtlety should be expected? xx

  3. jenn October 11, 2013 / 12:22 pm

    I love this. Your writing really makes me chuckle!
    I had a play with this in Superdrug the other week and I wasn’t overly excited by it. I’m glad you did this review to really show what it’s like. Nice blusher though I guess…

    • Claire October 11, 2013 / 1:33 pm

      Haha oh thank you, glad it amuses someone other than myself 😉 Yeah I think it’s just not lived up to the hype unfortunately – the blusher is a redeeming feature but then is so small it probably won’t last long! xx

  4. Bea October 12, 2013 / 8:06 am

    I love your writing style, so engaging! It’s a shame about the pigmentation but for £6.49 it’s hard to complain! xx

    • Claire October 12, 2013 / 10:02 am

      Thank you, that’s so nice of you to say!

      Definitely, it’s such a good price for 6 shadows and a blush too – and I’ve read a lot of reviews of people who seem to think the pigmentation is goo,d so others might be even happier with it 🙂 xx

  5. Alice January 26, 2015 / 4:43 pm

    I agree that the pigmentation is barely there!
    I was going to buy this palette but came across your blog, I think i’ll pass.
    nice review 🙂

    http://fullycurious.blogspot.com/

    • Claire February 3, 2015 / 10:35 am

      Ah glad you found it useful! I do use the dark brown shade a lot now for my eyebrows, but even after all this time I barely use the other shades xx

  6. Lauren October 6, 2015 / 8:34 pm

    Loved this! Love your writing style too, you made me laugh! Was looking at buying this and found your blog! I’ll be visiting more often 🙂 🙂

    • Claire October 7, 2015 / 8:58 pm

      Aw thank you! Glad you liked it – and let me know if you like the product 🙂 xx

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