Review Time! ♡ : Bare Minerals "Degrees of Dazzling" 20 Piece Eye Shadow Collection

So around Christmas, I've received this beautiful eye shadow collection as a gift from my grandmother. When I opened it, I was in utter shock. This long thing was literally the most gorgeous makeup set I have ever touched in my entire life. I was so appreciative that my grandmother would even go out of her way to even get me this beautiful eye shadow collection. Grandmothers right? You just got to love them! And along with that present, she gave me ANOTHER Bare Minerals makeup collection set. Which will be reviewed by yours truly in the near future ;) Alright so let's get right into it. Presenting today on A Blog About Beauty xo.. (DRUM ROLL PLEASE!)

Bare Minerals "Degrees of Dazzling"! A 20 piece eye shadow collection that comes in 4 different kinds of finishes! Velvet Finish, High Shine Finish, Glimmer Finish, and Liner Finish, with 5 eye shadows in each category. So let's get right into it! Picture above taken by me from my Instagram page.

So here we have the "Velvet Finish" eye shadows. Gorgeous neutral colors that are perfect for anyone that are afraid of those "pop, in your face" statements, but still want a little color. These are perfect for a neutral smokey eye.

The Velvet Finish eye shadow names. Top, left to right: Velvet Mauve, Velvet Emerald. Middle: Velvet Lavender. Bottom, left to right: Velvet Nude, Velvet Charcoal.

And here are the swatches of these eye shadows on my arm. Left to right: Velvet Mauve, Velvet Emerald, Velvet Lavender, Velvet Nude, Velvet Charcoal. Velvet Mauve is this muted rose bruised color with warm undertones. Velvet Emerald is this deep forest green. Like a jade emerald, just as the name itself. Velvet Lavender is a pastel purple, almost a white like snow color to it. Velvet Nude is just like the name itself. A yellow based nude, perfect for a tear duct shade on the eyelids, for all skin tones! And lastly, Velvet Charcoal is a purple undertone charcoal black, lovely for a outer-v crease color in the eye. Recommended color to use for a smokey eye! I have to say that they are pretty creamy, and they do have a quality about them that seems to feel like "velvet" to the touch, but honestly, I'm very sad at the fact that when I try to take them off, all of them just rubbed off instantly on my arm, instead of Velvet Mauve and Velvet Charcoal which left just a little tint of color left over. So in a situation where if someone just wanted a natural look as their eye shadow and they would want to take it off easily with makeup wipes, then these 5 colors will be perfect for you. But not in situations where if you have a high fashion photo shoot, first date, or to even go night clubbing, you definitely need something to hold you over longer than at least 3 hours. These colors will still do, I just recommend putting on a heavy duty eye shadow primer, or just a little bit of concealer as a base on the eye lids before applying these.

Here are the "High Shine" eye shadows. By far my favorite category from this collection. These eye shadows are literally high shine color, with loose based glitter in the pigment. Be real careful with these because one false application, these will get all over on your face. My best recommendation is to put a loose tissue underneath your eye, or a makeup pad with a little bit of tape when applying these. Perfect for packing onto the eye lid or to even put as an outer crease color.

The High Shine eye shadow names. Top, left to right: Pewter, Stay Golden. Middle: Deep Sea. Bottom, left to right: Iridescent Iris, Rose Gold.

And here are the swatches for the High Shine eye shadows on my arm. Left to right: Pewter, Stay Golden, Deep Sea, Iridescent Iris, Rose Gold. Pewter is a silver eye pigment with a medium tone purple as it's undertone. Stay Golden is just like what it means as the name; a bronze gold. Deep Sea is by far my favorite one out of the whole collection! A deep teal with a jade undertone. Iridescent Iris is a beautiful bright lilac. And Rose Gold is a bronze rose, not so much of a gold color.

Here above are the "Glimmer" eye shadows. More of the matte finish, but still highly pigmented, pastel eye colors. These here are perfect to make that bright pop of color, statement shade. Or you can mix them with other calming shades to bring the look a little more neutral. Remember when to apply these, make sure to put a loose tissue. Don't want your face to get glitter overload! Unless you like that kind of look..

The Glimmer eye shadow names. Top, left to right: Silver Dollar, Ginger Sugar. Middle: Violet Spell. Bottom, left to right: Golden Pear, Strawberry Mousse. 

Here above is the swatches for the Glimmer Shadows on my arm. Left to right: Silver Dollar, Ginger Sugar, Violet Spell, Golden Pear, Strawberry Mousse. Silver Dollar is this highly pigmented silver white, chocked filled with glitter. Can you say perfect brow bone shade? Ginger Sugar is a warm toned muted gold with just a hint of shimmer underneath. Violet Spell is a matte light violet, beautiful color in the inner corner of the eye lid if creating a statement eye look. Golden Pear is a muted light matte shade that does resemble the color of a pear in person. Lovely as a lid color for a nude eye look. Strawberry Mousse is a pastel baby pink, reminds me too much of those "It's a Girl!" baby banners at baby showers. Still love the color none the less!

And last, but definitely not least, above here is the "Liner" eye shadows. Meaning that these shades are as an eye liner for above the lash line or even underneath the water line. But never mistake what the packaging says, in the makeup world, you can basically use anything you want on your face, as long as your happy! These shades are still perfect as an eye shadow color. And in my opinion, these liner shades are the most beautiful colors I have ever graced upon in my entire life.

The Liner Finish eye shadow names. Top, left to right: Black Leather, Starry Night. Middle: Toasted Espresso. Bottom, left to right: Lagoon, Yoga.

And here are the lovely swatches for the Liner eye shadows on my arm. Left to right: Black Leather, Starry Night, Toasted Espresso, Lagoon, Yoga. Like I said, I just love these liners. You just can't go wrong with a good eye liner at the end of the day right? These are perfect if you are not the kind to do crazy eye looks or you just want to run errands in the day, but still want to look good while you just rolled out of bed, these are PERFECT for you. These colors will bring out any eye color too (personal opinion by moi). Highly pigmented, I can honestly say that these were even messier than the glitter pigments. But hey, if it's opaque and pigmented, IT WORKS! Yay! Black Leather is literally a black leather jacket kind of black. IN LOVE. Starry Night is a deep violet with shimmer, perfect for night time (says the name - HA!). Toasted Espresso is a deep warm toned bronze with just a tiny hint of brown underneath. Lagoon is a deep, midnight teal, resembling what the ocean looks under a full moon light. And Yoga is a rusted, copper brown with rose tones underneath.

So that's it! That was a LONG blog post, and I hope you enjoyed it. I honestly love all these shadows and I would 100% recommend this collection to any one who is just starting to play with makeup. Or to even anyone who has a huge obsession with makeup and would still like to grow their collection. And shhhhhh... just between you and me, Bare Minerals actually still has this product left online, and it's on SALE for $49.00! If you order this, you get FREE SHIPPING when using their promo code that's left by them in the description box of this product. Now that's what I call a deal. Here's the link to lead you to the eye shadow collection set.

http://www.bareescentuals.com/Degrees-Of-Dazzling/US66616,default,pd.html

So I hope you like this long blog post I wrote for all you lovelies. And just for the record I'm not getting paid to say this. I'm meaning this from the bottom of my heart that I am truly in love with this product :)

Love you, xx