December 2013

This holiday Bobbi Brown has introduced a new version of her Shimmer Brick Eye Palette in Sequin ($48.50 for .14oz/4g, limited-edition). This palette packs in 10 different high shimmers in pale colors. It’s probably the smallest palette I own at a little over 4 inches long. The pigment is excellent for these shades similar to her regular-sized shimmer bricks. I never purchased her prior shimmer brick palettes for eyes since they either sold out instantly or were a bit heavy on the aqua colors (light greens tend to make my olive skin look too yellow). I was happy to find this holiday’s version contained more neutral colors better suited or my skintone.

The colors apply quite shimmery on the lids. I usually don’t like frosts but find Bobbi Brown shimmers, metallics and sparkles are very wearable for everyday (sparkles are ok for me with a very light hand). Shades from left to right include a pale cool pink, a tan gold brown, bright baby pink, soft mauve, golden oyster, mauve pink rose, platinum blue, mauve purple, silver taupe and cool silver beige. Close ups of each side.

Left side:

Right side:

Application tips I’ve received include swiping your fingers or brush over multiple colors and blending over the lid or picking 2-3 individual shades and layer them one by one. Since each bar of shimmer is very tiny (brushes shown below for size comparison) I find it hard to take a regular sized fluffy brush and only get one color on. I’ve been experimenting with this for a few weeks now and love using 1-2 shades individually or mixing any number of colors. Since most of the colors are neutral you really can’t go wrong with any combination.

Sizing:

 On the nails, Tom Ford Black Sugar (reviewed here)

For size reference to brushes you can see that some of my smaller brushes can barely fit into each block of shimmer. MAC #219 is a pencil defining brush which I usually like to use for smudging darker colors. You can use this one to highlight corners as well. MAC #239 is one of my holy grail basic shadow brushes. The width is bigger than the blocks but you can still fit into one color by tipping it to the side or at an angle. Trish McEvoy’s Smudge Brush is another one of my tiny brushes (shown for size reference).

Swatches below. Note the combination of sunlight with flash and shimmer highlights the frost.

This one shows the color a bit better:

Overall a huge thumbs up. It’s such a pretty petite palette. Although pricey I love the combinations of colors in this set. It’s small but once you open the compact you can’t help but gasp at all the gorgeous sparkles. It’s neutral enough for everyday wear or to add a bit of shimmer to your look.

I bought mine in store at a recent trend show – it should be available at all Bobbi Brown locations now (while supplies last since it’s limited-edition). You can also find it online at Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus and Sephora.

Affiliate Links