Product Review -- The Balm Appetit Eyeshadow Palette

I am a huge fan of The Balm.

I love their products and I love their packaging, so I always pick up their new palettes and products pretty much as soon as they're available.

Which is why I had to pick up their new holiday palette, The Balm Appetite.

It's designed to look like a menu, with all of the shade names being food puns, and features the usual adorable retro artwork that The Balm uses for all of its products.

The Balm Appetit Palette

The Balm Appetit Palette

And just like all of The Balm's palettes, the Balm Appetit comes in sturdy cardboard packaging. There is a small mirror on the inside that is good for touch ups.

As a fun touch, there's a cardboard overlay with letters cut out that spell "EAT UR <3 OUT" that sits over the shadows so the shades peek through.

The Balm Appetit Palette

Inside, there are nine shadows in a mix of matte, metallic, and shimmer finishes. They include: Bruce Schetta, a matte pale pink; Mac Encheese, a matte lilac; Ray Sinbread, a matte cool brown; Tate R. Tots, a metallic taupe; Rocky Road-Icecream, a metallic purple-y gray; Chris P. Bacon, a metallic copper; Hal Apeno-Poppers, a shimmery pale gold; Artie Chokedip, a shimmery blue gray; and Alfred O'Pasta, a shimmery charcoal.

The Balm Appetit Palette

While I love pretty much all of The Balm products that I've tried, I am an especially big fan of their eyeshadows. They are nicely pigmented, smooth, creamy, and seriously long-wearing.

So I have to admit that I was disappointed when I first swatched the shadows in this palette.

Most felt dry, and a few were somewhat sheer.

But, fortunately, this is one of those cases where the way the shadows swatch isn't necessarily how they apply to the eye (of course, it usually happens the opposite way, where the shadows swatch nicely and apply terribly).

The shadows go on the eyes easily and blend smoothly. They're also more pigmented on the eye than they are when they are swatched, and like all of The Balm's shadows, they last a really long time on the eyes -- I took a nap with some of the shadows on, and when I woke up, they still looked great.

My personal favorite shades are Chris P. Bacon, Tate R. Tots, Rocky Road-Icecream, and Artie Chokedip.

From l. to r.: Bruce Schetta, Mac Encheese, Ray Sinbread

From l. to r.: Tate R. Tot, Rocky Road-Icecream, Chris P. Bacon

From l. to r.: Hal Apeno-Poppers, Artie Chokedip, Alfred O'Pasta

That said, I feel like the Balm Appetit works best as a supplemental palette because there aren't very many complete looks that you can do with it. For example, Chris P. Bacon is gorgeous copper shade, but there aren't very many other shades in the palette that work with it.

In addition, none of the shades in the palette are particularly unique, so while it's a very nice palette, I don't feel like this one is a must-have for everyone.

It retails for $39.50, and is available on The Balm website and Kohl's.

Have you tried the Balm Appetit Palette? Are you a fan?