Natural Eyes Eyeshadow Palette - splurge or save?

Hello!

During Spring Break this year, I went on a bit of a road trip with my mom.  We drove up the Island to my Aunt and Uncles house to visit with them and my cousins for a few days.  It was such a great time...I miss them already ♥  Anyway, during the drive and while I was there, I read blog posts and watched YouTube videos about makeup (typical...).  And after having my eyes on it for ages, I decided that I REALLY wanted to buy the Too Faced Natural Eyes eyeshadow palette.  It has so many beautiful and wearable shades, but sadly it comes with quite the price tag...45$.  

Now being thrifty and pretty much broke (I buy WAY too much makeup), I decided that I probably shouldn't buy the palette after all.  So I went back to browsing the internet for hours, eventually stumbling upon pictures of the new Hard Candy Natural Eyes Eyeshadow Palette.  And guys, it's pretty much an EXACT dupe for the Too Faced one!!!  They even share the same name ☺ But this one has a much friendlier price tag...8$.  The Hard Candy brand is only sold at Walmart so on the trip back home, my mom and I stopped at every single Walmart we passed in hopes of finding this gorgeous palette.  It was sold out almost everywhere but finally, at maybe the 5th store, I was able to grab the very last one they had in stock ☺ 

I was very pleasantly surprised to see that even though this is a drugstore palette, it had a metal case (very similar to the Too Faced packaging)!  It closes magnetically and is a super cute muted gold color. It also had a nice sized mirror and a little booklet with some little tips and looks to re-create. 

The shadows are pretty much exactly the same as those in the Too Faced palette, and they`re also set up in trios.  I was pleasantly surprised with how pigmented and creamy some of these were.  The swatches below are from just one swipe of the shadows but you can build up the color by applying more.

I wasn't much of a fan of the primer honestly.  It didn't prevent my eyeshadow from creasing which is a big part of its job.  I much prefer the Maybelline Color Tatoos or the Geo Girl cream eyeshadow if you are looking for an inexpensive primer.  But I did quite like the eyeliner.  It`s very opaque and blends really well for a smokey eye. (primer and eyeliner swatches ↓ )

I don`t actually own the Too Faced palette, so I can`t do side by side swatches or comparisons. But I did find a video to show how similar they really are if you`re interested..  

       

I hope you enjoyed this post and that it helped you out if you were looking for an inexpensive neutral palette, or were eyeing the Two Faced Natural Eyes Palette like I was.


hugs

Maiya