The Balm Appetit Palette Review & Swatches

Leave it to The Balm Cosmetics to come up with the cutest, most irresistible packaging ever...especially the new Balm Appetit eyeshadow palette($39.50). It has a food-theme and comes complete with hilarious shade names...Chris P. Bacon anyone?
But cuteness aside, is The Balm Appetit palette worth adding to your collection? Keep on reading to find out my thoughts!

The Balm Appetit is made in the USA and contains nine shades in both matte and shimmer finishes. The overall color selection is cooler-toned muted neutrals, with one warm orange shade thrown into the mix.

The color selection actually reminds me a lot of the Meet Matt(e) Nude palette. There aren't any dupe shades but the overall tone of the palette is definitely similar with mostly cooler shades.
So if you already own Meet Matt(e) Nude or aren't into cooler-toned shades, you might not find yourself drawn to The Balm Appetit Palette.

Again, the packaging is totally adorable...around the mirror are some hotties (a.k.a. dishes) that you can order from the "menu" with prices underneath. Five of the six guys are shades that are included inside the palette except for Phil Le'Mignon, which I found to be a little bit strange.

Covering the palette itself is a flap with cutout letters that spell EAT UR <3 OUT...it's all extremely adorable.

When you open the flap, you're greeted with nine eyeshadows in large square pans. I do enjoy this about a lot of The Balm's palettes...the eyeshadow pans are wide and easy to get a brush (or your fingers) in there easily.

The top row of shades includes Bruce Schetta, which is a matte cream browbone/highlight shade, Mac Encheese, which is a mauve-y matte transition shade, and Ray Sinbread, a muted matte brown transition shade.

The second row offers three medium-toned shades Tate R. Tots (a cool-toned dusty rose shimmer), Rocky Road-Icecream (a shimmery lavender with a bit of gray undertone), and Chris P. Bacon (a warm burnt orange shimmer).

On the bottom row, you have Hal Apeno-Poppers (a light matte taupe), Artie Chokedip (a muted medium blue-gray) and Alfred O'Pasta (a deeper blue-gray shimmer).

If you're familiar with The Balm's eyeshadows, you probably know that they don't have that creamy, buttery feeling that Urban Decay and Too Faced shadows have...they feel a little more dry to the touch, but are still incredibly pigmented. They don't have any of that chunky fallout that softer, more buttery formulas can have, but they can be a little dusty (especially the matte shades). Still, those with oily eyelids will likely appreciate the slightly drier formula.

I didn't have any issues with pigmentation until I got to the last two blue-gray shades...they just didn't swatch very well. They went on kind of patchy and sheer- I had to build up Artie Chokedip in my swatches below and it still doesn't look very pigmented. But aside from those two disappointing shades, the rest of the palette swatches nicely and applies/blends really well with a brush.
I should also mention that Hal Apeno-Poppers was pigmented but it's so close to my skin color, it just about disappears in my swatch photo.

Overall, I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I can definitely see myself using the top two rows of the palette pretty often, but I'm not crazy about the bottom row. I don't wear grays/blues that much and the third shade on the bottom doesn't show up on my skin tone. So for me, that means I'm getting about six useable shades for $39.50 with this palette. Granted, they are six beautiful shades, but I'm not sure it's worth the money in the end.

I absolutely love The Balm and own all of their eyeshadow palettes so when I think about them all together, I can see myself reaching for Meet Matt(e) Trimony or one of the Nude 'Tude/Nude Dude palettes over this one most of the time.

So while I wouldn't consider this palette to be a total flop, I don't love it as much as some of The Balm's previous releases.

What do you think? Have you picked up the new Balm Appetit palette? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

You can find The Balm Appetit now at TheBalm.com and shortly at Kohls stores and Kohls.com.