Physician's Formula Anniversary Eye Palette: Classic Nudes (Review and Swatches)

This was a kind of random purchase that I did mention a while ago on this blog, when PF was rolling out its 80th anniversary collection.

Amazon had the palettes for a dollar off, so I paid $6.50 for this. I had never tried the PF matte formula, and I heard the shimmers in the two anniversary quads were special, so I thought to give this a try.

Before I get into my verdict, let us look at some pictures:

If I had to make a prediction, the sudden influx of colorful palettes are eventually going to make people nostalgic for some neutral love. And neutral love is exactly what this palette offers.

The palette is housed in a metal and plastic tin, with a cover that can be folded all the way back, which is great. I normally don't really care about how sturdy the palette is for travel, but the design of this palette, and the type of palette it is, really make it excellent for being on the go. I have taken this to work with me a couple of times just in case I needed to touch up my eye look.

I had never used the PF mattes before, though I knew their matte quads were cult-classics. Still, I was really pleasantly surprised with how well the mattes blended on the eye. My own quibble is that the brown looks a lot darker in the pan than how it goes on. I like the color a lot, but it could be a bit misleading.

When I originally anti-hauled this product, I pointed out that having the white metallic and yellow metallic was a missed opportunity, because those shades are so close together. I still agree with this, and wish we had two metallic shadows with greater color discrepancy. Still, the quality of the metallics is really nice. They are high-sheen and are not that messy compared to other shimmery shadows. However, they feel almost gritty to the touch. The white one is more sheer and gritty than the yellow gold.

That being said, I have created really elegant, simple looks with this palette, which is sometimes just what I want- to go back to basics. Of course, the highly metallic, foiled like nature of two of the shadows does make this a step up from your run of the mill basic neutral palette.

If you can find this on Amazon, I think it is a great buy. The mattes are unlike anything I tried before, and are truly easy to work with. The shimmers are lovely, too. The quad gets my recommendation.

Thanks for reading!