Stila In the Know Palette: Review and Swatches

I attended IMATS LA a couple of weeks ago, and it was an amazing experience. It really is heaven for a beauty junkie. I went last year as well, and this year it was even better than before; the shopping and discounts are of course the main draw, and did not disappoint in the least, but I also enjoyed meeting and chatting with bloggers and Youtubers, some of whom I have followed for years. Seriously it is such a fun experience, and if you are ever able to attend one, don't hesitate at the chance! Anyways, I ended up with basically the biggest haul of my life, so have decided it might be best to break down the items I purchased to some standouts and by vendor.  This little gem has to be what I am most excited about from my whole haul.

Now, for anyone who read my 7 deadly sins post, you will recall that I mentioned my serious love/hate relationship with matte eyeshadows. I absolutely love the idea of a matte shadow for definition in the crease, highlighting, blending, etc, but I find that in execution a lot of them are extremely difficult to work with, even from some of the highest end brands. While I was at the Stila booth, I spotted this entirely matte palette; I surprisingly hadn't heard anything about it (I found out later that it hadn't been released yet), but I decided to swatch it on a whim, and more or less expecting to hate it. And I have to tell to you that I was completely blown away. These matte shadows are so creamy and pigmented, I really couldn't believe it, and I knew I had to have it.

The palette comes with 10 neutral matte shades, and also one of their Smudgestick waterproof eye liners in Halfmoon. The colors are: air (ivory cream), wind (peachy cream), desert (light sandy peach), clay (neutral pink), earth (dark chocolate brown), driftwood (milk chocolate), fire (orange terracotta), rain (rosy mauve brown), smoke (gray charcoal), and ebony (black.)  As I stated above, these shadows are creamy, soft, pigmented, and now that I have played around with them more, I am willing to state these are probably the best matte shadows I have ever used; the only real competition in terms of quality is Inglot, but since Stila is much more accessible for most people, I would have to say these win out. My only complaint (and it's a minor one) is that I feel like the palette could have used a couple more midtone shades; I feel like most of the colors are either very light or very dark, and if someone were to use solely this palette to create their whole look, they wouldn't have too many options to use as a daily all-over the lid color. However, for my purposes, this really doesn't matter, as I intend to use the colors mainly for highlighting, crease colors, and blending, and go elsewhere for a shimmery color all over the lid.

Bottom Row Swatched

Top Row Swatched

 The eyeliner is excellent quality as well; I am glad they included a dark gray liner rather than a black or a brown, as I don't have one in this color. In fact, I swatched it hours ago, and it is still vividly imprinted on my hand, despite several hand washings. I have another one of these liners that came with the In the Light palette, and I love it. It glides on effortlessly, but stays in place all day.

Halfmoon Liner

Overall, I say run out and get this palette if you have been in the market for some high quality matte shades. I think I am going to get a lot of use out of this palette. I should mention that I got this at a substantial discount sincce I was purchasing at IMATS (40 percent off!) but that I would gladly shell out the $39 dollars for this. I still think that is an amazing value for 10 eyeshadows and a full size eyeliner that retails for $20. If you couldn't already tell, I love this; it might seem a little basic and boring, but trust me when I say it is incredibly handy.