TheBalm Shady Lady Vol. 3 Eyeshadow Palette

Top row: Lusty Lee, Envious Erin, and Racy Kacy

Middle row: Safe Bet Annette, Runaround Rebecca, and Come-Hither Heather

Bottom row: Open to Offers Olwen, All the Way Annie, and Guilty Gwen

So, sometime last summer, I purchased a bunch of products from TheBalm. The whole thing that spawned this mini shopping spree was their promotion that was going on at the time: Buy all three Shady Lady eyeshadow palettes for the price of one! And you know I had to jump on that deal. Of course, a week after I received these palettes, I sort of... forgot about them. But I promised myself to actually use all of my unopened make-up products this year, so I made sure to bust these guys out. Shady Lady Vol. 3 comes in a slim cardstock case and has a magnetic close. It comes with a mirror that spans the length of the lid. The cover design of this palette features a giraffe print background and the silhouette of a girl along with the name of the palette and the brand in light grey. Each palette contains nine eyeshadow shades, a total of 14.4 grams of product, and retails for $39.50 USD.

Lusty Lee, Envious Erin, and Racy Kacy

Lusty Lee is a light-medium cool-toned silver with shimmer-sheen in a frosted finish. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is slightly cooler than MAC Electra, and much lighter and cooler than Urban Decay S&M.

Envious Erin is a pale warmed creamy white with shimmer-sheen in a frosted finish. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is more white than Tempting Tara, and warmer than MAC White Frost.

Racy Kacy is a medium-dark copper-brown with shimmer-sheen in a frosted finish. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is much more brown than MAC Coppering, and lighter and more copper than MAC Antiqued.

Safe Bet Annette, Runaround Rebecca, and Come-Hither Heather

Safe Bet Annette is a light-medium warm-toned pink with shimmer-sheen in a frosted finish. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter than MAC Da Bling, and more frosted than Urban Decay Heartless.

Runaround Rebecca is a medium khaki-olive with shimmer-sheen in a frosted finish. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is cooler than MAC Sumptuous Olive, and lighter and warmer than Urban Decay Snare.

Come-Hither Heather is a medium-dark mauve-taupe with shimmer-sheen in a frosted finish. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter and more grey than MAC Satin Taupe, and less brown than Urban Decay Bust.

Open to Offers Olwen, All the Way Annie, and Guilty Gwen

Open to Offers Olwen is a medium brightened teal-blue with shimmer-sheen in a frosted finish. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is brighter and more blue than MAC Steamy, and more muted than Urban Decay Deep End.

All the Way Annie is a dark red-toned violet with shimmer-sheen in a frosted finish. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is redder and more frosted than MAC Fig. 1, and darker than MAC Nocturnelle.

Guilty Gwen is a dark softened black in a satin finish with silver shimmer particles. It has a soft, silky, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque to opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is more pigmented than MAC Black Tied, and similar to Urban Decay Oil Slick.

The formula of these eyeshadows is phenomenal across the board — soft, smooth, pigmented, easily blendable. What I like about the Shady Lady palettes is that there is enough variety in the shades that keeps it interesting without being unwearable. They're great for those who want to experiment with colour but not overwhelm themselves, and these shades will work well on most skintones and undertones. Vol. 3 differs slightly from both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 by having less neutral colours, but it still has a good mix of warm and cool shades. On that note, I do think this palette could benefit from more of a variety in finishes (all of these shades are frosted or shimmery) to make it even more well-rounded. However, the price is incredibly reasonable, even at regular retail price, and works out to be much less expensive than comparable brands like MAC and Urban Decay. I still don't understand why TheBalm isn't more widely available than it currently is; their products certainly perform at the same level or higher than many much more popular brands.