Ted Baker goodies

Yesterday I braved the snow to go to Wimbledon because my sister was having an audition there. Whilst she was in there I went browsing around the shops in the town centre. I popped into Ely's, one of the department stores, they had one of the best sales going on, lots of really good prices. I managed to pick up a few things, but as I've promised myself to cut down on shopping/spending/buying I tried not to get carried away. There were so many beautiful things in this store. I only picked up two things from Ted Baker. I never used to like this brand but lately I've loved everything from them.  can't get enough of the bows! I'm not supposed to buy any more shoes this year because I have SO many but these were on sale! (You know how it is lol)

The first thing was a pair of ballet flats. They kind of remind me of the Vivienne Westwood Melissa Flats (which are also on my wish list!) I chose black because they are the ones that would go with almost everything and I'd get the most use out of them. And as you may know already, I love anything glittery! 

These were originally £55 reduced to £28

 The other thing I bought from Ted Baker was something I'd been looking at for a while, one of their washbags/makeup bags. I'd been looking at the pink and black one for a while but as these had all sold out I went with the purple and blue which are two colours I love anyway. Again with a glittery bow! This was £29 reduced to £14.50.

Nude Tude Palette

This is the first all "nude" palette I own. I haven't bought the naked, naked 2 or the natural eye palette's yet. Every time I go to buy them, some limited edition products/collection gets released and I find myself spending the money on that instead because the others "will always be there". This was probably the hardest to find palette I have ever purchased, including the Alice in Wonderland book of shadows long after it sold out. 

I knew I wanted to try this palette as soon as I'd discovered TheBalm brand and my love for it is increasing with each product. I did some searching online around November/December time and found a few UK websites that sold this… but to my disappointment they were all sold out. FeelUnique.com and Next.com both claimed to stock this item but still after 6 months of checking their websites neither have restocked and I doubt they ever will. I'd rather they just remove it altogether. 

{Free makeup bag with my order}

I finally decided to order from the official website but had to settle for the "nice" version. This palette comes in two different designs, the nice version and the naughty version. Basically as the palette is "nude" the naughty version has naked women behind each eye shadow pairing. Don't worry there isn't any real nudity it's just a bit of fun with packaging and I personally loved this idea. Unfortunately this version was sold out on TheBalm's website so I figured I'd purchase the nice version or else I could be waiting another six months before having the chance to buy it again. I think it's a good idea that they have the option to buy both as the naughty version may not be everyone's cup of tea. One thing I will mention is the shipping on this item was very reasonable (I shipped to a US address) and my items were shipped the day after purchase which I was very impressed with, I also received a free makeup bag with my order!

The packaging of this palette is very 50s style as with most of TheBalm's products. There are 12 eye shadows in total and comes with a double ended eyeshadow and liner brush. Each of the twelve shadows are named with an "S" word which I thought was a cute idea and ties the whole palette together. 

The shades in this palette are a little different compared to what I've seen in the Urban Decay palette's there seems to be a bit more colour which I think is great because they're subtle enough to still fit the description of "nude". There are no matte shades in this palette, some have a subtle sheen to them and the rest are quite shimmery but not in the chunky glitter way. As far as formula and colour pay-off goes, these eyeshadows are great quality very pigmented and smooth to apply. They're also quite long lasting and I never noticed them creasing. I would still recommend using a primer with them though. I haven't used the brush that comes with it as it looks quite scratchy but I keep it in there anyways in case I ever have to use it. 

This palette costs $36 and is available from www.thebalm.com and www.sephora.com 

Have you used this palette? Are you looking to purchase it? What is your favourite nude palette?