Nearing the end of summer, NYX put out a whole ‘In Your Element’ palette collection. There were 6 palettes with 12 shades each, inspired by different elements. I picked up 2 of them, in ‘Fire’ and ‘Earth’. I’ve had these for quite a while now, and have played with them so much, so I’m putting up a review!

Let’s get out there right away and say, my one gripe about these is honestly the price. These are $30 a piece. I KNOW RIGHT. NYX has built their brand on being affordable and known for their high quality, with a lower price. So when they dropped $30 eyeshadow palettes, I was honestly taken aback.

When these were at Ulta, they had an amazing sale on all of NYX, so I got them for $21 each instead. However, they seem to have been limited edition to Ulta, as they’re not available on their website anymore. They are still available on NYX’s website, but you won’t get the Ulta sales or points unfortunately.

At least with the higher price, they really have beautiful packaging. They come in nice, sturdy and thick plastic packaging, with unique designs to each palette. They also have nice large full size mirrors, so they’re good if you want to take them to travel. The pans on these are large as well, giving you a good amount of product.

I’ll still just mention the higher prices, especially because my whole blog is based on affordable makeup. So this will be a honest review of the product, and then from there you can decide if you want to spend a little more on it. Obviously, it’s still a much cheaper option than most higher end palettes – so always something to remember.

Even though they are more pricey, I honestly love them (spoiler) and still have the other shades on my wishlist.

 

So let’s get into the review. Since both palettes had the same formula, I’ll just talk about both here, and then show swatches for each individual palette after!

For both of these, I found they had a similar formula. The matte shades are very pigmented, so they can come off very strong at first. But if you lightly dip in, and tap off your brush, you can slowly build them up. They blend out so nicely and don’t just blend away as you go. This goes the same with the satins – basically any of the shades that aren’t completely shimmery.

As for the shimmers, they swatch so beautifully, and can be built up on the lids better with your finger. They can be a little harder to pick up on a brush – you need something more dense to grab the pigment. They won’t be as stunning on the lids are they are in the pan on their own, but they are still quite a pop.

However, I find that, like other shimmery shades from different brands I’ve used, I prefer to use them with a glitter primer (both Hard Candy and NYX have amazing ones for less than $6! – I’ll be talking about both soon). After blending out my crease shades, I take a little of the primer and pat it on my lids, and then pat the shimmer shades right on top. And its then that you get the full look of them in the pans.

The shades are absolutely stunning, and wear all day on my lids.

So overall, I’m in love with these palettes. They have beautiful formulas, and I didn’t really find a dud shade in either one! Okay fine, NYX, you got me. It’s a higher price, but it’s also a better formula than we’ve ever seen from NYX.

So let’s get into the individual palettes.

First up is the ‘Fire’ palette! This has a beautiful fireworks pattern all across it.

It’s obviously full of fiery tones, with bright pops of orange, red and yellow, as well as some warm browns, and some deeper ashy grays.

It’s not a palette for the faint of heart, especially with that bright red there in the middle. But there’s honestly some good neutral browns and burgundy shades, so you can work your way up. There are more toned down colors for some lovely deep fall looks.

If I had one complaint, it would be the lack of a lighter, more mid tone crease shade. The matte blending shades in here can range a little darker, so lighter looks are a little harder to come by. But this palette is obviously built on the idea of a more bold look, so mid town crease shades aren’t an absolute must.

But this is certainly a unique color range, and if you’re looking to be more adventurous, this is definitely a step towards the bold! It’s about your own color preferences, and what you would wear.

And here are the swatches! That brown shade in between the red and the orange swatches a little patchy, but it blends better on the eyes. That 2nd shade from the right reminds me of the good ol’ blue brown pigment from Mac, or the beautiful shade from the Wet N Wild Comfort Zone palette.

As you can see you don’t have many light toned crease shades. You get what looks like 6 truly matte shades, 4 shimmery shades, and some lovely satin finishes.

The next two photos are more of a close up so you can see the shades even better. These are all done without primer.

I also didn’t find too much fallout on my face – just make sure to tap off the matte shades before you go applying them. They can grab a lot of product when you dip in at first, but if you tap it off, you’ll be fine. Same goes with the shimmer shades – they’re not loose glitters at all, so you won’t find glitter on your face throughout the day.

And warning: selfie ahead. Ignore my shotty iPhone camera, but I went for a bold look one day using the yellows and reds. They all surprisingly blended so well into one another, which can be difficult with those particular shades. I love this for when I’m feeling wild with my makeup.

And the other one I have is the ‘Earth’ palette. It’s got a really cool, geometric, layered rock sort of pattern on the front. I honestly love the packaging on these, and they look so cool, even when closed.

This one is a little more toned down than the ‘Fire’ palette, with lots of lovely berry and orange tones. This has more of a variety of colors, and definitely gives me the autumn vibes.

Just look at that beautiful green and gold shimmers.

This one gives you more of the neutrals and crease shades not found in the ‘Fire’ palette. But you can still get some bold looks with those pops of berries. I’ve honestly been absolutely loving using this very often for my everyday looks. I’ve been loving the burgundy.

This palette offers the neutral crease shades that you can pop with the shimmers for so many different shade combos.

And you can get bolder looks out of this as well! This was a look I did with the burgundy shades, and the shimmery gold and green shades.

With some glitter primer, those shimmers are absolutely stunning.

So there are two of the ‘In Your Element’ palettes!

Though these might be a little more on the pricey end for drugstore makeup, you are getting lots of product, and an absolutely beautiful formula. They offer some really unique color ranges, so if you’re looking for color to add to your collection, these are great options.

They’re available on the NYX website for $30 each. (Heading into the holidays, you’ll probably get some sales going as well).

I’ve got my eye on a couple more of these.

Have you picked up any of these?

 

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