L’Oreal LaPalette Nude 2 | 1st Impressions Review

While wandering around CVS recently (waiting for a prescription), I noticed a product I’ve never seen in a drugstore before… a big beautiful eyeshadow palette like the kind you only see from high-end makeup brands, but this one was from L’Oreal (and was half the price of the high-end palettes)!

There are 2 palettes from L’Oreal called LaPalette Nude 1 and LaPalette Nude 2*. Both have 10 big pans of color with both matte and shimmer tones, but LaPalette Nude 2’s dusty taupes, greys, and lavenders were more up my alley so that’s the one I bought. What I love most about this palette is that out of the 10 eyeshadows, 6 are matte and only 4 are shimmers (but the shimmers aren’t glittery, just a very wearable soft satin finish)! This makes it especially useful for mature women.

The palettes retail for $19.99 at most drug stores, but Walmart* and Target* sell it for $5 less! I think the price is good considering the size and quality of the eyeshadows. The size of the pans and the colors are similar to the Urban Decay Naked palettes which retail for $53. L’Oreal LaPalette Nude 2 is kind of a cross between UD Naked 3 and UD Naked Smoky.

There are instructions for a few different looks on the back of the palette and the brush that comes with it is actually usable! It’s got a foam end and a small soft shading brush on the other end.

There’s a nice variety of very wearable tones here from soft pinks and taupes to coppers and browns to rich plums so it seems like it would offer many different looks and be fairly versatile. The colors are very pigmented and the shadows themselves are soft and easy to blend. They are slightly more powdery than I’d like and they do have a little fall-out so tapping off the brush is a must! They’re not as creamy as the shadows in the original Urban Decay Naked palettes, but they are comparable to the newer UD palettes which aren’t as creamy as their predecessors either.

Since I got the palette while on my annual beach vacation in Rhode Island, I’ve only used it a few times and for very pale subtle eyeshadow looks. . . I really don’t wear makeup on my RI beach trip – it’s very casual down there with lots of time spent paddle boarding, biking, swimming, sunning and grilling in with family and friends.

I did record a tutorial on a pretty pink/mauve day look using the first 5 shades in the palette and I’ll do more tutorials on it in the future to put the darker colors to the test. Based on my first few uses, my only complaint about the eyeshadows is that while pigmented, the colors tend to blend away a bit so it takes a little extra packing to build up depth of color, and extra care not to blend them away too much. That said, application is a little more “fool proof” for those not super skilled or experienced with eyeshadow because the colors don’t go on heavy or dark and are so very blendable.

I always use an eyeshadow primer so I can’t say how the eyeshadows wear on their own, but using the Tarte 360 Creaseless Smoothing Primer gave me all day wear with little fading and no creasing. Because there’s no real “glitter” in them there wasn’t any sparkly fallout below my eyes as the day wore on. . . the soft shimmer looked just as good after 10 hours as it did when first applied.

Late at night after 10 hours of wear… still looks good!

All in all, I’m thrilled that this kind of palette is now available at the drug store! I’m loving that there’s no wasted pans of glittery electric blue that I’d never touch anyway. L’Oreal did a great job with the color curation and showed real restraint in creating a palette that has usable shades without sparkle that real women (especially mature ones) can use on a daily basis!  . . This one is a Winner!!

*All products featured in this article were purchased by me. There are no up-front paid product placements in this post. There may be one or more affiliate links marked with an *. This means that if you use the link and purchase a product I receive a small commission on the sale. It does not cost you anything extra, and you are free to purchase products where you wish and use the links or not as you choose. But if you do choose to use my links, thank you!