stila In the Know Palette: Swatches and Review

stila's In the Know palette features 10 matte eye shadows in neutral earth tones, with names that reflect natural elements: 

air: a light cream
wind: a light nude beige
desert: a  peachy nude
clay: a muted pink nude
earth: a deep cool brown
driftwood: a mid-tone warm brown
fire: a spicy orange (reminds me of the red clay dirt here in Alabama)
rain: a fawn brown
smoke: a cool grey
ebony: a soft black/charcoal gray

For a neutral lover such as myself, it was only a matter of time before I succumbed and bought this beauty!

Shade

Sun

My concern was how well these would apply, as mattes can tend towards being powdery and/or patchy.  When I swatched these, I was pretty impressed, as patchiness did not seem to be an issue.  All swatches are done dry over UD's original eye primer.  Apparently, these shadows can also be used wet, although I've yet to try them that way.

The lightest shades, air and wind, don't show up on my arm swatch as they blend in with my skin.  There is some powder kick up with these, although I did not notice a lot of fall out when applied to my eyes.

air, wind, desert

Pigmentation on clay, earth, and driftwood was good and they applied smoothly.

clay, earth, driftwood

Fire definitely had the best color payoff out of the bunch, whereas smoke was the most problematic.  While the arm swatch of smoke looked decent, it applied very patchy on my eyes.  I finally resorted to using a cream shadow base in a similar color to combat the problems I was having with smoke.  Disappointing, as I really like the color and would have preferred a softer look without the patchiness.  I shall try using smoke with a mixing medium next and see if that works better.

fire, rain, smoke

Ebony applied better than smoke, and I found that lightly taping my brush on ebony was plenty sufficient to pick up enough color and not overdo it.  Also included in the palette is a smudge stick waterproof eyeliner in half moon, a blueish gray.  The liner can be built up and I found it takes a few sweeps to get an opaque line.  Staying power was good.

ebony, half moon eyeliner

Also included in the palette is a  small booklet with instructions with different looks.  I've tried 3 of them so far and will have pictures of those tomorrow.  Overall, I really like this palette.  Most of the shadows performed well and the colors are perfect for work friendly looks or for creating a smoky eye (something I'm still trying to get the hang of). 

stila's In the Know palette retails for $39.00.  I got mine directly from stila, and first time purchases from their site qualify for a 20% discount.

Disclosure:  I purchased this.