Clinique GWP Plums Palette

Gift with purchase offers make me twitchy - as in I start buying stuff whenever I see them.  So, when Clinique had their recent GWP offer, I picked up some foundation and got all these freebies.  Today I'm going to review the Plums eyeshadow and blush palette.

Past experience has shown me that Clinique eyeshadows are not very pigmented and are rather stiff and dry.  They apply on the sheer side and have to be applied pretty heavily in order to get them to show up.  Personally, I don't think I'd purchase them on their own, as the quality for the price just doesn't seem to be there.  I did discover on this go around, however, that when applied over some sort of sticky base, they show up much better.  The matte navy was still a bit sheer, but the other two shades really popped.

The darker swatches were applied over Wet 'n Wild's Techno creme shadow pencil, which is a sheer blue purple.  Techno had it's own issues (mainly being a creasy mess), but it did show me that a sticky base makes the Clinique shadows show up much better.  I didn't get a good lid shot of the shadows without a sticky base, but you can see from this face shot that they are very subtle on their own.  The blush is a nice, soft peachy pink and I had no problems with it.

Here is a picture when I applied the shadows over Techno - quite the difference.  At least now I know that I need to wear some sort of sticky base when using Clinique shadows!

Disclaimer:  I received this as a GWP.