It’s about time I finally picked up a BH Cosmetics eyeshadow palette to tryout for you! Are they as great as they appear? Let’s find out with the Beautiful in Barcelona palette.
Being the eyeshadow palette connoisseur that I am, it’s quite embarrassing how long it’s taken me to get around to trying out a BH Cosmetics eyeshadow palette. For ages, they’ve caught my eye and I’ve seen them making the rounds on social media, but for whatever reason I just never got around to picking one up till I found this beauty hanging out at my local Ulta.
If you saw my recent post with a full face of drugstore makeup reviews, you may recall seeing the Beautiful in Barcelona palette already. As promised, though, I wanted to follow up that post of first impressions with a more detailed review. After all, there are 16 shades in the palette and that’s a lot to see!!
My First BH Cosmetics Eyeshadow Palette
The Beautiful in Barcelona palette from BH Cosmetics has 16 shades and rings up for $16. That’s a pretty great value in my book!
Immediately what drew me in, of course, was the striking color selection. From neutrals golds to vivid blues, the versatile selection would make for an infinite amount of eye looks and as someone who hates to be boxed in…I can definitely appreciate that. I also appreciate the mix of shimmers and mattes. A+ there.
Unfortunately, though, I have a bit a of a bad news — while beautiful, this BH Cosmetics eyeshadow palette didn’t work out for me as well as I had hoped. Allow me to walk you through all that with swatches below!
Shop the Palette
BH Cosmetics Beautiful In Barcelona Eyeshadow ($16)
BeautyBay * BHCosmetics.com * Ulta
Inside the Beautiful in Barcelona BH Cosmetics eyeshadow palette:
- La Ramba: Matte nude
- Enchanting: Shimmery rose
- Stone: Matte mauve
- Fiesta: Shimmery deep black/brown
- Exquisite: Shimmery peach
- Mediterranean: Shimmery sea blue
- Treasure: Shimmery gold
- Carnation: Matte orange
- Familia: Shimmery orange
- Getaway: Shimmery champagne gold
- Spain: Matte burgundy
- Dulce: Matte warm-tone brown
- Vacay: Shimmery bronze
- Flamenco: Shimmery deep green
- Picasso: Shimmery navy blue
- Azul: Matte bright blue
Messy Application
Eager to give this a try, I sat down at my vanity with a full set of clean makeup brushes and dug in. Immediately, though, I was taken back by just how messy the shadows are to work with from the pan. There is a lot of fallout here — A LOT. So much so that I’d get eyeshadow all over my pants and so started applying the BH Cosmetics eyeshadow palette with a towel on my lap as I continued to test it out.
Pigmented Shadows
While messy, I do have to give a nod to how pigmented the eyeshadows truly are. They do deliver on that front and I met my expectation (and hope) in that department.
Patchy and Difficult to Blend
Onto another negative, though, while the BH Cosmetics eyeshadow palette game with a lot of pigment — the shadows were all very patchy to apply and difficult to blend out.
At first I thought maybe I just needed to get accustomed to the formula as this as happened to me before with palettes that I ended up loving before. But truly, with each use the opposite happened. I began to hate this palette more and more every day because the shades just were so incredibly patchy to work with and a challenge to blend. What I envisioned in my mind never came to fruition as I tried to make use of as many shades as possible.
If you’re applying one or two shades all over your lid, fine. The palette does okay there. But if you’re trying to create a multi-dimensional look to celebrate the beautiful selection of shades…you’re going to get frustrated. It takes solid WORK to make this palette work. No, it’s not impossible to craft a beautiful look with the palette — but when there’s better out there at the same price, I just stopped seeing the point.
Inconsistency Between Shades
When swatching the Beautiful in Barcelona BH Cosmetics eyeshadow palette I of course noted that some shades swatched better than others, but when got to work using the palette I REALLY started to notice the inconsistencies.
What I found is that the warm orange and gold shades perform the best. When I dipped into the deeper shades, I found that they’re much dryer to work with and that they’re much dryer to work with. They drag on the skin. They don’t like to blend out and were pretty frustrating to use.
Shadows Last All Day
On a positive note, I do have to say that the shadows do last all day long. Hooray for that, right! No matter what type of eye look I was going for, I did always start off by applying the nude shade La Bamba all over my lid to create a smooth and even workspace. From there, the shades seemed to do well at staying put all day long. Even when going to water aerobics or the gym after work they held up – which is essentially a miracle.
BH Cosmetics Beautiful in Barcelona Rundown:
The Pros:
- Vegan and cruelty-free
- Good value for the price
- Excellent color range
- Nice mix of mattes and shimmers
- Long-lasting shadows
- Nice packaging with full-sized mirror
- Available at Ulta, BeautyBay and BHCosmetics.com
The Cons:
- Lots of fallout and messy to work with
- Very patchy and difficult to blend — particularly the darker shades
- Inconsistency between shades
Overall Grade: C
I’m a little shocked to be grading this BH Cosmetics eyeshadow palette so lowly because it is obviously beautiful. But after using this day in and day out for two weeks, I just can’t get on board. The shades are so beautiful but such a nightmare to deal with. They’re patchy and quite difficult to blend. And as you fight to blend them out, the fallout of the shadows starts to create a real problem. This was especially annoying when using the deeper, dark shadows included in the palettes.
As a whole, the Beautiful in Barcelona palette is of course a great value and has a really nice shade range — but there is much better out there at the drugstore and you deserve better. If you’re on the hunt for a nice affordable eyeshadow palette, I highly recommend checking out ELF’s New Classics palette or even Essence’s Ola Rio palette instead.
Shop the Palette
BH Cosmetics Beautiful In Barcelona Eyeshadow ($16)
BeautyBay * BHCosmetics.com * Ulta
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XOXO
Kelly
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