theBalm and the Beautiful Palette (same colors as Muppet Show Palette)

Okay I am officially not allowed to buy anymore makeup unless I absolutely need it! I haven't really bought much makeup the last few months so all this theBalm stuff at such a good price isn't the worst thing ever, right?

"TheBalm and the Beautiful" palette is apparently the 2011 holiday palette and is basically the same palette (identical in colors!) as theBalm "Cast your Shadow" Muppets themed palette currently available now. Not sure why this palette was at TjMaxx so early, but lucky me! I actually think the packaging of this one is pretty hilarious. My mom loves her soap operas. I'm not really a huge fan of them, but sometimes I will watch them with her and they are just so hilariously dramatic. I think theBalm did a great job poking fun at daytime soaps with eyeshadow names such as "the guy who died but didn't really die," "the coma patient," and "the basket case." Pretty funny and accurate. Okay enough yapping, here's the palette!

Despite how cute the packaging is, ultimately I don't really care if the packaging is pretty or not. What I really want is sturdy and smart packaging. One thing they did with this palette that I think was a great idea was separate the powder products from the lip/cheek products below. There are two magnetized flaps: one is the larger flap that covers all the eyeshadows and a smaller bottom flap that covers the lip/cheek ones. This guarantees you won't get powder in your creamy lip/cheek products below since you can cover them while you're using the eyeshadow. Very clever!

Swatches:

Oil Tycoon: reddish brown
Estranged Mom: medium green with a touch of gold undertone
Supermodel: warm orange-toned gold.
Bad Boy: very dark, slightly reddish brown with subtle glitter

Southern Belle: medium blue
Mother-in-Law: dark grey
Guy who died but didn't really die: very pretty taupe! leans a bit more grey so it's slightly more cool.
Mistress: light Silver-grey

Step Brother: a solid green!
Coma Patient: frosty light pink with slight purple undertone
Policemen: true sky blue
Brain Surgeon: love this color! dark purple (leaning warm)

Neighbor: soft yellow gold

Stock Broker: white! it's a very smooth white though, not stark or harsh at all!

Basket Case: very light beige, cream

Older Woman: light peachy pink

As someone commented to me earlier, "holy pigmentation batman!"

Drama Queen lip/cheek stain, bright coral. this color is soo pretty!
Perfect Man: lip/cheek stain, cool toned pink
Evil Twin: lipgloss, nude pink. it is actually pretty thick and opaque for a lipgloss! on my lips it appears a bit more like a dark nude, but still very nice and goes with a ton of looks!

The eyeshadows are all amazingly smooth and buttery. On the whole, they are very pigmented-- one or two of the shades took two swipes to swatch, but that's not a huge issue to me. The shadows have varying degrees of pearly sheen (some more metallic than others as you can see in photos) and you won't find any mattes in the palette (sorry matte lovers!). Fantastic quality and you get 16 shadows! Endless possibilities really!
The lip/cheek stains are great. They blended really nicely on my skin and felt creamy and were very pigmented on my lips as well! The lipgloss as I said was creamy and opaque and felt comfortable on the lips as well. I haven't tested them out a whole day but the cheek stain wore for at least 4-5 hours today until I took my makeup off.

I believe the palette is normally $44.50 which is actually a very reasonable price for the amount and quality of products you are getting! I got it for less than $20 at TjMaxx so I definitely recommend making a trip to search for it there before buying it at regular price. No idea why theBalm is popping up in all these Marshalls and TjMaxx's but I am SO glad!

Also, please let me know if you want any specific eyeshadow swatches and comparisons! I'd be happy to do them for you if I have the color you want to see it next to!