Review & Swatches! NYX's New Love in Florence Palette in Meet My Romeo

Hello all!  Time for an eyeshadow review!

NYX annouced these for Spring 2013, and as soon as I saw the promo shots I  fell in love.   I knew I needed at least one (or two or three ) of them.  I ended up picking up two.  Here's the first of the two palettes I picked up.  They are not limited edition, and are now a permanent part of their collection.

The first palette I'm reviewing is Meet my Romeo (LIF01).  Here's what NYX says:

" Live, explore and discover Love in Florence through the lush 5 color eye shadow palettes available in rich hues catering to all eye colors and looks! This compact palette comes with a dual ended applicator so you can carry the kit and spread the love everywhere you go. Available in 10 different complementary collections." (source)

Sooo first lets talk about packing. Yes..I need to go there, because this has some of the cutest packaging I've ever seen.  Take a look at this bow!

That bow is on all of their palettes (3 pans, 5 pans, and 9 pans).  

Now.  The nitty gritty- how did the shadows perform?

Eh.

To be perfectly honest, I wasnt impressed.. I was truly looking forward to having fun and playing around with these shadows, but they do not do well.  

Without a primer the first taupe shade is sheer, and loaded with glitter (leading to tons of fallout).  The middle shade is a nice highlight, and actually was one of the few shades that did well.. The third shade is a lovely chocolate brown, but once again, sheer.  I like to use matte shades in the crease, so I used the two liner shades at the bottom (which are both mattes)  in the crease.  Sadly, both were also on the sheer and patchy side.

Over a primer, obviously all the shadows did better , but they're still not as pigmented as I'd hoped. 

Break time for swatches! Click to enlarge..

(swatches over bare skin-no primer)

(indirect sunlight)

(direct sunlight)

Overall: It makes me sad..because I was unbelievably excited to use these.  The first taupe shade actually reminded me of Sidecar in the Naked Palette (except it turned out to be its much sheerer cousin).   Maybe it was the palette I chose (I did choose neutrals over the bolder colors after all), but I found most of the shades to be on the sheer side, and the liner shades were a bit patchy.  Will I be tossing this? No.  Over a primer (aside from the sheerness) they did actually do well.  They didnt crease or fade.  I'll be using this as a quick  work look ( I work retail..no ones looking at my face..).  

I'm not counting these palettes out yet tho..I still have one more to go...

Here's hoping it does well...

.2oz/$7.99@ Ulta

Bought this myself/all my opinions