Cargo Lumières du Monde Holiday Palette

Cargo comes out with some awesome palettes (remember Hands of Hope and the Runway Palette?) and when I saw this palette at Macy's yesterday, I was thrilled.
My Macy's has a small section near the entrance that contains brands like Urban Decay, Sue Devitt, Stila, Cargo, etc. Anyways, I was walking by this section when I was ambushed- a sales associate proudly brandished the Lumières du Monde palette at me, and initially, I joined in her excitement.
I mean, the palette is beautiful! Eight large pans of shadows imprinted with this intricate design- I was overwhelmed. And in the center, a two layered bronzer/blush thing that just... called to me.

Indoors, under lightbox, flash. All swatched dry, over bare skin.

Left to right: a shimmery teal, a metallic yellow, a bright sparkly blue, a antiqued gold-olive shimmer, a periwinkle shimmer, a matte white, a matte tan, a matte brown with micro glitter. The three swatches on the very right are from top to bottom: the blush, the bronzer and the blush/bronzer mixed together.

However, once I brought it home it was kind of a different story.
The shadow I was looking forward the most- the olive shimmer was chunky and it just did NOT want to stick to my skin (not even wet, primer, base). Other than that- all the other colors were decent (I mean, they're not as finely milled as I like nor very creamy but... they're shadows)  and the blush/bronzer pan was pretty. Also, I wish the palette also wasn't so bulky (it's almost as wide as the drawer in my Helmer in which it lives).
But... I mean it was only $29. Yeah! Not even thirty bucks. Hopefully in the next few days, I'll find a way to make this palette work for me.

So, what do you think about this palette? Are there any other holiday palettes that caught your eye?

Product was purchased by me, for my own use.