Bobbi Brown Bronze Tortoiseshell Eye Palette

Bobbi Brown has 2 different neutral eye palette options with her Tortoiseshell Collection: Sand and Bronze. I opted for the darker version, Bronze Tortoiseshell ($60), although both were equally gorgeous. The palette comes in a two-tiered brown mirrored compact and I love that the packaging is beautiful, simple and sturdy with no frills. These palettes have a good mix of textures ranging from matte to shimmer to sparkle. I think Bronze will be an extremely versatile palette that will allow one to create a wide range of looks.

The Bronze Palette is the warmer/darker option of the two in Bobbi Brown's Fall collection. I find it neutral-warm, leaning more towards warm. The shades in the top layer of this palette:

• Banana is a matte yellowish cream (doesn't show up on my arm, but mattes out the lids)
• Gold Nugget Sparkle is a bright gold with micro sparkles (I normally don't like Bobbi Brown's sparkle eyeshadow formula but this one is lovely)
• Olive Sparkle is a sparkly olive-gold (same lovely olive with gold flecks, subtle enough so the sparkles aren't like glitter)
• Bronze Metallic is a soft warm bronze (not to be confused with her Bronze Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow which is more golden)

The bottom layer colors include:

• Tiger's Eye Metallic is a shimmery orangey amber
• Espresso is a matte dark brown
• Copper Cocoa Shimmer Wash is a shimmery warm chocolate
• Amber Shimmer Wash is a soft peachy orange-gold

When I saw the preview photos pop up a few weeks ago, I immediately dismissed these thinking they would be repeats of prior seasons. Both Sand and Bronze are indeed similar to past creations, and while I'm not a fan of palettes that have more than 5 shades, they are good staples. I wouldn't call these must-haves. However, Bronze does have a gorgeous palette of shimmers with a few new unique shades. This is very "summery" which I find season-appropriate for right now. Add the fact that I liked 6 of the 8 shades in this palette made it a very easy sell for me. To date, I've only had a chance to do one look with this using the top four shades layered and blended together with Espresso applied with a damp brush as a liner. I'm looking forward to experimenting more with this.