Review & Swatches | XO Memebox X Nylon Sweet 16/#ItGirlPalette | Hello Pretty Bird! - A beauty and not-so-glamorous lifestyle blog

19 April, 2015

Review & Swatches | XO Memebox X Nylon Sweet 16/#ItGirlPalette

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I have to tell you something: I love colors. More specifically, I love wearing bright colors on my face and body. I also love Memebox and a lot of the own-brand makeup they've been putting out lately, but after a whole bunch of releases I found myself wishing SO HARD that they'd put out a colorful palette instead of another one containing neutrals and rosy shades. Don't get me wrong, some of those palettes are gorgeous—but I wanted something new. Thankfully, my eyeshadow wishes were answered: Meet the Memebox X Nylon #ItGirlPalette, which is filled with bold, vibrant and fun shades. Yay!

XO Memebox X Nylon #ItGirlPalette

Product description:
"#ItGirlPalette is NYLON’s special gift to its readers in celebration of their 16th anniversary. All colors were carefully picked by NYLON’s senior beauty editors with a strong emphasis on versatility and uniqueness. Each color packs a punch so you can amp up the night with just one shade, or blend your favorites to create a custom look! This palette is a must-have for all gals that are edgy, trend-setting, and f***ing awesome. Cruelty Free."

F*** YEAH!!! I like colors that pack a punch. This palette contains eight shades (punches?) and retails for $29.

Ingredients and whatnot:

XO Memebox X Nylon #ItGirlPalette ingredients warnings

FYI, there is also a warning on the side o the box that says "Sweet 16 shade in the palette is recommended as a blush as it contains a colorant that is not approved for the eye area in the US, Canada and Brazil. For external use only. Stop use if signs of irritation occur."

That sounds scary, but don't be too alarmed—the FDA is pretty strict about what pigments are allowed to be labeled as eye-safe, even if they're approved eye-safe in other parts of the world. In some cases it can also mean that a pigment hasn't even gone through the FDA approval process yet. My personal feelings on this are that if a pigment is considered eye-safe in the EU, then I feel comfortable using it in my eye area, but I don't have any known sensitivities to those types of ingredients. I can't tell you what to do, but it's always good to proceed with caution if you have sensitive eyes. (I used Sweet 16 on my eyes and they didn't fall off though, so....)
XO Memebox X Nylon #ItGirlPalette size

Anyway. The Memebox X Nylon palette is houses in a slim black plastic case that measures about 6cm X 10.5cm. That's exactly the same size as the Memebox X Pony Shine Easy Glam #2 palette, if anyone reading has that one. The Nylon palette contains 9.7g of product distributed amongst 8 shades (again similar to Pony palette #2, which has 9.8g of product).

XO Memebox X Nylon #ItGirlPalette

Inside there's an amply-sized mirror, applicator brush, and removable plastic overlay with the shade names (not pictured).

XO Memebox X Nylon #ItGirlPalette brush applicator

The applicator has a mini shadow brush on one end and a pointed sponge applicator on the other. I ended up using this while I was traveling and it wasn't bad—I still prefer my regular full-sized brushes, but the brush end can actually pick up some pigment, so it's not totally useless! (I think this applicator is similar or maybe even identical to on the in Pony #2. These palettes are like long-lost cousins or something.)

OK, now for the good part: The actual shadows! About the shade names: "Sweet 16 is in honor of it being our 16th anniversary, “The Moment” for us! The remaining shades (Lilo, Mary-Kate, Mischa, Lana, Paris, and Nicole) are inspired by some of [Nylon's] most iconic cover stars, which each embody the color in their own way."

So in other words, "It Girls" of days gone by. Stop, shadow time:

XO Memebox X Nylon #ItGirlPalette    THE MOMENT     SWEET 16     LILO     MARY-KATE     MISCHA     LANA     PARIS     NICOLE

  1. THE MOMENT: A very sparkly champagne pink that can be used as a highlighter. On my skin this just looks like pure glitter unless I use a primer underneath, and then it has a slight pinkish tinge. In any case, it's pretty... if you like glitter. The Moment is a loft softer and crumblier than the other shades, so there is a bit of fallout.
  2. SWEET 16: A matte, hot pink shade, AKA Nylon and Memebox's signature color. This is very, very bright and has decent pigmentation for a blush—a white base is necessary for it to "pop" as much as it does in the pan as an eyeshadow.
  3. LILO: Matte white. Not the most interesting shade in the world, but useful. More pigmented and less patchy than some of the other matte whites in my collection.
  4. MARY-KATE: A sparkly olive green/gold color. Very good pigmentation.
  5. MISCHA: Rust meets cranberry. Pigmented and sparkly. Makes a good crease color, in my opinion.
  6. LANA: A bronze-ish gold. Sparkly, but not over  he top. Okay pigmentation.
  7. PARIS: A brown-ish purple with a bit of sparkle. Memebox describes this as "an expensive hazel"—what does that mean? Anyway, it has great pigmentation, and is super-versatile.
  8. NICOLE: Hands-down my favorite of the bunch. Nicole has a medium-brown base with a heavy dose of blue sparkles in it, so depending on what sort of base you apply it over, it can look more brown or more green. Either way, it's beautiful.

Here are some looks at the shadow pans in different lighting for extra sparkle-ness:




Swatch time. I started with the two "face" products first, over bare skin:


As you can see, The Moment (#1) pretty much disappears into my skin except for a heavy dose of glitter. Sweet 16 (#2) is VERY pigmented, so if you're pale like me and using this as a blush, use a light hand. I think it's pretty though! And definitely buildable, if you have darker skin than I do and/or are less worried about looking like a clown.

Here's another swatch in different lighting:


Now for swatches of all the shadows. I did all of them over Etude House Proof 10 primer, which is a cheap (but sort of sticky) nude eye primer. I've also included The Moment and and Sweet 16 in there so you can see how different they look over primer.

XO Memebox X Nylon #ItGirlPalette swatch swatches     THE MOMENT     SWEET 16     LILO     MARY-KATE     MISCHA     LANA     PARIS     NICOLE

Just as a reminder, the shades are....
  1. THE MOMENT
  2. SWEET 16
  3. LILO
  4. MARY-KATE
  5. MISCHA
  6. LANA
  7. PARIS
  8. NICOLE

From different angles to catch the sparkles:



While we're on the subject of primer, I need to say something: Choosing the right base will make a very big difference in how this palette works for you. A lot of the shades look okay over bare skin, but the colors really come to life when applied wet or over basic primer. And glittery shades really, really come to life when you use a slightly sticky base, like the Etude House primer I mentioned above. Here's what Nicole looks like over bare skin vs. Proof 10 primer:


Big difference, right? Both are nice, but the one with primer is like DAAAAAMN.


Overall impressions:

I ended up liking the Memebox X Nylon palette a lot more than I thought I would. When I first saw the selection of colors I was kind of like "huh?" But because most of the shades are so sparkly and multifaceted, it's easy to find a bunch of interesting color combinations within this palette.

As I said above, I do think this palette requires the use of a good eyeshadow primer to get the most out of the sparkly shades. Not only do they look better with primer, but it also helps reduce the amount of glitter fallout that gets all over your face. I've worn all of these shadows on my actual eyes and the only one that ended up kind of messy at the end of the day was The Moment, thanks to my good old pal eyeshadow primer. Otherwise... minimal creasing and almost no fallout. They do fade after a few hours if worn on bare skin, so again, PRIMER IT UP!!!

My personal favorite shadows from this batch are Nicole (duh), Paris, and Mischa. Not only are they pretty, but I think they're particularly well-formulated... they go on smoothly with minimal fallout. I do like Sweet 16 (the hot pink shade) in theory because it's so bright and fun, but I have yet to find a way to wear it that doesn't look a little crazy on my pale skin. I'll keep trying though!


Like what you see? You can grab the Memebox X Nylon #ItGirl eyeshadow palette here. And there are a few coupon codes that you can use it on it too:



The Memebox X Nylon palette is also available as part of a couple of Memeboxes:

Don't forget that all Memebox orders over $30 ship free. If you're looking at this post after April 2015, check out my Memebox Deals & Coupons page for a more current list of coupon codes.


What do you think of the Memebox X Nylon #ItGirl Palette? Which of the shades would you reach for first?


Disclosure: The palette featured in this post was provided to me for review purposes, however any opinions expressed above are honest and my own. I did not receive any other form of compensation. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, check out my full disclosure policy.

8 comments:

  1. The blush probably wouldn't show up at all on me. The colors def look pigmented with the primer but they just seem like a weird mix of colors for me personally.

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  2. I disagree about the blush - it's buildable, so you could definitely get it to work if you used a less delicate hand than I did. It is sort of a weird mix of colors overall, but I found lots of combos that worked within the reds/golds/brown/purple shades. The matte white is sort of a strange inclusion... I guess it kind of goes with the "blush" and sparkly highlight shade, but it seems odd next to the rest of them.

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  3. Maybe they mean "rich" hazel, not "expensive"? Who knows. You've made these colors look really good in your swatches! This palette has too many "off" colors to make it worth it for me, though. I much prefer the Soothing Sista of all the palettes I've received so far. But I'm pretty tame when it comes to eyeshadows...

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  4. Rich hazel would make a hell of a lot more sense. Of all the Memepalettes I own I think Soothing Sista has the most complementary selection of colors, but I am a fan of using "weirder" shades sometimes. With that said I think there are a few distinct color groupings in this palette... I wouldn't use the matte white with the shimmery red shade, for example. That's a little too much even for me, lol.

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  5. The sparkle is gorgeous!!! I really like this palette, and the pink would make a great blush color.

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  6. That is such a cool and awesome looking palette! If I got this, I would be happy too!

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  7. I think the pink shade is primarily meant to be a blush shade, but of course I tried it on my eyelids like a weirdo. It looked... bright.

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