Review by Joeybunny - NYX Casting Call palette

I really have been loving cool, deep smokey gray eyes lately. There’s something terribly sultry about a dark eye, and all of my sootiest colors have been receiving quite a lot of play from me lately. So, when I was given the opportunity to review NYX’s Casting Call from the Runway Collection of 10 Color Eyeshadow palettes, I was thrilled.

I really like NYX eyeshadows. The pigmentation and formula is superb given the ultra affordable price points, and I have and adore one of the original palettes from the Runway Collection, Champagne and Caviar. Elvira actually reviewed it when it came out, but she didn’t quite like it as much as I did. Elvira’s just really fussy, and we can forgive her for that. Given the enormous popularity of the original 10 Color palettes, NYX released four new color stories. Casting Call is one of them, and is chock full of cool smokey grays, taupes, pewters, blacks, and one lonely warm taupe-bronze color.

(with flash)

(without flash)

When I received this palette, I remembered that the darling Karen of Makeup and Beauty Blog had reviewed it earlier. Interestingly, she didn’t quite like Casting Call, as she felt that the colors didn’t have enough impact on her skin tone. Now, we’re both about the same skin tone, so I wondered if I’d have the same issue.

Here’s where things get interesting: my swatches, done on bare skin, are completely underwhelming.

(without flash, and super boring!)

Yet, when I actually applied this palette on my primed eyelids, the colors smouldered and seduced (unfortunately I don’t have pictures, but I may update this post later with some EOTDs). So this is a strange conundrum - shadows that swatch terribly but apply beautifully? I wonder why this is. Maybe it’s a textural thing - five of the eyeshadows are matte/near-matte, and mattes are notoriously fussy when it comes to swatching them. The other eyeshadows are very shimmery or glittery (but not upsettingly so).

Anyway, when I realized this I decided to redo my swatches. I used UDPP and UDPP Sin to do my second batch of swatches. The colors came out so much more vibrant!

(redone swatches with flash: UDPP on top half, UDPP Sin on bottom half)

(redone swatches without flash: UDPP on top half, UDPP Sin on bottom half)

So here’s a description of the colors from L to R:

• An icy, shimmery gray-lilac
• A shimmery gray-green-taupe
• A sheeny deep black with hints of silver glitter/shimmer
• A deep matte cool taupe-gray
• A matte black (this is the one very sheer color when swatched, but it does build on the lid - I found that my favorite way to apply shadows with this palette is to use this black as a base for all of the other colors!)
• A warm shimmery taupe-bronze
• A matte dove gray
• A shimmery mid-tone icy gray
• A matte deep gray-green-taupe
• A sheeny gunmetal

So, can I recommend this palette? If you use a good base for your eyeshadows, then I think that $9.75 is a pretty good price for it. The pigmentation could be better on a couple of the eyeshadows, but I’m really enjoying it, and I’m planning on getting the other new palettes as well.