Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette for Holiday 2012

I have my favorites from Bobbi Brown's lovely, festive holiday collection, and the Rich Caviar Eye Palette ($47.50) is right up there with those Tube Tints.

With six mix-and-match shades this eye palette truly strikes it rich. Featuring everything you need to take eyes from day to night including Bobbi's beloved base shadow in Bone and the palette's namesake shade in Rich Caviar. Complimentary colors include metallic and sparkle textures, perfect for building intensity. A Mini Dual Ended Shadow/Liner brush completes the set-all it needs now is a bow.

Rather than repeat Bobbi Brown's shade descriptions, I cut them in above. Yes, the palette has one of those obligatory repeats, Bone Eye Shadow. It's shown at the top of my arm in the swatch photos, but I doubt you'll be able to see it. It would be so nice if Bobbi Brown would invent a few new base shades to prevent the palette fatigue that has descended on some loyal customers.

I swatched the palette clockwise, starting with Bone, and ending with Olive Tree Sparkle Eye Shadow. I used a sponge-tipped applicator and took my photos in full sun.

Bone, at the top of my arm, is bone. Enough said. I'm tired of it, even if it is a terrific, brightening base shade. Candle Light Gold Metallic Eye Shadow, second own, is gorgeous! The shimmering gold (not metallic as I define metallic), is beautiful. Do you ever wonder why makeup companies misspell words in their product names? Or fail to use proper punctuation? Would Candlelight have made more sense? After all, I'm sure Bobbi saw the flattering glow of candlelight on the face. There's nothing dim about Bobbi's Candle Light. It's a charmer.

Wheat Eye Shadow is another standard palette filler. It's a bit too warm for my tastes, but I work around it with other shades. I don't think of it as ash beige, which has a cool connotation to me. You really don't see its warmth well in my palette photo below, but you can see it on my skin. Incidentally, my own palette photo does not reflect the Rich Caviar greens well. Use Bobbi Brown's photo at the top of this feature as your reference.

Rich Caviar Eye Shadow is a perfectly described as a rich black brown. For me, it's a liner shade - and a nice one too because it's not as harsh as black black. The bottom two shades on my arm, along with Candle Light, make the palette for me. Black Topaz Metallic Eye Shadow is a shimmering charcoal with a hint of green in it - don't look for much green. I know it's called deep green with gold pearl, but on my skin, it translates as charcoal that leans green. I provided a close-up so you could see exactly what I mean by that. I see the hint of green with my eyes, but my camera didn't.

The shade at the bottom of my arm, Olive Tree Sparkle Eye Shadow, is a shimmering golden green-beige. Steady my heart, it's stunning. Shades like Olive Tree can make a palette for me - and this one does with four stars, maybe five.

All of the shades in the Rich Caviar Eye Palette are pigmented (no sheer, sparkly duds here). I think this is the the best eye palette in Bobbi Brown's holiday collection and think you will enjoy it - even if you already have 50 Bone Eye Shadows and enough little brushes to open a store.

You can find the Rich Caviar Eye Palette at Bobbi Brown's Web site and all Bobbi Brown in-store and online sites.

Photos at top courtesy of Bobbi Brown; other photos by Best Things in Beauty