Fresh Island Reverie Face Palette

At the Fresh event at Neiman Marcus, I purchased the Island Reverie Face Palette ($55) Jawn used on me. Turns out this palette was introduced about two years ago, but it's still so popular, Neiman Marcus had to have it sent to me from another store.

The palette has three eye shadows: Tiare, Plumeria, and Rum - all named to evoke the delicious floral fragrance of a tropical island - or the splash of run that that screams "vacation." The palette also contains a blush, Island Reverie, and a bronzer, Treasure Cove. All in all, it's a warm, sunny, tropical delight.

Jawn mixed Tiare and Plumeria together to apply them on my eyelids. The effect was a delightful light peach that warmed my look and made me want the palette. One thing I really love about the palette is the combination of the blusher and bronzer - also perfect for mixing on your brush. Or you can use them to follow Alyson's bronzing techniques (if you didn't read her advice, just click here).

Rum is a great eyeliner color, particularly for those who want to go easy on liner - nothing dramatic, just some punch. It coordinates beautifully with the other shades, so you will find the palette perfect for one-stop color.

My swatch photo was taken in less-than-ideal conditions: in my office in direct, but not sunny light. I swatched the top row of the palette, left to right, and the bottom row left to right also. At the top of my arm, you can barely see Tiare. Actually, you can see the bruise on the side of my arm better than the eye shadow. Tiare is almost skin toned, but with a golden touch. Plumeria is a golden peach - much easier to see in the photo (right above the line of rum). The darkest color is rum, the brown liner. It's a medium brown - not warm, not cool - a perfect contrast to the sunny shades with which it's packaged. The blush, Island Reverie, is definitely warm. A pinky-toned peach, it's a nice shade to warm us up for winter. I haven't had much time to play with the bronzer, but I will. I'll have plenty of time in January!

This is a nice palette, and it appears that demand for it remains strong, years after its introduction. You can find it at Neiman Marcus. I did a quick Web scan and found it hard to locate otherwise. Fresh doesn't offer it at its own Web site anymore. Oddly, you can buy it at Sears.com, but you'll pay more for it than I did at Neiman Marcus. What's with that?

Photo at top courtesy of Amazon