Palette Of The Last Two Months - FrontCover Desk To Date

I had a few different options to choose from for my March palette of the month, but in the end I went for one from a brand that I love and that I've always been impressed with - FrontCover. I have a couple of their large eyeshadow palettes, but for Christmas I was lucky enough to receive one of their more compact offerings - Desk To Date. Alas this is from their Autumn / Winter 2012 range so it might be a bit hard to get hold of now but I think this palette is worth showing because it demonstrates perfectly the amazing quality of the FrontCover range.

As I said previously this is one of FrontCover's more compact palettes, I have two larger palettes and one smaller one which are housed in all be it sturdy cardboard but this one is a bit different. Desk To Date is a two layer palette packaged in black, shiny plastic with an amazing holographic photographic image. The top layer opens like a normal palette and has a full sized mirror and one layer of eyeshadows, and underneath there is a drawer which contains another layer of shadows.

The top layer contains 10 Super Pearl Baked Powder shadows. These are the shadows that front cover are perhaps most famous for. Given the name and the baked consistency s you would probably expect these shadows all have at least a hint of sparkle or glitter, so you are going to get some fallout. These shadows are ridiculously pigmented even when their dry, but being a baked shadow you can use them with water or a mixing medium to provide a really, intense foiled finish.

I've swatched these colours for you both wet and dry to give you a proper idea of the intensity and effects that you can create with them.

Top row from left to right - swatched dry - Figgy,  Malva, Indigo Warrior, Gold Mine and Copper Oro

and swatched wet.

Again swatched dry the bottom row from left to right - Fools Gold, Vapour Mist, Mint Mist, Sorrell and Black In Blue

and swatched wet

As you can hopefully see here the pigmentation of these shadows is amazing. In fact some of the shades including Mint Mist and Indigo Warrior really take some getting of - the wear time is amazing. In fact I would recommend that you use an eye base to make removal a bit easier.

The second layer of the palette contains 8 large Satin Pressed Powder shadows. These were almost too pretty to use and feature an embossed seashell design a bit like those super drool worthy Chantecaille ones that were released a few years ago. These shadows are very soft and again the pigmentation is superb. There are a few matte finish shades in this section but again the payoff is fantastic. They are quite soft so again there is a little bit of fallout. Where as a lot of the shadows in the top layer are quite bright and vibrant, the second layer makes an excellent neutral palette in its own right.

Top row - from left to right - Cadet Row, Amaretto Truffle, Chimney Sweep, and Nude Tights.

Bottom row - from left to right - Mocha Magic, Tempura, Burnt Cork and Brown Cork.

I've reached for this palette again, again over the last couple of months and it's earned a rightful place in my most recent products I'm loving right now video (click here to see it :). If your familiar with FrontCover you'll  know that all of their packaging features at least one tutorial showing you a look that you can create with the palette, well this one contains two. Unlike a lot of their palettes their aren't any pictures to show you how to create the look just a written description - not as good as the larger palettes but it still gives you some idea of where to start if your new to make up. I followed the instructions and did the two look, first up the Day look.

This look features two shades of the Satin Pressed shadows. I used Cadet Grey, which is more of a light khaki shade rather than an actual grey, all over the lid, and as a liner and then Amaretto Truffle, an old gold shade on the inner corner and in the crease, and blended out.

The Night look is actually really simple it's just a wash of one of the baked shadows Vapour Mist, a gorgeous metallic silver. Your meant to wing it out but since I was actually wearing it during the day I chickened out a bit and instead just used it wet for a more intense look :)

I also had a little play with some of the other shadows in the palette - first up one of the more vibrant baked shadows - Mint Mist. This is a really, really bright turquoise, green- it's really pigmented and you definitely need to use an eye base with it to prevent staining. I'm sure you'll agree the effect is amazing and so summery.

Another one of the vibrant shades in the palette is Copper Oro, as the name implies it's a metallic copper colour, exactly the shade of a new penny x

For this look I've used two colours the shimmery lilac Malva all over the lid, and Indigo Warrior on the inner corner. Unfortunately the pictures haven't came out that well, purples never seem to show up too well on any camera that I've ever used :(

Another baked shadow that I've used a few times is Fools Gold - The name of this shadow is a bit misleading whilst you can see some gold in it, it's probably more of a golden green / olive. I love shades like this and this one is no exception.

The rest of the looks that I've photographed for you use the Satin Pressed Powder shadows. First up the look that I wore for the Newcastle FABB Event (read my FOTD post here x).

My photos don't do this look justice really, but it's a really easy, natural, neutral look. I used Brown Cork all over the lid, blending a mixture of Mocha Magic, and Nude Tights into the inner corner and as a brow highlight, before blending Burnt Cork into the crease, and using it as a liner - simples.

The final pictures here show one of my favourite shades Mocha Magic, it's looking almost silvery here, but it's actually a shimmery taupe / nude.

This palette delivers exactly what it promises - the premise is from desk to date and that's exactly what you get. With it you can achieve everything from the most conservative neutral day look, to a bright extravagant look at me evening look. The shadow quality is amazing from the colour payoff, to the blendability, to the wear time - these shadows really are well worth having. As I said at the start of this post, this palette is probably really hard to find now, but I really wouldn't hesitate to recommend FrontCover as a brand.  I've had a little look at their website and one of their new releases is a fabulous looking palette called New Metallic Pastels Eye Colllection. This palette contains the same formulations as Desk To Date and the some similar shades so it could be a good alternative. FrontCover bring out new palettes every season to keep up with and create the latest trends, and as well as eyeshadows, you can also buy palettes containing nail products, lip colours, bronzers and more. I'm definitely going to dig out my older palettes and rediscover some past season FrontCover gems. In the UK we can buy FrontCover from QVC and from their own website, and they also ship worldwide. Have you ever tried FrontCover? Do you love them as much as me? leave me a comment and let me know x