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Since my purchase of the Bobbi Brown Golden Slipper Eye Shadow palette (reviewed here), I have become interested in her Holiday 2020 collection. Exquisite packaging with beautiful color story! Recently I also got the sister palette to the Golden Slipper palette, the Bobbi Brown Modern Symphony Eye Shadow Palette.
This is the 4th holiday palette I got from Bobbi Brown. Other than the Golden Slipper palette, I also got and reviewed the Bobbi Brown High Barre Eye Shadow Palette (here) and the Bobbi Brown Luxe Encore Eye Shadow Palette Burgundy (here). They are great palettes for the holiday as a gift to yourself or your BFFs.
Table of Contents
About the Bobbi Brown Modern Symphony Eye Shadow Palette
This Bobbi Brown Modern Symphony Eye Shadow Palette retails for $39 USD. This palette is exclusively available from Nordstrom and Bobbi Brown‘s (affiliate link) website.
This 8-pan eye shadow palette has 3 mattes and 5 shimmers. Similar to the Golden Slipper Eye Shadow palette, there are multiple shimmer formulae in this palette.
From Bobbi Brown’s website, this palette is described as ‘a revelry-ready palette of eight ultra-blendable eye shadows. Rich, rosy mauves and plums come together with smokey pewters to create a season of looks’.
Same as the other Bobbi Brown Holiday 2020 eye palettes in this collection, the outside packaging of the palette and the watercolor art work is created by Cecilia Carlstedt, ‘inspired by the energy of dance and the holidays in New York City’. It is a collectible item!
Ingredients and formulation of the Bobbi Brown Modern Symphony Eye Shadow Palette
Except the chrome metal eye shadow formula, all the shadows in this palette has talc as the first ingredient. The full list of ingredient can be found on Bobbi Brown’s website for this palette.
There is no detectable fragrance from the palette. It is also paraben-free, phthalate-free, sulfate-free, sulfite-free and gluten-free.
There are 4 different shimmer formulae in this palette: shimmer wash, chrome metal, metallic and sparkle. Compared to the Golden Slipper eye shadow palette which has only the chrome metal and sparkle formulae.
Compared with the promo pictures in the retailer’s websites, I think the actual color of the shades in this palette is quite different! It is more cool tone than what is shown online. I held off getting this palette at first because I thought it was a deeper palette and that I won’t be getting much use out of it. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I open the palette from the mail! I am a lover of light cool tone palettes!
However, I would say the one matte shade that appears pink (Rose Suede) in the photo actually leans more towards lavender. It reminds me of the shade Lilas from the Viseart Petits Fours Lilas palette (reviewed here).
I wish there are more chrome metal formula shades in this palette as I love those in the Golden Slipper palette!
The shades in this Modern Symphoney eye shadow palette are quite stiff to the touch. The shimmers are very decently pigmented. The metallic formula shadows are very smooth and is on the softer side.
Swatches for the Bobbi Brown Modern Symphony Eye Shadow Palette
Now looking at the swatches, I think it can be a very good pair to the Viseart Petits Fours Lilas indeed, given the similar color family for these 2 palettes.
The lightest shade at the upper left hand corner is quite sheer when swatched. It is indistinguishable for my skin tone. While the mattes are not super pigmented as in some other palettes like the Nars Extreme Effects eyeshadow palette and the Too faced Salted Caramel eyeshadow palette, they are non-patchy and easily blended.
In the chrome metal shade (Sugarplum) and the sparkle shade (Pink Bubbly), you can see specks of very fine glitters, which give a very pretty sparkle on the lid under different lighting.
The 2 grayish metallic shades (Vintage Velvet and Earth Metal at the upper right and lower left) are soft to the touch and very smooth on the swatches. They are opaque and pigmented. Vintage Velvet is deeper than what I expected from the pan.
2 eye looks created using the Bobbi Brown Modern Symphony Eye Shadow Palette
All the grayish and light beige in this palette inspired me to create this cool simple eye look wearable for everyday and to work. I love this eye look and the shades work together very cohesively. You can spice it up by adding the deep matte brown to the outer corner or to smoke out the lash lines.
I used Earth Metal (lower left corner) as a transition shade at my crease. It performs very well as transition even it is a metallic shade!
Mattes in this palette work very nicely with a brush, they blended effortlessly.
As a star of the palette, I know I have to use the plum chrome metal (Sugarplum) shade to create an eye look!
I love this and it is very elegant night time look! None of the shades were patchy and they all blend out easily with natural or synthetic brushes. A little unexpected was that, I tried to use Vintage Velvet (the shade at the upper right corner) at the inner third of my lid and it turned out to be too deep for that purpose. It made my eye look seem dirty, so I cleaned it up and used Pink Bubbly instead. I wish Vintage Velvet was lighter for the inner corner.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I love and will recommend this Bobbi Brown Modern Symphony Eye Shadow Palette, especially if you like cool tone eye shadows. The quality of the shades and the packaging of the palette itself are unbeatable. It is actually a very good value from Bobbi Brown, or even among luxury eye shadow brands in the market.
The shades in the palette and in the swatches may not be very exciting, but the looks created are some of my favorites. I didn’t expect to like this palette as much. Now I think I’ll be reaching for this palette more than the Golden Slipper palette. Although I still like the latte a lot, the looks created with this Modern Symphony palette are more sophisticated.
I will rate this Bobbi Brown Modern Symphony Eye Shadow Palette as:
- Texture: 8.5/10
- Color payoff: 8/10
- Longevity on eye lid: 7.5/10
- Quality consistency among shades: 9/10
- Color scheme uniqueness: 9.5/10
- Affordability: 8/10
