Close up of the beautiful shades in the BH Cosmetics It’s Judy Time eyeshadow palette
A few weeks ago I pre-ordered the new It’s Judy Time eyeshadow palette from BH Cosmetics because I had seen a few promising YouTube reviews and hey, let’s face it: I’m a sucker for browns and purples on my blue eyes. The price point seemed great at $14.95 compared to some of my higher-end palettes in the $50+ range and I’ve always enjoyed watching Judy on her YouTube channel It’s Judy Time. I like the idea of beauty gurus teaming up with cosmetic companies to create their own personalized makeup palettes. Prior to this purchase, I had never owned any BH Cosmetic eyeshadows so I was curious to see how they would perform. Once this palette arrived earlier in week, I began to play around with it every day to make sure I could give an honest and thorough review for you.
Outside packaging
First off: Packaging. I personally LOVE when eyeshadow palettes are sleek, slender and travel-friendly and this palette is all three! It reminds me of my Lorac Pro Palette except for that rubbery feel on the outside (which I am not a fan of because it can leave a lot of fingerprints). The case is in sturdy cardboard with a black matte finish and gold lettering and closes securely with a magnetic flap in the front. Very chic!
The shade selection
Inside are 12 shades of 6.75g/.24oz each (about the size of a penny) and the colors are mainly neutrals with a few pops of purple and blue. Not that it’s a big deal, but I do like it when each eyeshadow color has a name or number underneath and I was a little disappointed to see these colors were not named by Judy. I think that might have been a fun little touch. The mirror on the top flap is not very big so that might be annoying for those expecting a large enough mirror to use during the application process but 9 times out of 10, I hardly use my palette’s mirrors anyway.
“Natural is beautiful, but makeup is glam” and I couldn’t agree more with Judy!
Let’s start with the top row from left:
- A matte, light peachy-beige (peachier than MAC’s Orb but close), perfect for highlighting or blending (this shade happens to be close to my natural skin tone so I’ll use it more for blending)
- A warm, matte sable-brown similar to MAC’s Soft Brown (which I love for my transition area or for more blending)
- A shimmery golden-brown close to MAC’s Woodwinked but more on the warm side (again, could be for the transition area)
- A pink-toned, medium matte brown
- A deep, cocoa matte brown (definitely crease-worthy!) like MAC’s Embark
- And a shimmery dark brown, reminiscent of MAC’s Carbonized
And then on the bottom row from left:
- The perfect “copper penny” color with lots of shimmer like MAC’s Honey Lust but a tad darker
- A rich, burnt orangey-brown with a metallic finish, the most buttery shadow in this palette and totally stunning!
- The darkest shade of the bunch (believe-it-or-not!), this matte, deep brownish-black base has sparkly flecks of burgundy throughout and is a very close dupe for Urban Decay’s Naked 3 Blackheart (and dare I say I like this shade even better?!)
- A medium, cool-toned purple frosty-metallic that almost appears to be a duochrome (it’s not unfortunately) and is a close dupe for Urban Decay’s Vice 2 Betrayal
- A satin, what I would call “periwinkle” (GORGEOUS on the eye!) but probably the shade I had the most trouble with as you do need patience to build it and it was the chalkiest of the bunch
- And finally, a dark, navy blue matte base with royal blue sparkles throughout which seemed a tad on the “gritty side” to me
I’ll be honest, I couldn’t wait to swatch this puppy because the colors look so stunning together. However… my initial thoughts when swatched dry with my fingertips on the back of my hand? I was NOT impressed and started to get worried. None of the YouTube videos I watched commented on how poorly they swatch and so I almost wondered at first if there was something wrong with my palette because I expected to feel buttery soft shadows that glided on like a dream. Unfortunately, no. Take a peek:
Swatched dry with fingertips
The matte shades felt chalky which I know can happen with even higher-end brands and there seemed to be a lot of flakiness with the shimmery shades. I then decided to grab a flat shader brush and see how these applied when dampened a bit, since I know that can really bring out the metallic effect in some shadows and help achieve better color pay-off:
Swatched with a damp flat shader brush
Much better! I felt now I could really see how these might perform on my eyelids since I always wear a primer anyway. I decided to put them to the real test, because come on! Who just buys an eyeshadow palette to swatch it on the back of your hand? Well, my lovely readers, you’ll be happy to know that despite the fact that these shadows did not swatch very well initially, they did show up nicely on my eyelids and I had no trouble blending them and patting them on gently to build up color and I did NOT use a damp brush or wet the shadows in any way. In fact, I learned a lesson not to always trust hand-swatching in the future.
I am impressed with the pigments in most of these shades. They blended into each other easily and I achieved a nice color-payoff right away: I didn’t have to keep going back in to add more except for that periwinkle color. However, it’s worth it to have patience because once you work with that shade, you do achieve a lovely, vibrant punch of color! These shadows lasted all day on my lids with a primer and I do tend to get oily so I was impressed they didn’t transfer, have any fall-out or crease during the day. Very happy with the wearability of the shadow formula.
Here’s the look I got by using that light, peachy-beige for blending and a highlight, the warm, matte sable in my transition area with a touch of the shimmery golden-brown (see why names or numbered shadows would make this so much easier to explain?) and finally the periwinkle on my lid and the cocoa matte brown on my outer v blended slightly into the crease:
A fun, neutral eye look with a pop of color to really bring out my blue eyes!
Despite the fact that there are some close color dupes to MAC and Urban Decay shadows, would I say this palette is along the same lines in terms of quality? Unfortunately no. With MAC, Urban Decay, Lorac, TooFaced and the very high-end Chanel, Dior, Marc Jacobs, etc., you are paying for the high quality you’d expect. But for only $14.95, I would definitely say this is a great palette to add to your collection with good quality shadows that perform very well. I’d compare them to Wet n Wild’s Color Icon shadows which I’m obsessed with because for the price-point, and used with a decent primer, you can’t go wrong!
What does make this palette stand out in my collect is the fact that Judy did a fantastic job at putting together 12 coordinating shades that will all work nicely with one another. I know that’s not easy to do and I give her credit. A lot of my pricey eyeshadow palettes are not even coordinated this well. And, as you can probably already see, all of these shadows are on the warmer side, except for those last three cool-toned purples and blue, which again, work wonderful next to the warm neutrals! I also love that there are some shades here that I don’t have any dupes for in my collection.
Overall, I’d give this palette a thumbs up and if you’ve been stalking the BH Cosmetics site or YouTubing reviews like I was, just go ahead and order it already! You’ll be happy you did! Thanks for stopping by and please leave me a comment below letting me know what YOU think of your It’s Judy Time palette and what kinds of fun eyeshadow looks you’ve created using it!
FOTD featuring the It’s Judy Time eyeshadow palette by BH Cosmetics
K Sky Beauty 
Yes! Finally something about blackhearted.
Yes!!! It’s such a perfect dupe, right?