Two Stila 2011 BCA Palettes: Swatches & Photos

On this sunny Sunday afternoon, I thought the light was right to finally bring you swatches and photos of the two Stila BCA Palettes for Breast Cancer Awareness month in 2011.
Some of my favorite bloggers did a collaboration series of pink FOTDs that I think would be amazing for you to check out and be inspired by!
Ebru
Kayla
Jessica
Tiffany
Danielle

If I've missed anyone from this wonderful series, my apologies! Please let me know below in comments.

As you definitely know if you've been reading my blog for a couple of months, I love to collect the Stila Travel Girl Palettes.  Several were released this year, including two promoting Breast Cancer Awareness.  These both include a face chart look and a mirror like the other palettes released this year.

 I believe one is an Ulta exclusive: empowered in pink.  It is a set of three matte, neutral purples with a sparkly dark purple, and two light-to-medium pink blushes (one matte and the other with some shimmer).  I was surprised when I swatched them at how purple these shades all became; as you can see from the palette photos the shadows appear to be more putty-colored.  These colors should work for both warm and cool skintones.  Purple is a color known to complement all eye colors as well.  This palette is certainly universally flattering!

Eyeshadows, clockwise from top left: believe, strength, courage, support
Middle cheek color: pink, Bottom cheek color: ribbon (it's no illusion, pink is the matte version of nearly the same shade in shimmer, ribbon!)

Ribbon is the far right blush color swatched

The other, positive and pretty, is available from stilacosmetics.com or sephora.com.  It has an ivory with a tiny bit of silver sparkle (great highlight color), a pink-ivory matte shade which would make a great blending color, a super-pigmented and unique salmon color with subtle sparkles, and another super-pigmented cranberry color with subtle sparkles.  The salmon and cranberry were the most pigmented of all the BCA palettes eyeshadows.  The eyeshadows in positive and pretty, unlike empowered in pink, are true-to-pan.  I think because of the two ivory tones, this palette is going to be more useful for those with light to medium complexions.  I think it also leans more warm.

Sorry this photo is a little dark.
Eyeshadows clockwise from top left: gift, passion, beauty, positive
Middle cheek color: pretty, Bottom cheek color: empower

See how gorgeous that salmon color ("positive") is?

The blushes between these two palettes are rather similar, except for the darker of the positive and pretty palette ("empower") is slightly deeper and more plummy.  The eyeshadows and blushes kick up a lot of powder, unfortunately, but the color is easy to build up and the quality is otherwise there so I can ignore this one negative mark.

Even if you don't collect the Stila Palettes I think these are excellent.  The value is great ($14), I love that they are about BCA and give some percentage for charity (I'm sorry I don't know how much).  The pigmentation is strong (though not up to par with Stila's core line) and the color combinations are both well-thought-out and wearable.  Please pick these up and consider doing a BCA post of your own.  You won't regret it if you read the series mentioned above by those beautiful bloggers and think about donating to this cause!