Better Late Than Never🤷‍♀️ Nomad Cosmetics Christkindlmarkt Eyeshadow Palette Review

I fully planned to review the Nomad Cosmetics Christkindlmarkt Eyeshadow Palette in December but between Christmas activities and my whole household having the plague for half the month, it just couldn’t happen🙃 However, I still want to share my thoughts on it because I think reviews from people who didn’t receive the palette for free are valuable. That isn’t shade toward anyone who got the palette in PR, but I personally prefer reviews from those who paid for it and I couldn’t find any. With that, let’s talk about this festive gem!

The Christkindlmarkt Eyeshadow Palette is $49.00 and contains fifteen shades, six mattes and nine shimmers. As always with this brand, the packaging and imprints on the eyeshadows are simply beautiful. This palette has sturdy cardboard packaging with a large mirror and a magnetic closure. Nomad Cosmetics donates to a different charity cause with each purchase and this palette’s charity is Unesco. Let’s get into the pros and cons!

Pros:

• I love the theme and packaging🎄A German Christmas market is a perfect and unique choice for a palette.
• I also love the color story. It’s not only perfect for Christmas but for winter in general. I appreciate that it is on the more muted side.
• The mattes performed beautifully. They were so easy to blend, build up and they had the perfect amount of pigment. I did experience staining with O Tannenbaum but that’s not a big deal to me. I also think that St. Nikolaus would stain but I only used it lightly on my lower lash line so I had no issues. My favorite matte was Krampus. It’s a perfect greige shade that’s very versatile.
• The shimmers were also spectacular. They are high shine and sparkly but create almost no fallout. My favorites were Gingerbread, Almonds & Chestnuts and Incense Smokers.

Cons:

• I LOVE shimmers but I feel that this palette could have benefited from one more matte. I prefer Nomad’s eighteen shade palettes because there’s just more to work with. Of course, though, I can always pull in a matte from another palette.
• This is pure personal preference, but I hate the color of St. Nikolaus. I would have preferred a more muted shade of red.
• The shade Gluhwein is supposed to be a multichrome that shifts red bronze and gold but it is very subtle. I don’t think it looked any different on the eyes than a regular, but beautiful, shimmer.

Swatches & Shade Descriptions:

These eyeshadows do have names and shade descriptions on the website so I will copy those here. I’ll be going from left to right, top row to bottom row. These photos were taken with flash to show off the sparkle.

• Nutcracker– matte rich chocolate
• O Tannenbaum– matte Christmas tree green
• Paper Star– snow white to sparkling pink
• St. Nikolaus– matte Santa Claus red
• Market Place– matte charcoal cobblestone
• Christmas Pyramid– matte light wood
• Gingerbread– golden rose green
• First Snow– shimmer first snow blue
• Carousel– pinky purple gold
• Krampus– matte gloomy griege
• Almonds & Chestnuts– shimmer golden nut brown
• Candle Arches– mixed shimmer gold & green
• Glass Ornaments– shimmer royal blue
• Gluhwein– rich red bronze & gold
• Incense Smokers– shimmer smoky silver

Eyeshadow Looks:

I created four looks using this palette and I really like how they turned out! I feel that each one was distinct despite this being a smaller palette. I don’t typically wear an eye primer but I do set my base with a skin tone colored eyeshadow.

1. I set my base with Christmas Pyramid.
2. I applied Incense Smokers on my lid and blended it up into my crease.
3. I applied Paper Star in my inner corner.
4. I applied Market Place on my water line.
5. I smudged Nutcracker on my lower lash line.

1. I set my base with Christmas Pyramid.
2. I blended Krampus into my crease.
3. I applied Almonds & Chestnuts on my lid.
4. I applied Gingerbread in my inner corner.
5. I applied Nutcracker and Krampus on my water line.
6. I smudged Candle Arches on my lower lash line.

1. I set my base with Christmas Pyramid.
2. I applied O Tannenbaum on my lid and blended it into my crease.
3. I applied Glass Ornaments on my lid, on top of O Tannenbaum, and blended it into my crease.
4. I applied First Snow in my inner corner.
5. I applied Marketplace on my water line.
6. I smudged Incense Smokers on my lower lash line.
7. I smudged Carousel under Incense Smokers on the inner half of my lower lash line.

1. I set my base with Christmas Pyramid.
2. I blended Krampus into my crease, on the outermost and innermost parts of my lid.
3. I blended Nutcracker on the outer and inner parts of my lid, closer to the middle.
4. I applied Gluhwein on the center of my lid and smudged it on my inner lower lash line.
5. I tapped Carousel on top of Gluhwein.
6. I applied a mix of Gingerbread, Paper Star and Carousel in my inner corner.
7. I applied St. Nikolaus on my waterline.
8. I smudged Nutcracker on my lower lash line.

If you are curious about any of the other products on my face, you can find these looks in my recent posts on Instagram.

Final Thoughts:

I now own four of Nomad Cosmetics palettes. If I had to rank them, this one would come in at number three. Ghost Town USA is my number one, Witch City Salem is number two and the now discontinued Hudson Valley would be number four. Christkindlmarkt is beautiful and I’m happy to have it but the color stories of those first two do a little more for me. However, I think this one is well worth picking up if you like the shades. Let me know what you think of this palette and the looks I created! Thanks for reading!