I recently went from wearing only eyeliner(MAC Raven by the way which is awesome) & no eyeshadow for several years because it was easy at a Hospital when you were going in at 6 am 5 days a week to wearing eyeshadow again so I acquired about 50 or so shades to play around again. This post is for Bobbi Brown Eyeshadow as I was looking for mattes and single shades vs palettes. I personally like build your own palettes vs premade ones and premade ones I tend to not use at least one shade and it's always a waste.
First off is the Shimmerwash shades. I have Copper Sand, Ash, Stone & Rock. Copper Sand is a cooler copper shade, it has some larger silver shimmer particles in it. I tended to not be fond of the Shimmerwash shadows that had this larger silver shimmer as I tend to stay away from it. It wasn't rock hard, but it was harder to apply than some of the other Shimmerwashes I own. Ash was smooth and had none of those silver particles, it was more pigmented, it kind of reminded me of a shimmer version of Cement. A light grey beige. It was too light for my tastes but was for sure a good texture. Stone is a shimmery warm medium grey with a slight purple tint lighter but similar concept to the matte Slate shade. It did have larger silver shimmer particles but have good pigmentation. Rock is a cooler but still neutral shimmery medium grey. It does not have those silver shimmer particles and is smooth and has good pigmentation.
L to R Copper Sand, Ash, Stone, Rock:
The matte shades I have are: Cement, Slate, Flint, Grey, Sable & Blonde. The mattes are smooth, are not dry. They are not the cream of the crop mattes like some I've tried(Tom Ford, Surratt) but they are a good matte. Some mattes are dry and don't apply well. All these shades are even and well pigmented. Cement is a light grey beige. Slate is a warm medium grey with a purple tint. Slate was my first I got it to try to replace the grey in the Tom Ford Unabashed compact as it was the only shade in that compact I loved. Flint is a medium warm grey. Grey is a medium grey it's neutral. Sable is a medium cool brown. Blonde is a medium neutral to cooler taupe brown.
L to R: Cement, Slate, Flint, Grey, Sable, Blonde:
Overall Bobbi Brown eyeshadows are great basic colors. They're not the stand out unique color you may be looking for, but they are a reliable sturdy basic.