Face palettes are quite new additions to my makeup collection. I’ve been curious to try some, but didn’t quite know where to start or what to pick. I heard good things about the cheap and cheerful Freedom palettes. I decided to pick one that seemed to do it all, as that is what I want a face palette to do. I need it to blush, bronze, contour and highlight all in one go. Let’s see how this Freedom Bronze & Baked palette gears up. 
Freedom Pro Blush Palette Bronze & Baked
I had a hard time figuring out what this palette is called. There are 4 different names listed on the packaging for this palette. One on the front of the outer box, one on the back, on the front of the palette itself and one on the back of the palette. I just went with the one on the back of the palette for ease of reference and since that is how it listed on most online websites. This retails for only €6.95, which is an absolute steal if it works well.
The Packaging
The packaging is simple and sleek. All Freedom palettes look the same though, so if you start owning more of these then it might be hard to tell which is which. There is a big mirror in the lid and inside you will find 8 pans with mostly shimmery products.
The Product
Out of the 8 pans, that are fairly small truth be told, only one is matte, everything else has shimmer. Depending on your skin tone, this palette will work differently. If you have a fair to pale skin tone like mine, there is one good highlight shade in this palette. You would have use of 4 – 5 blushes and 2 bronzers. It is in the bronzer range that you get one matte and one shimmer.
The Swatches
The color payoff on these is nice. Some of the lighter shades look a little bit chalky, especially that white highlight shade. These can be quite powdery and some of the blush shades feel dry to the touch.
While pretty, I feel most of these shades don’t work for me. The two pink toned blush shades are nearly identical on my cheeks and the two bronzers in the middle are far too orange. The right side of the palette is mosstly too dark for me to use as well. Those highlighters look stunning, but on my skin they wouldn’t highlight very much.
The Application
Bronzer – Contour – Highlight
The powders unfortunately kind of blend away into nothing. That’s because of the powdery texture. I had to build them up, especially the bronzer. Because everything has shimmer and shine it’s also difficult to really create the type of contrast that you need to chisel out and highlight cheekbones. I also think the bronzer/ contour is much too warm toned as a contour. You can make it work, but one wrong move and your carefully applied makeup look turns in to mudpie central.
Before – After
On the left: bare faced with just foundation, concealer and powder. On the right: after applying bronzer, contour, highlight and blush. I like the highlight in this palette. Despite its powdery white base it gives off a pretty golden sheen that I am down with. The blush (I used the pink shades on the left of the palette) hardly does anything for my complexion. It’s so shiny that it is kind of invisible.
With a light hand the bronzer works, especially if you use the darkest blush in the palette (bottom right corner), but that shimmery extravaganza in the middle of the palette is not for me. It’s too much shimmer for a bronzer for my taste and it is too dark and orange. The matte bronzer is too warm toned to work as a contour on me and with that the palette falls kind of flat for me.
The Conclusion
Is the Freedom Pro Blush Palette Bronze & Baked a good palette? Yes it is, if it is what you are looking for in a face palette. The quality is alright even if the texture is quite powdery and you need to work with these a bit. If you are not as light as me, or if you are simply more into shimmers on the face than this is a great palette to look into, especially for the price point. It’s just not my cup of tea.
Are there any face palettes you love?