NYX Nude on Nude natural look kit: review & looks

So, just when everyone was going crazy over Urban Decay's Naked palette (and, I suspect some of you still are), it was the release of a palette from another brand that caught my attention.

I must admit though, not a very different one in principle, since we 're still in the neutral eyeshadow business: I'm talking about NYX's Nude on Nude Natural Look kit.

This mini kit contains 9 eyeshadows and 2 lip colours to help you achieve a very natural makeup look...or so NYX says, anyway.

Let's take a closer look:




What you 'll first notice about this kit, is that it's pretty tiny. It measures 2.3'' x 2.3'' x 0.8'', thus being an excellent throw-in-your-bag kind of item - I should know since it's the one palette I throw in my makeup bag without much thinking.
It has a mirror underneath the lid and a drawer thingy for the lip colours. There's also two applicators included: a sponge one for the eyeshadows and a lip brush for the lipsticks, both of which are dual ended.

From what you can see in the photo above, this kit has a very nice selection of neutral eyeshadows, in both shade and finish. You have your matte/satin greys, some shimmery beige coppers and a couple of glittery darker browns. The pigmentation is quite good too, although I 'd have wished it was more intense for the 2 greys.
Also, I think I discovered a couple of dupes: the first two shades in the second row come very close to MAC's All That Glitters and Bronze respectively.
Sadly, the consistency of these eyeshadows is not the best you've come across: many of them are quite powdery and extremely prone to falling out, something that may be a bit of a problem, depending on what eyeshadows you use on a regular basis.
If you're willing to work around that, however, you can create some lovely eye makeup looks:




To the left you have a nighttime look, which btw is totally washed out in the bottom left picture, due to the camera flash; the top left shows it pretty much as is. For this look I used 5+7 and placed that all over the lid, 9 for the outer corner and 6+9 for the crease. 5 was also used for the lower lashline and 8 in the inner corner.
And to the right, you have a very easy daytime look(and my recent everyday eye too): 4 all over the lid and 2+3 for the crease.
No. 1 was used for both looks as a highlighter.

I guess now you can see why I take this kit with me pretty much everywhere, no?

And it would have been even better, if only....




...it didn't have that stupid lip colour drawer! I mean, come on, those are the shades they came up with to complement the natural look this kit claims to achieve?!
A frosty rosy shade (that could be great for Nanny Pat from The Only Way Is Essex btw) and a bubblegum pink? And none of these two shades look anything like the lipstick on the model on the NYX website either! Errr NYX, what was the idea behind this?
The bubblegum pink, however, is not so bad if you 're into those shades of pink, but surely, there's nothing natural about it, is there? Cos it screams "artificial" on me! Lol!

To sum things up, I like this palette, it's extremely handy with good, but not great eyeshadows.
The lip colours, I could have definitely lived without, but I guess that for its price, I shouldn't be really complaining (it costs $11 on NYX's website, but I think I got it for even cheaper on ebay).

So, what do you think of this palette?
What are the best neutral palettes out there (yeah, I know 99% of you will say UD Naked, but surprise me!)?