One of the products I was most excited about from my recent Freedom Makeup London haul is the Pro 12 Audacious 3 palette. I've been pretty obsessed with doing rosy neutral eye looks lately, so this palette seemed absolutely perfect for my purposes and, of course, it was one of the first things in my basket. The cost of this palette is just insanity. It ended up costing me $7.84 CAD, which is just about as affordable a palette as you can get, really. I've been really impressed with the quality and performance of Makeup Revolution eyeshadows, so I had high hopes for this one... but how did it stack up to what I was hoping for? You'll have to keep reading to find out!

Keep reading for a closer look & swatches!

First, let's talk about the packaging and appearance. The packaging is a simple black glossy plastic case with a sizable window on the front so that you can see all of the shadows. I feel like Freedom Makeup chose this packaging in order to keep the price down on the palette, and because of that I'm not mad at the fact that it isn't a bit more luxe. It's simple and sturdy, and as far as I'm concerned gets the job done. Also, the appearance of the shadows themselves helps to lend a slightly more high quality look overall. As you can see from the photos, the shadows look incredibly similar to the appearance of the NARS Dual Intensity shadows and I feel like that's a really sleek and attractive look.

The shade selection in this palette reminds me a lot of the Urban Decay NAKED 3, and I have to say I don't think that's a coincidence - especially considering the name. I don't have the NAKED 3 to compare it to, so I can't say for certain, but after looking up some swatches I have to say that this is pretty much a bang on dupe shade wise. I can't say I'm the least bit upset about that either. I feel like this has a really good selection of shades so that you can get a lot of different looks from the palette without having to bring in supplemental shades from other palettes. There's a good mix of lights, midtones, and dark shades as well as a good range of finishes from matte to satin to metallic to shimmer. Not bad, right?

As far as the quality of these shadows, I have to say that even though I had high expectations, they still managed to exceed them. The real winners for me in this palette are the matte shades, which are smooth and silky in texture with an impressive amount of pigmentation and really great blendability. I've found myself reaching for this palette specifically to use those matte shades on my lid or in the crease and they actually create a really beautiful look all on their own. The shimmers are equally as beautiful, if a little less surprising in their quality. A couple of the more shimmery shades are a little soft and can have some fall out, but it's worth it for the pay off on the lid.

Finally, the wear time on these shadows is incredibly impressive. I used my MAC Paint Pot in Painterly to prime my lids before using this and my eyeshadow look lasted all day with very minimal creasing. There was a little muddiness in the colours by the very end of the day, but I really can't say that's any different from literally any other eyeshadow palette on my eyes.

I have to tell you that at this price point, there really is nothing that I've tried that holds a candle to this palette. To me, this feels and performs very much like high end shadows and I can't imagine that anyone would be the least bit disappointed by them. In all honesty, I have every intention of picking up a few more of these Pro 12 palettes in the future!