Black Radiance Makeup
Time for some Sunday swatches! I have three Black Radiance items for you today. Let’s start off with Seductive, one of the new Urban Identity new 5-pan palettes (now available at drugstore.com for $4.99 each) Continue reading
For my third (and final for now) review of Black Radiance’s Metallic Eyeshadow duos I have Dawn/Dusk, which is pale silvery-purple taupe and a deeper eggplant purple. As you may recall, I loved Island/Oasis and Sunrise/Sunset! Unfortunately, while Dawn/Dusk is lovely, the quality does not quite match the other two duos.
For my thoughts on the packaging, please see the Island/Oasis review.
Both shades in the duo have good pigmentation, and are actually nice quality, especially for such inexpensive drugstore eyeshadows. They are lovely colors, and they swatch well – if this was the first duo I had tried from Black Radiance, I would probably be very happy with it. It’s just that the others were exceptional, and this one is just good.
At only $2.99 I’d say that this is worth it if you like the colors, but not a must-have like the the other Black Radiance duos.
*I purchased the product(s) featured in this post. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.
After falling in love with Black Radiance’s Island/Oasis eyeshadow duo, it only took me a few days to go to the store and purchase a two more of the metallic duos. Today, I have a review and swatches of the Sunrise/Sunset duo for you.
I’ve written quite a lot about how much I love Black Radiance lipsticks, so I thought it was time that I branched out in to Black Radiance’s other products. Black Radiance is made by Markwins, who makes Wet n Wild, and Wet n Wild’s Color Icon eyeshadow is fabulous, so I was hoping that Black Radiance’s eyeshadow formula would be good as well. I was not disappointed!
First, packaging: this is very basic packaging – a small compact with a mirror on the back, and transparent windows on the front so you can see the eyeshadows. It’s an interesting way to both allow you to see the eyeshadow and include a mirror. However, it seems like the mirror would get damaged if you carried it around with you. But, this is a soft eyeshadow formula though – like Wet n Wild’s formula – and I noticed some broken eyeshadows in store – so I actually would not recommend carrying this eyeshadow with you either on a daily basis or when you travel; it’s best used at home.
This eyeshadow duo contains a pale yellow and a deep army green. The yellow is a touch dry and a bit sheer, but has a lovely iridescence The green is soft, silky, and beautifully rich and pigmented. The texture is just fabulous – it’s like the best of the Wet n Wild Color Icon formula.
Overall, I love the colors in this duo – especially the green! – and I’m really happy with the quality. After swatching this duo, I went back and bought a couple more duos plus one of Black Radiance’s 8-pan palettes; I’ll be reviewing them all soon. If you don’t have Black Radiance in-store near you, you can purchase this duo online for $2.99 at Drugstore.com. Recommended!
*I purchased the product(s) featured in this post. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.
Eldorado Red // Plum Orchid // Panther
For today’s Swatch(es) of the Day, I have swatches of three more Black Radiance lipsticks. After raving about them last week, I went and bought three more – so easy to do when they’re $2 each! For a full review of the product, please see my prior post. This post is just swatches.
Eldorado Red
Eldorado is a pink-based red. It leaves a lovely, even stain when it wears off (and like most Black Radiance lipsticks, it wears for at least 5-6 hours).
Plum Orchid
Plum Orchid is a pink-purple. Black Radiance recently added several new shades to their permanent shade range, and this is one of them.
Panther
Panther is a gorgeous color, but is a little patchy – I think it would work best as a stain.
Again, I cannot recommend these lipsticks highly enough! If you can’t find them in your area, the newer shades are listed here & the older shades are listed here on Drugstore.com.
Black Radiance Perfect Tone Lipsticks are one of the drugstore’s true hidden gems. Black Radiance is made by Markwins, the same company that makes Wet n Wild, and is priced similar to Wet n Wild – these lipsticks are $1.99 each, which is an absolute steal – if you dressed these lipsticks up in better packaging, you could easily sell them for $30 a piece.
And, let’s take a minute to talk about my least favorite part of the lipsticks – the packaging. It is pretty much what you’d expect for a two dollar drugstore lipstick, but it does leave much to be desired. The lipsticks don’t fully retract into the bullet, so it’s easy to nick them. The shade name is not on the bottom of the tube — it’s only on the shrinkwrap, and only the number is on the bottom of the tube. On the positive side, at least the lipsticks are shrinkwrapped, which I think is ideal for drugstore products; it’s not as wasteful as having cardboard packaging, but it lets you know if someone has opened the lipstick (nothing prevents determined people from opening drugstore products, so my main goal is just to be able to determine if something has been opened or not).
I only own three Black Radiance lipsticks so far, but I will definitely be buying more! The three shades I own are 5005 Sahara Red, 5010 Brandywine, and 5033 Midnight Glow. All three are very pigmented and creamy, with full coverage in a single swipe. The swatches below are one swipe only.
Sahara Red // Brandywine // Midnight Glow
And lip swatches:
Sahara Red
Sahara Red is a brick red.
Brandywine
Brandywine is a gorgeous deep berry.
Midnight Glow
Midnight Glow is another deep berry; it’s slightly more purple than Brandywine.
My lips were in pretty bad shape when I took these photographs and the lipsticks smoothed out my lip lines significantly. My lips still don’t look perfect, but the lipsticks made them look better, rather than emphasizing the dry spots.
These lipsticks also work very well blotted down and worn as stain – I wear Brandywine like this frequently. They’re quite long lasting, either full strength or blotted down, and not drying at all – perhaps even slightly moisturizing. There’s really nothing I don’t love about the formula!
Do note that Black Radiance can be hard to find in some areas (in Los Angeles, some, but not all, Rite Aid and CVS stores carry it), but it is available online at Drugstore.com. The brand’s own website has a store locator, but do call ahead – the locator is not accurate for the stores in my area.
Overall, I love these lipsticks, and I think you should check them out. They’re comfortable to wear, longwearing, very pigmented, and come in a great range of colors. I’m planning to buy several more, and I’ll post swatches when I do!
(I did buy more – swatches are here!)