I recently started a new full time job, and I’m trying to figure out to manage to find time to blog – and also to find daylight hours to photograph swatches! In the meantime, I’m going through my drafts folder, and I found these photos of two NYX cream eyeshadow I bought.
I don’t really have a review – they creased, I returned them – but I thought I might as well post the swatches! Enjoy. Continue reading
G. over at Nouveau Cheap posted a few days ago about some new and permanent Wet n Wild items that are starting to show up in stores. I found two of the items, the 5-pan palettes & balm stains (which appear to be similar to the Revlon and Jordana ones) at CVS, and decided to purchase all of the palettes and three of the balm stains. This evening, I have swatches of all the palettes as well as some initial thoughts.
click to enlarge
This post is fairly image heavy – more after the jump! Continue reading
You can’t really see the packaging here, but they have a clear lid – very basic. And as you can see, I used them before photographing, hope you don’t mind!
Lately, I’ve been trying to purchase less and downsize, but when G. over at Nouveau Cheap mentioned that the Walgreens holiday Profusion 5-pan palettes – which sell for $1 each! – are good quality, I thought I’d give one a try. I initially purchased the purples palette, and was so surprised/happy by the quality that I bought the greens as well.
Also – I these swatches on my Instagram a few days ago, and I’ve been using Instagram lately for “spotted at the drugstore” posts as well – please follow me there if you are interested in that type of post! Or .
I used a finger to swatch and did not use primer.
Profusion purples palette – no primer
From left to right:
1. Basic white shimmer; good quality, but nothing special.
2. Iridescent grey/purple – this is by far my favorite shade. It’s somewhat sheer, but I think it works very well with the color. It’s also gorgeous over a black base.
3. Eggplant/maroon with a low-shimmer finish. Very pretty, but hard to wear without looking bruised. This one is slightly sheer.
4. Blurple that leans blue – again a very pretty low-shimmer finish. Pigmentation isn’t great, but it’s workable
5. Satin-finish black – it’s fine, but I have better blacks.
Overall, I’d say that four of the shades are skippable, but that second shade is great, and I’d pay more than $1 for it alone.
Profusion greens palette – no primer
Again from left to right:
1. Peachy shimmer – good pigmentation, lovely shade.
2. Bronzey shimmer – this shade has incredible pigmentation, it looked just like this after one swipe (though I did two for no particular reason). And it’s a gorgeous color, too!
3. Lime green, poor pigmentation – the swatch is three swipes.
4. Blackened green with a low shimmer finish – great color, but I have other blackened greens I prefer.
5. Satin finish black, same as the purples palette.
Of the greens, I love the first two shades (which again make such a cheap palette worth it for me), and the latter three are skippable. I might try to depot the shades I like and toss the rest, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the the risk, as I often harm shadows when depotting! I’m just not patient enough, I think.
Here’s that second shade applied as a wash, blended out with Burberry Trench:
I believe these are exclusive to Walgreens, and only available in-store – sorry international folk & those without a Walgreens nearby! If you do have access to Walgreens, will you be looking for these palettes?
Almay Shadow Softies display at Target
It’s the time of year when the drugstores are full of new products, both limited-edition holiday collections and new permanent items. I’ve been trying to buy less lately, but I have purchased some of the new offerings – most recently, one of Almay’s new (& permanent) Shadow Softie cream eyeshadows. Note that the Target display above does not have all of the available colors; Nouveau Cheap posted a picture of a different display that states the collection has twelve colors.
When I first saw the display, I wasn’t sure if these were powder or cream shadows – “whipped” certainly implies cream, but before you touch them, they very much look like powders. I bought one shade, Smoke, to test out.
The texture of this eyeshadow is really interesting – it’s very different from any eyeshadow I’ve tried before. When I first touched it, I couldn’t tell if it was a very silky powder or a dryish cream; it sort of feels like a hybrid cream/powder. Continue reading
I went to Barneys a few days ago to check out makeup artist Troy Surratt’s new line, the self-titled Surratt. The line is exclusive to Barneys, which only has a few locations – I’m lucky to live near one of them. Everything is also available online (though much of it is currently sold out).
Parfait blush // Cuive eyeshadow // Chamois eyeshadow
The eyeshadow & blush covers easily slide off.
Jordana is one of my favorite drugstore brands – very inexpensive and generally good quality – so I was excited to see that they’ve released some new products. I bought several to test out and review, and first up I have four of the new 12-Hour Made To Last Eyeshadow Pencils.
Here’s the new section of the display, where you can see the eight available colors. The four neutrals are all matte (Eternal White, Stay-On Black, Tenacious Brown and Continous Almond), and the four colors all have shimmer or glitter (Pink Evermore, Aqua Last, Prolong Purple, and Endless Emerald). As you can see, they retail for $4.49 at my Walgreens, which means they’re probably going to be about $3.99 elsewhere – the Walgreens stores around me tend to charge more than MSRP.
It’s barely visible in the display photo, but the pencils are shrinkwrapped, which I always appreciate. The pencils need to be sharpened – they are not twist-ups.
Eternal White // Continous Almond // Prolong Purple // Endless Emerald
Texturewise, the two matte pencils I bought were extremely creamy, almost to the point of being slippery. They are very, very soft, and although they are opaque in one swipe, they sheer out when blended.
Eternal White // Continuous Almond
The colored pencils are not quite as soft and slippery feeling as the mattes, but they are still softer than any other eyeshadow pencils I have tried (NYX jumbo eye pencils, Milani Shadow Eyez, Rimmel Scandaleyes, & UD 24/7). Prolong Purple was somewhat sheer when blended, and Endless Emerald is relatively opaque when blended, especially for a cream product. Both have micro glitter which becomes more visible when blended out.
Prolong Purple // Endless Emerald
The soft texture of the pencils made me concerned that they might slide around or crease, but they dry down quickly to a fairly immovable finish.
I bought the two mattes to use as bases, and I’m quite pleased with them thus far – they help eyeshadow colors pop, it’s easy to blend on top of them, and they haven’t creased on me at all. I’ve worn the purple on it’s own, and had some very faint creasing after about an hour. Since it’s hard to get it opaque enough, I’ll probably stick with using it as either a base or as an eyeliner. I’ve been wearing the green on my waterline today, and thus far it’s holding up very well – it looks almost perfect after four hours, which is a long time for me! I think the green will probably work better than the purple as an eyeshadow, since it’s more pigmented and thus fewer layers are needed.
I also have comparisons with a few similar eyeshadow pencils.
Milani Almond Cream // Jordana Continuous Almond
Milani Almond Cream and Jordana Continuous Almond are extremely similar. The colors are not identical, but very very close. The textures are noticeably different – the Jordana is much more slippery feeling. I prefer the Milani.
NYX Milk // Jordana Eternal White
NYX Milk and Jordana Eternal white are matte whites, so identical in color, but again the textures differ. The NYX is not as smooth or creamy, and I find that it’s more likely to crease on me, because it doesn’t dry down as thoroughly. I prefer the Jordana.
Rimmel Paranoid Purple // Jordana Prolong Purple // UD 24/7 Delinquent
The Rimmel (reviewed here) is the shimmery, but not glittery, so although it’s close in color to the other two, it’s not a dupe. It gets very sheer when blended out. The Jordana and UD look like dupes to me, but again the textures differ – the Jordana is a touch softer than I prefer, and the UD is a touch harder than I prefer. I don’t really have a favorite out of these three.
Overall, I really like the Jordana pencils, especially when used as eyeliner or as eyeshadow base. I’m glad to have an alternative to NYX Milk, and if you missed out on Milani’s limited-edition neutral Shadow Eyez, the matte Jordanas are a great alternative. Recommended!
*I purchased the product(s) featured in this post. This post does not contain any affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.