MAC Paint Pots Overall Review with Swatches and Photos! (pic heavy)

MAC Paint Pot Overview

MAC Paint Pots ($17.50) are MAC's take on Cream Eyeshadows. They are versatile products because there can be several uses for them. You can wear them alone on the lids, as a liner, as a primer or as a base color for powder eyeshadow/pigments.

A highly pigmented eye colour that goes on creamy but dries to an intense, vibrant finish. Long-wearing, colourfast. Creates seamless coverage without weight or caking. Blends smoothly over the lids. Cream-based, can be mixed with M·A·C shadows and liners.

MAC Paint Pots are available in nine shades: Bare Study, Soft Ocher, Painterly, Rubenesque, Indianwood, Groundwork, Constructivist, Quite Natural and Blackground. I own all of them, except Blackground and Soft Ocher. (None of which I have posted reviews for in the past, so I thought it'd be a good idea to gather them up and review them together.)

MAC releases limited edition shades every now and then in some of their collections, but the actual permanent collection is quite small and lacks much color. All of the colors are fairly neutral. MAC did have many more colors in the past, but almost all of them became discontinued and they never filled the void with replacement/additional shades.

Continue reading for individual reviews and swatches

Maybelline Bold Gold Eyestudio Color Tattoo Eyeshadow Review!

Maybelline Eyestudio Bold Gold Color Tattoo Eyeshadow

I previously posted about a couple Maybelline Color Tattoo Eyeshadows last month, and since then have been using them (mostly Bad to the Bronze) a couple days out of the week. 

Shorlty after, I picked up one additional shade, Bold Gold, which is basically a shimmery, medium toned brassy-gold. 

Bold Gold is a great shade that can be used alone, for a simple wash of color across the lids, or it can be used as a base for a powder eyeshadow to prolong the wear of the shadow, and to make any golden hues in the powder eyeshadow stand out more.

One of the ways I like wearing this shadow is applied all over the lid, with a soft brown shadow blended through the crease, and the top lid lined with a dark brown liquid (or pencil) liner for a quick and simple look.

(Cropped from a previous post)

My favorite application method is with my fingers, or a flat synthetic concealer brush. If you want more opaque color, a sponge eyeshadow applicator works well.

Maybelline Eyestudio Bold Gold Color Tattoo Eyeshadow

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Maybelline Bad to the Bronze & Tough as Taupe Color Tattoo Eyeshadows Review!

 Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tattoo Eyeshadows

Those that follow other beauty blogs, I'm sure you're all very familiar with these newly launched Maybelline cream eyeshadows. They've been flying off the shelves along with the L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows, as soon as they hit stores at the start of 2012.

Maybelline Color Tattoo Eyeshadows are cream/gel fomula eyeshadows with intense pigment, that claim to hold up for 24 hours without creasing.

Maybelline Color Tattoo Eyeshadows are available in ten (10) shades: #10 Fierce and Tangy, #05 Too Cool, #15 Audacious Asphalt, #20 Painted Purple, #25 Bad to the Bronze, #30 Pomegranate Punk, #35 Tough as Taupe, #40 Tenacious Teal, #45 Bold Gold and #50 Edgy Emerald.

I only picked up two shades, Bad to the Bronze and Tough as Taupe, which are two very versatile, neutral shades.

Bad to the Bronze is a metallic chocolate brown-bronze with very fine shimmers. It doesn't lean orange or red, and is a fairly neutral shade.

Tough Taupe is a matte dove grey. It appears slightly lighter in the container, but when swatched, the color is a bit deeper. It's very much on the neutral-cool side.

#25 Bad to the Bronze & #35 Tough as Taupe

Chanel Epatant Illusion D'Ombre Eyeshadow Review, Photos and Swatches!

Chanel Epatant Illusion D'Ombre Long-Wear Luminous Eyeshadow

The Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Long Wearing Eyeshadows is a small line of  "gel" eye shadows that newly launched this past Fall of 2011. During that time, it seemed everyone was going mad over the Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill Intense Shadows, but the attention steered away from them for a little bit as these little glass pots stole the spotlight. I still have yet to get my hands on a Giorgio Armani!

What's special about the Chanel shadows is their unique formula. Are they a cream, gel, mousse? 

 Chanel describes them by saying, "An innovative gel texture that is both soft and cushiony allows it to be worn as eyeshadow or eyeliner." They are like hybrid between a mousse (but more dense) and a gel (like a MAC Paintpot, but much less dense). The texture is light and spongy, creamy and blends beautifully with intense pigment.

There are (6) shades in the line-up: Fantasme (shimmering white), Emerveille (shimmering peach/champagne), Illusoire (shimmering purple-mauve), Epatant (shimmering pewter-green), Mirifique (shimmering black) and Ebloui (shimmery burgundy). The shades I was most interested in is: Illusoire, Epatant and Emerville, but at $36 a pop, I only purchased one for now.

 

Epatant is a pewter-golden khaki green shimmering with silver reflects. On the eyes, I don't notice the green as much as I notice the silver. It reminds me a lot of Chanel Graphite Nail Polish, but in eyeshadow form.