Tom Ford Eye Color Quad 01 Golden Mink

Yes, so this is the third, count 'em, the third time I've reviewed this quad.  And not to beat a dead horse, but the review quality is steadily getting better.  I'm trying new lighting and I think these pictures come much closest I've managed to capturing how the product looks in real life.  Also, I've started posting YouTube videos again and this blog post was created to accompany the video.

The Tom Ford quad in Golden Mink contains 2 glitter shades and 2 satin shades.  

The two glitters are a pale non-metallic gold and a peach.  The glitters are more like a pressed pigment.  There is definitely some type of binding agent in the glitter that keeps it from ending up all over my face.  These are the most fantastic glitters I've ever seen.  They're beautiful and sparkly without being over the top.  You can see that they do have a good bit of color to them, they're not just shimmer.

The satin shades are incredibly pigmented and buttery soft.  They apply like a dream and are easy to blend.  I don't ever have any issue with them fading or with my hooded eyes "eating" the shadows.  They last a solid ten hours without problems.

 The first satin shade is a pretty neutral taupe with lots of dimension.  It is hands down one of my most loved eyeshadows and you can see the obvious dip in the picture below.  The second satin shade is a rich dark brown that complements the taupe shade perfectly.  

The quad is lovely, with high gloss brown and gold packaging.  It's sturdy and feels substantial.  The mirror is sizeable and the little sponge tip applicators are actually really useful in applying the glitter shades.  The compact has a magnetic closure that keeps it securely closed and it has a little pouch for storage.

The Tom Ford Eye Quads contain 10 grams of product and currently retail for $78 (though they were $75 when I picked mine up.)  Golden Mink is part of the permanent Tom Ford line and is available anywhere that carries the Tom Ford Cosmetics line.  I got mine at Neiman Marcus.

Overall:  10/10

E.L.F. Neutral Eyeshadow Compact

So I used to have the Urban Decay Naked palette (the original) and it just sat around gathering dust.  I didn't use it.  I'm not sure exactly what the problem was, but I finally decided that someone else could put it to better use and I traded it on MakeUp Alley for MAC Matchmaster Foundation (probably my most successful MUA swap to date).

Anyway, the other day I saw two different blog posts on various blogs that I read about how the E.L.F. Neutral eyeshadow compact is a dupe for some of the UD Naked palette shades.  So I decided to plunk down the whopping $3 for it and check it out.  My reasoning was that the E.L.F. palette is all neutrals and omits dupes for the Urban Decay shades I either already own (hello, smog, why do I have three of you?) or never used anyway.

And now on to the swatches and comparisons:

• Glittery White - This shade isn't similar to something in the Naked palette.  It's a white shade with a lot of silver glitter.  The texture was very creamy and the color payoff is good.
• Not!Sidecar - this shade was awful.  It had tons of glitter and seemed to be more glitter than shadow.  it was chunky and uneven and awful.  Urban Decay's Midnight Cowboy is sort of the standard for horrid glitter, but this shade could certainly give Midnight Cowboy a run for its money.  And really, I don't remember Sidecar being that glittery.
• Matte Dark Brown - Excellent color payoff, creamy texture.  For me, this was the best shade in the palette.  I think this is probably darker than any of the matte brown shades in the UD Naked palette.

• Not!Virgin - Shimmery light pink with satin finish with shimmer, but not glitter.  Very creamy.  If memory serves, this is really close to UD's Virgin.
• Rosy Brown - satin finish with shimmer, but not glitter. very creamy.
• Dark gray brown - matte finish.  Not as creamy as the other matte, but very workable and again, darker than anything in the UD palette (I know Dark Horse looks dark in the pan, but on the skin it's really not).

So obviously, I no longer have the Naked palette to be able to do side by side comparisons but my overall impression is ... it's an E.L.F. palette.  Some of the shades are okay (the matte brown in the upper right hand corner is probably my favorite of the palette but at this point I probably have a dozen great matte brown shadows so this doesn't exactly justify purchasing the whole compact for one shade).

Overall, most of the shades are forgettable or really similar to something else I already have.  If you don't already have any affordable neutral palettes, it might be worth picking up.  I really don't think that if you have your heart set on the Urban Decay Naked palette that this is going to satisfy you, but at $3 vs. $50, you might be willing to live with it.

What do you guys think?  Anything that stands out enough to be worth picking up?

Overall: 5/10

Lorac Unziped Eyeshadow Palette

The Lorac Unzipped palette contains 10 neutral shades in matte, shimmer and metallic finishes.  The palette contains 11.2 grams of product and retails for $40.  The palette also included a deluxe sample size Lorac Behind the Scenes eyeshadow primer.

Top Row:

Undercover, Unbelievable, Unattainable, Unconditional, Unbridled

• Undercover - this was a really difficult shade to swatch since it is basically my skintone.  The finish is matte and it is a very creamy and pigmented.
• Unbelievable - This is a beautiful coppery orange shadow with a metallic finish.  It is incredibly pigmented and applied like a dream.
• Unattainable - Another metallic finish. This one is a coppery brown.  Intense pigmentation and applied so smoothly.
• Unconditional - light brown matte shadow.  The payoff wasn't great and the shadow seemed very dry.
• Unbridled - plummy brown matte shadow.  Very creamy.  Good payoff.

Bottom Row:

Undiscovered, Unreal, Uncensored, Unspoken, Untamed

• Undiscovered - Buttery gold metallic shadow.  Excellent payoff, creamy application.
• Unreal - Champaigne pink metallic shadow.  Excellent payoff, creamy application.
• Uncensored - Metallic brown.  Great payoff.
• Unspoken - Matte medium brown.  Creamy texture.  reat payoff.
• Untamed - dark brown, slightly purple with shimmer.  not metallic, but satin.  Great color payoff.

The metallic shadows are definitely the winners in this palette.  They are beautiful shadows with fantastic application.  The mattes are hit or miss.  Some of them are fantastic, others not so much.

Overall, I think this is a fantastic collection of shadows.  They are neutral without being boring and the overall quality is really impressive.  The palette itself is just cardboard with no closure, so I'm not sure how great it would be to travel with.  I suspect you could depot these shadows fairly easily and throw them in a zPalette if you felt so inclined.

I haven't tried out the primer yet, but I will.  There will be a separate review on it.

Overall:  9/10

Keep reading for more pics.

Review: Revlon Illuminance Cream Shadow palette in 710 Not Just Nudes

I go through big cream shadow phases and last go round I picked up several of the Revlon Illuminance Cream Shadow palettes.  The palette above, in 710, Not Just Nudes, is by far my favorite of the Revlon cream palettes.

Sadly, I didn't think to photograph this palette before I used it so excuse the rather beat up looking product photos.  The different colors have significantly different textures.

The darkest color is by far the ... hmm, how to say this ... the lightest?  It has a whipped, creamy consistency.  It does have shimmer.  And phenomenal color payoff.

The second color is as close to matte as you can get with a cream product that doesn't completely dry down.    It is much denser in texture than the other shadows in the palette.

The third shadow has a lighter consistency again. It has a pearlescent finish, but no glitter.

The final shade is the most underwhelming in the palette.  The color payoff isn't fantastic and it's just a very underwhelming shade for me.

As I said earlier, I love the darkest shade and I wear it often.

This is a nice little cream shadow palette.  I'd say the quality is on par with the Urban Decay cream shadows if you're familiar with those.  If you're looking for something on par with say the Make Up For Ever Aqua Creams, you're going to need to keep looking.  The Revlon cream shadows never completely dried down on me and they definitely aren't waterproof.  That said, I don't really have a problem with these creasing though I do tend to layer them with powder shadows.

The palette contains 3.4 grams of product total and retails for about $6.

Overall: 7/10

Review: Sleek Ultra Mattes v2 Dark

I was lucky enough to receive the Sleek Ultra Mattes v2 Darks Palette from the lovely Diana when I did my swap with Tam a few weeks ago.  I had been lusting after this palette since I saw it on English blogs, but since my access to Sleek is very limited, I figured I'd never get a chance to see it in person.

First off, I love the packaging.  I'm not sure if it's new for all Sleek palettes or just for the matte palettes, but I love it.  And the shadows ... OMG, the shadows.  I think it is a well known fact that I love me some matte shadows.  Seriously, I have a matte shadow problem.  And these mattes are beautiful.  Most of them are buttery soft and have incredible pigmentation as you can see from the swatches.

There are a lovely range of colors here, enough to create a multitude of looks.  I think this is an incredibly versatile palette and I use it often.

The Sleek ultra mattes palette contains 12.1 grams of product and retails for $10.99 plus s/h at SleekMakeup.com

Overall:  10/10

Review: Milani Runway Eyes eyeshadow palette in 09 Trendsetter

This spring I picked up one of the Milani Runway Eyes palettes in 09 Trendsetter.  Trendsetter is a mix of yellow-green-blue shadows.  

The packaging for these palettes is definitely not my favorite.  The shadows are in raised strips, sticking up above the level of the rest of the palette.  This makes it very easily to accidentally gouge the shadows and makes any fallout practically impossible to reclaim (it's not like you can put it back in the pan, there is no pan).

The shadows are all the Milani baked eyeshadow formula so you will get significantly better color payoff if you use the shadows wet as opposed to dry.  These swatches are dry.

The wear time on these particular shadows wasn't phenomenal, especially since I didn't foil them.  They're a mineralized product and I do realize that if you want to get the full potential, you have to use them wet.  But I hate using shadows wet, so I realize I'm going to get less than stellar results.  Over a base they wore for about 4 hours before they faded significantly.

This is definitely not a go-to palette for me.  These colors are pretty far outside my comfort zone.  But I was wanting something different and this palette certainly filled the bill and was very budget friendly.

The palette contains 9 grams of product total and retails for around $8 in the US.

Overall: 7/10

Review: Sleek Bad Girl Eyeshadow Palette

In April in was lucky enough to get some awesome goodies from Katie.  It's take me a while, but I'm finally getting around to swatching everything she sent.  (Holy procrastination, Batman.  I've been loving everything she sent, I just haven't been good about taking pictures.)

So first up is the Sleek Bad Girl Eyeshadow Palette

The labels are so reflective that it was hard to photograph, but here goes:

So as you could have guessed from the name, the shadows in the Bad Girl palette tend to be darker, vampy even and then a couple of highlight shades.  

First off, I have to say that I was so thrilled to get this palette.  I'd seen several YouTube videos from people in the UK using this palette and it just completely bums me out that it is such a pain to try and get Sleek items in the US.  I'd pretty much given up on ever getting anything from Sleek and then lo and behold, this beauty arrived.  :D

As you can tell from the pictures, some of the colors are very similar, but the textures are quite different.  Some of the shades are pearlescent and the others are matte.

And now, on to the swatches.  All colors are swatched dry with no primer.

First, is the top row of the palette, which overall had a consistency that was okay, but not fantastic, especially on the lighter shades.

The bottom row, in contrast, had phenomenal color payoff and texture.

The Bad Girl palette contains 12 shadows which contain 1.1grams each for a total of 13.1 grams.

Overall: 9/10

Review: Maybelline Expert Wear palette in 10 Sunbaked Neutrals

I saw this palette in a tutorial by Amarixe.  I was particularly impressed with the dark bronze color in this palette and when I saw it at Target, I decided to go ahead and pick it up.

This palette is called "Sunbaked Neutrals" and it pretty much delivers on the name.  The palette is a mix of finishes.  According to the packaging, the finishes are matte, sparkle and high-pearl.  As far as I can tell, the only matte shadow is the brown on the upper row.

The top row of the palette was pretty disappointing as soon as I started swatching.  The shadows tended to be pretty dry and hard to work with, even the metallic gold/bronze shade (though the metallic shade was easily the best of the upper row).  The color payoff wasn't great ... yeah, it just wasn't great.

So them moving onto the lower row, the palette completely redeemed itself.  Every shade in the lower row was fantastic.  Even the darker matte shade was like butter.  These shadows were so creamy and super pigmented.

The palette is really small.  The entire palette contains 6.2 grams of product - each color is only .78 grams of product.  For reference, one regular size MAC shadow contains 1.5 grams of product.  However, this palette is incredibly budget friendly at around $7.

Overall:  7/10

Review: bareMinerals READY Eyeshadow Quad in Truth

I thought I'd review the eyeshadow palette that I've been using daily for the last week.  It's the bareMinerals READY eyeshadow quad in Truth.  I have no idea why they're yelling READY at us.  I would assume that READY is an acryonym for something, but the Bare Escentuals website isn't being much help in this regard.

Here's what I could find out about the READY line from the Bare Escentuals website:

Pure, intense, provocative color that's incredibly long-wearing and blendable with proven anti-aging benefits.  Available in 15 amazing duos and 4 phenomenal quads

I have no idea what the anti-aging benefits are and like I said, the website is not providing a lot of illumination.  The 4 shades in the Truth quad are:

• Serendipitous  - shimmery off white with micro-glitter.
• Magnetism - warm light brown with a metallic finish.  Reads very taupe in the pan, but on the eye and in swatches, is much warmer.
• Fate - warm dark/medium brown with both a metallic finish and micro-glitter.
• Apropos - dark brown with blue/silver micro-glitter.  The base shadow is matte.

I know that lots of beauty bloggers and YouTube gurus really seem to love the whole line of bareMinerals pressed eyeshadows and the Truth quad in particular has been talked up a lot.  To be blunt, I feel ripped off.  I am incredibly disappointed.

The color payoff is crap.  I will say that the other 2 neutral eyeshadow palettes are my Inglot matte palette and my Smashbox Photo Op Brown Eye palette and both of them have absolutely phenomenal payoff, so that may have skewed my reaction a bit.  But the pigmentation on this palette is incredibly disappointing.  The swatches below are fairly heavy swatches and even with the darkest color, the payoff is still crap.

Also, despite being a neutral palette, there isn't a single matte.  The darkest shadow apropos, does have a matte base, but it also has tons of glitter.

The palette contains a total of 5g of product and it retails for $30.  I used my 20% off at Ulta to purchase it, and I still feel really ripped off.

Overall: 4/10

Review: Smashbox Photo Op Eye Enhancing Palette - Brown Eyes

Soft Trio

• marble - silvery pinkish taupe - frost finish, no glitter

• wine - burgundy with pink glitter

• bark - greenish/gold/brown with gold glitter

Smoky Trio

• vanilla - matte cream

• brazilian bronze - gold/brown with a metallic finish

• navy - matte navy

For the last 10 days I've been exclusively using this palette and for the most part, it has performed fantastically well. The palette itself is quite versatile. While I'm not sold on the idea of only wearing certain colors based on your eye color, I do like the colors in this palette and I think they could be used on any eye color. There are a variety of colors and finishes which can be combined in a multitude of ways.


The mattes in this palette are phenomenal. They are so incredibly creamy and pigmented. They are just fantastic. I didn't think that anybody could do a better matte than Inglot, but I have to say the mattes in this palette are even creamier. It's not that the other finishes in this palette are bad, it's just that the mattes are so fantastic.


I can tell you I'm going to hit pan on the vanilla shade in this palette long before any other color because it is such a staple for my skintone.


The navy matte from the smoky trio reads much more navy in the pan than it does on the skin. On the skin it is a much brighter blue.


The brown shades are both solid performers with good pigmentation.


Marble, the pinky taupe color, is really beautiful, but subtle.


For me the biggest, and really only, disappointment in this palette was wine, the glittery burgundy shade. It's a glitter shade so you get best payoff with it by putting it on with a laydown brush, but since I really don't care to wear colors like this across the lid, I was stuck trying to blend it out in the crease. When you try and blend this color it just falls apart. The glitter is gone and you lose all the purple shading and it becomes just a dirty gray color which is very apparent in the swatch below. Like I said, I'm sure if I had applied it more carefully it would have worked out a lot better but I'm not a fan of shadows that have to be handled this carefully.

The palette itself is really sturdy and makes great use of space. It is small and compact, which I really liked. At first it was a little disconcerted to get something so small after spending so much money, but like I said, after having fought with overly large palettes, I've come to really appreciate the concise manner of this palette.

Smashbox has a series of these palettes. There are also palettes for blue and hazel eyes. They are $42 from Sephora.

Overall: 8/10.