New L'Oreal HIP Eyeshadow Duos: "Crystal"

Popping up recently in the special displays at the drugstores are new HIP (High Intensity Pigments) Eyeshadow Duos from L'Oreal in a "Crystal" finish. Today I have swatches from three of the five new duos.

I haven't had a chance to try the shadows, but they struck me as subtle, shimmery, and metallic, with the potential for a bright, glimmer effect perfect for a winter evening...perhaps New Year's eve? Or, at this point, another festive midwinter evening celebration.

First, I wondered, what is "Crystal" supposed to mean here? As opposed to the other categories, such as the metallic or bright. According to the L'Oreal site, the powders "contain a high pearl content, leaving the irridescent, crystalline finish that beautifully highlights eyes." So, that's the "Crystal" label, as opposed to calling them "Pearl." The finish promises to be "shimmery" and "pearlescent" and "glimmers like pure crystal."

Second, I noticed a little re-branding going on: "HIP Studio Secrets Professional Crystal Shadow Duos."

Now to the swatches, first the duos from left to right: Romantic, Charming, and Darling.


First up is Romantic, with a silvery color on the left and a pale pink-brown on the right:


The first thing I notice is the texture. Without really pressing my finger down TOO hard, the shadows really flaked up like crazy, especially the silver on the left:

Correspondingly, the shadow did not adhere very well to my arm in coherent swatches:


The middle shadow duo is "Charming" with silver on the left and a purple, almost a blurple, on the right. This duo was the one I was most interested in:

The texture was just as flaky and problematic:


And, the third duo, "Darling", in pale, pearlized beige (left) and brown (right) tones:

The now customary pic of the loose flaky mess left by the swipe of a finger:



Comparison swatches:




The shadows look great in the containers until you swipe them with your fingers. I wonder how one would apply them and make them adhere. Put an extra layer of eye shadow primer?? Coat one's lid lightly with Vaseline?? And the eyeshadow brush as well?? It seems these duos with the pearl-crystal finish were in theory a great concept, but I am not sure, based on swatching these crazy-flaking shadows, how well they will work in practice. Hmm.

L'Oreal H.I.P. Eyeshadows Review and Swatches, Pt. 1

If you haven't been in a drugstore makeup aisle in a while, check out the L'Oreal HIP (High Intensity Pigments) line. In my case, when I recently resumed wearing makeup, and thus became obsessed with adding more colors to my arsenal, just marching to the mall and randomly buying expensive shadows would not have been a really smart move. The popular L'Oreal HIP eyeshadow duos were the perfect solution. They come in a wide variety of really pretty colors, in some cases very high contrast, dramatic pairings. And, best of all, most of them do have high pigmentation that one wouldn't necessarily expect from drugstore makeup.

I wouldn't say these shadows are equal to MAC or other high-end makeup brands' shadows, but for drugstore, they are really good buys. I am featuring my own collection and providing reviews and swatches in case they might help someone reading this. It is my magnum makeup opus!

The most recent release is the matte shadow duos, and the other categories are the concentrated, bright, and metallic duos. Let's start this series with the concentrated. I'll be reviewing two duos, "Charisma" and "Devious."

I provide pictures of the shadows, swatches, and my attempts to use them on my very own eyes. Eek! Obviously, I am not a model (nor a makeup artist or photographer!!), and my hooded eye shape isn't the best for showing off eyeshadows. On the other hand, so many women have this eye shape, and seeing shadows on this eye shape might provide something other blogs or professional beauty sites don't?!

Both of the looks in this post are the same, with the left shadow used on the lid, then the right shadow blended into the crease. I note the differences and staying power for each individual duo.

First up: Charisma, a purply duo. The left shadow is a shimmery light pinky purple, smooth and silky to the touch, while the right shadow is dark purple, rougher and less creamy with just a touch of shimmer. When smearing the swatches on my hand, I found the lighter color really smeared while the darker stayed put. I did this not to be messy or contrary, but to predict how the shadows will blend or go on the eye.

I've worn these shadows recently over Urban Decay Primer potion a couple of times, and they have excellent staying power.

Pictures of the duo are indoors, first the duo in the overhead light, then tipped to be more in shadow, and followed by swatches on my hand or arm.


Some swatches on my hand to show the colors:



And, some pics on eye. And, another reminder that my lid is small!!



"Devious" is an earthy duo that reminds me of fall clothes. It contains a medium green---kind of an olive green with some shimmer---paired with a tobacco brown that is also shimmery. Both shadows have the same texture, going on silkily and smoothly and blending the same when I was smearing them on my hand. These shadows will blend well on the eye, and will provide some layering possibilities. I have had good results with the shadows from the duo staying on for the whole day.

Swatches on the back of my hand:


Pretty!!! Earthy!! Autumny!! And, below, showing them out of the direct light.


On the eyelid, just the green (with some fallout that needs cleanup):


With brown in the crease:





Supporting characters:

The tools used in my pictures include L'Oreal Telescopic mascara in brown black, Maybelline eye pencil in slate blue, three shadow brushes from CVS (two smaller crease brushes and a domed eyeshadow brush, all with the lighter handles), a blending brush from Japonesque (purchased from ULTA, in back with black handle), and Urban Decay Primer Potion (UDPP).

Conclusion: My favorite duos are turning out to be the ones that are more blendable, in this case, Devious, the green and brown. When applying these particular shadows, one can adjust smears or miscues easily as one goes along. With the darker color in Charisma, the purple duo, the staying power is great in theory, but they are not easy to manipulate when needing to tidy up or adjust when applying. For that reason, I think those colors are great for lining the lids, either on their own or layering with an eye pencil or eyeliner.

Coming up: I have 6 more concentrated duos, as well as 2 matte and 4 metallic! Stay tuned.

Look of the Day!! Wednesday the 9th

Today I am wearing the "Day" eyeshadow look from my "Natural Eyes" palette from Two-Faced Cosmetics. Very nice! Very matte. I'll have a post very soon with pictures and a review on this cute set of shadows.

Still wearing my MAC "Cool Reserve" fall 09 Nail Trend color, which I LOVE! Today I have my Essie "Matte About You" topcoat on to change the look just a little bit. Looks cool, but I prefer it with the creme-glossy look.

Still with my orange handbag and orange wool paisley shawl I got in India, but today I'm wearing a light sweater to combat the AC in my office!!

Also coming very soon: my purchase from the Prescriptives Fall 09 "Well-Suited" collection with swatches, a review with swatches on the Physicians Formula "Baked" eyeshadow trios, and swatches galore from my L'Oreal HIP Duo eyeshadow collection!!

I'll still be featuring my nail color adventures, with my selections from Essie's fall colors and OPI's fall Spain collection....but wanted to inject some other stuff into the mix! I am definitely not a nail blog and could never compete with all the awesome blogs featuring huge polish collections and infinite knowledge on the subject.

But first, must work for a living!! More tonight.

-Euridice

Look of the Day!!

Ha! I just got things off my chest with the whole August is still summer, and so is September. And this morning it was so cool outside, and again when I left work this evening. Love it! Okay, it's fall! Well, I know it will go back to boiling hot, but I think this is bearing out my belief that September is the true transition month to full-on fall.

Last Wednesday I switched my new Orange Belen Echandia handbag to my Ignes Petra in soft maize, a wonderful pale yellow, silky soft leather and a soft contrast to the pink I was wearing. Nail noob: lavender nails, using Essie's St. Lucia Lilac---so pretty! Lovely contrast to pale yellow and coordinating with the purple lining. I was in the throes of my "it's summer, not a transition month!" At the time, it felt great, and in retrospect it sounds like an Easter egg look!! The following day, the yellow bag and lilac nails went with chocolate brown.


See more pics of my Ignes Petra in my Purse Forum reveal.

My Barielle nail colors arrived on Thursday, so on Friday: Barielle Polished Princess with a matte topcoat---love!! Um, no NOTD pictures, hmm, I messed up.

Today I had to get back to my new orange love (the BE handbag, in case that's not clear, lol!). But what nails? I had spent the weekend swatching and playing with all my new nail colors, and in the end, I went with a medium gray (Essie's "Chinchilly"), a top with blue and two greys, and the orange bag with an orange wool scarf inside for my overly airconditioned office.

Well, I needed a bit more orange, I thought. But what?? My shawl....and my eyeshadow!! I decided to try out the new matte HIP Duo in Poppy (previously swatched here), but instead of the chocolate brown in the duo, I would use gray!! Ha! How coordinated is that. So, the pale orangey color plus my new "Revolver" from Urban Decay.


Well, I am not terribly happy about posting pics of my face, but hey! You can't really talk about look of the day without showing in addition to the telling. I have an eye shape that is apparently call the "hooded eye." I don't have a clearly defined eyelid. I just learned this a few months back from a Prescriptives makeup person, who told me to apply shadow in the outer crease and not to put it in the crease area at the top of the eye. I've since seen some YouTube videos addressing eye shapes (although not a lot of the YouTube "gurus" have this same eye situation that I do). I don't know if it's age happening or if I have always had this hooded eye.

I applied the orange on my lid, which will only be visible when I close my eyes or lower my lids---soo the impact of this color is minimized. I then used a crease brush to put the gray in the outer corner crease. I lined my eyes with slate gray eye pencil and used black-brown mascara (L'Oreal Telescopic).

So, here I am at the end of a long day. Looking straight ahead, hood and all. You can't really see too much, but my eyes look blue!

My eyes also have a puffy and baggy tendency, especially on Mondays! Here is a view showing more of the shadows. The shadows definitely both had staying power.


How about a nice view of my newbie nails, with the one that broke off this morning!! Eyes closed.


From the pictures, I can tell that I got a little orange above the lid in the inner corner. I like the idea, for my hooded eye shape, of keeping a bright lid color just on the lid so that it's almost a surprise or just a fleeting image. The color is still there, though, to help the blueness pop. Supposedly, anyway! Gray is really my go-to color for highlighting blue eyes, so it's nice insurance if the orange just looks like, say, skin irritation, and doesn't do its job here.

L'Oreal H.I.P. Duo Matte in Poppy

What a cute name! Poppy! Well, this past weekend when I was ruining my finances in ULTA, I noticed they had five of the new Matte L'Oreal H.I.P. Duo eyeshadows in stock. I LOVE matte eyeshadows. I love matte finishes, all the way around, whether on lips, eyeshadows, and the new cool matte nail trend. While the colors were not really doing it for me, and I would prefer to get these shadows on a BOGO (buy one get one) situation, I couldn't resist picking up a duo to try out: Poppy, a combo of a light orangey color and a dark brown. Love a dark matte brown! The orangey color was my choice based on the idea of the complementary colors...orange making blue eyes pop, kind of like how Clinton (of Stacey and Clinton WNTW fame) advises blue-eyed people to wear orange.

At any rate, we'll have to see about that. At home, the orangey-ness is not quite as strong. I swatched then with my fingertips, and the feel was super smooth! And, this duo packs a lot of pigment.

Here are some swatches of Poppy: