Cream Eyeshadow Special Part 1

PART ONE: Cream Eyeshadows

So, I was told a year or so ago that I could not wear eye make up so I decided that a compromise was in order and made it an excuse to load up on cream shadows! Yeah! So I do have a strong love for any type of cream product.

I found that looking through my collection, the textures vary, from Cream (solid, in a pot), Cream (less solid in a tube), Cream -Liquid (in a tube normally), Liquid (as in very runny and normally sheer), Jelly (like..well, jelly) and Mousse. A big gripe with cream colours is that they crease; i can honestly say that the majority of my products don’t crease at all.

Products vary so much, that there are some ranges that are overall excellent, or some that just have a few stand out colours.

These are the Cream textured products I have in my collection; cream in a tub and in squeezy tubes.

Benefit Creaseless Cream Eyeshadows/Liner

Next up is Benefit’s fairly new updated collection of Cream Eyeshadows. I have this in three shades:

Swatch:

The colours for this product are all pretty neutral; shades of white and beige, shades of browns, grey, taupe, deep plum and black. Even though I love colour, there is something very appealing about this collection of cream eyeshadows.

Brand: Benefit (US)

Texture: Cream (fairly thick)

Application: Use a Synthetic Brush.

Staying Power: Excellent once set.

Pigmentation: Opaque, well pigmented

Favourite Colour: Skinny Jeans for Day, Busy Signal for night.

Price: £13.00

Overall: Where a lot of people may reach for MAC Paint (too dry for me) or Paintpot (too greasy for me), or a shadestick as their base colour, I reach for my Benefit. Birthday Suit is a gorgeous sheeny-taupe which is a great base for anyone with a medium to darker skintone (there is also tittle tattle, a gorgeous clotted cream white, but sometimes it is just TOO bright.) These colours are well pigmented, especially the stronger shades.

Benefit have deliberately spilt up their newest range (lipstick, blush and eye colours into three categories); Lana (naturals), Gabbi (Medium) and Betty, for darker shades. Presumably you can (but don’t have to) use it as a guide for your own skintone and colouring to see what would suit you the best.

I love the Betty colours for the eye, and the Lana colours for the lips! I am an strong eye- nude lip girl, definitely!

Anyway back to this shadow/liner. Although the range of colours aren’t madly exciting, especially when you compare to the sparkly iridencene of Japanese cream eye colours, this is the perfect basic cream eyeshadow range for me. Smooth, not drying, long lasting, pigmented. I’m not that crazy for Benefit, but I love these shadows, and recommend them!

4.8/5. Because it’s not free. If it was free, it could have 5.

Stila Shadow Pot Mousse

I have six of these colours;

I love the flower design on the lid of the pots. I’ve rapidly lost interest in Stila in the last few years, even though it has become cheaper to buy in the UK, because I just don’t see anything particularly alluring from the new collections. Strangely enough I used to worship Stila when I was a teen…

Swatches:

MAC Paints

MAC Products are always so popular, so not surprisingly, many people use Bare Canvas as a eyeshadow base is pretty common –

Swatches:

Brand: M to the A to the C.

Texture: Cream (tube).

Application: Squeezeable, to use with finger or brush.

Staying Power: Good.

Pigmentation: Medium, buildable.

Price: £11.00

Overall: I love the idea of MAC Paints, the way they look in the tube – hence I bought a few without thinking about it. But I found that I had problems with Bare Canvas quite early on as a base – it is very drying on me. I know it works well for a lot of ladies, but for me, it started to flake throughout the day, as if my eyes were disintegrating after a bad chemical peel. Eek! So maybe this base is good for people with very oily lids; but it didn’t work for me.

I am very fond the shades Chartru (green) and Pixel (silver). I can use these in very very small quantities on the lower lid.

The packaging is not great; give it a little squeeze and product will come out for a mile or so. You have to perfect the art of squeeze and whacking the lid back on it two seconds otherwise a load will come out.

The colour range is fine, but not that exciting considering that this is MAC, the mecca of colour.

So this one really isn’t for me and the colours and things thrill me not. So a measly 2.8/5. But I know it is a popular choice for a lot of people.

MAC Paintpot

I have five colours in the MAC Paintpot, three of them from the Alexander McQueen Limited Range:

See, I love my blues and greens! Swatches:

From the normal range of colours, I am not enticed by many of them (but like the look of the colour with the upcoming N range).

Brand: MAC Paint Pot

Texture: Smooth, creamy. Takes a bit longer to dry than Benefit.

Application: Use a brush/finger

Staying Power: Good. No creasing for about 6 hours on me.

Pigmentation: Good, buildable.

Favourite Colour: Pharaoh

Price: £12.00

Overall: I love the three colours I have from the Alexander McQueen range because they are unusual and bright! But for some reason I don’t adore the painpots in general. The colours don’t grab me and most of them are matte. I also find them a little bit greasy upon application and take a bit of time to set. I get a bit of creasing with this product so I personally use this with some powder on top. But I don’t love it – I don’t find the texture or colours that extraordinary…score, 3/5.

Shiseido Hydro Powder

Shiseido Hydro Power Shadows have a light shimmer and a slightly moussey texture, that blends nicely and turns into powder. I have six colour (and there are four coming out for spring, Languid Lagoon (a blue), Rose Tulle, Lemon Sugar and Clover Dew (a light green). There are 13 shades altogether. I have:

Swatches:

Brand: Shiseido

Texture: Cream/Light Cream

Application: Use with brush/finger, easy to apply and blend.

Staying Power: Excellent. No creasing.

Pigmentation: Quite Sheer. Buildable but I think it is more of a wash of colour.

Price: £15.00

Favourite Colour: Whitelights! The intense shimmer is amazing!

Overall: Hydro Powers are amazing because they don’t crease, and make a gorgeous shimmery base. Some of the colours can be built up, like Aqua, so it makes a bolder colour. There are 13 colours, and none are matte. It also comes with a not too useful sponge applicator. 4/5.

Nars Cream Eyeshadow

Nars have a nice selection of cream eyeshadows;

I have four shades, Zardoz, a black, Lilli Marlene is a grey, Savage is a Gold and Swing is a matte purple. I also have the duos in Madagasgar, Summer and Pink Panther.

Swatches:

Brand: NARS

Texture: Creamy, easy to apply.

Application: Use a brush especially with the darker colours!

Staying Power: This creases! Almost immediately, perhaps this is because it doesn’t dry to a powder finish. But you must set it with powder or it will not stay. Hence I tend to have neutral shades, or dark bases rather than stand alone colours.

Pigmentation: Very Good – especially on the darker colours.

Price: £15.00

Favourite Colour: Lilli Marlene is a nice alternative to Black as a base for bringing out colours like Green.

Overall: I am happy with the colours I have but since they crease without setting, I wouldn’t purchase anymore unless the colours were outstanding. Swing is an excellent base for Purples, as is Zardoz although it is a standard matte black. I am a NARS fan, but I wouldn’t recommend these if you can’t deal with the crease, have very oily lids. or can’t be bothered with the bother of adding colour on top. 3/5.

Majolica Majorca Cream Eyeshadows

These were from the 2007 Summer (I think) collection and are Limited Edition, although you can still get them from some sites and Ebay.

Brand: Majolica Majorca

Texture: Creamy-Soft

Application: Use brush. Easy to blend.

Staying Power: Creases on its own.

Pigmentation: Sheer-shimmery.

Price: About £5 each

Favourite Colour: The Green one!

Overall: These small pots from Majolica Majorca are very sweet, and contain a shimmery, sheer pot of colour. The finish is definately better as a base than a solid colour. Hmm. The staying power is ok, but it takes a long time to dry and does crease throughout the course of the day. I wouldn’t recommend this for those with oily lids. Overall it is quite a meh collection…2.8/5.

PN Cream Shadows

Shiseido Brand, PN, has largely been discontinued and replaces by the now much adored MAQUillage but you can still find these cream eyeshadows from Adambeauty.com.

There is a nice range of colours here and they are very creamy (non of this warming it up in your hands first thing).

Swatch;

Brand: PN by Shiseido

Texture: Creamy, like margerine.

Application: Works well with a sponge or brush

Staying Power: Very Good. No creasing when blended it as it sets to powder.

Pigmentation: Good. Colour is buildable.

Price: About £8

Favourite Colour: None any single one, but as a range, they are nice, warm pastel-earthy colours.

Overall: The PN shadows are nicely creamy, and set so they don’t crease. I like the warmness of the range of colours and you get a generous sized pot. The colours don’t have noticable shimmer, and they are not matte either so this is a nice inbetween for when you want some pretty and easy to wear. 3.8/5 (God, I love decimals).

Shu Uemura Cream Eyeshadows from the Komon Collection 2007

Shu Uemura launched the Komon Collection at the end of last year and a few cream eyeshadows with it. I was supposed to avoid this colletion as I never end up using make up that has a pretty pattern on it – I hate seeing it brushed away. Anyway I ended up with:

Swatches:

Brand: Shu Uemura

Texture: Hard Cream.

Application: A bit hard to blend, use a stiff synthetic brush with this one.

Staying Power: Good. Doesn’t crease if set with powder or if lightly appied.

Pigmentation: Average. It looks pigmented in the Jar, but not when applied.

Price: £16.00

Favourite Colour: None of them really. Do I have to choose? Ok, Ai.

Overall: This stylish Limited Edition range is great looking in the Jar but I found it to be very very hard. It is not creamy, and requires a good scraping to get a decent amount of product off. You can warm it before hand with a hairdryer, but I still feel the colour payoff is poor considering the price and the pure expectation! It desn’t crease unless you put too much on as it sets to powder. The darker hues of blue are nicer, more unique shades, but they are just so hard to apply, I don’t use them much. 1.5/5.

Becca Cream Eyeshadow

I only have one Becca Cream Eyeshadow, which was a gift from a lovely MUA’er. (And concequently got me into Becca for a while).

This shade is Quartz, a glassy white shimmer.

*I can’t find the swatch, but it is basically a shimmery, sheer white.

Brand: Becca (Oz)

Texture: Creamy, need to work a little first to warm up.

Application: Smooth, easy to use.

Staying Power: This creases, so use it under powder.

Pigmentation: This colour is sheer, but there could be more pigmented shades in the range.

Price: No idea, was a gift, but is £19.00 on the Uk website. Woahh! £19!

Favourite Colour: Well it has to be Quartz!

Overall: I do love this is a daily use, light shimmery base. It creases but look great with say some strong contrasting browns/greys…without being too glittery. £19.00 though is extortiante, when you think about it! Overall, 3/5.

MAC Metal-X Collection

Another Limited Edition range, MAC Metal-X was released Late 2007.

These are underneath a pile of papers somewhere, so there are some useful swatches on Temptalia.

Brand: MAC (Metal-X)

Texture: Hard on top, crack through it and its quite creamy (dependent of weather)

Application: Easy with a brush.

Staying Power: Creases even on my dry lids. But not as horrendously as people say.

Pigmentation: Medium, and…yep, buildable.

Price: £13.00

Favourite Colour: 6th Sin, the green.

Overall: There was a lot of talk about this product creasing before it was released – this doesn’t bother me too much because I tend to powder on top of cream eyeshadow but I did find that this product faded a little after a few hours. It is also fairly creamy and some of the colours are vibrant. Having said that, I don’t reach for this so much, emm, it’s not that uninspiting. 2.8/10

So my favourite out of this lot of thicker, cream shadows is: Benefit, for neutral, pigmented colours, and Shiseido for a shimmerly base.

In the next cream eyeshadow post; Eye Jellies!