Aveda Eyeshadow: Product Review

Remember Aveda? They were one of only a handful of socially conscious, natural cosmetics brands when they started way back in 1978. Now that the market is saturated with more natural and organic beauty brands than you can shake a stick at, it's easy to forget about the originals. But I love Aveda, for their amazing-smelling and effective haircare, skincare, and makeup, and because they use wind power in manufacturing, minimize product packaging, and consistently source fairly traded ingredients.

I was reminded of all this when I pulled out an old Aveda eyeshadow compact with about half of a dark, glinty blue shadow and an almost new, smoky sparkly dark grey. The compact holds four shades, and since I'm on an eyeshadow kick I had to go and get some highlighting colors to round it out. I ended up with 'Illumination,' a sheer, shimmery yellow-beige, and 'Willow,' a sheer metallic grey. The darker shades I had already are 'Grey Cosmos' and 'Blue Smoke,' which I don't see on the website currently. It's possible that Aveda produces colors seasonally, with the darker shades coming out in fall. I'm not sure, but I will check back.

So I set about creating a smoky eye with this quad of beautiful colors. I swept Illumination from eyelid to browbone, then layered Willow only on the lid. I smudged the Grey Cosmos close to the upper lashline from inner to outer corners, with more color on the outer two-thirds of the eye. Finally, I wet a foam eyeshadow applicator and stirred it around in the Grey Cosmos and used the wet shadow to line my eyes. I finished by applying Illumination to the inner corners and along the bottom lashes.

The effect was lovely! These eyeshadows are such great quality. The powder is very fine, soft, blendable, and smudgeable, and the pigments are intense so you don't have to use a lot. The wet eyeshadow makes a great eyeliner. The colors are beautiful (though somewhat limited right now) and come in both matte and shimmer. Overall, I LOVE this eyeshadow and it may be my favorite. Go get some.

Overall Scores:
Texture: A
Pigment Strength: A
Color Selection: B
Price: $11 for single eye color, $15 for duo of complementary colors, refillable compact sold separately