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

Rimmel Eye Makeup: Product Review

I love the Rimmel London ads, with Kate Moss looking all Brit rock chic. I also have a weakness for inexpensive makeup, which Rimmel most definitely is. So I finally tried some of their eye shadow and eye pencils. Here's what I thought:

First, I tried the Rimmel London Colour Rush Quad Eye Shadow in Cafe Latte. This contains a fairly matte yellow-peach as the base color, a slightly shimmery mauve, slightly shimmery raisin, and a matte chocolate color. I love the idea of creating a smoky eye with colors other than black and gray, so that was my goal with this palette.

The official description says, "Pure colour impact. Blends easily. Crease-proof." My experience was not exactly as described. I found these to be really hard, as if the powder was packed really tightly, and it was difficult to get much pigment on my brush. The texture was quite dry, almost chalky, and the color went on matte. Given the sparse pigment, I was able to layer a LOT and still not have a ton of color on my eyes. When all was said and done, I did have a raisiny-brown smoky eye, but my eyelids looked dry and chalky in a way I didn't like.

Scores:
Color selection: B
Pigment strength: C
Texture: D
Price: A

Next I tried Rimmel London Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil in Stormy Grey and Chianti. The description says, "Soft, smudgeable line. Fade resistant colour. This pencil gives dense colour application, which can be blended into the lid for a softly smudged look. A very easy to apply formulation."

As advertised, these pencils are nice and soft, not too dry, and color transfers onto the eye fairly easily with only a little pulling. I used Chianti with the Cafe Latte quad described above, and the colors were great together. Stormy Grey is nice with a gray Aveda eyeshadow that I love. (I have a thing for matching eyeshadow with liner.) Overall, I like these eye pencils a lot, and they come in very cool colors.

Scores:
Color selection: A
Pigment strength: A
Texture: B
Price: A

Finally, I used Rimmel London Professional Eyebrow Pencil in Dark Brown to fill in my brows. The website says, "Professional Eyebrow Pencil is used to enhance and refine the shape of the eyebrows. It can be used to fill gaps or lengthen the arc of the eyebrow to create the desired look." I agree. This is a nice, basic brow pencil with a hard "lead" that keeps a sharp point. There's a tiny brush on the cap that can be used for sweeping brows into shape and for smudging the pencil lines a bit.

Scores:
Color selection: A
Pigment strength: A
Texture: A
Price: A

Has anyone tried other Rimmel products? What do you think?

Eyeing springtime

Yesterday I realized that winter is officially on its way out and the start of spring is undeniable. Daffodils and crocuses are fully in bloom here in the Willamette Valley, and cherry blossom trees are turning faintly pink in preparation for their full burst of color in a few weeks.

Likewise, I am saying goodbye to winter myself. Goodbye to the short, dark days, cold, and rain and goodbye to my lethargic, disappointed winter self (it was a rough season, ladies). Hello to spring, to color and light, and to anticipation of good (no, great!) things to come.

What better way to mark the change than with some new makeup! E.l.f. (Eyes Lips Face) is a fantastic makeup brand that is so inexpensive it makes my jaw drop. I am loving spring's natural look and "safari" colors, so I bought Custom Eyes colors in Sage, Ivory, Mocha, and Golden Glow. Each is only $1.00! The refillable compact is only $4.00! The mind boggles.

I wore Sage today and love it. The quality is far, far better than one would expect from such low prices. And right now there's a coupon code on the website for a free brush with purchase! The eyeshadow brush is very good. Happy makeup shopping!