Almay Intense i-colour Trio for Blues "Bring Out the Blue"

 

 

On I go with my testing of the drugstore brand's obsession with complimenting your eye shade in a few easy steps (and multiple products). Since I quite liked the quality of the last Almay trio I tried (http://beautysquared.blogspot.com/2010/03/almay-intense-i-colour-trio-for-blues.html) I thought I'd pick up another and see how it did to enhance my baby blues.

This one has instructions for a classic eye make-up look, just like the one I tried previously but the colours are a bit different. For one, the lightest shade is the same size as the other two where in the first trio the lightest shade was twice the size. In this trio there's a silvery-blue shade:

A medium, shimmery blue shade meant for the crease:

And a warm-toned brown shade:

 

Swatched:

I'm quite enamoured with the blue shade - it's very pretty and I'll definitely wear it on it's own. But how does it shape up as Almay claims with the other two shades?

The instructions on the back of the package offer the same basic eye make-up shape - one shade on the lid, one in the crease and one on the brow bone.

So this is how I applied it. The results although, please note that I still have not mastered my flash so that it doesn't wash out the make-up. The application is much heavier than it appears here:

I do think this eyeshadow enhanced the blue of my eyes the best of all that I've tried so far. To compare, the link to the CoverGirl palette is here and the other Almay palette I tried is here. I do think it's the inclusion of the warm brown that has done the trick though, not so much the combination of the three colours. The application technique too, is not normally how I'd apply my make-up. If I were to apply these eyeshadows together again, I'd likely add a dark eyeliner along my top lash and/or smudge the brown or the medium blue shade along my lower lashline.

I do like the Almay eyeshadows I've tried so far. Their pigment is better than many drugstore brands and they're not frost-crazy like so many of their peers.

C.

Almay Intense I-Colour Trio For Blues

In my continuing quest to find the best drugstore products for enhancing my eye colour, here's the second installment! It was suggested to me by Shayna via Twitter (@shaynaburns).

Almay has three eyeshadow palettes each for blue, hazel, brown and green eyes and I chose this one for blue eyes - Intense I-Colour Trio for Blues with Light Interplay Technology.

The trio features three shades, the largest palette being a shimmery cool pink.

The other two shadows are a deep navy blue-indigo.

And a shimmery taupe.

Swatches:

It occurred to me while swatching that the taupe shade was very similar to MAC's cult fave Smoke & Diamonds so I swatched them next to each other...

Smoke & Diamonds on the left and the Almay Intense I-Colour Taupe shade

They're pretty close, although the Almay shadow is more frosty and silvery than Smoke & Diamonds. Anyway, onto the review and the look!

I chose this palette because the other two eye palettes available for blue eyes are a coppery trio and a blue-heavy trio. I know from experience that coppers are usually a great match for blue eyes and that blue shadows tend to overpower blue eyes so I opted for this trio - a less convincing combination of shades. We shall see how it works though!

Instructions for how best to apply these colours are on the back of the packaging and also on the back of the palette itself.

This is of course, a suggestion and it is a standard, basic eyeshadow application technique that drugstore brands tend to use often. Why not, really? It's classic and it works. The medium shade, in this case, the taupe shade is applied all over the lid, with the darker shade (the dark blue) applied to the crease and the highlighter shade (the pink) applied to the browbone (or over the other shades if you want more shimmer). 

Of course, you may apply these colours alone, or in other combinations or you can add to this basic look (IE. applying the dark shade along your lashline and under your eye or using the dark shade on the outer half of your eyelid and the taupe on the inner half).

Each of these colours are very pretty and can be worn on their own or in combination with other colours but I'll test this the way Almay instructs me to.

OK, I added a bit to the look as I've been using this palette for a few weeks the way I like to wear shadow. I followed the basic lid-crease-browbone instructions, but I added a smudgy top and bottom lashline with the dark blue. 

Of course, the photos minimized the intensity of the look, but I think you get the general idea. 

I liked the colour combination of this palette, but like many of the drugstore brands Almay insists on making their shadows so very very frosty! I'm hardly anti-frost, but when I'm contouring my crease, I'd prefer something with less frost. The idea of using a dark colour as a contour is meant to minimize, deepen, outline so when you add a frost to it, you're doing the opposite by adding light and shine. I will say though that the dark blue in this Almay trio is less frosty than the other two shades, so at least they kinda get the idea.

 If I were to recreate this look using similar shades I would use MAC Contrast as the crease colour. Contrast has a slight sheen to it that allows you to layer it but without overwhelming the look with frosty sheen.

I'll use this palette again, though perhaps not together (frost overkill!). But I did like the colours and the texture impressed me as well.

C.

Cover Girl Exact Eyelights Eye Brightening Shadow Palette For Blue Eyes Review

I have been curious about the Cover Girl Eye Brightening Shadow Palettes ever since they were first advertised. I believe this was the first of its kind to catch my attention and I finally picked one up to try it a few weeks ago.

I admit that when it comes to enhancing the eyes I am very much a traditionalist, and I'm also on the conservative side when it comes to the colour I use on the eyes. I tend to stick to the colour wheel as it is a no-brainer that contrasting colours make each other pop. For this reason I've always stuck with warm red-browns (my favourite eyeshadow BY FAR for making my eyes pop is MAC's Satin Taupe), rusty oranges and deep blues and teals to enhance my baby blues. This palette would not be what I picked up normally with its bright, frosty blue, green and soft peach colour palette but I was interested in how these shades might make my eyes pop (rather than my suspicion that they'd compete).

Instructions on back of exterior packaging.

 

Instructions on back of palette

This palette offers fairly detailed instructions on how to apply the colours, on both the exterior packaging (in colour!) and on the back of the palette itself. It also comes with a small-sized brush for application as well as the standard (and pretty useless) sponge tip applicator.

Swatched

As you can see, the blue and green shades swatched fairly intensely while it took some effort to get the peachy shade to show up on my hand as more than shimmer. The lightest (highlight) shade shows up as a slightly warm off-white vanilla colour.

I followed the instructions on the packaging and used both the brush and sponge-tip applicator, though I admit I used some of my own brushes to better control the colours and blend a bit more.

I had trouble getting any intensity from these shadows. It seemed to be all about the shimmer and frostiness and while there's nothing wrong with that, why do I need four shades of such low pigmentation? There's just not much ability to build and deepen the shades at all. That being siad, I liked the shades themselves (particularly the blue smudged along my lashline) and will use them again, just not in this look.

As for how well they made my eye colour pop, I didn't see that they did much to emphasize or enhance the colour. If anything, I think the shimmer and colour compete with my eye colour.

 

What do you think? Has anyone tried the Eye Brightening Palette and loved it?

C.