I found some Stila products at Winners on Bloor Street recently. Mostly eyeliner pencils, a few lip glosses and single eyeshadows as well as a multicolour palette (same size as the single eyeshadows). The only shade that really spoke to me out of the selection was Barefoot Contessa, a warm and shimmery red-brown. I've never tried Stila eyeshadows before and I was surprised when I got home and did some research to find that this shade is actually very popular. SCORE!
Barefoot Contessa isn't listed on the Stila website or on Sephora, but you can still find it online. Perhaps it simply isn't available in single form. It's such a great colour, I can't imagine why they'd discontinue it.
I paid $8.99 for it at Winners. Regularly, the Stila single eyeshadows are $23.00 CDN ($18 US).
The packaging is a brown cardboard box. The huge and sticky Winners sticker covered most of it, so I didn't photograph it. The sticker was stuck across the front, covering the window so some of the residue is visible on the eyeshadow compact itself (top photo).
The compact itself is sleek, flat and wide and contains 0.09 oz.
Barefoot Contessa is described as a shimmery plum bronze. It's certainly got plum and bronze to it and red-pink and orange tones shout at me as well.
Pigmentation is very soft but it can be built up. See the photos below. In the first, that's one swipe of product. In the second, two swipes. It's more bronze in the first but with more layers, the plum and red tones definitely come out. The third photo show three layers and is even more intense and shimmery.
The texture is very soft and silky, A++++ for that. It feels weightless on the skin and there's no fall-out whatsoever, unless of course, you've loaded up your brush with product and neglected to shake the excess off.
Colours such as Barefoot Contessa are excellent for blue and green eyes as the warm tones contrast and highlight cool-toned eyes. It's a very versatile colour however, and would work on most skintones and all eye colours.
In the photos below, I'm wearing it alone on my top and bottom eyes, with some MAC Embark smudged along my upper lashline. It's a great colour for everyday and since it's so buildable, it's also great for a sexy, grunge-y smoky eye. It's a very versatile colour, with many, many options.
Overall, I really like both the texture, wear and look of Barefoot Contessa. I won't hesitate to try other Stila eyeshadows!
Grade: A
