The shades I bought were Precious 819 (beige and brown shimmers) and Darling 829 (cream and bronze shimmers).
What immediately drew me to these duos, along with the promise of extremely shimmery eyeshadows, was the unique texture of the shadows themselves.
It's hard to tell in these pics but the surface of these shadows isn't completely smooth--they have almost a mosaic-like texture to them, which I thought was kind of neat.
So, here's the big question: do these shadows really provide you with "The Ultimate High Intensity Crystal Finish"? For me, that would be a big "not really."
I'll tell you what they DO provide me with: tons and tons of sparkles flying in the air and landing right on my cheeks during application. Yup. That's the one big thing I noticed about these shadows. Especially the two lighter shades--WOW! If you're using a brush for application, WATCH OUT because sparkles will be flying left and right all around you when you put these colors on your lids. And for me, there was TONS of fallout that I couldn't control no matter how hard I tried (and believe me, it's not my first time working with finicky shadows--I'm quite used to the fallout that loose pigments can have). But these shadows--yikes. They were just a downright mess to apply.
I guess the "Ultimate High Intensity Crystal Finish" is provided by the sparkle that has been blended with these standard shimmer shadows. Because honestly, I can't determine how these shadows are different from the regular HiP shimmery shadows, except for that sparkle. Also, these shadows seem extra soft and a bit crumbly to me.
And here's what's really odd to me--the texture of each color is the same as the others EXCEPT for the dark brown shade in the "Precious" duo. For some reason, that one color does NOT have sparkle blended into it, and, not surprisingly, it's my favorite shade of the four. It was the easiest, and smoothest, to apply, and it also has the best pigmentation, staying power, and blendability. The other three shades seemed crumbly, filled with loose sparkle and didn't really have great pigmentation.
Here are some swatches:
Now can you see what I mean? The brown shade REALLY stands out, doesn't it? It's just far superior than the other shades, but I think it's odd that the texture is sooo different than the other shades in these duos. It almost makes me think that this brown was a mistake and shouldn't even be in the collection. Weird.
Another great thing about this brown shade is that I think it's a spot-on dupe of a MAC shadow that I own. Don't ask me which shade right now because my MAC shadows are currently in a big box along with a ton of other cosmetics (I'm in the process of doing a major overhaul of my makeup stash) but if I were to guess from memory, I'm going to say this is a fantastic dupe of MAC Romp or Tempting. I think it might be closer to Romp but again, I'm going from memory here. All I know is that the minute I swatched it I thought of a MAC shadow that I own. Maybe one of you can tell me if this pic reminds you of Romp?
So, would I buy more HiP Crystal Shadow Duos? Um...that would be a no. In fact, I'm not so sure I'll be keeping these. The colors are pretty, but there's nothing new or innovative here to justify the price. I can't see paying $8 for shadows filled with messy sparkle that's hard to control. Plus, with the exception of the brown shade, the staying power and pigmentation are just not as good as what I'm used to when it comes to HiP shadows (which I normally love).
Do you own any of these new Crystal Shadow Duos? And if so, are you having better luck with them? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
The uncontrollable glitter down your face makes me think of most Urban Decay shadows. I do love them, but I hate having glitter everywhere by the end of (or rather, halfway through!) the day.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a shame that they're glitter bombs because Precious and Darling look gorgeous in the pan in your photos.
ReplyDeleteTotally agrreing with Mimzy here. The photos look gorgeous but the lighter shades in the swatches were barely noticable. Poo.
ReplyDeleteThey're like the shimmery shadows from the Sephora Color Play palette. Gorgeous in the pan, not so pigmented and superflaky when applied.
;______;
PB: I agree--the micro-glitter in UD shadows is hard for me to work with too, so that's why the only ones I own are micro-glitter free (Mildew is my fave!). And yeah, when I wore these HiP shadows yesterday the glitter had fallen even more by the end of the day. You called it. :(
ReplyDeleteMimsy: Thanks--I think it's a real shame too. I am loving that brown shade though, so I might keep it just for that side of the duo. As for the bronze, it's definitely going back. I tried using it again today and I just could NOT make it work. It's so sheer and all I get is sparkle flying everywhere. :(
Shela: Yep, they are very sheer (with the exception of the brown). So...back to CVS they go. Waaah! xo
I saw these both at CVS and Walgreens recently; the Walgreens display had 3 new eyeliners that are part of the line. I think they're called either Crystal Shadow liners or Crystallic liners, they're pencils, and the shades are bronze, violet, and silver. They seem to have some sort of sparklies in them (not exactly glitter, but more noticeable than shimmer) and imho, are the HiP metallic eyeliners with some sparkliness added in to the formula. I don't know if there are other colors or if it's just those three. I hope this information helps you in some way! :)
ReplyDeleteicequeenaranxta: Thanks so much for this info! I had no idea that there was an accompanying eyeliner line in this collection! I hope these perform better than the shadows did for me! :)
ReplyDeletehey lady! did you try the shadows wet? i wonder how it would fare that way?
ReplyDeleteOoh those look so pretty! Fall out is a huge hassle though. I'd still be willing to try these... and like someone else mentioned... have you tried them wet?
ReplyDeleteyummy & marie: I will take some pics and show you what these look like foiled. Thanks! :)
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing drugstore's policies on returns are not that bad :)
ReplyDeleteYou got that right, ndoodles! Thank goodness! :)
ReplyDeleteI found these at walgreens yesterday and couldn't pass them up because they look sooo pretty in the pan. I too was disappointed by the lack of pigmentation. But I decided to give the purple dou a try today. I used TFSI as a base and that made the shadow really pop but there was massive fallout. The shadow has not creased on me but there are little sparkles on my cheeks. Also, I noticed that the purple and green shadows are very similar to the MAC (violet and teal) pigments I already have. I think with a good primer they are allright.
ReplyDeleteHey Manda: I'm glad to hear that you were able to make these work for you with the help of TFSI. Sorry you still had fallout though. :( I just feel that they're too much work when you can get the same look with other drugstore brands and not have to worry about that pesky sparkle flying everywhere. lol. :)
ReplyDeletei just bought the silver/pink duo today and tried it on and had the exact same problem. it's horrible. they look SO beautiful on the rack but they are so see through and dont stay on. the flying glitter was ridiculous. i dont want to keep this eyeshadow but i dont know what to do with it now that i have bought it. do you think i'd be able to return it?? also, i read in your other article that they worked better wet. do you just add water to them? i almost got the precious but decided to go with the silver/pink duo but i think im going to go back and get the precious because i looove that brown color.
ReplyDelete