Swatches & Dupes: L'Oreal HiP Shocking Shadow Pigments

Since these HiP pigments (all shades) are currently 75% off at CVS (click here for more details), I fear they're being discontinued. IF that is the case, then I thought I'd better do one final post with swatches and some dupe comparisons. If this is a farewell party for HiP Shocking Shadow Pigments, it might as well be a big one, right?

Here are some swatches of all the HiP pigments I own, with dupe comparisons a little further down:

First let me say that I didn't even look for any dupes of Exciting in my stash. Why? Because I really dislike this color. In the jar, Exciting looks like a lovely cream-white that flashes pink and violet. On my skin? It turns to straight-up chalky pink. I can't do pink, so I can't do Exciting. Oh, and did I mention it's the least pigmented of all the HiP pigments I own?

Moving on to Intrepid. If you missed my post about how this is a dupe of MAC Club, Too Faced Label Whore and one of the shades in the Wet n Wild Night Elf palette, please click here.

When I was rummaging through my stash a little while ago, I stumbled across my MAC Green Brown pigment, which I completely forgot I even owned! When I took off the lid, it seemed like this might be yet ANOTHER dupe of Intrepid.

So I swatched them side-by-side and...not so much:

I'm actually glad that Intrepid isn't a dupe of MAC Green Brown, only because that would mean I own three versions of the same shade. So anyway, as you can see, the flash in Green Brown is a true green, while the flash in Intrepid is teal. Oh well--it never hurts to try!

Next up, I made a TOTAL dupe-love-connection with this one:

If you're a longtime reader of this blog, you know that I am a total bronze FREAK. I own far too many bronze and copper eyeshadows, so TRUST ME when I say that I went through all of them and found you the BEST dupe of them all. MAC Antiqued and HiP Progressive are obviously different since one is a pressed shadow while the other's a loose pigment. But other than that, the only difference my naked eye can see is that Progressive has some fine sparkle in it, while Antiqued is a true shimmer. But the base color? It's identical to me. Identical, I tell you!

And finally, not a love connection but still interesting...

For the record, I did not set out to compare Rebel to my longtime (and recently discontinued) love, Urban Decay Acid Rain. What I was REALLY looking for was my MAC Golden Olive pigment, which I seem to have lost (actually, I'm going to say I "misplaced" it because I can't deal with the idea of losing it). But as luck would have it, I googled "MAC Golden Olive and HiP Rebel" and a great comparison came up, which you can see here. I LOVE it when I google something and I actually know and adore the blog that comes up in the search results (*waves to makeup CRAZIE*). I knew in my mind that Rebel was lighter and less gold than Golden Olive, and it turns out I was right.

So back to Acid Rain vs. Rebel: not a dupe. Acid Rain is lighter and more of a true lime green, while Rebel has more gold in it. Funny that Rebel seems so pale when swatched next to Golden Olive, but then so gold when swatched next to Acid Rain, huh?

I hope this post helps some of you who are debating about whether or not to pick up any of these HiP Pigments while they're 75% off at CVS. I would wholeheartedly recommend every color in this post with the exception of Exciting, which I think it just too chalky and not as pigmented as the other three. But then again, I haven't tried it with a primer, so maybe one of you might have a tip for me as to how to make Exciting work! If so, I'd love to hear from you!