Review: New Milani Powder Eyeshadows (Part 1)

At last! I received all twelve of the new Milani Powder Eyeshadows quite some time ago for review, but I've been waiting to share my review until I received reports of them popping up in stores. I know that sometimes it can get frustrating to see reviews of products and not be able to find them locally, so now that I know they're finally starting to show up in drugstores (I've heard they've landed in certain CVS locations), it's time for me to share my thoughts with you!

This is going to be a two-part series and today I'm going to show you the earth-tone shades in the range. In a few days, I'll show you the jewel-tone shades.

Milani Powder Eyeshadows in: 

Caramel Brown, Pearl, White Lie, French Vanilla, Brown Stone, Gold Rush

(retail: $5.99 each, 0.11 oz)

From the Milani Website:

A super pigmented, easily blendable, crease-proof, silk-like powder eyeshadow. Available in versatile colors with both matte & pearl finishes that can be used as shadow or liner.

Use the lighter shades on eyelids, brow bones and inner corners.  Apply the medium on the crease to contour. Blend the darkest shades on the outer corners and lash lines to add depth.

Tip: To extend the wear, apply your foundation or pressed powder on entire eyelid before applying your eye shadow.  this eliminates any oils your lids may have which can cause your eyeshadow to crease.

Before I show you swatches, I wanted to give you a comparison of the packaging of the Milani shadows vs. the packaging of the Jordana Color Effects Eyeshadow Powders that I reviewed a while back. By now, you all probably know that Jordana is the sister company of Milani, and when I first saw the packaging of the Milani shadows it reminded me of the Jordana shadows. However, after closer inspection, you'll see that they're not identical:

As you can see, the Milani packaging is slimmer:

And the bottom portion of the compact is black, whereas the bottom portion of the Jordana compact is silver. Also, the formula is not the same either:

Jordana eyeshadow

Milani eyeshadow

While the Jordana and Milani shadows may appear to be similar, they're definitely different products.

Moving on, let's take a look at the three lighter shades of the six that I'm reviewing today:

White Lie: true white matte.

French Vanilla: very pale yellow matte.

Pearl: light beige with peachy undertones. Satin finish.

These colors are so similar to my natural skintone that I couldn't photograph them in my normal "stripes" that I usually swatch on my arm. I also couldn't photograph them without primer (not that they're weakly pigmented; they just blend into my skintone without primer). So I had to swatch them over primer in little "circles" on the back of my hand in order to show you the color of each (my hand is more tan than my arm, so you can see the colors a bit better).

Now for a dupe alert:

Ding ding ding! We have a pretty good match, folks!

At certain angles, Urban Decay Virgin can flash more of a pearly white shade, but the underlying color of each of these shadows is the same (peachy-beige). And the finish is the same as well (they're both satins).

And here's a swatch on a piece of white paper, just to give you a better idea. I think on paper, you can see that Milani Pearl had a teeny tiny bit more peach to it:

Moving on to the three darker shades:

Gold Dust: antique yellow gold shimmer with fine silver sparkle.
Caramel Brown: warm medium-toned brown shimmer (no sparkle).
Brown Stone: chocolate brown matte.

The following swatches were done on bare skin, and then over primer:

Note: whatever sparkle you see in the Brown Stone swatches is actually just fallout from other shadows I was swatching that day. There is no sparkle in Brown Stone--it is a true matte brown.

Now for some comparisons:

As you can see, Milani Gold Dust has more of an "antique gold" quality to it when swatched next to Urban Decay Half Baked and Blunt. And Milani Caramel Brown is more closely related to Urban Decay Smog than MAC Romp. No spot-on dupes here, but I hope these comparisons give you a bit of perspective as to how these shades compare to other popular eyeshadows in the same color families.

Texture and blendability: On the whole, I find these shadows to be very easy to work with. The two matte shades (White Lie and Brown Stone) are both smooth and silky with good color payoff (although they're better with primer, of course). But as with many matte shadows, there's a bit of fallout in the pan when you're picking up color with your brush. The satin shade (Pearl) is very easy to work with; it has a nice, buttery consistency and works well as either a highlight shade or base color. The two shimmers (Gold Dust and Caramel Brown) are actually quite different from each other in terms of texture. Gold Dust is a little bit loose and has some fallout (no doubt due to the sparkle in the formula) and doesn't seem to have as strong of a color payoff without primer. Caramel Brown, on the other hand, is smooth, buttery and vibrant even without primer. All six of these colors blend quite easily and I don't find that any of them are patchy or inconsistent when applied to the eye.

Staying power: I've tried all six of these shadows alone, over eyeshadow primer and also over the Milani Shadow Eyez jumbo pencils I reviewed a while back. Without primer, I can get about 4-5 hours of wear before I start to see major fading/creasing (remember: I have extremely oily skin and I've been testing these in the summertime, so your results might vary). Over traditional eyeshadow primer, I can get about 8-9 hours of wear from these shadows. Over the Milani Shadow Eyez pencil in Winter White (shimmery white) I can get about 7-8 hours of wear before I start to see noticeable fading/creasing.

FINAL VERDICT: I think all six of these shades are a nice addition to the world of drugstore eyeshadow singles. The colors are wearable and there's a nice selection of textures (matte, satin, shimmer and shimmer with sparkle). Some shadows have better color payoff than others but, on the whole, all six of these shades work quite well over traditional eyeshadow primer, which is my favorite way to wear them. I've had no issues with application or blending, other than the sparkle fallout with the shade Gold Dust. All of these shadows have a nice, silky texture to them but my favorite of the six is Caramel Brown. This is the must-have shade in the earthtones for me. The color payoff is excellent, the texture is wonderful and it's just a super easy color to wear (either as an all-over wash or in the crease). I think $5.99 is a fair price given that these are paraben-free and also made right here in the USA. Also, you're getting over double the amount of a MAC eyeshadow (0.05 oz vs. 0.11 oz) for less than half the price (MAC eyeshadows retail for $15 each).

Milani Powder Eyeshadows are beginning to surface in CVS stores, so keep checking back until you find them (hopefully soon). If you'd like to order online, they're available via the Milani website.

Please check back soon for the second part of this series where I'll be showing you the other six shades in this range. I'll also be sharing some eye looks using these shadows in the near future, if you're interested in seeing how these shadows look "in action".

A sample of this product was given to Nouveau Cheap for editorial purposes, either directly from the manufacturer or from the agency that works on behalf of the manufacturer. All reviews on NouveauCheap.blogspot.com are the honest opinion of its author and editorial samples do not, in any way, affect the outcome of product reviews.