Review: Milani Baked Metallic Eyeshadow in I Heart You

It seems like I've been talking about the new core collection Milani baked shadows for months now, huh? Just to refresh your memory, The Milani Melange Infusion of Colors Baked Eyeshadows come in two different finishes: Marble and Metallic (click here to see pics of the displays). When I finally saw the display at my local CVS I knew I had to buy the red metallic shade, and that's exactly what I did:

Milani Melange Infusion of Colors

Metallic Baked Eyeshadow in I Heart You

(retail: $6.99)

Many of you have told me that you were excited to see a red eyeshadow from Milani, especially since the only other red shadow available at the drugstore these days is that gorgeous red in the Wet n Wild Night Elf palette, but as we all know that's a limited edition palette and these new Milani shadows are not limited edition.

I know red shades on the eyes scare a lot of people, and certainly they're not for everyone, but I think they can look quite beautiful if done correctly. So what I'm pleased to tell you about I Heart You is that it's a red for those of you who are scared of red eyeshadow. In other words, this isn't a bright Night-Elf-red, but more of a reddish-copper. If you already love wearing bronzes and coppers on your eyes, you can very easily transition into wearing this one!

Heck, any way you slice it, I think I Heart You is gorgeous. Here are some swatches!

I swatched this next to the red in the Night Elf palette just to drive home the point that I Heart You is not a true red. Again, it's a reddish-copper, which might make it more wearable and less frightening to many of you!

Also, if you look at the swatch of I Heart You in the second photo above, you can see that there is a pretty pink flash to this shadow. I love that because it really gives this shadow an added dimension.

Another thing you may have noticed is that this shadow is more on the sheer side when worn without primer (in all photos, the primer I'm using is my go-to primer of the moment, Jesse's Girl Eyeshadow Primer).

I did something a little different for this eye look--I used a primer on my right eye (your left) and didn't use a primer on the other eye, just so you can have a better understanding how you can get both a bold look and a softer look from this shadow:

I actually like both looks--one is definitely more suited to daytime while the other would be fun for night.

I found this shadow easy to pick up on my brush, and I didn't experience much fallout at all (yay!). Obviously it's not as pigmented without a primer, but if you're going for a softer look, you can definitely achieve that by skipping primer. Both with primer and without, I found this shadow easy to apply and blend, although I did find it a touch easier to blend on the eye with primer. But heck, everything's easier with primer, as far as I'm concerned!

The only type of person I wouldn't recommend this shadow to is someone who never uses primer, yet wants a lot of pigmentation from their shadow. You're just not going to get that out of I Heart You unless you use a primer first. But if you're already a devoted primer user, then I would definitely recommend picking one of these shadows up. The colors are unique for the drugstore level, they're gorgeous and the price sure is right!

Do you already own any shadows from the Melange Infusion of Colors collection? If not, are you planning to make a purchase when you spot them in your area? Either way, I'd love to hear from you!