Review: Sally Girl Baked Eyeshadows from Sally Beauty

When I was at my local Sally Beauty last week picking up my free lip gloss, I noticed that Sally's store brand of makeup, Sally Girl, had some new shadows (well, they're new to me because I haven't been in Sally Beauty in a while). Since they were having a deal where you could buy five Sally Girl items and get the 6th one free, I decided to give these a whirl. For $0.99 each ($0.94 if you're a Sally club member) it's hard to pass these up, right?

I've had VERY good luck with Sally Girl's little connecting eyeshadows, which I have reviewed in the past. (FYI, I also love the Sally Girl powder blushes.) So I was hoping to have the same luck with their baked shadows.

As you can see, these babies are small. The pans are roughly the same size as a penny. For a shadow junkie like me, who never hits pan on baked shadows to being with, I was actually happy with the size. These fit in a makeup bag with such ease that you might forget they're even floating around in there!

Even though they're small, I don't find them difficult to work with, and I was able to easily use my trusty e.l.f. eyeshadow brush with these, no problem.

On to some swatches:

From top to bottom:

Sage, Bronze, Light Pink, Dark Green (which is actually a teal), Dark Purple and Silver

Sally Girl Baked Eyeshadows come in twelve shades and you can see them all here (see right-hand sidebar).

I found the pigmentation without primer to be pretty standard for drugstore-level baked shadows. They're sheer, but not invisible. As with some other drugstore-level purple shadows I've encountered in the past, the baked purple shadow in this collection had a harder consistency than the rest, the pigmentation was the weakest and it was also the most matte of the bunch.

For the most part, these are shimmers (although some shades border on metallic) and each has a bit of sparkle. The great thing about the sparkle is that I found it to be VERY fine in texture, and I didn't experience crazy fallout, which was such a relief.

As you can see, over primer, these shadows have great pigmentation. I didn't try these foiled, but according to the reviews on the Sally website, a lot of people really seem to enjoy them foiled (applied with a damp brush).

Now if you look at the reviews on the Sally website, you'll see that these are a HIT. I read just about every review and I was surprised to see how many people adore these and compare them to MAC shadows.

But here's the thing: over primer when swatched on my arm, I am in total agreement with the reviewers. The pigmentation level is amazing and the colors are so rich and vibrant it's hard to believe these are $0.99 shadows.

BUT, when I actually applied these to my eyes (over UDPP), I found that during the blending process, these shadows actually reverted back to their sheer consistency! I didn't get the same vibrancy and pigmentation that you see in the swatches above. I've tried these shadows about four times now, using every shade that I purchased, and every time, they seem to revert back to sheer shadows on my lids, even with the help of primer. I'm not heavy-handed when I blend, so I don't think that's the issue. Perhaps they just don't play nicely with UDPP?

I can't give you a final verdict on these, but what I can tell you is that if you purchase them, try them foiled, and try them with a few different primers. Perhaps you'll find the perfect combination to make these work for you, but as of now, they are not working for me when used with UDPP.

I'm not jumping ship on these just yet, but I'm thinking maybe you need to pack these onto your lids, as opposed to swiping or brushing them on. I will certainly update you if/when I find a better method of application that is able to maintain the vibrancy I got when I swatched them on my arm.

As far as inexpensive baked shadows go, I'm still in love with the Jesse's Girl collection and would rate them number one on my list. The pigmentation and vibrancy do not diminish on my eyes, no matter which primer I use.

TEMPORARY VERDICT: I'll keep trying to make these work by using them foiled, and with a different primer. As of now, they don't work for me using UPDD because I find they revert back to sheer shadows the minute I start blending them. Hopefully I can find a way to make these work, because I find the colors to be quite pretty, and I'm VERY pleased that the sparkle in these shadows is fine in texture and I haven't experienced heavy-duty fallout during application. Also, the price is definitely right.

Have you tried these Sally Girl Baked Eyeshadows? If so, have you found a way to make them work for you? I'd love to hear your thoughts!