Jordana at Walgreens Part 3: Color Effect Eyeshadow Duos

Continuing my coverage of the Jordana products now available at Walgreens, I'm excited to show you the Color Effect Eyeshadows Duos today.

In this post, I'll be covering the earthtones shades. In my next post I'll show you the brighter, primary-color-type shades. There are ten duos in all, so here are the first five:

Jordana Color Effect Eyeshadow Duos

(retail: $3.49 each, 0.94 oz)

These shadows come in a variety of different finishes including mattes, satins, shimmers and shimmers with sparkle.

If you see smudges on the surface of any of these shadows, it is due to my clumsiness when opening these up--sorry about that! I've got LOTS to say about these little duos, but I'll save that all for the end of the post. PLEASE NOTE: All of the following swatches were done on bare skin, and then over my NYX White Eyeshadow Base:

CLICK HERE for an eye look I created utilizing these shadows!

First of all, how awesome is it that there's an all-matte duo here? 

As you can see in my swatches, some of these shades benefit from a primer, while others are just as pigmented with or without a primer beforehand (see Smoky Browns duo). 

Texture: Until I received these duos for review, I had never tried these particular eyeshadows from Jordana. I had no idea how silky and finely-milled these shadows were! They are not crumbly or overly powdery  (even the matte shades are buttery smooth and very easy to work with). My only complaint here is that some of the shades are a tiny bit harder than others, but for the most part, Color Me Impressed!

Pigmentation: like I said above, some shades benefit from a primer while others are nicely pigmented even without primer. The least-pigmented of all was probably Splitting Image but as you can see, a primer really helped that one. 

Blendability: easy peasy! I had no problem blending these shades using my standard EcoTools eyeshadow brush. 

Staying Power: If you're using a primer beforehand, you shouldn't have problems with staying power. Without primer, I can get about 3-4 hours of wear before I start to see fading.

Packaging: for perspective, here's a Jordana Color Effects Eyeshadow Duo next to a MAC eyeshadow single:

 Jordana: 2.66 g

MAC: 1.5 g

Height-wise, they're almost identical.

I'm very impressed with the packaging of these duos. The clear plastic lid is thick and substantial, and the lower part of the compact looks very sleek.

Sorry I couldn't get a better photo of the ingredients--the clear label is placed on top of the faux-metal finish which gives it a mirror-like quality that's difficult to photograph.

FINAL VERDICT: For $3.49 each at both Walgreens and Kmart, I'm impressed by not only the look of Jordana Color Effect Eyeshadow Duos, but the texture, color selection and blendability. The staying power can be improved by using these over your favorite primer; when worn alone they do tend to fade after a few hours. These duos offer a nice variety of different finishes, including some all-matte duos. 

Please stay tuned for the second half of this review, featuring the brighter, bolder shades in the range. In the meantime, do you already own any Jordana Color Effect Eyeshadow Duos? If so, what shades do you own and how do you like them?

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.