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Rant & Rave: Shimmer Eyeshadows

This Week’s Topic: SHIMMER EYESHADOWS!

Your Mission: Tell us what you love, hate, or are otherwise indifferent to about shimmer eyeshadows.  Do you use them all the time?  What are your favorites (or least favorites)?

43 Comments

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Alanna Avatar

Stila shadows, especially Kitten and Diamond Lil, are the most gorgeous shimmers! I am obsessed. I think that shimmer is so fun to play with and really makes an eye look romantic and sweet. I like mixing shimmers with mattes also. It gives an excellent dimension to the look.

Amanda Avatar

Love shimmer, can’t do without it! I feel like mattes are sometimes too hard to work with and can make me look older. I like the smooth, glowing finish of a good shimmer!

Deb Avatar

I hate shimmer eyeshadow! I know I am in the minority but believe me when I say they are not an older girl’s best friend. I have tried so many and they just emphasize lines. It bugs me to no end that it is almost impossible to find an eyeshadow palette in colors I would use that actually does not contain mostly shimmer shadows. This is my number 1 beauty product rant.

usedtobecute Avatar

I totally agree, I spent 15 mins in target today trying to find matte eyeshadow, found one, boring brown. I look every where I go, everything has shimmer, pearl, or gloss and I love the look but not on me, I am 53 and have been told to stay away..

Laurina Avatar

I’ll usually put a shimmery shadow just on my lid (like Buxom Stay Put Eyeshadow in Mutt). If I decide to amp it up and use more than one color, I try to make my crease color a matte shadow. I love shimmer but too much and it just looks overdone.

Emily Avatar

I love shimmer eyeshadows! They’re basically the only eyeshadows I use. There’s something about matte eyeshadows that just looks wrong on me. I can use them for a base, but I need to add some sort of shimmer on top.

monika-luiza Avatar

I like shimmershadows in neutral colors or as a highlight in the inner corner of the eye. what I like most about shimmershadows is that they apply like a dream, at least the ones I have. but if the shimmer get to big or even glittery I say – NO WAY!

Allyson Louise Avatar

I love a subtle shimmer eyeshadow but otherwise I’m always on the hunt for a matte one of the same shade. I just don’t like how overly shimmery eyeshadows make me look like I’ve put way to much glitter on.

Hannah Avatar

I like them for everyday neutrals or just on my lid…but if i’m going out then it transfers to my crease (I ALWAYS use matte in my crease) and it looks like one big hot mess 🙁 but I love the way it looks on other people

CeeBee Avatar

I adore shimmer eyeshadow! Maybe not to a super sparkly or mega frosty extent but a subtle metallic sheen or a soft satiny shimmer finish is flattering on just about anyone I reckon.

I also like to use very light washes of neutral shimmer over deeper matte shadows to add extra depth and dimension – it took a little practice to get just right but it really makes your eyes pop!

Xia Avatar

They’re pretty, but I HATE shimmer shadows in people’s creases! ;( It does nothing for anybody’s eye shape and can sometimes look funny if the base/highlight shadows are shimmery as well

Mariella Avatar

I actually like most shimmery shadows quite a bit. I avoided them for years – in my youth, I hated frosted anything (in my youth, frosted stuff was pretty garish looking). In recent years I’ve got more into makeup and initially resisted shadows like MAC’s Naked Lunch, All That Glitters, Satin Taupe or anything with a sheen. THEN I discovered how lovely the better quality ones are and they’re staples now (along with some of the MSFs). I used frosted or shimmery shadows in other lines too, from drugstore to high end and love the look of them and the way they light up my eyes. My quibble is with shadows like Midnight Cowboy Rides All Over Your Face, Maui Wowie, etc. – great colours of shadows but the glitter/shimmer is so coarse that it falls all over my cheeks and entire under eye area. Sure there are ways around some of this but they’re all awkward and fiddly and time-consuming.

le Avatar

I just need some shimmering on my eyes otherwise I look dull because with my oily skin, my face is already matte to control oil. But not all shimmering, I combine shimmer and matte e/s. satin finish might be the best

Emily Avatar

I absolutely love the look of shimmer shadows, but I usually prefer matte shadows because, number one, shimmer is messy; the more shimmer, the more mess. I’m kinda OCD about my makeup application and I hate when sparkles end up somewhere I didn’t specifically place them! Number two, I feel it’s harder to get a strong pop of pigmented color with shimmers than it is with mattes. I love bright colors, and for me, that effect is just easier to achieve with matte shadows. Number three, I feel that for me personally, mattes wear much better on my oily lids. 😉
I do however enjoy a nice shimmery shadow too, especially duotones! I’ve been using a lot of minerals from Beauty from the Earth, they have lovely shimmers AND mattes. 🙂

Ariel Avatar

I enjoy shimmer but I can’t stand glitter– it gets everywhere– in my eyes, on my cheeks, on my clothes— so unprofessional!

Chels Avatar

I use to hate shimmer eyeshadow until I got my hands on Coastal Scents 88 shimmer shadow palette and I have to say it won my heart over I love it the colors are amazing and just enough shimmer in it if your not a fan of shimmer check out Coastal Scents you will become one I promise!!!

Caroline Avatar

I thought shimmers would not be kind to “mature” skin but with the right color and amount it can make your eyes pop. I really like Sidecar and Sin from Urban Decay. Sidecar has fallout but not to bad. Stila’s Kitten and Puck are great too.

Michele Avatar

I absolutely love shimmer eyeshadows. I don’t have a lot of eye space and feel they open my eyes up and accent them so much more than matte. I usually balance the shimmer with 1 or 2 mattes.

Annette Avatar

I hate shimmers! I think that they are harder to wear as we get older, and I haven’t found many that I can wear at this age that don’t accentuate lines. I love looks that use both matte and shimmer shadows, but I find it very hard to wear the shimmer shadows.

Marian Avatar

I’m an older gal and I love shimmer. I can’t wear too much but just a touch on the center of the lid makes all the difference!

Starla Avatar

I LOVE shimmer and glitter shadows!!! Matte is boring, use only when necessary. I hate when women tell me that they’re ‘too old’ to wear shimmer. I ask them how old is too old. I tell them I didn’t get that memo b/c I’m 42 and still rockin’ the shimmer. It’s all in your frame of mind and what you’re comfortable with. If you like it, wear it! Just make sure you don’t overdue shimmer ALL over your face. Pick one look, not 3.

Deb Avatar

Starla, I’ll tell you how old is too old. If someone feels that shimmer is showing up too much (and not in a good way) on their aging skin….well, then you’re too old for shimmer. Some of us do feel that we are too old for it now. Don’t be so judgemental, you may feel that way some day. And few things looks worse than an older woman trying to wear makeup that isn’t suited for her skin; in either color or texture. It’s wonderful that you are rocking it at 42 but you are still quite young. Get back to us in about 13 years.

Quinctia Avatar

Wait, there are other kinds of eyeshadows? 😉

Nah, but it’s the default state of eyeshadow to me. Glitters are like a subset of shimmer, since they’re usually shimmer+glitter.

A matte has to be really the perfect shade for me to even use it, and I use UDPP Sin every day, so even those aren’t perfectly matte when I wear them. I don’t even know if I have any satin finish shadows, or if I’ve mentally filed them in the matte category.

It’s just a personal preference. I don’t wear creams or jellies in nail polish either–it’s shimmers, glitters, and metallics all the way.

I think this is one of the reasons why I’ve fallen for Urban Decay, because it’s like shimmer is default for them, too. I have a Coastal Scents 88 Shimmer palette (it’s great except for the blues, I have issues with color payoff in the blues). I also really like Physicians Formula’s smokey green eye shimmer strip, though I got it because I was lacking some silvers and grays, it’s got that nice shimmery kick.

Camille Avatar

love shimmery eyeshadows! esp mac satin taupe. i also like a super shimmery bright inner corner. but i do like a matte off-white highlight. i dont so much like the look of shimmer from the lashes to the brow bone

Natasha Avatar

I love the effect of a shimmer shadow, how it just glows. yet i love the bright matte colours. I found a brand that gave me both shadows in one. Inglot cosmetics does many matte shadows that have a glitter overlay. These glitter particles DO show up on your eyelid and are not just there to look pretty in the package. YAYYY

Angel Avatar

LOVE SHIMMER EYESHADOWS!! 🙂 the only eyeshadow i use is the chai latte quad from maybellin. i just use that really shimmery color!

it’s beautiful 🙂

Harleigh Avatar

I love shimmer shadows, but unfortunately, theres something about my lids that makes it impossible for the shimmer to adhere to them.

Marcy Avatar

i LOVE shimmer shadows. i love mattes. i love satins. i love metallics. i love all finishes… EXCEPT GLITTER shadow (hate the large chunks and fallout).

Courtney Avatar

I love shimmery and sparkly shadows! They just add depth to shades, plus I find that they apply a bit more easily than matte shades. However, some colors just need to be matte sometimes (Like MAC’s Chrome Yellow, which I adore as a matte)

Helena Avatar

I prefer mattes…I’m willing to work with texture issues because shimmers tend to bore me. (I think this is partly because I tend to resent that which is most popular…too indie for my own good.) I find it better for artistic applications, too, which is usually what I use makeup for. If I like a shimmery shadow, it’s most likely a duochrome.

Niki Avatar

I love shimmer eyeshadows but as I grow older, I realize that shimmery eyeshadows have to be placed strategically on the eye – I can no long pull off a complete shimmering eye design. Thus, I either use as lid, or crease or brow color and the other 2 eyeshadows are either matte or sheer — this way I get the benefit of wearing a shimmery eyeshadow without looking overdone and the look aging me.

My favorite shimmery eyeshadow are from Nix’ie Cosmetics (now defunct), Estee Lauder, Chanel, Stila, Smashbox and Star Makeup Haven.

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