Estee Lauder Black Chrome Eyeshadow Duo Review, Photos, Swatches

Christine — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:00:03 +0000

Estee Lauder Black Chrome Eyeshadow Duo

Estee Lauder Black Chrome Eyeshadow Duo

Estee Lauder Black Chrome Pure Color Eyeshadow Duo ($30.00 for 0.12 oz.) is a limited edition offering from the Modern Mercury collection. The combination is classic, though for many of us, superfluous; it’s a set of dark, smoky hues that would work well to smoke out any look. I liked how there are two textures presented.

On the left, there is a dark black with a semi-matte finish–just a hint of sheen–that has soft but dry texture. The color payoff is good, without being too chalky, and it doesn’t skip and drag. It’s similar to several other blacks like MAC Carbon and Inglot #391. It does, however, perform better during application than swatched directly on an arm; the fluffiness of brush bristles seems to enhance some of the drier eyeshadow formulas.

Next to the black eyeshadow, there is a dark gray with multi-colored shimmer–I detected teal, silver, and green mostly. The pigmentation could use some improvement; it’s decent to good, but it’s a little sheer. The texture is soft, so it does apply smoothly overall. It reminded me of Bobbi Brown Black Sparkle. Urban Decay Gunmetal appears similar, too!

The Pure Color Eyeshadow formula is actually designed to be long-wearing without creasing or fading. When I wore this color combination alone on the eye (without primer!), it performed well overall, but I did see very slight fading at eight hours but no creasing. It certainly didn’t disappear, though, and I’d say to the average onlooker, they wouldn’t say, “Wow, use a primer!” I have normal-to-dry eyelids, so for those with oilier lids, you may still want to use a primer underneath these.