Guerlain Shalimar Eyeshadow Duo Review, Photos, Swatches
Guerlain Shalimar Ecrin 2 Couleurs Eyeshadow Duo
Guerlain Shalimar Ecrin 2 Couleurs Eyeshadow Duo ($46.00 for 0.10 oz.) is a limited edition set of shades for the holiday season. Guerlain’s weakness seems to be eyeshadows, unfortunately, and the holiday duo left much to be desired. The formula is supposed to be “ultra-pigmented” with “multiple metallic reflections.” The consistency of the top shade was dry, slightly gritty, and extremely difficult to blend, while the bottom shade was looser and easier to work with but had fall out (and is, between the two, quite dupable).
Shalimar (Top) is a medium-dark, grape-hued plum base with lighter navy blue shimmer. It had a firmer press, which made getting color payoff difficult, and I could not build up the color with multiple layers, as it just didn’t stick to itself well. When I tried to blend out the color, it looked patchy, uneven, and draggy around the edges. It started to crease after six hours of wear. There was really not much to like about this shade, besides the color it was attempting to be! Cle de Peau Cosmic Aura #1 (PiP, ) is less shimmery (95% similar). Too Faced Shady Bitch (LE, $16.00) is cooler (90% similar). MAC Harajuku Blu (LE, $17.00) is less shimmery, lighter (90% similar). MAC Dusty Desire (LE, $32.50) is cooler (90% similar). Urban Decay Freakshow (LE, $19.00) is less shimmery, warmer (90% similar). Urban Decay Vice (DC, $19.00) is warmer (90% similar). KVD Beauty Lunacy (LE, ) is less shimmery, lighter (90% similar). Viseart Ecstacy (PiP, ) is more shimmery, lighter, cooler (90% similar). NARS Kauai #2 (DC, $25.00) is less shimmery, warmer (90% similar). Sleek MakeUP Bliss in Barcelona (LE, $9.99) is less shimmery, darker (90% similar). NARS Argentina (P, $22.00) is more shimmery, lighter, warmer (90% similar). BH Cosmetics Foil Eyes 2 #14 (PiP, ) is more muted, warmer (85% similar). Urban Decay ACDC (DC, $19.00) is less shimmery, lighter, warmer (85% similar). ColourPop Dance Party (P, $6.00) is warmer (85% similar). MAC Highly Charged (LE, $22.00) is less shimmery, lighter, warmer (85% similar). Coloured Raine Black Butterfly (LE, $6.99) is darker, more muted (85% similar). Ciate Wicked (P, $24.00) is lighter, warmer (85% similar). Smashbox Stormy (PiP, ) is lighter, warmer (85% similar). Urban Decay Spandex (LE, ) is darker (90% similar). MAC Butterfly Party (LE, $32.50) is more shimmery, warmer (85% similar). Top 20 dupes listed, see the rest. See comparison swatches / view dupes side-by-side.
Shalimar (Bottom) is a brighter, light-medium gold with warm, yellow undertones and a sparkling, metallic finish. It is the more traditional holiday gold you’d see during the season, so while it performed better than the top shade, it is easily duped with other products rather than acquiring one dud and one decent shade for the price of $46. The texture of this shade was softer, smoother, and more blendable on the skin, but it had some fall out issues over time. It had was mostly opaque in coverage, and it lasted for seven hours before creasing. Marc Jacobs Beauty The Night Owl #1 (PiP, ) is less shimmery (95% similar). Dior Cosmic Eyes #1 (LE, ) is less shimmery, warmer (95% similar). Pat McGrath Palladium (LE, $25.00) is more shimmery, darker, cooler (90% similar). Stila Gold Goddess (P, $24.00) is more shimmery (90% similar). Estee Lauder Blonde Cumin (LE, ) is less shimmery, lighter (90% similar). Urban Decay Neon Moon (LE, $20.00) is lighter (90% similar). Burberry Gold #3 (LE, ) is less shimmery, darker (90% similar). ColourPop Fringe (P, $6.00) is lighter (90% similar). Charlotte Tilbury Starlight #3 (LE, ) is less shimmery, darker, warmer (90% similar). Gucci Beauty Antique Gold (DC, $37.00) is less shimmery, lighter (90% similar). Pat McGrath Metallurgy (LE, $25.00) is more shimmery (90% similar). Estee Lauder Naked Gold (P, $25.00) is warmer (90% similar). Burberry Gold #4 (LE, ) is lighter (90% similar). Natasha Denona Indian Gold (44M) (PiP, $29.00) is less shimmery, lighter (85% similar). Fenty Beauty Marrakush (PiP, ) is cooler (85% similar). Give Me Glow 90s (PiP, $7.00) is more shimmery, darker (85% similar). Anastasia Metal (P, $12.00) is lighter (85% similar). Anastasia Ember (LE, $12.00) is more shimmery, darker, brighter (85% similar). ColourPop Crimper (LE, $6.00) is less shimmery, lighter (80% similar). MAC Retrospeck (P, $17.00) is less shimmery, lighter (80% similar). Top 20 dupes listed, see the rest. See comparison swatches / view dupes side-by-side.
Shalimar
LELimited Edition. $46.00.
Shalimar (Top)
LELimited Edition.
Shalimar (Bottom)
LELimited Edition.
See more photos & swatches!
Guerlain Shalimar Ecrin 2 Couleurs Eyeshadow Duo
Guerlain Shalimar Ecrin 2 Couleurs Eyeshadow Duo
Guerlain Shalimar Ecrin 2 Couleurs Eyeshadow Duo
Guerlain Shalimar Ecrin 2 Couleurs Eyeshadow Duo
Guerlain Shalimar Ecrin 2 Couleurs Eyeshadow Duo
Guerlain Shalimar Ecrin 2 Couleurs Eyeshadow Duo
Guerlain Shalimar (Top) Eyeshadow
Guerlain Shalimar (Top) Eyeshadow
Guerlain Shalimar (Bottom) Eyeshadow
Guerlain Shalimar (Bottom) Eyeshadow
Hmm, it looks like this duo could be easily duped by the NARS Kauai duo – permanent, saves $12, and earned an A+ rating from you. Just in case anyone loves this color combo but not this quality!
Yes, the Kauai duo is certainly in a similar vein with the gold/purple combo!
Indeed. Was quizzing myself why I sprang for jardin perdu at the closing sale, and not this. Well, S and NARS.com will have it during fall sale and f&f. This really is a lovely combo. As to the G, Tante pis! Which, IIRC, means so much the worse….. At 23usd for half a duo, it ought to do one’s typing for a week, while one sat around and looked good. This won’t.
I’m starting to think of Guerlain shadows as museum pieces – pretty to look at, but don’t use
Ha! They can join Dior.
Awww – I was hoping this would be way better. You can see how dreadful the purple is just looking at the swatch. Oh, well, upwards of $50 saved! I’ve got dupes for both shades but it’s weird to think that Retrospeck is LESS shimmery! I find that to be quite glittery shadow.
I feel like Retrospeck just has looser bits of glitter, but the gold one here is chunkier and has both shimmer as well as larger sparkle so I think that’s why it ends up being more shimmery overall.
Disappointed. This duo had lots of potential.
I thought it might be better than their usual eyeshadow formula, since they were so shimmery/metallic but not quite.
Oh, I really wish that grape/navy performed better! What a gorgeous color! Wait! I actually have (and love) Kauai, lol.
Christine, I don’t know why, but for some reason the ‘wish list’ and ‘vanity’ buttons just don’t seem to want to work for me. In fact, more often than not, they don’t work. It’s very frustrating. Is it my browser (Chrome)?
When you say don’t work, what do you mean? What happens? Are you logged in?
I just clicked the vanity button for the duo, and I didn’t have any trouble (I’m using PC/Chrome).
Quite often — more than half the time, I’m pretty sure — I click on the wish list or vanity button, and nothing happens, even though I’m signed in. It happens less often with the heart-shaped button.
For example, right now I clicked on the wish list button for the MAC lipstick in Galaxy Gray, and for the Bite Beauty Multistick in Gelato, and nothing happened; same with the vanity button for the Bite multistick in Mochi and Nectar.
But then I clicked on the Galaxy Grey and went to the page with the swatches and the beginning of the review. From there, the wish list button did work.
I tried the same thing with Mochi, but the vanity button didn’t work from that page. For Nectar, I tried going to the ‘read full review’ page, but the vanity button didn’t work there, either.
The wish list button on the ‘read full review’ page for Gelato didn’t work, either. Macaroon is already on my wish list, so I tried adding a heart to it, but that didn’t work on the swatch page or the full review page.
Going back to the MAC lipsticks, Postmodern worked (and didn’t) the same as Galaxy Gray, so for Stallion I tried going to the full review page, and I could add it to my wish list there, too, even though I couldn’t from your front page.
Why I could add the MAC lipsticks but not the Bite Multisticks, and none of them from the main page, I have no idea; the problems I have with the system are arbitrary and capricious and vary over time. If I
Oops! This posted before I was finished. What I was going to say is, if I’m the only person having this problem then it must be something on my end, but if others are also having this problem then I think you should know about it.
Hey Fran,
Can you let me know if it works for you? Based on your feedback, it seemed like you were trying to add products through Round-ups, and I was able to replicate the error myself. It is working for me now, though!
I couldn’t add through Round-ups. With the MAC lipsticks, I could add through other pages, but not with the Bite Beauty Multisticks.
Just now I tried adding Bobbi Brown Uber Rose Luxe Lip Color to my wish list through the full review page, and it’s still not working. Sometimes I think it blocks me if I’ve clicked the heart button previously, but I’m not sure it doesn’t happen when I haven’t done that.
Thanks for taking the time to work on this. If I’m the only one having this problem, I don’t think you should spend too much time on it!
I will look into that, because it did seem to work for me on the review page no problem, just not on the round-up!
Pretty colors. But yeah, was hoping for top quality here.
At this price, it definitely should be top quality!
It’s really too bad that Guerlain releases a bunch of fantastic products for the Holidays, and then this… More subtle colors are okay, but gritty, hard to blend shadows are not acceptable from a high end brand. This duo could have been so beautiful!
Their weakness has been eyeshadows for so long… though there have been a couple good ones over the years (usually around the holidays, haha!).
Although I can attest that overall Dior e/s was better in past decades, I think I own NO Guerlain shadows. A few other products, mostly lips, lotta old style scent, but no shadow. I’m not sure it has ever been good.
In a weird twist, I was fooling around with this duo last night, just to see what it looked like on. My husband, who rarely notices exclaimed how pretty this eye shadow was. So, go figure.
Haha! Go figure indeed!
Oh man, am I happy that I own Nars Kauai, UD Freak show and Betrayal, plus many of the listed gold dupes!!!
Now to show those ^^^ more love, because this duo is seriously pitiful. That purple makes me want to cry. And I probably need a good, hearty cry after these past 2 weeks, I’m tellin’ ya.
Woohoo!! 😀
To be honest, that purple shade looks horrible – so gritty. What is going on with Guerlain?
They’ve been weak on eyeshadow for awhile 🙁
The color combo had promise, but dismal execution on that purple. 🙁 Fortunately, both shades are pretty easy to dupe.
Thank goodness for dupes!
Ouch! That purple! It looks so good in the pan and quite awful swatched. Such a pity Guerlaine can’t seem to get their eyeshadows to work, if not perfecly, at least well. They do other things so well.
It had such promise!
Whoa, bummer that it did so poorly on your testing phase Christine.
It’s such a beautiful combo though.
That blue/purple is right at the very top of my wish list, but alas I’m usually disappointed by some aspect of the end results with that color regardless of who it’s manufactured for.
Dry and powdery is sometimes a good thing depending on what primer you are using, or if you are a woman who uses the heavy, oily type of eye cream.
I don’t like the price for a product that I might just toss in the drawer and never use (Chanel I’m looking @ you). Thanks for the review though Christine- much appreciated.
I’ll have to think about this one though.
I agree that products one might use very, very occasionally, it is better to spend less!
Booo….
🙁
I was so ready to buy this, but went: “where’s the review?” I’m glad I didn’t miss out. I’m just sad Guerlain’s eye shadows have tanked so badly in recent years…