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Hit List: Worst Brown Eyeshadow
What’s the Worst Brown Eyeshadow?
What brand/products win this category? What makes it so awful?
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None; I love them *all*. Okay, not *exactly* true. As much as it pains me to say it, I have to go with L’Oreal Studio Secrets quad in The Naturals. The shadows have a great texture, but there just isn’t enough pigment. They would work on some with extremely fair, translucent skin, or as blending/transitional shades (which I bought it for, as travel companions to my Naked palettes), but on their own, not a fan. As much as I *love* the Studio Secrets singles, I find the quads seriously lacking; they’re even worse than Maybelline (the *worst* DS brand for shadows, IMO). Overall, though, I find browns to be consistent across all brands. As wary as I am with MAC, I have to say I have had great experience within the neutral range, and with CoverGirl, as well.
I’d have to say ‘Midnight Brown’ by Burberry. For the price, it is a rich, dark shade that applies beautifully, but it has multicoloured micro-glitter. If you apply it before your foundation, you end up with tiny glitter all over your cheeks. You wipe them off, apply foundation, AND IT RAINS GLITTER FROM YOUR EYELIDS ALL DAY. No joke. And it’s beautiful glitter so it always catches the light! I look like a disco ball. The colour is fantastic, but there is day-long fallout every single time I wear it.
Have you tried NARS Mekong? I’ve had luck with it. The color itself is beautiful, but the microglitter is soft, and I haven’t experienced fallout.
I keep on looking at it then going ‘but BROWN!’ and looking at my Naked palettes. You’ve just put it back at the top of my list 😀
Oh yes you should pick up Mekong…its GORGEOUS!
And Fez is really pretty too btw..
I don’t know if midnight brown is the worst one or not as i don’t mind the way it is on my lid and colour isn’t bad at all but it is a v weird one to me while applying.
when i pick up colour from pan by brush, it is always lots of exceed powder on my brush and on the surface of the pan too, but it isn’t too powdery on my lid… at first i actually thought this colour is a faulty as i got it for free from special offer.
I do agree that the fallout is pretty annoying, but in terms of longevity, this is my favorite brown! I wore it yesterday, and I only had minor creasing after 12 hours! Basically every shadow creases on me within 5-6 hours, so that is pretty darn good.
Btw, do you tap off your brush before you apply the shadow? Besides the fallout during application I haven’t experienced any fallout throughout the day with this one.
MAC texture very powdery and pulls rather red when applied.Â
Drug store:Â Â The ELF kit I keep at work. The brown itself is pretty and works well for my brows but it is the chalkiest, messiest powder I have come across. I wear more on my cheeck bones than my brows.
Department store: Sephora eyeshadow compact. I thought it was supposed to have shimmer. It was full on glitter. Terrible fall-out and the glitter migrated EVERYWHERE. I finally threw it out. It was quite sad since all the colours were so easy to put together and made my eyes pop. Instead it made me look like an overgrown full on sparkle monster mess. Not a look I like to show off.
Too Faced Sexpresso. Â It’s chalky and difficult to blend out properly.
I’m with xamyx…I’ve yet to meet a brown eye shadow I haven’t loved. I’ve been lucky in that, so far as I can recall, all the ones I have (including Sexpresso) work well. But I almost always “try before I buy” so I generally avoid issues like fallout, poor pigmentation, etc.
There is such a thing as a bad brown eyeshadow??? Â *grin* Â I’ve been quite lucky with the exception of MAC Omega.. it does not show up on me, too chalky, not enough pigment. Â I understand, however, a lot of people use this as a brow colour. Â I have plenty of other colours in this range without pigment/payoff issues, so I re-homed this sucker.
I have never had any luck with Omega EXCEPT as a brow color … I love it for that though. On the lid? Awful!
Mac- Groundcover
18thCenturyFox I remember seeing Groundcover here and thinking for sure I would buy it. Then I swatched (or tried to swatch) it in-store and could not believe that absolutely NO colour came off on my finger – none at all! I’m so glad I got to try it out rather than ordering it because, as lovely as it looked, it was just useless.
Mac antiqued – though perhaps it’s my fault for not applying it on my eye before I bought it. When I wear it, I look like I’ve been crying or have pink eye. Not flattering.Â
Shocked! That is my fave Mac shadow. I use it for my eyebrow color because it’s a dead ringer for my hair color.
The only ones that spring to mind are from ELF, but in general I find their shadows to be *too* soft with little pigmentation.
PS are you sticking with the WordPress commenting system? I really hope so because it’s SO much easier to use on my phone. The poor thing had a struggle and half waiting for the other system to even load!
I love most browns and can’t think of too many I haven’t really liked but Nars Mekong was one I returned. It is gorgeous but it was so pigmented that I couldn’t work with it very well without getting it all over!!! I have seen on here that many love it so maybe I need to give it another try as it is beautiful but it did get returned the first time!
I use a smaller, densely packed brush, and “pat” it on, or very tiny strokes. It is definitely highly pigmented, but it’s easy to blend.
I bought a palette from POP Beauty called the “Little Brown Dress” palette. As you could guess, it was full of brown shades, and every one was awful. All chalky and unpigmented, meh.
the worst one could be the brown colour from Guerlain Capri palette from Summer 12. it is v hard to blend and i don’t think i can wear it by itself but oddly, together with the other 3 colours, coral peach, pink and pearl, this palette is one of my favorite palettes.
Thanks, Christine, for changing the comment format!
Now I can comment more easily again!
Seriously, I think it’s Burberry Almond, no. 6 eyeshadow. It’s a nice color I think, but looked so unflattering on me! I used it only to fake a ‘crease’ since my eyes don’t really have a crease! Haha!
At First pause … I thought there is no “Worst Brown Eyeshadow” but upon deeper digging in my makeup mental psyche and actual collection (if you will) I recalled a rather recent purchase of the MARCELLE WET & DRY SHADOW QUAD IN NUDE ATTITUDE which goes without saying is a collection of browns and such. Problem is in the quad the colours look fabulous but when you go to apply there’s nothing coming off in this quad. At best you get a hint of colour dust of the deepest brown shadow but overall this was a HUGE disappointment!!! I’m not sure but perhaps someone can enlighten me here … but is the MARCELLE brand only available in Canada?
Yes, I do believe Marcelle is only available in Canada.
Um, I have to go with the the lighter brown in the ELF butternut quad. I love that palette and use it all the time, plus it’s really smooth and quite pigmented, it fades to NOTHING after two hours of wear! I can’t handle it!
Revlon colorstay eye pallette, dont remember the exact name but its just too tacky! n looks muddy
I have a lot of awful browns from drugstore brands, the crease-badly-within-an-hour kind. The worst ones are from NYX (don’t remember the names) and my neutral Coastal Scents palette. However, from my mid- high end shadows I have to say MAC Espresso. I know a lot of people love this one, so I suspect that I might have a dud, because mine applies unevenly and is impossible to blend.
MAC Embark! That thing is so powdery and it doesnt blend no matter how I try! Even on clients it looks horrible :/
Really? I love mine! A good combination I’ve found is Mac all that glitters on the lid, woodwinked in the crease and embark on the other v blended in towards the tear duct! It’s so gorgeous. Mine isn’t powdery at all, I’d recommend trying to use it in different ways over different bases, primers etc and using different brushes to see if you can find a loophole or way you like to use it! Good luck!
Really?
I like the one I have.
It´s soft, pigmented and very blendable.
And one of my friends really loves it!
It´s one of her favorites.
MAC Cross-cultural (matte). It is very hard to blend. I hate working with it!
The dark matte brown in the Wet n’ Wild Vanity palette, it was very patchy and uneven. I also didn’t have much luck with L’Oreal 24 Hour Infallible shadow in Continuous Cocoa, it didn’t apply evenly and wasn’t as pigmented as I thought it would be, even though I was packing it on my lid.
Mac “espresso”- impossible to blend
L’oreal infallible eyeshadow in “continuous cocoa” – chalky
Does Urban Decay Sidecar count as a brown? It’s a light brown anyway, under all that horrible glitter. It’s the ONE thing I hate about my Naked palette. That stupid glitter goes everywhere and no matter how well I wash my face, I’m always finding bits of glitter a day or two afterward. I want to pry it out of the palette and give it away. Every time I decide to try it again, I’m always sorry. (If I sound unnecessarily distressed, it’s because I tried it again last night. Lol.)
Estee Lauder Mink…it’s too dark, too matte…no matter what brush you use, it gets everywhere…
I absolutely love Estee Lauder mink. But only for doing my eyebrows. As an eyeshadow its far too dark. But I use it for my eyebrows and apply it with an angle brush everyday. I have black-brown hair so it works well or my eyebrow color and I get plenty of compliments.