Matte Pressed Shadow

The brand offers matte and foiled finish eyeshadows, though the descriptions are largely the same: "highly pigmented," "blendable," and "finely milled." The difference is with the foiled finish eyeshadows, the brand cautions to use less because they're that pigmented and going in with a heavier hand could cause flaking.

The matte eyeshadows are very pigmented with textures that ranged from soft, velvety, and blendable to soft, more substantial but not as silky or as finely-milled that had true-to-pan pigmentation but were not as blendable. The deeper shades tended to be a little harder to diffuse, especially along the edges, for a seamless blend. Ideally, one would use a mid-tone and lighter shade to soften the edge of a darker matte shade rather than counting on the matte to diffuse perfectly on its own.

The upside is that the deepest mattes are really intense--they're rich with lots of depth and have opaque, even coverage; it's just that edge can be harder to navigate. I preferred using smaller, more precise brushes, especially for areas like the deeper crease, to darken and then build up as necessary, and I'd use a lighter hand with shades that were harder to work with. They are also harder to dupe as many brands lack the intensity and depth, so some might be willing to trade-of blendability for intensity and uniqueness.

Some of the matte eyeshadows--often lighter and more mid-tone--were very blendable on their own along with having full coverage. There were a few of the darker and richer mattes that were slightly more effort to soften along the edges but not truly difficult. There was just some inconsistency in the ease of application with the matte finish. They tended to wear between eight and nine hours before fading noticeably.

They come in oversized pans (relative to average size) at 37mm, and they contain double the product (0.10 oz.) the average eyeshadow does (0.05 oz.).