What do you like about loose eyeshadow? What don't you like?

Tell us what you love and hate about...

Loose Eyeshadow

I love that they’re often versatile–they can be used wet or dry–but they are usually messier to work with, and there’s the added inconvenience of having to twist open each shade when one uses them.

— Christine

15 Comments

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Mariella Avatar

I think the only loose shadows I have are MAC Pigments and I have maybe half a dozen or slightly more but I rarely think to use them for the very reason Christine points out – they can be messy, both to apply and just to use – too easy to tip over the container while opening or closing it or dipping a brush into it. I’m clumsy at the best of times and put my makeup on in my small bathroom almost all the time. The combination of minimal space to spread out (nowhere to sit during application) and natural clumsiness, and with rushing factored in it can be a messy endeavor.

Joan Avatar

I am a Bare Minerals junkie, so loose eye shadows are a joy for me. The main things i love are the unique, varied colors, superb bendability and effortless application. Every time I use them, I marvel at their gorgeous colors. I do love many of my palettes and agree they can be more time consuming to use when opening each one. The BE kits are still fun to use and make coordinating colors very easy. Great topic for conversation.

Cleo Avatar

I depot my loose shadows into mini lip gloss tubes (buy them clean on aliexpress for a few bucks).
You can then apply to your eye direct from the doe foot or use it to apply product to your brush

Boom. No mess.

Jane Avatar

That fact that you need to use a fixing medium, so basically THAT is the product that must be adequate or rather top notch to have good results. Sometimes primer may work, but I’ve found the fixing medium from MUFE or even Primark to work best. Any other ideas???

I will say that I recently found a company named Karla Store (UK) and purchased my first duochrome similar to Clionadh Cosmetics. They only had loose pigment in stock, so if I have results like CC’s pressed pigment, then I’ll be a happy camper! The color is a stunning purple-blue and I am soooo looking forward to it arriving, so I’ll have to get back into loos pigments! 😉

Lauren Avatar

My first loose eyeshadows came in the mail today, from concrete minerals. I have avoided them to this point because they are messy and inconvenient, but i finally gave in and bought the redrum set on a great sale (usually $40 and i got it for $12 I think), as well as the pro matte in risque (matte red). I have never EVER found any reds eyeshadows that are THIS pigmented and true to pan (reds usually end up looking like washed out gray-pink on the eye). Needless to say, I’m incredibly pleased and will say that concrete minerals knows how to do red loose pigments

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