I definitely prefer pretty high pigmentation in most instances, though I don’t mind semi-opaque and buildable matte eyeshadows. I think matte tends to work better when they can be built up, as they’re often more forgiving and easier to blend out. I like getting true-to-pan color as that makes it easier to figure out what to pair together!
— Christine
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I love a well formulated, pigmented eyeshadow for everything other than my transition shade! Especially for shimmers, metallics and satins, as these will generally go on my mobile lid where they need to have an impact. I don’t do lid washes as a rule. I also love for my crease shade to be richly pigmented, but easy to move and blend into place.
Now for what I don’t like! I cannot get with mattes that are not only intensely pigmented but that are also stubborn at blending out and diffusing (I’m looking at your mattes PML!). I’m serious. PML mattes are insanity inducing to blend out on my transition area! ?
Hello! I have the same issue with PML mattes, even though I really love her brand. I never thought that anyone else has the same issue, as I thought I’m just bad at blending.
Could you tell me some matte shadows/brands that work for you please?
I hope you can recommend some shadows that are easy to blend.
Thank you! ?
LIKE: I love pigmented colors. I like it when the color is true to pan, so I know what I’m getting. I don’t have to do all kinds of layering to get the saturation I want. Buildable with a couple passes is OK. I’m not much of one for a sheer wash of color look.
DON’T LIKE: Certain shades are harder to formulate, and can be patchy, hard to blend, and/or stain. It can be easy to go overboard with highly pigmented shades.
I tend to prefer something that can be built up rather than an intensely pigmented product. My aging eyes have crinkles and heavy pigmentation makes blending out an epic battle resulting sometimes in a patchy look, particularly on the excess skin of my ‘hoods. That said, if I know a particular product is heavily pigmented, I switch up my brush game to accommodate. I do not like pressed pigments at all.
Like: I like that I don’t have to keep piling the colour on to see it, it’s just one and done.
Dislike: Sometimes I pick up too much on my brush and I have some serious blending to do or change what I was going to do in the first place.
I love good quality, highly pigmented shimmer, metallic or satin shades that are pressed well into the pan, so no fallout. I find these kind of eyeshadows last for a long time, both on the eye and in the pan. As I don’t use matte or glitter eyeshadows, having a sheer formulation is not important to me.
There are no negatives that I can think of.
I love the intense look highly pigmented shades can create and enjoy doing fun eyeshadow looks.
I don’t like when those looks fade/crease into a smeary mess within just a few hours, which happens more often than not for me these days, so I typically avoided those intense looks that I used to love.
For shimmer I like high pigmentation. I’m less picky with mattes as long as they’re blendable.
Would anyone know a good resource for finding out what brands do animal testing, where their products are manufactured, and where their ingredients are sourced. I remember someone speaking about it here in the past in regards to possible allergic reactions to ingredients. I appreciate anyone’s input.
I like pigmented eyeshadows as long as they aren’t patchy. That seems to be a huge problem especially with blues. Haven’t found a good non-patchy dark blue shadow yet, although it’s not a huge deal since my favorites are pinks/plums and taupes. In general I prefer pigmented to buildable.
As others have said, I like when a product is true to pan and delivers the colour I was anticipating. What I don’t like – some highly pigmented products can be almost “too” pigmented (easily remedied most of the time by using a light hand but the first application – before my lesson is learned – can be rather scary). I also don’t like that some very pigmented products can be hard to blend and result in a patchy application when I try to blend (this is most often the case with eyeshadows; cheek and lip products don’t seem to be quite as much a problem).
Like: color pop and blend ability (if the quality is there)
Don’t like: having to go light with the touch, but that’s sometimes the price you pay for having one-swipe solo payoff.
I like pigmented shadows of every type except matte. There I prefer medium pigmentation for the control of being able to build the color – especially since I use more mattes for shaping/crease, so they’re usually the darker shades.