Comparison Swatches - Lavenders & Purples

In the final installment of my comparison swatches, I will be showing my growing collection of lavender and purple eyeshadows. Lavender is my favorite color, so it's not a surprise that I have a lot of lavender/purple themed palettes and shadows. Still, compared to the beige/brown shadows I've swatched, my lavender/purple collection is still fairly small =P

First, here are the highlighting/base shades as well as some of the shading colors:


Color D from Maquillage's VI367 looks very white here, but you might be able to see the slight violet tint in the shadow. Similarly, color A from Lavshuca's PU-2 appears beige, but it also has a slight lavender tint, though it's fainter than the tint in color D from VI367.

Next, we have the purple-tinted neutrals, which can also be found in my earlier beige/brown comparison swatch post:


Many say that MJ's single eyeshadow in SV821 is a purple-tinted taupe, but I don't really see the purple in the color so I've chosen to leave that color out here.

It's hard to see the purple-ness of the above two colors just by themselves, so I've also included a picture of the two colors along side some of the purple shading and lining colors. The two purple-tinted neutrals are on the far left.


Following is the labeled swatch of the remaining lavender/purple shading colors as well as all of my purple lining colors:


The L'Oreal HiP shade here is the only completely matte shadow that I have (for a good reason since I prefer shimmer over a matte finish). The Shiseido eyeshadow is little bluer than the Shu Uemura shade shown here, but I wasn't far off in my review of the Shu Uemura palette when I said that the Shu Uemura shade is pretty much a powder version of the Shiseido eyeshadow (which is the only cream eyeshadow shown here).

For reference, all pictures in this post were taken under natural light. All of the Lavshuca swatches here are from a Eye Color Select quad, all Maquillage swatches are from a Eyes Creator (3D) quint, and the Coffret D'or swatch is from a Trance Deep Eyes quad. The Dior swatches are from a 5-Couleur Iridescent quint, and the Shu Uemura swatches are from a LE Winter 2008 palette. Finally, the L'Oreal HiP swatches are from a Concentrated Shadow Duo. For the Shu Uemura and L'Oreal HiP swatches, the colors are numbered from the left (i.e., the leftmost color is Color 1).

Comparison Swatches - Pinks, Reds, Peaches & Corals

I've put off swatching the pinks, reds, lavenders, and purples for so long since I was planning on acquiring the Dior Petal Shine quint before swatching these colors. Now that I've had the quint in my possession for a while now, I've finally gotten to swatching the pinks and reds =P

Without further ado, here are the highlighter/base shades of pinks:


As you can see, I was having a very hard time getting some of these shades to show up as pink rather than white/silver in the picture. NARS' Edie appears more muted and beige than pink when swatched, and the Shu Uemura shade here is probably the only warm pink. All the other shades are various shades of very light to light cool pink. Please refer to individual swatches of the products if that helps you see the color better.

Here are the warm pink/red, peach, or coral shading colors:


I was surprised that the Dior shade here looks so pink since it looked more peachy in the pan and when swatched with other colors in the same quint. On the other hand, Shiseido's Bare Pink is a kind of peachy warm pink that looked more pink when swatched in my original review of the Shiseido Hydro-Powders. It probably looks more orange-toned here because it's being shown with similar colors in the same family. Also, I swear that the Shu shade looks a lot more red on me than it does here in the swatch. I guess just like Bare Pink, it is probably because this Shu shade is being swatched with similar colors that it looks so orange here. I would describe it as a bright copper-ish coral. Finally, I was surprised that the L'Oreal HiP color was so red since the intensity was not as noticeable before when swatched with other HiP duos.

Here is my measly collection of cool pink shading colors plus the lining colors:


NARS' Onidine is really a plummy color halfway between red and purple, though it looks oddly brown here. I decided to include it with the pinks instead of the purples in the next post since the other shades in the palette are also here. The two black colors both have either pink or reddish shimmer, which is why I included them here as well.

For reference, all of the pictures were taken under natural light. All of the Lavshuca swatches are from an Eye Color Select quad, and the MJ Majolook swatch is from a Trick On Majolook. The Shu Uemura swatches are from the LE Holiday 2008 Secret Luscious Rose palette, and the shades are numbered from the left (i.e., the first shade from the left is Color 1, and so on). The Shiseido swatch is of one of the Hydro-Powder Eyeshadows, and it is also the ONLY cream eyeshadow in the swatches. The L'Oreal HiP swatches are of an Metallic Shadow Duo, and I've named the lighter color as 1 and the darker color as 2. Finally. the Dior swatches are from a 5-Couleur Iridescent quint, and the NARS swatches are all of eyeshadows in the NARS Bridal Palette.

Comparison Swatches - Greens and Blues

Admittedly, I'm not a big greens and blues person when it comes to eyeshadows, so my collection here is very small.

Let's start with the greens:


I think Shiseido's Green Exotique looks more vibrant in real life, I just had a hard time capturing it's brightness. The Shu Mika Rose color 7 and the L'Oreal HiP Gunmetal color 1 are very similar olive greens. The only difference is that Shu's olive green is more gold, whereas the Gunmetal olive green is more gray/black. Also, even though Gunmetal color 2 looks pretty black on my arm, it usually looks a little more forest green when applied on my lids because of the shimmer.

And these are the blues:


Shiseido's Aqua Shimmer looks pretty similar to L'Oreal HiP Magnetic color 1, except the prior slightly flashes green and the latter appears more silvery. Again, the color 2 for L'Oreal HiP Magnetic looks black, but is actually more navy on my lids.

For reference, all pictures were taken under natural light. All of the Shiseido swatches are of Hydro-Powder Cream Eye Shadows. The MJ swatch is from a Trick On Majolook and the Lavshuca swatches are from Eye Color Select quads. The Shu Uemura swatches are from the LE Holiday 2008 Secret Luscious Rose palette. Finally, the L'Oreal HiP swatches are from Metallic Shadow Duos.

Comparison Swatches - Grays, Silvers, and Blacks

I never realized how many beige/brown eyeshadows I have until I started doing these comparison swatches. Compared to the five pictures I took for the browns, there are only two pictures for the grays/blacks. Of course, I included the taupes with the browns so that made a difference, but even then, I still have twice as many brown shadows as blacks.

Here are the highlighting/base shades:


Most of the colors except for the L'Oreal HiP shade look very similar. In fact, most of them are the same except for the texture. Shiseido Whitelights and Coffret D'or's color D are more sparkly, MJ's color A is more shimmery, and Coffret D'or's color A and L'Oreal's color 1 are more pearl/satin. The only shade that has a slightly different color is Kate BR-1 color A, which is slightly more beige and pink. So even though this color looked white when swatched with the real beiges (see swatch post for beiges, golds, and browns), it still belongs to the beige family.

Here are the shading or liner colors:


I remarked in the review for L'Oreal Sterling color 2 that this color is slightly blue-toned, which is why it's hard for me to pull it off. Here, you can see how it looks bluish when compared to the other grays.

For reference, all pictures were taken under natural light. The Shiseido swatch is for a hydro-powder cream shadow shade. The Coffret D'or swatches are from a Trance Deep Eyes palette. The Kate swatches are all from Deep Trap Eyes quints, the Lavshuca swatch is from a Eye Color Select quad, and the MJ swatch is from a Trick On Majolook. The L'Oreal swatches are from a Wear Infinite Duo and the L'Oreal HiP swatches are from a Metallic Shadow Duo.

Comparison Swatches - Beiges, Golds, and Browns

To honor my collection of makeup, I decided to do some comparison swatches. However, since just swatching the brown-ish neutrals took some time, I also decided that I should stop for now and finish the rest some other time =P

Let's start with the bases and the highlighters:


You can see how the L'Oreal single eyeshadow becomes really dull when placed next to the shimmery Japanese eyeshadows =P Even though Kate BR-1's color E looks rather taupey in the photo, it actually pink-ish in real life when swatched next to these colors. If there is any confusion as to which product each label refers to, please read the paragraph at the end of the post for an explanation of the labels.

Here is the swatch of the taupey shades:


This is the swatch of the warmer brown shading colors:


And finally, the liner color swatch:


It's amazing what difference it makes to do a comparison swatch versus just one for each palette. I could've sworn when I swatched color D of Kate's BR-1 with the rest of BR-1's colors that it was straight up brown. But here, it almost looks like black with a hint of maroon. Also, although color C of MJ's BR742 looks almost gray-ish in the swatch, it is definitely just a very cool-toned brown. Color 2 of L'Oreal HiP's Gilded is the only color here that has a straight up black base. In addition, in terms of the texture of the shadows, Kate's liner color was the one that swatched the smoothest and appeared darkest upon first swipe, a nod to its very high pigmentation. L'Oreal HiP's Gilded refused to be cooperative here and was very gritty when swatched, which is why it looks so uneven.

For reference, all of the pictures were taken under natural light. All of the Kate swatches are from Deep Trap Eyes quints, all of the Lavshuca swatches are from Eye Color Select quads, and all of the MJ Majolook swatches are from Trick On Majolooks. Those MJ swatches labeled as "single" are from the Shadow Customize singles (Note: 16 is discontinued). The Shu Uemura swatches are from the LE Holiday 2008 Secret Luscious Rose palette (I wrote Mika Rose since it's the Rose palette from the Ninagawa Mika collection). The shades are numbered from the left (i.e., the first shade from the left is Color 1, and so on). The Dior swatch is from a 5-Couleur Iridescent quint. The Shiseido swatch is of one of the Hydro-Powder Eyeshadows, and it is also the ONLY cream eyeshadow in the swatches. The L'Oreal HiP swatches are of Metallic Shadow Duos, and I've named the lighter color as 1 and the darker color as 2.

L'Oreal HiP Metallic Shadow Duos (+1)

These L'Oreal HiP Metallic Shadow Duos were all the hype when they first came out. Unlike the first two series, the Concentrated Shadow Duos and the Bright Shadow Duos, which were not very consistent in the quality of each product, all of the Metallic Shadow Duos are smooth and pigmented. That is not to say that these duos are perfect. They definitely are not.


The reason I wrote plus one in the title is because I am including the review of all Metallic Shadow Duos plus a Concentrated Shadow Duo (the purple one in the bottom right of the picture). I will focus first on the quality of the Metallic Shadow Duos. The major selling point of these duos is that they are very pigmented and require little layering on your lids to get the intensity of the colors in the pans. The powder in these duos are pretty fine, but the darker shades of the duos are a little rougher, and I do get a lot of fallout when applying the darker shades. These duos also don't last long on my oily lids. I can make them go without creasing for maybe 7-8 hours if I apply them over UDPP, but without UDPP, they only last about 3-4 hours at the most. The one Concentrated Shadow Duo I own is of pretty much the same quality as the Metallic Shadow Duos, except the darker shade is much less pigmented than the darker shades of Metallic Duos when applied on the lids.

All of the duos (Metallic and Concentrated) include a sponge-tip applicator that work pretty well in applying the shadows. The applicator is kept in a lower compartment with a mirror. The mirror included is pretty much useless since it's on the bottom so you'd have to flip back and forth between swiping the shadow and looking at the mirror if you want to use it. Also, the cover for the bottom compartment is a little looser in some duos so you may accidentally open the bottom compartment when you actually mean to open the top compartment where the shadows are. This little design flaw doesn't bother me much, but it can be considered a major nuisance to some users.

The first two Metallic Shadow Duos I own are Gilded and Platinum. Gilded is a gold-themed duo with a vivid yellow gold and a black with gold shimmer. The shimmer in the darker shade in Gilded is a little bigger than the shimmer found in the darker shades of the other duos. In contrast, Platinum is a silver-themed duo with a white silver and a black with silver shimmer. The darker shade in Platinum is a little more matte (i.e., contains less shimmer) than the darker shades in the other Metallic Duos.


The next two Metallic Shadow Duos are Sculpted and Gunmetal. Sculpted is a pink-themed duo with a shimmery warm peachy pink and a black with pink/red shimmer, which appears more like a black with a hint of red rather than a dark red. On the other hand, Gunmetal is a green-themed duo with a shimmery olive green and a black with green shimmer that appears like a dark forest green.


The last Metallic Duo is Magnetic, which is a blue-themed duo with a shimmery icy blue and a black with blue shimmer that appears like a navy blue. The one Concentrated Shadow Duo I have is Charisma, which is a purple-toned duo. The lighter color in Charisma is a shimmery pinkish lilac, whereas the darker color is a matte eggplant that needs several layers to get it to the intensity in the swatch.


All of the photos in this entry were taken under a mix of yellow and white light.

In short: The pigmentation in these shadows are excellent (except for the darker shade in Charisma), but the powder quality of the darker shades is not the greatest. There is also a little design flaw with the compact. Overall, these are a steal if you love playing with colors and can get them during a buy one get one free deal at a local drugstore.

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Please click here to see Gunmetal and Charisma used in EOTDs.