September 15, 2010

Stila Eye for Color Eye Shadow Palette Review and Swatches

Curious minds, did anyone grab up the Stila Eye for Color Eye Shadow Palette during Stila’s Happy Hour on Friday?

It was $18 and features a color wheel design with 13 shades of Stila Eyeshadow. Happy days! It’s sadly gone from Stila now but it’ll be back in October debuting with the Stila Holiday Collection 2010.

The good news, if you didn’t grab it for yourself, is I have one that I swatched up for you and did a few looks with.

Jump!

An eye shadow palette featuring 13 shades of Stila Eyeshadows in a color wheel design that makes it easy and simple to match up contrasting shades of shadow for a great eye look!

This is a bit bigger than your standard Stila palette but not so big it’s clumsy, about the size of a CD case. Flip it open to reveal 13 shades of Stila Shadow but sadly no mirror. It is the standard cardboard design that Stila favors however I think it’s pretty sturdy and won’t bend easily or break however the flip design doesn’t protect the shadows so well even though it features a magnetic closure. Powder doesn’t go bad quickly however this isn’t as handy as having shadows in a palette that seals off.

At $18 I do think it’s a great deal even though the shadows are a little smaller than the size of a penny. It’s alot of variety for your money plus the simplicity and ease of use definitely add to it’s value in my opinion. I’ve been playing around with it for a few weeks and so far I gotta say I do like it alot even though the shades could run down super easily if you use it daily however for anyone that has a larger stash I don’t think the shadow shades will be used up that quickly.

I’m not a great expert at pairing shades up so this is ideal for folks like me as you simply follow the wheel to contrast various shades. It’s pretty much kindergarten color direction here as it’s simply a matter of pairing up a lighter shade of color with a darker one so you can leave your brain surgery degree at the door while using this. It’s all about the simplicity. Pairing up various shades as per the color wheel you’ll end up with six solid looks but of course you can pair them up in endless ways to create more.

Colors are un-named and include:

Petal Pink
Burgundy
Bronze
Coffee
Moss
Green
Blue Green
Navy
Lilac
Orchid
Porcelain
Bisque
Black

Formula wise you may be worried these aren’t up to Stila standard, they are and they aren’t. I noticed some of the matte shades were a tad chalky where the velvet ones sported a very similar but not quite the same Stila shadow texture and formula. Pigmentation also varies with the velvety shades having a rich pigmentation and the matte ones a tad more subtle upon application. I felt the velvet ones applied and blended the best. It’s pretty much a 50/50 palette with 50 percent of the shades having a more matte-like look (not completely matte) and the other 50 having a velvety formula.

I wouldn’t say they had the exact same formula of a full size Stila Eyeshadow but they definitely have a higher grade quality than the Stila Travel Palette shadows.

Some of the shades are real gems and create some great eye looks such as the greens and browns where as others are a tad more difficult to work with like the paler lilac and purple.

For my looks below I simply used contrasting shades of lighter and darker green and lighter and darker brown from the palette. Two colors, my own liner and mascara, that’s it. I think they came out rather great as the palette really eases the way for creating simple looks without having to load on a ton of product.

Formula wise the shades vary in terms of texture, pigmentation, and application, some great, some not so great, it’s a mixed bunch.

Not minding the size on this much but some might consider it a bit bulky however I think it’s ideal for travel since it includes such a wide range of colors in such a small space.

Anyone with a smaller stash of makeup that will use this daily might find they’ll hit pan mighty fast as the shades are pretty small however those with larger stashes probably won’t mind the smaller sizes and might even be thankful for them.

Makeup n00bs who are looking to broaden their horizons and inject color into their eye looks but don’t have enough know how (this is pretty simple to use as you’re contrasting shadows by simply using a darker shade in the crease and a lighter on the lid!)
Anyone looking for a wide variety of colors in a smaller space.
Anyone who loves Stila (Stila fans probably can get on board with this easily).

Anyone with very little eyeshadow in their collection (this may run down fast with daily use due to the smaller size of the shadows).
Anyone expecting the full Stila Eyeshadow experience (the shadows aren’t quite the traditional Stila formula).

The Stila Eye for Color Eye Shadow Palette has a few quirks that make it far from perfect but I really liked it because it created awesome looks without alot of know how. The variety of the shades, cute packaging, and pretty decent formula of the shadows made it a joy to work with plus I think it’s $18 price tag is quite fair.