Milani Hypnotic Lights Eye Topper Started Out Horribly But Ended Up Brilliantly

Milani Hypnotic Lights Eye Topper ($11) is a new duochrome shimmering eye topper that can be used over your favorite powder eyeshadows or alone to add glittering color to your eyes. I heard a lot about these when they launched and most people kept comparing them to Stila Glitter & Glow Eyeshadow which is what piqued my interest as we all know how much I love that formula.

Sadly, they didn’t interest me very much at first go around because the shade range is pretty limited and many are lighter iridescent pinks, purples, and whites which don’t really work for me. But I decided to purchase two shades when I hauled the new Milani Blush Trio Palettes and at first I was really disappointed with them.

Milani Hypnotic Lights Eye Topper are available in five shade selections and are 0.18 oz in size. The packaging is a chubby barrel with an attached sponge applicator for application. I hauled two shades one of which was Luster Light which I truly believe is the best of the shades if you wear a lot of nudes or brown eyeshadows. If you’re into the whole unicorn thing you’ll love the other shades which are more cooler pastel pinks and purples. I really, really hope in the future they’ll extend the shade range to include more wearable shades. The iridescent pastels just didn’t really work out well for me. Although, I will say the second shade I picked up Luminous Light did work nicely over pink eyeshadows.

This formula excels at one function even though Milani markets it as a dual formula. I purchased it with the hopes it was some sort of dupe for Stila’s formula but it is not as it works horribly on its own in my opinion. It was awful my first go with it as I was applying it all over my lid and hoping that the color in the barrel was what I’d get on my eyes. Instead I was just getting messy, patchy glitter all over my eyes but no color. The look just wasn’t to my liking. I tossed them on the side after this and went back to them much later only to discovery how wonderful they work as an eye topper. Milani does say you can use them on bare lids but in reality they are in fact best used as an eye topper as per their name. Oddly enough upon swatching these they are very pigmented but that color doesn’t quite translate to lids and you get a layer of shimmer but no real pigment from the product so both shades I ordered looked about the same on my lids.

Milani Hypnotic Lights Eye Topper Swatches (Luminous Light and Luster Light)

Milani Hypnotic Luster Light Lights Eye Topper

Milani Luminous Light Hypnotic Lights Eye Topper

I’ve been applying Luster Light over ALL my nude, natural looks and it completes my looks so beautifully. It adds a brilliant shimmer and sheen to my lids that’s simply gorgeous. In my look below I used the new Covergirl Trunaked Chocoholic Eyeshadow Palette and I did a completely brown look and added Luster Light right on top of the powder shadow and as you can see it transforms my entire look. It adds a beautiful layer of shimmer that really accents the completed look.

The formula is quite easy to work with. It’s a little thinner in comparison to Stila’s but has the same liquid gel texture with very refined shimmer. I actually felt the shimmer was a bit smaller and less chunky compared to Stila’s version. The blend was poor and difficult on my bare lid. It just appeared patchy no matter what I did and it took a bit of time to set. But over powder eyeshadows it’s so freaking easy to work with. You just dab a bit on and you can smooth with your finger tip and you’re good to go. I had no problems with it creasing, messing up my completed look, and it didn’t have any shimmery fall out after it dried down. I think people will be most concerned about messing up their eye look by applying this on top. But don’t worry, it really jives well with powder and you won’t smudge up your look or create a mess. It applies very easily.

Without Milani Hypnotic Lights Eye Topper

With Milani Hypnotic Lights Eye Topper fotd

All in all, these were horribly disappointing on my first try as I was all about using them as an eyeshadow solely. However, they turned out beautifully when paired with my favorite powder eyeshadows. They really complete a look and add a nice sparkle to it. I love the fact that you can do a nude work friendly look in the day and just carry these in your purse and dab some on at the end of the day for an evening out. They are that easy to use!

Now I just wish Milani would a few shades that I like. A gold maybe? Taupe? Red? A royal purple maybe? I’d buy them!

Milani Hypnotic Lights Eye Topper is sold out at milanicosmetics.com but hopefully these will become more readily available at drugstores and ulta.com soon.