Availability: Makeup Geek
Price: $45.00
Company’s Description
These eight shades were specifically selected by Marlena for a launch promotion and will be her most frequent colors for the tutorials she plans to publish after the product launch. This starter kit is also a promotional discount — you will save money compared to buying them individually.
Marlena of Makeup Geek carries her own makeup line, which currently includes eye shadows, brushes, and lipsticks. This review is for the 8-Eyeshadow Starter Kit, which includes the following colors:
- Cocoa Bear: Matte golden brown
- Mocha: Matte Warm medium brown
- Glamorous: Bronzy, shimmery gold
- Purely Naked: Soft shimmery nude
- Shimma Shimma: Shimmery highlight
- Purple Rain: Deep but subtle matte purple
- Unexpected: Light and subtle pink matte purple blend
- Corrupt: Intense matte black with small bit of sparkle
Packaging: 9.5/10
The 8 shadows come in pan form, meaning you get the eyeshadow pan without any plastic packaging around it. The pans come in thick paper sleeves encased in a thick paper envelope. If you’ve ever bought pans from MAC PRO, you’ll recognize this packaging. But unlike MAC PRO’s sleeves, Makeup Geek’s have extra flaps that surround the round metal pan to keep it in place.
The outer envelope is decorated in pink, orange, and white. The packaging is actually quite sturdy and protects the pan inside well. You could take these shadows with you individually or you can put them in a palette. They are the same size as MAC shadows.
Quality: 10/10
Cocoa Bear is a matte, milk chocolate brown. This is a fantastic shade for using in the crease or as a liner.
Mocha is a deep, matte, taupe brown. This is also a great crease shade and will also work as a brow color for those with slightly ashy-brown hair.
Glamorous is a shimmery, honey-toned gold. It’s similar to MAC’s Amber Lights shadow.
Purely Naked is a slightly shimmery nude color. The pan has silver shimmers in the pan, but those melt into the shade once on the skin and leave a sheen without individual glitter particles.
Shimma Shimma is a light, shimmery champagne. It’s a good highlight color for the eyes and for under the brows. The color is very close to MAC’s Shroom shadow.
Purple Rain is a cool-toned, matte, medium purple. The pan does have tiny silver shimmer particles in the pan, but the overall effect isn’t shimmery.
Unexpected is a pale, matte, lilac purple.
Corrupt is an incredibly intense black with silver shimmer.
Every single color in the kit is strongly pigmented and applies evenly over the skin. The formula has just the right softness, which allows the powder to transfer smoothly without being dusty or crumbly. The dark and purple shades are more dry and stiff than the neutrals, but they apply just as intensely and evenly, despite the difference in formula.
I am amazingly impressed with this set. There isn’t a dud in the bunch. And the mix of shimmery and equally high-quality mattes shades lets you create a cohesive eye look without having to reach for another palette.
Ease of Use: 9.75/10
These shadows apply very smoothly and evenly, and blend beautifully too. I didn’t need to apply multiple layers and I didn’t even need to swipe my brush back and forth more than 2-3 times before the color was completely even and opaque.
Price: 9.5/10
For $45.00 you get 8 shades for a total of 0.51 ounces (14.4 grams) of shadow. That works out to $5.62 per shadow. If you bought these shadows separately, they would contain 0.064 ounces (1.8 grams) and cost $5.99 each, so you save a little by buying the set. MAC shadows contain 0.05 ounces (1.5 grams) and cost $11.50 each in pan form. So you not only pay much less for each individual Makeup Geek shadow, but you also get more.
wow! they are really good!