Sunday, November 20, 2011

My Favourite Stand Alone Eyeshadows

Recently Emily from Beauty Broadcast did a video about her favourite 'stand alone' eyeshadows - that is, eyeshadows you can wear on their own. I've been doing this almost exclusively for about a year - certainly during the week when I don't have the time or the inclination to faff around choosing different colours that go together and then blending them just so. One of the reasons I have gravitated away from colour to neutrals is because with neutrals, you can pretty much get away with using any one of them on their own.

Having said that, I do have some particular favourite 'swipe and go' shadows. I haven't included any of the Benefit Creaseless Creams here, though I do use them often and always on their own. But I've talked about them before, so if you want to see swatches of those you can find them here. For the record, the ones I use most often are Flatter Me, RSVP and Pre Nup.


From left: SMH Cashmere, NYX Volcano, MAC Woodwinked, NYX Iced Mocha

Volcano is the one Emily is wearing in the video, though weirdly it throws more purple on her - it's a definite bronzy brown on me. It's a bit of a cheat including this one because I find that it tends to make my inner corners dark and shadowy so I lighten those up a bit with Urban Decay Sin when I wear this. But close enough to a stand alone that I'm including it. And it's my blog so I can do what I want. Ner.

 
From left: Urban Decay Toasted, NARS Ondine, Sigma Indian Girl.

If you have Naked (and who doesn't) you have Toasted. It's possibly my all time favourite eyeshadow, certainly my most often used. These swatches are not the best, unfortunately - it's very overcast here today and the pictures were taken by Noodle Arms, whose photography skills make me look like Diane Arbus. There's a better swatch of this (and a few others mentioned in this post) here.

If you bought Sigma brushes in the early days, you probably also have Indian Girl, as that was their staple freebie for quite a while. It's a really pretty greyish taupe, but the grey/purple does not show up in this picture at all. There are better swatches of it in someone else's blog here, but even then I think the grey aspect just doesn't come out well in photos. Bummer.

From left, NYX Shimmer, Wet'n'Wild Penny, NYX Flamingo, Wet'n'Wild Nutty

I talked about Penny in this post, where I compared to its supposed exact dupe, MAC Expensive Pink. As dupes go, it's pretty damn good, and it's $2US. TWO BUCKS PEOPLE. It's beautiful - a gorgeous peach with gold shimmer. Best thing I've ever spent $2 on.

Flamingo is a purply-pink with gold shimmer, and again this picture isn't doing it justice. It needs a base to bring it out, and these were all swatched on bare skin.

So there you have what has been my eyeshadow wardrobe for most of this year, current project notwithstanding. Do you have eyeshadows you use on your own? If so, tell me what they are because I totally need new eyeshadows. No, really.

8 comments:

  1. My all-time top stand alone eyeshadow is MAC's All That Glitters. But, I recently acquired Urban Decay's Naked Palette, so we shall see how it performs! ;)

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  2. ooooh great post :) I think I need a naked pallete. I think. Do i? Is it worth it? HELP

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  3. Great post! I don't have this many shadows that look good on their own... i think! And YES Tegan, you need a NAKED palette

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  4. NP Eye Patrol in Private Storm is my fave stand alone shade lately. It's a greyish brown with golden sparkles - really cool for a daytime smoky :)

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  5. Denise, ATG has been on my wishlist forever - I'm sure I'll get it one day. :-)

    Tegan, if you like neutrals, Naked is a must-have. It's one of the few products that really lives up to the massive hype.

    Karyn, you have eleventy million shadows, I'm sure you have a ton of gorgeous stand alones. ;-)

    Magda, I've not heard of that one - I'll check it out!

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  6. I really like the look of indian girl, exactly mu type of colour. I can't think of many eyeshadows I wear on their own but it's probably because I like to pack it on ;)

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  7. This is a reminder to me that I own 0 NYX shadows and that I may need to remedy that :P

    Also I'm so lazy/busy that I really can't be bothered fiddling around with multiple shades/colours and techniques, so the one shadow is the way to go for me currently :)

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  8. Gaelle, Indian Girl is really lovely. Not sure if Sigma still sells eyeshadows but I've seen it on All Cosmetics Wholesale.

    Jade, how do you own no NYX eyeshadows???

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