Another new release from Milani for Spring 2012: two new shades of Runway Eyes Fashion Shadows baked eyeshadow palettes. I've never used one of these Runway Eyes palette before, so I was excited to get to try these out because they look amazing. Those stripes of bright colors against the glossy black palette... gorgeous. The two new shades are Primary and Complementary.
As always, click any photo to enlarge it and view more detail. The back of the palettes include a full ingredients list without having to peel away the upper layer of label.
Milani Runway Eyes Fashion Shadows palette in 18 Complementary. Palette photos are with natural light and flash. Swatches are without primer, in sunlight and indoor/indirect natural light.What I liked:
- Really visually appealing to me, the palette design stands out among other drugstore palettes.
- Love the bright, vibrant color selection. There's even a true red!
- Shadow formula feels silky and very smooth, not hard or overly powdery.
- Good pigmentation.
- Easy to blend.
- The two neutral shades in the Complementary palette are perfect on me, especially because when I'm wearing it blended out, the darker brown one seems like a darker/less frosty version MAC Moth Brown.
What I didn't like:
- The slim bars of eyeshadow look nice, but they're extremely frustrating to use. It's hard to get a larger shadow brush in there without picking up the color next to it. I also have to keep going back and getting more shadow as I apply because the bars make it hard to pick up enough color. Looks nice, but not really functional or practical.
- The palettes themselves are hard to open without breaking a nail!
- I haven't worn every single shade yet, but the lasting power of some of the ones I tried wasn't fantastic. I had some fading at the end of the day (over Too Faced Shadow Insurance), and normally my shadow never fades.
- They have that 'cheap eyeshadow' smell, likely from the castor oil in the formula. These are made in Taiwan and smell/feel similar to other made in Taiwan shadow palettes I have.
- Not all of the colors have good payoff. The blue and teal in Primary didn't have as much pigment as I'd expected, the green and light blue in Complementary seemed sheer as well.
Overall, these aren't too shabby. They look cool and the color selection is awesome. The design is irritating to use because of the skinny lines of shadow, but the shadows themselves are pretty nice. I love that there's very good red, yellow and orange in the Primary palette, that's rare for drugstore. I do feel that the $8.99 price for these seems steep for drugstore eyeshadow, but they're way better than those horrible Maybelline Color Explosion Eye Studio palettes I spent even more on.
(This was sent for review.)
Interesting looking. I don't know if I'd purchase them, but it's a cool concept :)
ReplyDeleteThey're a good, cheap way to try out some bright colors, but I wouldn't call them "must haves" if you already have some good brights!
DeleteComplimentary colors? So the eyeshadow gives you compliments?
ReplyDeleteBahaha, smartass! I fixed my typo. XD
Deletecool colors!
ReplyDeleteI thought so, too :D
DeleteI always see this style of Milani palette at the store broken, the bars of eye shadows fallen off and such.
ReplyDeleteI could see that happening. I mean, I haven't actually seen it, but they're so tall and skinny with nothing around them to protect them, I'm afraid to drop one. I think Milani even had a warning on their website about these being fragile. It looks cool but it just seems like a poor design to me.
DeleteI have to say that your photos in this post are amazing, Scarngie! :D Very professional-looking and sharp!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mary! I finally had a day with decent enough lighting that my pictures actually turned out for once, haha!
ReplyDeletedont try to travel with it! the bars break off like no tomorrow!!
ReplyDeleteI have dropped one of these on my counter before, and all the shadows broke. Went in the trash.
ReplyDelete