Becca Crème Eye Colour

My goal when applying eye shadow is to get a smooth, well-blended look that accentuates the eyes, makes them pop and is all about me eyes and not about the makeup. There's a balance between fashion colors, textures, the fun of experimenting and the idea of what really looks pretty. Sometimes common sense wins. Other times it's all about teal and fuchsia.

The quest for flawless gets a big boost from Becca's Crème eye shadows, despite a serious drawback. Let's start with the good, though. The colors are extremely easy to apply and blend. They glide over the skin, making the lids smooth and attractive. I apply the light color as an all-over wash with my fingers and the darker color with a medium width angled brush to the crease, blend them together with my pinky and that's it. The result looks way beyond my average skills and is so beautiful I tried taking pictures, but my photography talents are not in self portraits. I should stick to cat pictures.

Now to the drawbacks: the texture is beyond creamy and borders on greasy. It doesn't look so when on my eyelids, but it feels oily when applying and you absolutely must use a primer or it'll melt within a couple of hours. The primer helps set the colors and make them last, but not as long as you might hope. It holds nicely for about four to five hours before starting to fade, and is nearly gone soon after. I guess the results would be even worse in warmer weather or when moving several times from indoors to the outside. It's a shame, because the look is very pretty but I wouldn't trust it for an important event when you must look your best for hours and have no time for touch-ups. I'm not sure it can survive a grueling day at the office, either.

All the colors in this collection are nice and wearable. The ones I tried are Rose Gold (sold out on the Becca web site, still available from makeup.com) and Antique Gold. When on my skin, Rose Gold is very sheer with minimal gold pigment that's barely visible. It's not very highlighting, more of an almost nude golden wash that looks very natural and not painted. Antique Gold is a dark brown with very little bronze in it, if any. Probably more brass than gold and very pretty. I really like both, but I think that at $25 a piece I'd expect a much better performance.

The two eye shadows I got were PR freebies. Becca products are available online from the company's web site and from makeup.com.