Lancome Color Design Infinite 24H Eye Shadow- Forever Noir

I took the road less traveled by and chose Forever Noir (602) from the new Lancome Color Design Infinite 24H Eye Shadow range of cream-like eye shadows. What I really wanted was a smooth satiny black to use as a dramatic base for other colors. What I got in Forever Noir is a medium black with blueish glitter particles.

The texture of Lancome Color Design Infinite 24H Eye Shadow will be familiar to anyone who played with both Chanel and Armani cream shadows. It's a bit more crumbly than springy to the touch (like the dry ones from Chanel's Illusion d'Ombre line), but upon application you get a normal cream-to-powder effect that works well with your skin. Lancome Color Design Infinite 24H can be applied with your finger or a brush and it blends and sheers out as expected from these kind of products (see the smudged effect above). I wish the pigment was darker and more black and I could do without the glitter, though the end effect is very pretty. With a responsible application one can get a red carpet-worthy smoky eye for a night out. I prefer to use Forever Noir as an accent close to the lash line and smudge it with a pencil brush.

The packaging of Lancome Color Design Infinite 24H has one big advantage over the Chanel one: an inner flat disc that presses the eye shadow back into place and keeps air away from the product so it doesn't dry out. This lid has a small appendage you grab to pull it out and put it back in, so it's easy to use, as long as the cats don't take off with it.

When I first swatched Forever Noir it reminded me of something. It took me a minute to rummage through my memory and my drawer until I figured it out: the sparkly black side of Hourglass Prism. You can see them above: these eye shadows are almost identical. The black base of Prism is actually darker while the one in Lancome Forever Noir is tinged with blue in comparison. The creamy texture is easier to sheer out while Hourglass is more convenient for precision, but all in all, if you have one you can safely skip the other.

Lancome Color Design Infinite 24H Eye Shadow ($24.50) is available at the counters, Sephora, and from lancome.com.