Let's skip to the bottom line: from the look at first touch of these new Laura Mercier Illuminating Eye Colour eye shadows I expected a lot more in terms of pigmentation, texture and originality. It's not every day that Laura Mercier launches a new texture/formula of her much-revered eye shadows. However, the result was on the "meh" side. There's so many other soft high-shine products on the market, and these are not the best ones ever.
Laura Mercier Illuminating Eye Colour shadows are a wet/dry formula with a bouncy, almost creamy feel. The first thing I noticed, though, is that the springiness is limited to the center of the pan. When you touch the edges of the product it's much harder, like any regular eye shadow. The Illuminating Eye Colours may feel creamy, but they apply like any powder eye shadow, unless you go the damp way. You might want to do it anyway because the pigmentation is very light and the effect is sheer otherwise. The swatches above were done by heavy layered application with a sponge applicator over a cream base. I really had to work it to be able to show the full color. On the bright side, despite the high shimmer, there's little to no fallout, and as long as you use a good base/primer the eye shadows will last for long hours.
The three shades of Laura Mercier Illuminating Eye Colour I got (there's a fourth one, exclusive to Laura Mercier's website) are: Gilded Bronze (an almost taupe), Gilded Moonlight (gold, in certain light looks like a rose gold), and Gilded Platinum (very light champagne, the sheerest one and the least convincing in the bunch). I wouldn't recommend using more than one of them per makeup look because the shine is a bit too much. The best color is obviously Gilded Bronze, but I can't say even this one is a must have. If you're a taupe fiend chances are that you have more than one similar shade in your collection, probably in a superior texture.
Laura Mercier Illuminating Eye Colour ($24 each) can be found at Sephora and from lauramercier.com.
I just picked one of these up at the Sephora Friends & Family. I think I am going to return it though because while the color is pretty you are right that it's not pigmented. They are hard I felt like too and not very soft. I really wasn't too impressed. Going back to Sephora.
ReplyDeleteI picked up Gilded Bronze today. I thought the shadow was beautiful to the touch. I haven't had a chance to apply it to my lids yet so we will see. It's my first LM shadow, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but I am hoping for a gorgeous light holiday color to add sparkle to the lid with red lipstick...
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