Perfect Matte Brown Cream-to-Powder Shadow: An Odd Trick

Sometimes it can be hard to find the perfect natural-looking brown cream shadow that has zero shimmer, sets and lasts, but still has a soft skin-like gleam a la Burberry makeup looks. 

Here's one of my favorite tricks for getting a soft sepia brown gleaming lid that is quite hard to duplicate with a cream shadow. 

What I use is this. A liquid foundation in the darkest shade I can find.

Sephora 10 Hr Wear Perfection Foundation in 65 Deep

In Singapore, it's EXTREMELY hard to find a shade of foundation deep enough to do this, so I was extremely happy to see that Sephora actually stocked a shade of foundation that was this dark. And because it's a long-wear foundation, it's perfect for what I want to do with it.

The color you get is a rich sepia-tone, and because it's designed to be a skin shade, when it's sheered out, it looks very natural. Smoky but still glowy.

All I do is apply a tiny pump to the back of my hand, then use a soft synthetic buffer brush to blend that onto the lids in circular motions, then along the lower lash line lightly as well.

If you need, just dab a tiny bit of soft highlight in the inner corners of the eye to add some dimension, and then apply mascara. That's all you need for a soft, subtly smoky look.

Sephora 10 Hr Wear Perfection Foundation worn on lids

Shu Uemura Spring 2014 Bijoux Collection Overview and Swatches! (Excluding Powder Highlight/Blush)

Pearl, pearl, pearl! That’s the one word that sums up the entire collection.

For the first time, Shu Uemura has come up with a collection that is almost entirely composed of cream products. All of these come in delicious creamy pastel tones that swatch on paler than they look in the pots.

The collection includes:

• 4 cream shadows
• 2 cream blushes
• 2 limited edition premium lashes (only one shown here)
• 1 blush/highlighter compact (not available for swatching at this time)

While I love all the super smooth textures and colors (these shadows have a suede-like consistency and go on more evenly than the typical MACs, Make Up For Evers and Maybellines, which can be a bit streaky or patchy. I am pretty sure the cream blushes and shadows would be quite popular.





I do want to especially highlight the 2 lipsticks, because it’s easy to pass them over when you see them on the display. These 2 nudes come in a concealer nude tone (Topaz Beige) and a pink nude (Opal Pink), and what’s special about them is they feel like cream lipsticks but go on in a pearl-matte finish, so they subtly highlight the lips and create a natural ombre effect, making your lips poutier looking.

Cherry-Picking: MAC Metal - X Cream Shadow in Palladium

I was looking for a light, neutral Paint Pot when I walked into MAC. I wanted something that could neutralize the lid shade a little while intensifying metallic eye shadows. This shade would need to have a pearl finish, be glitter-free, tacky enough to grab powders, but not so creamy that it creases.
In fact, I knew a Paint Pot would work, but when I swatched the only pale shade available - Painterly - on the back of my hand, it looked muddy, flat, uneven, and all in all, like too much of the wrong shade of concealer.

Then stacked helter-skelter on a little unglamourous tray, without even a rack to call their own, were what looked like cream color bases embossed with metal stripes (the stripes are less "regular" and more like filed metal than the publicity image above, but I digress).

These were the new Metal-X Cream Shadows for the Winter 2011 season.

Now I'd heard about the Metal-X collection some time ago, but pretty much all of them were horror stories about how hard and poorly-pigmented they were, and how they creased on the lid. Are the new ones reformulated or the same as the not-so-popular originals?

Well, as shadows, I don't have that much to say about them other than that I've never had any intention of buying a Paint Pot or Metal-X Shadow to wear solo on the lids since they don't give the sort of color pay off and consistency that I want. I was looking for a good pearlized base in a generous size. And these are it.

The texture is harder than a Cream Color Base, and more long-lasting on the lids. They don't set like Paint Pots and they aren't as pigmented, but then they blend out more evenly and have a slightly silkier texture. They do crease, so you've been warned. Not as bad as Cream Color Bases, but they still crease slightly. If you want something budge-proof because you're not wearing shadow over it, then you need something that sets, like a Paint Pot.

There were a few colors I liked, but since I was specifically looking for a perfect base, I picked Palladium, a metallic champagne-ash without any glittery particles. It's the perfect cross between beige and silver, so it works with both cool and warm eye shadow shades without muddying them. I tested it on several colors while I was in the store; Club shadow, Blue Storm pigment, Sumptuous Olive shadow, etc, and all of them not only rubbed on really intense, but also stayed true to tone.

MAC Metal X Cream Shadow swatched on the finger.

If you've ever bought a pigment or shadow and wished it looked on your lids the way it looked in the container, then get this neutral champagne-ash Cream Shadow as a base.

To do a real test, I'm using 2 shades; 

• MAC Blue Brown pigment - people either love or hate this shade because it's so beautiful in the tub (dark wine-brown with turquoise sheen, but can rub out to a red, bruise-like shade on the lids).
• Tokidoki Stella shadow - enough said about this one... I'm not a fan of ANY of their eye shadows because the formulation is cheap and everything just falls right off your skin.

Swatch test: MAC Blue Brown pigment and Tokidoki Stella, solo on the left, worn over Palladium on right.

On its own, it's pretty, but maybe a tad too light to be worn solo on the lids unless you're just going for a lighten silvery gleam (like you are wearing gloss on your lids).

MAC Palladium Metal - X Cream Shadow as a light wash on the lids

All in all, I wouldn't say rush out to get these shadows as the shades are just ok. The pigmentation is sheer, and I prefer my shadows to be much stronger or highly buildable. But if you want a good eye shadow base, I highly suggest checking these out, as I don't always like how dry Paint Pots get, or how slippery Cream Color Bases can be, but these are nicely in-between.

Recommended Shades from this Collection:

• Palladium - Pale champagne-ash
• Fusion Gold - Light peach-pink with gold sheen
• Venetian Tarnish - rich medium bronze brown (great for a quick, warm, smoky wash)
• Gold Carbon - Dark cocoa-taupe

Dragonfly Wings: Iridescent Smoky Eye

For those of you who want to veer away from the usual stately, smoky colors this holiday season, an iridescent, multi-faceted smoky eye can work just as well with that little black dress. (In fact, it would probably be the focal point of your entire look.)

I'm using some shades from the Urban Decay 15 Year Anniversary Collection and The Body Shop, but feel free to use alternatives you own.

What you'll need to get this look:

• A creamy black base: I used the black half of ELF's Cream Shadow Duo in Licorice
• A medium purple with blue highlights (Urban Decay Omen)
• A deep gunmetal grey shadow (Urban Decay Ace)
• A translucent duochrome white with pale green sheen (The Body Shop #08)

Step 1: Apply a dark base to the lid, going up just above the socket line. This does not need to be very dark or opaque. You just need a base for shadow to cling to.

Step 2: Apply a blue-violet shade to the outer edges of the black base, along the upper areas of the socket. Run along the lower lash line with a fine brush as well.

Step 3: Pack the dark metallic grey to the lid under the purple. Smoke out the edges between the grey and purple so there are no harsh lines.

Step 4: The fun part is applying a wash of iridescent green over the dark grey to transform the color. I used The Body Shop's Single Eyeshadow in #08 which is a white with a green sheen (similar in effect to MAC Vanilla or Pink Opal pigment) on the inner half of the grey shadow only. Reach around the inner corners to the bottom lash line slightly as well.

The finished eye lid should look something like this, with green on the inner halves, dark grey on the outer halves, and soft purple framing everything.

Step 5: Apply black kohl along the water line and black mascara on the top and bottom lashes. Voila!