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Monday, August 15, 2016

I Heart Duochromes: Eyeshadow Edition

Disclosure: Affiliate links.
e.l.f. Baked Eyeshadow in Enchanted, Wet N Wild Comfort Zone palette, Maybelline Color Tattoo in Seashore Frosts, Makeup Geek Ritzy, Makeup Geek Typhoon, Urban Decay Fireball, City Color Mousse in White Gold, and Blend Mineral Cosmetics PIG3

(From top left: e.l.f. Baked Eyeshadow in Enchanted, Wet N Wild Comfort Zone palette, Maybelline Color Tattoo in Seashore Frosts, Makeup Geek Ritzy, Makeup Geek Typhoon, Prestige Total Intensity eyeshadow in BewitchedUrban Decay Fireball, City Color Mousse in White Gold, and Blend Mineral Cosmetics PIG3.)

I have documented my love for shifty pigments before, such as in my Color Club Oil Slicks post. (Those were actually multichromes, not duochromes, as are a few of the eyeshadows here.) I love duochrome everything just because it's so damned beautiful--but duochrome eyeshadows have the additional benefit of being great for quick and lazy eye looks. The way the color changes depending how the light hits it means that I can blend a single eyeshadow from my lash line into my crease, and it will look like I put in more work than I did. (This works with some non-duochrome shimmer eyeshadows, too, like Maybelline Bad to the Bronze, reviewed here.)

I originally planned to post this round-up of all my duochrome eyeshadows a couple of years ago, but I had such a hard time photographing the Maybelline Color Tattoo in Seashore Frosts that I set the whole project aside for a long time. I've decided to just go ahead and post the photos I have anyway, because enough already! I'm not a perfectionist. The complexity of the paler multi- and duochromes was very difficult (for me, at least) to capture in a photo. All of these eyeshadows really need to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. Anyway, by now I have several more shades to share, so maybe the wait was worth it!

None of my duochromes, with the exception of the LE Color Tattoo, are especially obscure. I know that indie cosmetics makers offer a lot of other options, but I still haven't got too far into indie makeup (a single Makeup Geek order and a Life's Entropy order aside). My hesitancy is in part because I don't have the patience to stalk things that are put out in small batches, and I am also not confident that I can tell which indie companies are reliable and which aren't. Nevertheless, if you want to collect all the duochromes, indies are probably the way to go.

The rest of this post consists mainly of photos (so many photos of eyeballs)--it's not meant as a review. More of a celebration. For that reason, I've swatched all of these eyeshadows over primer, with my finger, which is a technique I've criticized recently because it can make powder products look smoother and more pigmented than they really are. I'm trying to show the color shift as clearly as possible, rather than to compare the performance of each eyeshadow. But if you have questions about any of them, please feel free to ask!

Swatches! I only got the little sample pan of Urban Decay Fireball after I had photographed the other swatches, so it's pictured separately.

Swatches of Wet N Wild Comfort Zone, Prestige Total Intensity eyeshadow in Bewitched, Makeup Geek Ritzy, Makeup Geek Typhoon, Maybelline Color Tattoo in Seashore Frosts, Blend Mineral Cosmetics PIG3, City Color Mousse in White Gold, and e.l.f. Baked Eyeshadow in Enchanted


Swatch of Urban Decay Fireball



Oddly enough, despite what I just said about finger swatches enhancing eyeshadows, the Wet N Wild eyeshadow did not respond well to this technique. The shift is not very evident, and using my finger in the pan created a slightly hard surface, which you can see in first photo in the post on the right side of the product. Here are some swatches I previously posted which were done with a brush, where the teal shimmer in the WNW eyeshadow comes out much better:


Swatches of Makeup Geek Ritzy, Prestige Total Intensity Bewitched, and Wet N Wild Comfort Zone

That's Makeup Geek Ritzy, Prestige Total Intensity Bewitched, and Wet N Wild Comfort Zone.

More swatches (same order as above):

Swatches of Wet N Wild Comfort Zone, Prestige Total Intensity eyeshadow in Bewitched, Makeup Geek Ritzy, Makeup Geek Typhoon, Maybelline Color Tattoo in Seashore Frosts, Blend Mineral Cosmetics PIG3, City Color Mousse in White Gold, and e.l.f. Baked Eyeshadow in Enchanted.

Swatches of Wet N Wild Comfort Zone, Prestige Total Intensity eyeshadow in Bewitched, Makeup Geek Ritzy, Makeup Geek Typhoon, Maybelline Color Tattoo in Seashore Frosts

Swatches of Blend Mineral Cosmetics PIG3, City Color Mousse in White Gold, and e.l.f. Baked Eyeshadow in Enchanted

Below are photos of most of these on my eyelid, over primer. In each photo (with one exception, noted below) I just used the one eyeshadow blended from my lashline to just above my crease.

I skipped photographing the City Color White Gold mousse, since it's a slick cream texture that never sets, and so I can't actually wear it on my eyelids. I also skipped e.l.f. Enchanted. Despite my optimism in my original review, I've found that it's too fiddly for me to bother wearing it on my eyes much. Its subtlety does make it an excellent highlighter, however. White Gold and Enchanted are also the least shifty of the bunch--the least duochromey.

First up, the Wet N Wild duochrome shade from the Comfort Zone palette. It's a red-brown base with a teal shift. This eyeshadow is a wonderfully-performing dupe for MAC Club, Urban Decay Lounge, and all the others like it out there. The other shadows in this palette are equally beautiful, but even if you buy it just for the duochrome, it's cheaper than most alternatives at under $5.

Wet N Wild Comfort Zone duochrome

Wet N Wild Comfort Zone duochrome

Next, Prestige Total Intensity Bewitched. It's a light brown base with a silvery-teal shift. Totally work-appropriate, yet still interesting. The Total Intensity eyeshadows are really beautiful but becoming harder to find. So far the duochromes are still available on Amazon for the usual price of $8.50.

Prestige Total Intensity Bewitched

Prestige Total Intensity Bewitched

Now I'm recycling my Makeup Geek photos. You can read the full review here. Here's Ritzy, which is a reddish brown with a green-gold shift.

Makeup Geek Ritzy

Makeup Geek Ritzy

And Makeup Geek Typhoon, a teal-green base with a green-gold shift:

Makeup Geek Typhoon

Makeup Geek Typhoon

Next is the elusive Maybelline Color Tattoo in Seashore Frosts (what kind of name is that anyway?). Elusive in many ways. It was limited edition in 2013, and after I complained about going to a bunch of stores trying to find it, the very generous Harley Quinn (pseudonym, I assume!) sent me one. It was re-released in 2014 as Shimmering Sea. You can still find them both on Amazon, but you'll have to pay $13+. Maybe it will come back again someday under another name? I hope so, because it is really lovely--much more than I've been able to capture here. I think the photo of the pot at the beginning of the post showcases it better than the swatches or these eye photos. ETA: I updated the photos. It has a pale blue base and shifts to pink and gold. I don't often wear blue eyeshadow, but this creates a gorgeous ethereal effect. It also looks fantastic over black (like this look from Makeup Withdrawal). In fact, a black base enhances many duochrome eyeshadows.

Here are my photos:

Maybelline Color Tattoo in Seashore Frosts

Maybelline Color Tattoo in Seashore Frosts

Just . . . imagine a lot more going on there.

Moving on to Blend Mineral Cosmetics Pigment PIG3. I added this loose pigment to a HauteLook cart on a whim to use up a credit, and it's also much better than it seems in my photos. It's a translucent base that shifts from blue to pink to gold. Because it's translucent, it's better layered over another eyeshadow, so I've photographed it on top of Maybelline Color Tattoo in Tough as Taupe. I love this combination. Again, you can't see much of the shift in my photos so just trust me? But it certainly transforms the eyeshadow below it.

Blend Mineral Cosmetics Pigment PIG3 over Maybelline Color Tattoo in Tough as Taupe

Blend Mineral Cosmetics Pigment PIG3 over Maybelline Color Tattoo in Tough as Taupe

Finally, the newest addition to my hoard, Urban Decay Fireball. I got this as a GWP in my most recent Sephora order. (unfortunately not currently available). I doubt I would ever have bought it, because orange/pink/red eyeshadows tend to look awful on me. Somehow, nevertheless, this works. Maybe because there's a lot of gold shift in it. It ends up brightening my eyes and looking a bit like rose-gold. It too was hard to photograph, but it shifts from pink to red to orange to gold and even has a sort of silvery shimmer in it.

Urban Decay Fireball
The weird lighting in this photo is not helping anything. I do like how clearly you can see the reflection of my hands and camera. If this were CSI, we could enhance the reflection to find out the identity of the real killer.
Urban Decay Fireball

That's what I've got! It only took me literally years to write this post. Any other duochrome fanatics out there? If I had to eliminate most of my eyeshadows and just keep the duochromes, I think I would almost be okay with that. Are there any essentials I'm missing here?

Or can you clue me in to the secret to photographing duochrome eyeshadows? We've got direct sunlight, indirect/window light, shade, and clouds all represented here. I also tried indoor lighting to no avail.

14 comments:

  1. This post speaks to me on a spiritual level, I just received an order of Makeup Geek's duochrome shadows (you need to get your mitts on the Sugar Rush loose pigment; that sucker fucking GLOWS). Looking at your pics, I'm really mad at myself for not getting typhoon! I've been curious to try Nabla cosmetics mostly because of the few duochromes they have, but I don't know if my wallet can deal with the shipping fee from Itlay

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    1. Yes, duochromes are the most transcendental of cosmetics! :) Ugh, I've avoided loose pigments other than the sort of random Blend one here, because I'm messy. But the Makeup Geek duochrome pigments are very, very tempting.

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  2. This post speaks to me on a spiritual level, I just received an order of Makeup Geek's duochrome shadows (you need to get your mitts on the Sugar Rush loose pigment; that sucker fucking GLOWS). Looking at your pics, I'm really mad at myself for not getting typhoon! I've been curious to try Nabla cosmetics mostly because of the few duochromes they have, but I don't know if my wallet can deal with the shipping fee from Itlay

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  3. I legitimately did buy the WnW palette for the duochrome. I might have touched that green once or twice, but the duochrome gets all my love. Like you said, it's totally worth buying the whole palette for $4.50 for that single shadow.

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    1. To be honest, I rarely use the other shades, because when I want a khaki or a bronze, I tend to forget about them. I only think about it when I want the duochrome. But I should try to incorporate it better, because I really do think the others are spectacular too.

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  4. Yay duochromes!!!!!!!! heartsssss <3

    The seafoam maybelline thingy looks awesome! For best shiftiness in photos I think it's best to take it in direct sunlight so it really sparkles, and lots of weird angles.

    I really like how Comfort Zone looks on you! It inspired me to take my own version of the teal brown out for a spin some time this week. I also really like fireball - I think many reddish/peachy shadows make people look sick in a really cool, heroin-chic (or zombie-chic?) kind of way, lol.

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    1. From what I can remember, direct sunlight washed out the Maybelline even more so it just looked a little pearly. But I may take new photos of it eventually, along with the open-eye picture of Fireball, because the pink all around my eye wasn't really there. I'm still figuring out the best lighting in my new place. That is, if the sun ever comes out again. It's been raining for days! This really is a summer of extremes in my part of the world. Damn you, global warming.

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  5. It's a little (ok a LOT) pricey but have you seen Tom Ford's Sphinx cream eyeshadow? Swoon.

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    1. I hadn't! But wow. And I immediately went to my Choix account to see if I could get a sample, and it looks like they have pretty much every shade of the Tom Ford cream shadows except Sphinx. Argh.

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    2. I will never go through the entire thing before it dries up I would be happy to send you a sample!

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  6. There's a fall 2016 WnW eyeshadow trio with a duochrome - Plaid to the Bone, for ~3$. I think it's the same as the one from comfort zone. A little cheaper if someone's not interested in the other comfort zone eyeshadows, and maybe a little more travel friendly. If my math is correct, you get a teensy bit more of each eyeshadow with the trio (though obviously a better $/weight overall with comfort zone)

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    1. Yes, I love the trios too! From the photos I've seen of that one the duochrome looks like it doesn't have such a red base, so it might be something I need to add to my collection. It looks really different in every photo, though! Do you have it? I'm keeping my eye out for it.

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    2. Yes, I just got it today in the front of a Walgreens. I think you're right and it's more brown and less red, and the teal is a little more green maybe? -- but I don't have the comfort zone to compare.

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  7. Lyn, looking at these makes me think you'd really like the duochromes that Fyrinnae and Femme Fatale put out. They're indie companies that have been around for a while, and I've ordered from them both multiple times. Femme Fatale is based in Australia though, so their shadows are a bit hard to get your hands on. Shiro Cosmetics stocks them, but the inventory is limited compared to the Femme Fatale Aus website.

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