I Heart Duochromes: Eyeshadow Edition

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(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 Bewitched, Urban 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.

Left to right: 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.

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:

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

More swatches (same order as above):

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.

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.

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.

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

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.