ELF came out with several new studio eyeshadow colors for the summer. It was a refreshing change to see some bright unusual colors released with the new products, so I decided to try it out, seeing the beautiful periwinkle color it was on the website. But upon receiving the product, I was sad to see that the eyeshadow is actually a deeper blue, with gorgeous sapphire sparkles.
The product comes in the same packaging as the other studio line shadows. It is a black matte plastic NARS lookalike packaging with a small plastic window to see the color, and a small mirror. While the packaging seems practical for the larger blushes, it is too bulky for my collection. If I were to collect a lot of these, it would become pretty troublesome to store, as they would take up a lot of room. But if I were simply traveling with one or two of these eyeshadows, they would be great, as they are made of incredibly sturdy plastic and will probably withstand being broken, especially because the shadow is well pressed, unlike many of the studio blushes.
While the color in the pan appears to be an incredibly rich deep blue with beautiful blue sparkles, I am actually really disappointed by how it applies. It actually applies matte and lacks pigmentation. I need to layer this color a lot until it actually shows up enough. I am at least thankful that this product does not have a lot of fallout, as the shadow is well-pressed. Besides not being pigmented, I have also experienced a lot of fading with this eyeshadow. While it appears beautiful when initially applied, it will fade to nothing over a couple of hours, which rather defeats the purpose of this product.
The eyeshadow is not creamy, as higher end eyeshadows often are, so it doesn’t apply as smoothly, especially because it is matte. Some blending will definitely be necessary when using this product, and a careful hand would definitely help a lot. But I think this is not really worth the trouble. While this might have been a beautiful eyeshadow, I am really not terribly impressed by the quality and will probably not try any of the other eyeshadows in this line.