New Product Alert: Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eyeshadow

Everyone brace yourselves! Milani's new Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eyeshadows are showing up in your local drugstores (my CVS now has them in stock)! I was so excited to pick up a few of these to review. These retail for $3.99-$4.99.

The packaging is Milani's signature gold compact, similar to their baked blushes which came out in late 2013. The formulation is a soft, smooth and richly pigmented powder. These eyeshadows, despite their name, do not have a gel-like consistency, nor do they feel like the Maybelline Bouncy line, rather they remind me more of MAC's baked eyeshadow consistency (the "gel" claim is because Milani states the formula starts as a gel and is then baked to a powder eyeshadow).

The Milani Bella Eyes shadows can be used wet or dry. This eyeshadow range consists of 30 colors (of which you should be able to find all of them in your drugstore displays) and comes in 3 finishes: satin matte, shimmer and iridescent metallic.

The colors that stood out to me were originally Bella Mandarin and Bella Violet (since it reminded me of Urban Decay's Grifter, which is my favorite eyeshadow color of all time). Bella Mandarin is an ideal color to blend out or warm up any crease color of your choice, specifically it works well for browns and taupes.
I picked up Bella Champagne because I watched a couple of video reviews which stated that the Shimmer-finish was superior in pigmentation and color payoff to the Satin Mattes. I do think that the least pigmented of the bunch I have is Bella Violet (which incidentally is also a shimmer), so it may have to do with the color selection as well as the finish.

Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eyeshadow Swatches

The consistency appears to be good for these shadows, they all perform decently thus far in swatches and on the eyes. I haven't noticed any creasing or fading (but let me disclose that I always wear eyeshadow primer or concealer underneath any eyeshadow). I would definitely recommend purchasing the colors that stand out to you as you won't be disappointed.

I don't think one must own the entire collection because a lot of the colors are dupe-able or very similar (Bella White, Bella Ivory, Bella Diamond and Bella Chiffon are only marginally different from one another and I'm not sure that you would notice much of a difference once blended out, same with Bella Rose and Bella Pink).

Not sure which colors you want? For great swatches of each color in the range, check out Vampy Varnish's very comprehensive blog post.