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.

Product Review: Anastasia Beverly Hills Lavish Palette

Woohoo, I'm so excited that I finally got this palette after eyeing it for half a year! It went on sale, as I mentioned in a previous post about offers from cosmetic companies. I was so happy to be able to pick this up for just $24 (shipping was free). I've seen bloggers and vloggers rave about this palette so I needed to see what all the hype was about.

Here's a closer look at the shadows (picture taken in natural light):

I'm happy with the range of colors, this is definitely a gem-toned palette.... I love the inclusion of pink, green, various light shades and even a black (albeit sparkly), plus there's definitely a good range of transition shades.

Here are my swatches:

Cream: Light peach beige, matte finish (very close to my skintone so you can barely see it) but it had great color payoff

Antique: Grayish taupe, frosted finish, great pigmentation and color payoff

Rum Cake: Copper brown with orange undertone, frost finish, best color payoff in the palette

Moss: Olive green with golden flecks, frosted finish, decent color payoff

Truffle: Reddish brown, pearl finish, so-so color payoff but good pigmentation

Ballet:  Peachy pink with silver sparkles (on the larger side), sheerest of the palette with fairly poor color payoff because it is the second most powdery

Orange Soda: Light orange, matte finish, most powdery shade with the poorest color payoff even though it has good pigmentation - it tends to blend away 

Sienna: Coppery reddish brown, matte finish, decent color payoff

Pink Sapphire: Pinkish coppery  brown, frosted metallic finish, good pigmentation (disappointing, however, because it is a lot less pink than I had hoped)

Black Diamond: Medium to dark brown with copper and gold microglitter, texture is a little dry and it tends to skip so it's more difficult to blend out, but it has good color payoff

I'll have to do a look to let you guys know how I feel about the shadows overall, but from the looks of it you can get very nice brown, copper, or orange-based looks with this palette.... I definitely think it's a great little beginner palette since the colors are very smooth and buttery and none of the pigmentation is too intense (a la Urban Decay Electric Palette) so you won't mess up your look by accidentally applying too much.

I think the value was very good, it came to about $2.40 per eyeshadow (0.031 oz each) compared to a MAC eyeshadow which costs $10 per pan (at 0.05 oz each) - so you're getting shadows for about 2.6X cheaper per quantity. I do have to say that I was hoping the shade Pink Sapphire was going to be more of a saturated pink rather than copper leaning, but it's still very wearable and one of my favorite colors in the palette.

New Product Alert - Too Faced A La Mode Eyes

Too Faced is fast becoming one of my favorite makeup brands with their creativity, color selection and shadow pigmentation. A new eye palette is out for their summer collection, it's called the A La Mode Eyes palette.  This palette is available at Ulta for $36 (this is the standard price for Too Faced's 9-shadow sets).

The layout of the palette features the lightest 3 shades (which can also be used as highlighters) in much larger quantity than the rest of the shadows. I'm a little disappointed with the color selection because the colors St. Tropez and La Croisette appear very similar - they could have added another shade, such as a gold. 

I don't physically have this palette yet but I wanted to show you some swatches:

Credit: http://daniellecaliforniaa.blogspot.com/2014/03/too-faced-la-mode-eyes-summer-eye.html

I wouldn't call this palette a must-buy but I would suggest it if you couldn't get your hands on any of their holiday eyeshadow sets (a lot of the colors are very similar there, even the fuschia) and you like to experiment with color during the spring/summer. I like that this palette features 2 nice transition browns, I do think it's lacking some sort of a grayish shade but the theme of this palette is definitely warm-toned.