Project Viv Reviews: L'oreal Infallible Eye Shadow: Midnight Blue, Bronzed Taupe, Amber Rush, Continuous Cocoa

L'oreal Infallible Eye Shadow

Happy New Year!

I know I say this just about every post, but I resolve to start anew with Project Pan because I've been failing rather miserably. There are so many new and captivating drugstore releases that I just couldn't help myself. To justify it a smidgen, I will try to review these products ASAP.

Clockwise from top-left: Midnight Blue; Bronzed Taupe; Continuous Cocoa; Amber Rush

I will begin with the L'oreal Infallible Eye Shadows. I first heard about these at a time when they were only available in Europe. I learned about them before I went abroad, so I had it in mind to buy these during my trip. However, the shades that I found did not appeal to me at the time. The recent releases in the US seem to carry more colors than I remember seeing when I was in Europe. I hurriedly grabbed a few when I happened upon them over Christmas weekend. It's awful, but the exclusivity of new products always makes me hanker after them even though I know they're permanent items.

Clockwise from top-left: Bronzed Taupe; Continuous Cocoa; Amber Rush; Midnight Blue

L'oreal Infallible Eye Shadows

L-R: Midnight Blue; Bronzed Taupe; Amber Rush; Continuous Cocoa

I of course gravitated toward the neutral shades. I got Midnight Blue (889), Bronzed Taupe (890), Amber Rush (892), and Continuous Cocoa (891). Midnight Blue is a beautiful navy with shimmer that has a bright blue flash in the light. Bronzed Taupe is, not surprisingly, my favorite shade of the four. It is a grayed brown taupe with high shimmer. Amber Rush is a peachy bronze, also with high shimmer. Continuous Cocoa is a deep, deep blackened brown with a slightly satin finish. Out of the four, it comes closest to being matte.

The packaging is quite pretty, although a bit backward in that the window to the product is actually on the bottom. It comes with a little plunger that sits on top of the product, presumably to keep it from drying and/or crumbling. Crumbling is a consideration because the product is something like a pressed pigment but with a creamy texture. It has been compared to Armani's Eyes to Kill eyeshadows, which are known to fall somewhere between powder and cream.

These eyeshadows are definitely silky and smooth, with buildable pigmentation. My darker shades, Midnight Blue and Continuous Cocoa, seem to require some build-up as they swatch somewhat sparsely on first swipe. Bronzed Taupe and Amber Rush, on the other hand, go on evenly and opaque with the initial swatch. I wore Bronzed Taupe and Continuous Cocoa today, both applied with brushes. As I found with the swatches, Bronzed Taupe was very pigmented while Continuous Cocoa went on much lighter than you'd expect from seeing the color in the pan. I am actually happy with this. Continuous Cocoa looks intimidatingly black in the pot but applies as a nice contour color that isn't at all harsh. As far as application goes, these are not the smoothest eyeshadows that I've tried. Bronzed Taupe seemed to have a slightly sticky quality about it in that the pigment clung to the skin where applied, rather than easily blending out over the lid. This is not necessarily a flaw, since it means that the color is more intense and longer lasting. It does, however, require a bit more work to blend it out evenly. I do think it is worth the effort because the finish and colors are lovely. These claim to wear for 24 hours. While I will not be testing this extreme, I have worn the shadows for 7 hours and they still look great.

I found these at Target for $6.99 each, which is not a bad price at all, especially given their comparison to the Armani Eyes to Kill eyeshadows that go for $32 each. I don't personally find these eyeshadows to be particularly spectacular. They are nice and good for the price, as they apply and wear just fine. However, I don't feel that they are worth the hype. The hybrid powder-cream formula does not offer it any advantage over standard eyeshadows, as far as I can tell. I think the most special thing about this range is their color offerings. I really like the Bronzed Taupe, and I don't think I've found this sort of color in the drugstore before. I feel like the taupes that you typically find at drugstores have strong gray tones that lean purple. Bronzed Taupe is nice in that it remains brown. Midnight Blue is another great color that I'm not sure I've seen in the drugstore before. In summary, I recommend that you look into this range more for the colors than for the formula because these perform like any other good powder eyeshadow.