So on to the eye shadows….
Mixed bag here, people. Be aware!
Some of these are much more glittery than others. The glittery ones aren't going to magically get un-glittery if you pick the right swirls, so if you like the color, you will have to live with the glitter. Not all of them are like this, at least and ALSO, I tested the glittery ones with the duo-fiber brush that's being re-promoted with the collection and that brush does help cut down on excess glitter and fallout really well - so well that I think I'm going to grab one to deal with my more glittery MES just in general.
My favorite from the shadows is Tropica. Not only is the color really lovely - sort of a purplish light blue with a pink cast and a very duo-chrome effect as the light hits it - but it's shimmery but not glittery. I don't have another MES with quite this color. It's a cool tone but has enough pink in it that it's very wearable even on me, who doesn't do well with every cool blue shadow by a long shot. It's going to look great with some purple liner.
Next best is Bossa Blue, but this one can be a little fussy. Trying to swirl the two colors together didn't work very well. The brown in this one is quite matte, surprisingly. There isn't any shimmer in it at all. We haven't seen this texture in an MES for a long while. The blue is more shimmery, but not glittery, and is a very rich blue with a touch of teal. Swirling them together though, the two colors don't mix well and it goes on patchy and hard to blend. You'll do best to find one where there's mostly a blue side and a brown side so that you can avoid most swirling. The brown is a rather unusual brown - sort of flat and cool, but very flattering. It's not going to show up on the darkest skin, though the blue ought to just fine. I'd say the brown is closest to Twilight Falls, but it doesn't have any shimmer in it.
Third place for me goes to Time to Tango. The description is a little deceptive. It's sort of a dusky cornflower blue/purple with burnished pewter veining. This pewter color is NOT cool - it looks like a very pale bronze or khaki gold, not silver. Applied dry, it looks quite similar to Tropica, but somewhat darker and warmer, due to the pewter. The only thing is - this one has glitter in the pewter bits. I found that applying with the duo fiber brush helped keep the glitter under control and I didn't have fall-out - maybe just one glitter piece or two max. It's a dreamy, subtle color when swirled together - just what the MES does best, so I really like it, but your mileage may vary if you don't like glitter in your MES at all.
Other people may really love Carribean, but here's the thing. MAC's been putting out variations of this shade in collection after collection of MES. This one is the LEAST glittery and sparkly of them all - it's very smooth with a satin sheen. So, it's tempting, but I personally am not going to allow myself to get it, because I have tons of In The Sun and Quartz Fusion and just can't justify a purchase, even if this is the smoothest version out there. I don't mind the glitter, though, so it's easier for me to be satisfied with what I already have. For other people who love this shade but hate the glitter, you're going to want to give Carribean a look.
The same thing goes for Cha-Cha-Cha. We've gotten this color in multiple collections but this time, the chartreuse color is extra pigmented, even applied dry and the deep blue comes nice and separate in chunks so that you aren't forced to swirl them together, so yes, new and improved, but it is the exact same color we have seen before in Jade's Fortune and Water. I'm passing, but if you love that bright chartreuse color and love MES, you will be happier with this one than the previous versions by a lot.
Dare To Bare we've also seen a bunch of times. It's cream! It goes on very smoothly and the one I tried only had a tiny touch of glitter. It's a high quality MES, but I bet everyone has something like this already.
One thing to note: All these MES work really well dry - I didn't even bother to use Fix+ with any of them and got plenty of pigmentation on all of them. Using them wet might make a few of them more opaque, but most of them are fine the way they are dry and might even run into problems if applied wet and get streaky or clumpy - I don't think that brown in Bossa Blue could handle too much moisture when applied, for example, but it's plenty pigmented on its own. Cha-Cha-Cha is quite bright applied totally dry without a base, but you could get it very dense with a little extra effort too.
just a bit of MSFN and I'm good to go! And you're very welcome! It's all about the skin!
