Category Archives: Product Comparison

Nov 15 2012

Eyeshadow Bases vs Primers: What’s The Difference?

I often see people use the terms eyeshadow base and eyeshadow primer interchangeably as if they are the same. Well, they’re not. Here is the gist of the two.

EYESHADOW PRIMER
An eyeshadow primer is used to prime the eyes to create an even surface to apply an eyeshadow. Most eyeshadow primers use silicone, which creates an even surface by filling in the crevices on the eye. This creates a barrier between the skin and eyeshadow allowing it to last longer as most eyeshadow primers are designed to prevent the natural oils from the skin from penetrating the barrier and breaking down the eyeshadow. This leaves the eyeshadow lasting longer and often also provides greater intensity to the shadows allowing them to have a more true colour payoff.

Examples of cruelty-free eyeshadow primers are:
∗ Tarte Amazonian Clay Waterproof Shadow Primer
∗ Too Faced Shadow Insurance
∗ Urban Decay Primer Potion

EYESHADOW BASE
An eyeshadow base is used to create a coloured foundation on your eyelid to affect the colour/vibrancy of the eyeshadow that’s applied on top of it. This does not have to be a product that is specified as an eyeshadow base. Concealer, eyeliners, eyeshadow sticks can be used as an eyeshadow base as their purpose is to intensify the eyeshadow. Its purpose is not to prevent creasing so I often use an eyeshadow primer underneath an eyeshadow base.

The base does not have to be the same colour as the eyeshadow applied on top and depending on what colour the base is, it will create a different effect. For instance, a nude base will mute any eyelid discolouration and create a more even colour distribution across the eyelid. A coloured base, such as black, will make the shadow have a darker, often more sultry look to it. I’ve used waterproof gel liners as eyeshadow bases when I’m going out for a night of dancing and they really hold up well.

Examples of cruelty-free eyeshadow bases are:
∗ Ben Nye Color Wheels
∗ NYX Jumbo Pencils
∗ Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Pencils

Nov 7 2012

Urban Decay NAKED Palette vs TheBalm Bude Tude Palette

UPDATE: Urban Decay has been acquired by L’Oreal Cosmetics, a company that is notorious for animal testing (read here). Due to this change in ownership I am boycotting Urban Decay and will no longer be purchasing from them. All Urban Decay products I own will be used up and not repurchased.

I’ve had the Urban Decay NAKED for over a year now and it’s one of my favourite palettes. It is definitely worth the hype and the $50 ($60 in Canada). Then I saw emilynoel83 rave about the Nude Tude palette and how it was better than the NAKED palette. In video the palettes looked very similar and I told myself I shouldn’t bother getting it. Then I saw it on sale on Hautelook for $16 and gave in.

Well I got the palette and my first impression was that the packaging was amazing. I’m usually not one who gets impressed by packaging but TheBalm’s packaging is very impressive. It’s graphic with a classic and edgy feel to it. It’s really well done, although it bothers me that they don’t include any women of colour. As if only white women existed in previous decades? Please. Anyway, that’s another topic.

Once I opened the palette and looked at the colours, I wasn’t all that impressed. They basically looked like colours from the NAKED palette except there were a few more matte shades, and no purples. I decided to try out some looks and found that the shadows, while beautiful, weren’t as vibrant as the NAKED palette.

As you can see below with the shades that were very similar to each other, most of the colours in the NAKED palette were more saturated and eye catching. The only one that I think is better in the Nude Tude palette is the black shade. It’s also worth noting that I swiped the NAKED colours on 3 times to get to this saturation level while I had to swipe the Nude Tude palette (except for Serious) 5-6 times to get that saturation and they wouldn’t get any brighter than that.

The lack of vibrancy in the Nude Tude palette is great if you’re of a ligher skin tone or someone who wants very subtle looks, but since I find that pearly and shimmery shades look best on medium to dark skin tones and any eye colour this wasn’t really a universal palette. I even did the same look on each eye, and while it looks like a subtle difference in the picture, in person the NAKED colours were much more flattering on me.

I will say though that the Nude Tude palette has a couple of amazing colours. The colour Sexy is a very pigmented matte burgundy and is stunning! I love using this for smokey day looks since it’s dark enough to create depth but not so dark that it seems too dramatic for a day look. I also love Serious, a matte black that is the most intense black eyeshadow I’ve ever seen. I use it to set my gel eyeliner and it’s amazing.

Here is my side by side comparison of the two palettes.

CRITERIA NAKED PALETTE NUDE TUDE PALETTE WINNER
Price $50 USD $36 USD Nude Tude
Pigmentation Highly pigmented on darker skin tones Well pigmented but not as pigmented as the NAKED palette. It’s not the best option in my opinion for darker skin tones. NAKED
Texture Variety 3 mattes, mostly shimmers 5 mattes, many shimmers Nude Tude
Fallout The shadows have quite a bit of fallout in the palette no matter how light of a hand is used. Tapping off the excess powder before application is a must. There isn’t much fallout for most of the shadows, but the black shadow (Serious) is the softest shadow and has a lot of fallout so excess powder has to be tapped off before application. Nude Tude
Colour Variety Colours in nude, bronze, gold, purples, blues and blacks Colours in pinks, gold, taupe, but mostly browns NAKED
Appealing to Various Skin Tones Colours are flattering for most, but favours those with yellow undertones Colours are flattering for some, but favours those with pink undertones NAKED
Packaging Made with thick cardboard covered in a velvet-like fabric. Lid flips open and exposes a brush and large mirror. Whole palette is thin and sleek, which is perfect to travel with. Made with carboard and comes with a matching cardboard sleeve. Lid flips open and exposes a small dual-ended brush and large mirror. Whole palette is thin and sleek, but not as narrow as the NAKED palette. It is not as space efficient. NAKED
Other Items Comes with a full-size vegan makeup brush and a small size Primer Potion. The original NAKED palettes came with a dual-ended eyeliner. Comes with a small-size dual ended liner and fluffy eyeshadow brush. NAKED

Overall I like the NAKED palette better than the Nude Tude palette. The colours in the NAKED palette are more flattering on my skin tone because 1) the colours are more vibrant and buildable so they show up against darker skin better, and 2) the colours are more complementary to skin tones that have a yellow undertone to them.

I also feel that there is a great variety of looks that can be achieved with the NAKED palette than the Nude Tude palette because of the gunmetal and purple shades that are included, which tend to suit darker eyes better (which is the majority of the world’s population). The Nude Tude palette seems to be geared towards the girls that are depicted on the packaging – fair skinned, light eyes with a pink undertone.

Nov 4 2012

Kat Von D Starry Eyes Makeup Palette A Rip Off Of Inglot Rainbow Eye Shadows?

I got an email from Sephora the other day advertizing the latest Kat Von D palette. When I first saw it I got excited because I thought Sephora had started stocking Inglot eyeshadows. Then I looked at it more closely and realized it was a Kat Von D palette. Well, my high dropped instantly. And then I thought to myself, isn’t this just blatantly ripping off Inglot’s rainbow eyeshadows? It looks just like them.

Here is a shot of the Inglot Rainbow Eyeshadows in a freedom palette.

And now here is a shot of the Kat Von D Starry Eyes palette.

Sure the Kat Von D ones are turned sideways but still, it’s pretty much the same thing except that the Kat Von D one has two matte shades and a shimmer shade in each pan. They also both have 0.25 oz of product in each pan and are both paraben-free. I suspect that they may have gotten Inglot to make the shadows for them. As for price, the Kat Von D palette is $49 USD/$59 CAD while 4 pans of the Inglot shadows ($8 USD each) and a 4-pan palette ($23) will come to $55 USD. Without the pan it will be $32 USD. The Kat Von D palette does come with two pencils though, so that’s a plus.

Inglot shadows are also cruelty-free as in not tested on animals (not all of their products are vegan). Kat Von D is a Sephora brand like Hello Kitty and Tokidoki. The Sephora private label used to be cruelty but recently started selling in China (a country that has a mandatory animal testing policy), but according to this post by mybeautybunny, the Kat Von D brand is still cruelty-free.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...