little white truths

See swatch above, taken indoors with flash, and swatch below, taken outside in natural light. This product is definitely not matte so do be aware of that if you're wanting something that's sparkle-free, as I did.


Below I've blended it out and taken the photo indoors, with flash:


And below is blended out, outside in natural light:


Below I'm wearing just a little on my lids, which is the only place I can wear it if I want to avoid highlighting my puffy upper eye area: I wouldn't even apply it in the crease due to the sparkles.


Verdict

Obviously I'm not impressed with this product because it's not what I was expecting. I wanted a matte shade and this isn't one, even though it's labelled as such. While it's not shimmer-city, the finish is more satin and you can definitely notice the sparkles when you apply it.

If I'd bought this shadow directly from Adorn and paid full price for it, I would have sent it back. As it was, it didn't seem worth the hassle for the sake of a few dollars so I let it go.

As for the colour, I was expecting something less bright, slightly darker and much more muted, as it appears on Adorn's website: there it looks more dusty in tone while in reality it's paler and brighter. The image in the Violet Box shop was the same one, so I can't blame VB for the colour/finish issues - that this product wasn't at all what I was expecting is an issue that comes from Adorn.

On that, this isn't the first time that I've had a 'surprise' from Adorn: I ordered a sample pack of Adorn products from Happy Skincare a while back, and the light/medium mineral powder foundation had glitter in it.

Noticeable glitter in a foundation?! 

I did get in touch with Happy Skincare/Adorn about it and, yes, that particular shade does contain 'shimmer' but none of the others do apparently. I personally wouldn't be ordering any to confirm that either way.

As for the shadow itself, it's neither great nor terrible but just ok. It's not particularly pigmented but I don't mind that because it makes for easier application and you're less likely to wind up with a patchy look if you're not careful. I haven't tried applying it wet because it's brighter than I'd hoped as it is, but if you wanted a serious orange punch, I imagine that applying it wet would deliver this.

The product is finely milled and I didn't notice too much fall-out on application, but there's almost always some with loose shadows so that's expected. It adhered well enough to my lid to start with but also transferred to the upper eye area straight away (that's the puffy eye thing), which is one of the reasons why I haven't reached for this shadow much at all and only did in the past week so I could review it.

Because it transfers so easily, it goes from being a stronger colour to a barely visible one very quickly because it spreads itself and also falls off. This also means that I wind up with glitter on my under eye area and cheeks, so I have to keep removing and it's annoying. I think if you didn't have puffy eyes it would last better, but do be aware that it's not the most adherent shade and is one of those that needs a primer.

On that, I personally think a primer should only be needed for eyeshadows if you're hoping for a look that lasts throughout the day without touch ups: you shouldn't need one if you're only eg going out for dinner for a couple of hours. So this product loses points on that front too because it doesn't fare well on its own - at least on me.

When I bought it, I'd hoped it could double as a blush shade but I won't use it for that due to the shimmer and also because the colour isn't quite what I'd expected (it's too 'tinny' for a blush shade but the picture on Adorn's website made me think it could be a workable shade on the cheeks).

Trying to be objective here, if you want a bright orange eyeshadow, don't have puffy eyes (or eg oily eyelids) and don't mind the sparkles, this isn't too expensive and Adorn is an Australian brand that's cruelty free and uses natural ingredients, so if that's what you're after, it might be worth a look-in. But after my bad experiences with the company's products (I didn't think much of the rest of the items in the sample pack mentioned earlier either), I won't be going near Adorn products again.

Let me know if you've tried any Adorn products and, if so, what you think of them.