little white truths

I bought these three Bleach London eyeshadow singles a while ago from Cult Beauty, because I needed some cheap custom palettes and Bleach London's were on sale - and if I spent a few more dollars I would not only get a bigger discount (which effectively made my order cheaper overall), but I would also get a free makeup brush.

So I added three of these to get me over the line because they cost a measly $2.50 AUD each at the time, and I had a few gaps in my eyeshadow collection that I'd been meaning to fill for a while.

Unfortunately only one of the three is exactly what I wanted, but I do think these shadows are worth considering because even though they're hit and miss, the hits are excellent for the price.

Each shadow comes in its own little cardboard sleeve that you slide out (see below).

I picked the violet because I wanted a shimmer in this colour family to replace a lavender shadow that I'd finished and was missing. Unfortunately it's not the same as that colour (although it looked similar in photos) and it's more unnatural and iridescent when applied than it looks in the pan, plus it has a green shift - which I absolutely didn't want because I don't like how shifting shadows and duochromes look on me (too unnatural). Foo.

The tangerine I chose because I wanted something like Makeup Geek's Chickadee, which I've always wanted to own but had never bought because I have enough eyeshadow as it is, and while this looks similar to that one, it's incredibly hard to the touch and has the least pigment of any eyeshadow I've ever used. Let's call this one a dud because the other two shadows fare a lot better.

The warm, medium-deep brown I chose because I love shadows in this colour family but I didn't have one that looked like this: that is, not so dark that I would never use it, and not so pale that it wasn't good for deepening up the crease and outer v. This one's perfect and I really like it.

Below I've given you photos of the individual pans.

VS 1 sh, indirect sunlight:

VS 1 sh, indirect sunlight:

TD 2 ma, direct sunlight:

AP 4 ma, indirect sunlight:

AP 4 ma, direct sunlight:

Below I've swatched all three shades, indirect sunlight:

 * L-R: VS 1 sh, TD 2 ma, AP 4 ma

And direct sunlight:

 * L-R: VS 1 sh, TD 2 ma, AP 4 ma

Verdict

VS 1 sh is an iridescent, shimmery lavender with a green shift. It's soft and smooth to the touch (if a little dry) and it applies and blends well. This one has a reasonable amount of pigment but I don't get full opacity with this shadow and it has a tendency to fade pretty quickly throughout the day, even with a good eye primer. I would suggest using a glitter glue with this shadow.

TD 2 ma is a medium, matte tangerine with yellow undertones. It's a bad shadow and I don't recommend it at all: it's hard in texture so it's impossible to get any reasonable amount of pigment from this with a brush, and I think that partly explains why whatever pigment applies, often applies patchily (because the brush can't pick up an even coating). Indeed, I had to do a dozen swipes to get the colour to show up in the above swatches, which I didn't need to do with other two. I would avoid this eyeshadow: let's just call it a dud.

AP 4 ma is a medium-deep, warm matte brown with red and orange undertones (in some lights it looks more red and in others it looks more orange). It's soft, smooth and silky to the touch and it applies and blends well. It also has a good amount of pigment - enough that it shows up well but not so much that it's hard to work with - and it's my favourite shadow of the three. I use this a lot as a lid shade and also to add soft but still noticeable definition to the crease and outer v.

Overall, I think these shadows are worth looking into (especially when you can find them as cheaply as I did), but I would certainly test them first if possible because not all of them are going to be good, and you wouldn't want to end up with a dud like TD 2 ma - which is basically unusable, and indeed it developed some awful hard-pan while I was doing the above swatches. As for the other two, I'm really impressed with AP 4ma: that's a good eyeshadow, and it's even better when you consider how little I paid for it. VS 1 sh is a reasonable shadow, although don't expect full opacity from this shade.

Worth considering.