Cream Eyeshadows....what's the BIG DEAL? My Recommendations and Reviews xx

Cream eyeshadows are my absolute favourite product to try out and use. I am ALWAYS hunting for new ones that are richly pigmented, stay ALL DAY, don't crease etc. And So, here's my absolute guide for all things cream-ey eyeshadow-ey base-ey type things :') x

My Main Tray for Creamey Bases

Let's start with my first (and still favourite Love) of cream eyeshadows in the form of Benefit's Creaseless Cream Eyeshadows (note they've just re-vamped the whole collection with new colours, some still available, most not. With all new packaging but the same formula). These are smooth, nicely pigmented, don't dry instantly so give you enough time to play with them and shift them a bit-But once set are NOT going to crease, move or change colour. They're pricey-at £14 a piece, but do last a long time. For instance, I've had this pot of Bunny Hop for over 2 years, it's still creamy & wet and I've still got a while till I hit the bottom....

Bunny Hop

Here's some swatches of the colours I have, you can see that they're wearable on practically everyone and have a nice frosted finish :) My must-have out of all of these: RSVP.

Swatches of Benefit Creaseless Creams

Next up we have a little mix of some products, Lush's Liquid Eyeshadows, MAC's Paint Pot & Stila's Shadow Pot:

(L-R) MAC Paint Pot, Lush's Lifted & Sophisticated
Liquid Eyeshadows & Stila Shadow Pot

Out of all of these the MAC Paint Pots have to be the best, very, very similar to the Benefit Creaseless Creams but sets a tad bit quicker leaving you not as much play time-They're around the same price for a bigger pot with an ever so slightly richer pigment, though, so-maybe worth the dosh? I think this one in Bare Study is an absolute Must-Have.
The Lush Liquid Eyeshadows really differ between them, Lifted (the yellow) is kind of watery and not very pigmented (blends into nothing on the eye) whereas Sophisticated is just like a Benefit cream only it's in liquid form and therefore takes a longer time to dry and if you're not careful, creases a tad bit. These are also around £14 a piece but are slightly smaller in size and volume. Cute lil' bottles though! XD
Next up is the Stila Shadow Pot in Ice-I really like this- It's a little difficult to blend in that bits of the shadow stick in lil' clumps, but using your finger to blend into the lid makes it more smooth. These range from £3-£15 though, depending on where you buy them from (obvs Stila is an American Brand but has recently been introduced to Boots and also is available on eBay from reputable sellers) It does crease after a looongg day but I mean a long day, it takes a while to crease but holds it's colour nicely :)

 

Next are some more affordable Drugstore Brands-

Boots' Seventeen Cream Eyeshadows, B.Beautiful Vibrant Eye Shimmer & Bloom Eye Paint

Boots' Seventeen Cream Eyeshadows-These are very pigmented and only crease if you overload the eye with too many layers/too much product They're a good size and at around £4 a piece so WORTH IT! I love the colours I currently own and am hoping to purchase more in the future (there's a very pretty Green one I am eyeing up ;)) My recomendation would be the Wild Purple as the Wild Nude is quite a deep brown.
B.Beautiful Vibrant Eye Shimmers- (Available at Superdrug) These are AMAZING. They're beautifully pigmented, a nice sized pot and EXACTLY THE SAME IF NOT BETTER THAN BENEFIT'S CREAMS! They DO NOT crease. My only gripe is that I wish they had more light colours, all the colours in the range are really quite dark and therefore not my favourite to use as a base. However, at only £6.99 (and usually on offer) I really cannot complain, my Must-Have colour would be Golden Sand-Beautiful Golden Nude Colour :')
Bloom Eye Paints-Rose; (No longer available at Superdrug) I got this eye paint in the sale as it was closing from Superdrug, It's awful as an eye base. It's a nice pigmented colour but creases awfully and tends to move everywhere but doesn't stay on your eye. So, if you see these in a discount shop/online, stay away.

-BEST BUY ALERT-

MAYBELLINE COLOR TATTOOS.

 I am sure these really don't need much of an introduction. The maybelline color tattoos are THE BEST DRUGSTORE PRODUCT EVER. Pigmented, fantastic amount of product, nice packaging, fantastic colour pay-off and NO CREASING! Also, they will not budge from where you set them until you take them off. Gorgeous. and at £4.99 each. I want the WHOLE collection. Truly beautiful, stunning creams. They're really more of a gel and maybe that's what makes them so perfect. Be careful though, matte shades like Permanent Taupe don't have much playing time at all.

 Now moving onto Pen/Pencil/Stick type products :)

Elf Jumbo Eyeshadow Sticks and Revlon Colorstay Smoky Shadow Stick

 The Elf Sticks thoroughly disappointed me. At only £3 these make nice eyeliners and that's bout it. unfortunately French Lace (when viewed up close) has massive chunks of gritty glitter in it-quite unattractive. These crease like a ----- and are really not worth the hassle. It's a shame, I do like to use Rockstar and Turkish coffee as eyeliners now though as they don't crease when smudged well into the lash line. These are NOT a good base product though.
The Revlon Smoky Shadow Stick, however, is a completely different story-at around £7 you get 2 colours and they do not crease! Yes, they're a tad bit drier than other products but build and set well and with a good primer will stay put all day, great when you're in a real hurry and can't decide what to do. They also come in a nice variety of colours.

 Some more high end Sticks now (with the addition of a cream I forgot earlier :P)
Clinique Chubby Sticks for the eyes, Nars' Touch Shadow Pencil & Illamasqua Liquid Metal

 Unfortunately, like the Elf sticks, the clinique ones crease pretty much upon application :'( This greatly disappointed me as I thought wow these are clinique they're gonna be fantastic. They're not worth £1 let alone the £16 I paid for each. It's even more of a shame as the colours are very, very pretty! Bountiful Beige is a gorgeous nude, pink colour and Mighty Moss is a beautiful gold green. But alas, they're very, very poor. Grade= U.
Nars' Touch Shadow Pencil is a bit of a funny one. It is meant to be used the same way, all over the eye and blended out and when used alone, it does crease and smudge around a lot. But, when blended atop a primer (like UD Potion) and Set down with a translucent powder/eyeshadow. Stays all day and looks divine. Would I buy another one? Well, the latest yellow/gold one "Corcovardo" is definitely catching my eye over and over :P But at nearly £20 I don't think they're really worth splashing out on, go pick up a Nars Blush instead :)
Illamasqua's Liquid Metal is a similar story to the Nars Pencil in that it needs a primer. However, the Illamasqua Liquid Metal is a lot better in that it can be used on anywhere on the face and produce nice results-It is a whole lot more pigmented than the Touch Shadow Pencil and is better/more easy to set. At around £17 it's not totally worth it-get it when it's on offer or in a gift set-It's a nice addition but not necessary.

Some of my collection :)

So that was all of my cream base/eyeshadow/stick etc etc collection, Here's a quick sum up of my recommendations:

-Benefit's Creaseless Cream Eyeshadows in whatever colour takes your fancy as they're all very wearable with a fantastic formulation
-MAC's Paint Pot in Bare Study, The Ultimate Base for ANY eye look
-Maybelline's Color Tattoos in any colours you like as they're just fantastic-remember they're under a fiver each!
-Seventeen (from Boots) Metallic Cream Eyeshadows-Definitely perfect for those wanting to try out cream eyeshadows for the first time as they're good quality, easily blendable and don't break the bank :)


I hope this has been helpful to you (tweet me! @JanBeautyful !!) and hope you're weekend is going well :) xxx