Max Factor Excess Shimmer

I found some new cream eye shadows at the drugstore. They’re by Max Factor:

They’re called Excess Shimmer and this is what you see when you open them: a protective air tight seal. I highly approve of this. Around here it’s a massive problem that people are opening drugstore products and putting their dirty fingers in despite there being testers available! With these seals you can easily tell if your product has been tampered with.

And this is what they look like with the seal removed. I chose the colors 10 Pearl and 25 Bronze. Other colors available are a silvery white, a shimmery black, a much lighter bronze and a pale lilac. There were probably more, I forgot. The color range is small, but good and not 100% identical to other drugstore ranges.

These shadows are mousse-like, very soft and creamy. In the following swatch you can see I very much underestimated the pay-off a small dab will give you:

Swatch of Bronze.

Bam! This is only a small dab, and way too much for an eye. The color is instantly opaque and quite intense.

Swatch of Pearl. This time I knew to take less and still got quite a bit of skin covered. The color is much lighter but also opaque. The color probably looks silver white to you, but it’s a very light green. Next to the jar with the white color you can see it. I think Pearl will be a good base to light colors and pastels.

Color comparison: The big blob is Bronze and the stripe above is Maybelline On and on bronze. The Maybelline color is lighter. Maybe they look close here, but the Max Factor one is much darker, believe me. The shimmer is also more complex.

Top: Kiko color shock custom sugar green.

Bottom: Pearl.

The Kiko one is much greener, but the feel of the shadow (and the packaging) are very similar. The difference is that when applied to the eye, you can go over the Max Factor shadow a second time without getting patchy, while applying a second swab with Kiko wipes the first layer off again.

Lasting power is surprisingly good for such a creamy formula. Creasing is absolutely minimal, even with the dark color. (I always test colors without primer.) Bronze is amazing against blue eyes, but also very dark and intense (I guess I need to check out Copper for a more day-appropriate color). Pearl is more for layering in my opinion, I wouldn’t wear it on its own.

I’m positively surprised by these shadows. On the other hand, for drugstore products the price is quite steep, so they better be good. They retail for around € 9,45 here in Austria; luckily I had a coupon.