So, I was on my lunch break at work, and I felt the sudden urge to go buy some makeup. This urge hits me once in a while, and I usually will just run to CVS or Target and see what catches my fancy at the time for a quick little makeup fix. I’ve been eyeballing the newer HIP (High Intensity Pigment) collection from L’Oreal for their new loose versions of the eyeshadows. I’ve been wanting to try loose eyeshadows for a while, but was a little intimidated since I’m used to using the pressed version where I feel like I have a little more control over how much gets on the eyeshadow brush.
So I ended up selecting two shades of the HIP loose shadow, one is a deep, deep purplish shade with flecks of a bright blue in it (which I didn’t know til I opened it up, I wasn’t too sure about that to be honest), but it ends up the blue really doesn’t show, it just adds an extra dimension to the color and a sort of irridescence that’s kind of cool. The one was called “Intrepid”. The other I selected was a pale but shimmery yellow-off white color called “Restless”. There are several other shades to choose from, including some other purple mauves, browns, peaches, tans, blues and greens. I’m really tempted to try this deep emerald green one, I bet it looks really intense on the eyes.
They run about $12 each, although I was able to find them at Wal-Mart after I’d already purchased them for $12 at CVS, for 10.20. Oh well, I’m too lazy to take them back, so I’m keeping the ones I bought for twelve bucks. The loose shadow by HIP L’Oreal also comes with a “professional” brush as well. It’s pretty skinny though, so if you’re used to a fatter brush you may want to just stick with what you have at home. It’s not any better than other commercial brushes, but it does the job.
Now, onto my review of the HIP L’Oreal loose eyeshadow. I dipped the little brush into the light yellow color first, figuring I wanted to sweep that on my whole lid to create a light shimmery base first. I wasn’t too impressed with the intensity of this color. It did create a slight shimmer, but I guess I was looking for a little more actual yellowish color. I did find it hard to control what I was putting on, and tended to glob it all in one area, having to recharge the brush right away with more product to get it on the other side of my lid.
Now, I’m not really practiced with loose eyeshadow, so that very well may be a part of my awkward application with the brush. The other color, Intrepid, which was deep plum/purple was very intense. Almost too much so, but when you’re used to eyeshadows that aren’t super saturated, then it can be a shock when you apply one that is very color intense. That one was very cool though, it was shimmery yet deep, and it didn’t take much to get your eyes to pop. All in all, I really liked the HIP eyeshadow, and will be buying more colors to try out in the future.
