Actually, I have never puchased ANY Victoria's Secret makeup products. I tend to focus my spending in that store on clothing, lingerie, and shower gels (which are absolutely amazing). Fun fact: Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works are actually owned by the same company! But today, this little eyeshadow quad really caught my attention:
One of the reasons why I stay away from VS makeup products usually is the price. This quad that I bought was priced at $24.00, which it QUITE pricey considering this is not really an actual makeup brand. Also, VS products are often hit-or-miss according to majority of the reviews out there. However, that day I had a 20% off coupon from email so I though, why not? If it's good then I'd love for you guys to know, and if it's not I hope I can help you guys save money :)
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| Victoria's Secret Eye Shadow Quad in Plenty |
So let's take a look on the inside.
The packaging is nice and sleek, simple snap closure in the front is sturdy and tight. The entire quad fits into the palm of my hand, more or less, so I can even consider taking this in my purse for touch ups. This packaging reminds of me drugstore eye shadow quads because it comes with a clear window on the top instead of a mirror on the inside.
The colours are neutral and very easy to style. One of the best features for this quad that sets it apart from others, same brand and other drugstore brand, is that it includes TWO matte shades. More often than not, small eyeshadow palettes that contain 6 or less shades are all of similar finish, and hardly ever includes matte shades. This VS quad in Plenty gives us a matte "Highlight" and "Lid" shade.
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"Base": A light, cream-coloured, shimmery shade. It doesn't lean too cool or too warm. The shimmer is not an overspray and continues to be present as I keep using it, it is not chunky glitter and looks delicately sparkly on the lids. At the same time, it doesn't come off as being obnoxiously light-catchy so it's great for everyday wear as well.
"Lid": A warm-tone medium brown matte shade. The texture is smooth and buttery, pigmented yet blendable. Even though the designers of this quad likely assumed this shade to be used all over the lid, I love using this type of colours as transition colours in my crease, and being that it can be nicely blended out, it's a great colour for that purpose.
"Highlight": A skin-tone matte shade. This shade actually blends in with my skin almost completely, and I do not have the lightest skin tone around. I imagine people with any skin tone that is lighter than my typical asian skin would likely not be able to use this for any "highlighting" per se, as it would be too dark. The texture of this shade is very similar to the "Lid" shade in that it is smooth and blendable, so I actually use this to blend out any harsh edges and it works beautifully for this purpose. For my daytime eyeshadow looks, I can often get by without applying any browbone highlight, but when I do, I need to find something else lighter (i.e. Foxy or Venus in Naked Basics palette).
"Crease": A deep, chocolate brown shade with larger bits of gold glitter. The base of this colour has some subtle shimmer to it, and the gold glitter is quite noticeable in the pan and in the swatch, but doesn't really translate to the eyelids. I don't get glitter fallout from using this colour but there is usually a bit of deep brown colour fallout if I don't tap my brush out first. I do not use this shade in my crease, because that would be too dark and smokey for my liking on a day-to-day workplace appropriate look. Instead, I use this shade in my outer-V corner to add definition to the eyes. It's not as pigmented as it may seem in the pan so this is probably the more disappointing shade out of all 4.
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Now, this quad really interested me because as a whole, it was a neutral palette which I love, plus when I swatched the medium brown "Lid" shade in the store, it was pigmented and very smooth. It's often common to find matte shades that swatch patchy, uneven, and unpigmented, so I was pleasantly surprised by the quality in this little VS quad. So naturally, I proceed to swatch the matte highlight shade, very smooth once again; the "Base" shade was shimmery but quite pretty. That was enough to interest me enough to purchase and the following is a picture of all four colours on my arm without a primer underneath.
As you can see, the colour payoff is not too bad, but I was hoping for better payoff on the "Base" shade and "Crease" shade. So next I tried them on top my daily staple: Too Faced Shadow Insurance, and here is the outcome:
I think all four colours performed much better but the result was especially apparent with the "Base" and "Crease" shades and I'm quite pleased with the result. "Crease" shade is still not as intense as I would like it to be given what it looks like in the pan, but overall it is alright for what I use it for.
Overall thoughts:
Texture: Three of the four shades in this quad performed well in the texture department. As a whole, the powders run on the dry side, there are definitely many eyeshadows that are even more buttery than these VS ones. Of course, the brands that immediately comes to mind are high end ones, such as Urban Decay, Too Faced, Lorac, etc. Compared to the majority of drugstore eyeshadow offerings, the VS shadows performed a bit better than most BUT I think Wet n' Wild actually still comes out on top.
Pigmentation: Again, all shades did well and yielded close-to-pan-colour except the "Crease" shade. As a whole, they translated well to the lids, but could be better. I often find myself reapplying the "Base" shade to the lids after some blending because it seems that I've blended too much away. "Crease" shade was not as deep and dark as it appeared in the pan.
Blendability: All shades were smooth and buttery, so they are very easy to blend out on the lids. No complaints here!
Staying Power: I had no problems with creasing or fading throughout the day, which is usually well over 10 hours of wear time. However, I always use a primer underneath so perhaps it may not do so well if I didn't use a primer. I think in terms of staying power, these shades performed as well as my other high end eyeshadows.
Value: So here comes the final and biggest question answered on this post...Is this Victoria's Secret eyeshadow quad worth the $24.00 price tag?? And my answer is....nope. As well as it did perform during this past month that I have been using it, I think it is way over priced for what it is. The colours are very practical and usable, but are definitely not unique. At a fraction of the price, Wet 'N Wild offers an amazing 8-pan eyeshadow palette and trios that gives slightly smoother texture and colour payoff. If you are willing to venture a bit higher in the price points, then you will find great eyeshadow palette options from Urban Decay and other brands found at Sephora.
I'm glad I picked up this one quad to try out, but I highly doubt I would be back for more eyeshadow quads from Victoria's Secret any time soon. I still think I will get a lot of use out of this quad because it's quite convenient for those mornings when I have limited time to make myself presentable. I find for myself that I take too much time deciding what shades to use if I had too many options in a large palette; in this little quad I have 1 shade option for each area of the eye and that eliminates choosing. I'd say skip this eyeshadow quad from Victoria's Secret and save that money towards better eyeshadows from higher end brands, and satisfy your cravings with drugstore options like Wet 'N Wild in the meantime. :)
Until the next post,
Cheers!
