Along with Paul & Joe Lipstick 205 Strawberry Jam (Natural), I also got the Eye Color Limited in 007 Castles in the Air. This eye palette was part of the summer Daydream Believer Collection I'd been excited about since the spring. Not only the compact is cute, the shadows in honeycomb pattern are eye-catching even if they require smaller brushes to pick up.
All pictures taken in natural light without flash.
All pictures taken in natural light without flash.
The compact is in the shape of a book and closes magnetically. There isn't a mirror inside, nor is there any applicator, but neither of the absences bothers me. It's just pure luck that the palette I wanted is housed in the compact I liked. And it's just pure bad luck that aside from the cute compact, the eye shadow itself is a POS. Ha.
Wow, where do I even begin? First of all, I can't really tell whether these eye shadows are pressed powder or baked. I think they're pressed powder, but then their dry and chalky texture with major dusty fall-outs make me think they must be baked. Even then, I'm not being fair to baked eye shadows because I own many that are super smooth and buttery with minimal fall-outs. And plus baked shadows are usually well-pigmented, and these are pitifully sheer with barely any color to them at all. Even the darkest two colors are low intensity at most and are pathetic jokes of medium/crease shades. See for yourself--the swatches were heavily layered. Adding insult to the injury, all the colors have a shimmery finish that somehow turn up totally flat and boring. This Daydream collection is more like a nightmare to me. Urgh. Paul & Joe, how you let me down.
Clockwise from bottom left:
1. Faded antique gold, shimmer, low intensity. Pretty, and pretty lacking.
2. Bronzy brown, shimmer, low intensity. Barely visible in the crease, so forget about lining with this color.
3. Whisper pink, shimmer, very sheer. Applies a soft pinkish white and makes an okay highlighting shade.
4. Fleshy pink, shimmer, very sheer. Transparent sparkling top wash.
5. Soft gold, shimmer low intensity. Makes a decent lid wash.
Thanks for the review! Yup, this is why I fell out of love with the brand. The packaging draws you in, only for the product quality to be an utter disappointment. Their lip products are slightly better but the quality is so hit-and-miss that I gave up chasing the LE collections. Even when they go on sale after the season is over, I no longer feel the need to collect them.
ReplyDeleteHi Iris,
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading :)
I'm afraid I'm already one foot out the door as well. Of all the P&J eye shadows I've tried I really only like the Eye Shadow M (http://alittledabintomakeup.blogspot.com/2017/03/paul-joe-eye-color-m.html). I'm on the fence with their lipsticks too as I only use the sheer ones and the rest I don't bother with.
Bleh...
D.