Jade Belly Dance

Make up Monday and more eye shadow to examine.

Nude by Nature again, this time their trio of brown eyeshadow. My comments still stand as to their misleading selling tactics but that aside this is what I think of the eyeshadow range. In this case I was offered a eye makeup special and got 3 sets of 3 eye shadows for $18, which is a great bargain but leaves me with a lot of product. Months later I have barely made an impact on the original set.

 Packaging

If you look closely you can see that the lid on the left tub is not on properly – damn those fiddly lids!

They come in a neutral toned, simple but attractive box with the words “100% Natural Eye Cover, contour and define your eyes in 3 easy steps”. To their credit they come with instructions on the side of the box as to how to apply the 3 tones of eyeshadow. This is very helpful for those new to make up and full props to them for that – BUT the colour coding on the edge of the box and the instructions printed directly under them are the opposite of what they should be. I.e. the colour for ‘Define’ has the ‘base’ instructions under it and vice versa. Big opps there! Thankfully the actually containers are correctly labelled so after one disastrous application the newbie should work it out.

Inside the box are 2 cute but stubby applicator brushes. One labelled round and the other angled. The round one is more rectangular in shape but pictures are included so you know which is which. These are far superior to the crappy sponge applicators one usually finds included in eyeshadow palettes.

Inside the box you find 3 colours of powder in pleasant circular 2 gram containers with a brown screw top lids and plastic inserts inside to help avoid spillage and over loading your brush. The lid only says ‘nude by nature’ on it however and all the colours are in exactly the same size container. This means you have to pick them up multiple times to see what you are holding or have a strict order as to how you set them out and pick them up. It is extremely annoying when you are in a hurry. The screw top lid prevents spillage in transport but adds to fiddliness on an everyday application level.

 Wearability

The three neutral colours were numbered 1. Base 2. Contour and 3. define which has a  chocolate hue. Number two is a mid brown tone and number one, the base, is a beige type colour. I advocate that my students all buy 3 or 4 tones of brown eyeshadow as they suit a wide range of skin tones and are good for blending and toning down of other colours when you get more adventurous. So I think the colour selection is great (4 would have been better though), however their intensity isn’t as much as the actual colour of the powder has you expect.

I have been forcing myself to use the products for just every day wear to try and reduce my exposure to chemicals and while the colours do a serviceable job, they aren’t favourites of mine. The loose powder means that fall out on the face is inevitable. If you put less on your brush it takes a long time to apply and still you get some powder falling on your cheeks. I like to apply a little brown eyeshadow to my brows to even out the colour but unfortunately the Define shade isn’t the right shade for me. The box claims that you will have a ‘perfect, dreamy effect… that lasts all day long’. Hmmm, well it lasts well for maybe 6hours or so before you get creasing and a mottled effect. You would really have to reapply after work if you were wanting to go out.

As for stage, well it doesn’t seem to like sweat much, the colours are matt and not very strong. I would use it for a bit of light blending … maybe…??? Honestly, I am still reaching for my Revlon colour stay 12 hour eyeshadow for performance if I need browns because it is quicker to apply, stronger colours, and more sheen.

 Safety

I went through each listed ingredient and ran it through the EWG safety in cosmetics website. It scored well with 0-3 ratings putting it predominantly in a low danger category although the copper powder was a 3 – just into the moderate category. The above mentioned Revlon got 5’s and 6’s though, so this trio is indeed a safer choice for every day make up than what is more commonly available.

 My summary :3/5

Product: Nude by Nature Natural Eye Palette Trio

Effectiveness: 3

Packaging: 2 (but instructions and brushes were great)

Safety: 4

Price: $24.95 AUD for the trio online (I paid $18 for 3 sets of 3 which is a bargain)

Size: 2g

Suitable for day wear: yes

Suitable for stage: not really

Where can I buy it: http://www.nudebynature.com.au/products/category/eyes_lips

With online shopping most products can be purchased from anywhere in the world but if you are after American reviews of make up then I would like to recommend the excellent “glamorganic goddess” blog.

Have you used these products? What did you think? Comment below.