eyeshadow | Jade Belly Dance

Best stage eye shadow yet! Natural make up review.

I have so many natural cosmetic products I have trialled recently to review but this is one of the most exciting! So much bling!

Today’s review : Inika precious metallics silver collection

(Available as a free gift for a short time when you make other Inika purchases, so now is the time to decide if it is for you!)

As always if you don’t want to read the details, just scroll down to the summary at the bottom for the review in a nutshell.

Packaging

A fancy black cardboard box with a fabric handle is how this upmarket natural make up product is presented. Gorgeous graphics and design make you feel that maybe spending $85 on eye shadow was not so extravagant after all. But to be fair there is more than eyeshadow in the box. Inside you get your shiny silver make up bag, platinum mineral eye shadow, gun metal mineral eyeshadow, angle brush, shadow brush, certified organic eye liner in graphite and a Berry vegan lip whip. Presentation is excellent.

The 2 included brushes are full size and appear to be decent quality. They are also 2 of the most useful types of brushes to own for applying makeup. If you don’t already have an angle brush and shadow brush then go get some!!!

Wearability

The eyeshadows are in powder form in small 1.2g screw top containers with the usual plastic regulator cap with the little holes that helps you to not spill the lot or overload your brush. Personally i prefer pressed powders as i find them easier to use. I seem to get less fall out on my face when i use them.

With these products you have to be extremely vigilant to avoid getting silver sparkles all over your cheeks. Tapping out any excess on your brush helps as well as tilting your head back a bit when applying. If you apply them to someone else get them to hold a tissue under each eye to catch the pixie dust.

I tried the eyeshadows out not only on myself several times through the last few weeks but on 2 fellow dancers for a performance we did on Sunday. It was a hot sweaty day and my good friend Ash has this amazing ability to absorb all eyeshadow applied before she gets on stage. Not so with these eyeshadows – she still looked made up when we started to strut our stuff.

The platinum eyeshadow could also be used on its own for a dramatic highlight under the brows or in the inner corners of your eye.

The certified organic eyeliner in graphite applies smoothly and comes with a cap that is also a sharpener. This is a nice touch as it sooo annoying not being able to find your sharpener when you are in a hurry. It looks good when used with the 2 eyeshadows however for stage I added black eyeliner for more drama.

The biggest dud in this otherwise decadent package is the lip whip. Lip whip is a fancy term for lip gloss. The shade provided does not work for my complexion at all, even when done up with all the silver eye make up and using an Inika foundation. I think i will give it to my daughter to play with, I don’t really have any use for it at all. I would have been far more impressed with a proper lipstick included.

Due to the highly reflective shine and completely unnatural look, I think these products would be a bit much for most day jobs. They are, however, glorious for stage and night wear. I am in love. My only wish is that this product was cheaper!!

The state the eyeshadow was in after wearing it all day and on stage – not bad I think!

Safety

INIKA is a luxury natural cosmetics brand. Half of the INIKA product range is Certified Organic, the other half comprises of 100% pure mineral makeup.

According to the wonderful EWG data base the:-

Inika lip whip – berry scores a 1 (ie very low toxicity) with all ingredients being either 2 or 0 in toxicity. For reference everything under a 3 is given a low toxicity rating which means this product is pretty darn safe based on current knowledge.

Inika Gun Metal Eyeshadow also scores a 1 although it had a few more ingredients with 2’s, I have to say I am very impressed by the quality and safety.

Inika Platinum Eyeshadow :1

Inika Eyeliner Graphite:2 Not quite as safe as the other products as it had one ingredient that was considered moderately toxic (TOCOPHERYL ACETATE). Still the overall rating was low toxicity.

Inika certainly sounds committed to providing quality products here are their vows from their website:

No petrochemicals and other synthetic substances
Non-organic products of animal origins
No talc
No fragrances and other colour components of non-organic or synthetic origin
Anti-microbial agents not produced from organic sources
No chelating agents based on EDTA and its salt
No fatty chain source material of petrochemical origin
No sulphonation, ethoxylation or propoxylation
No alkyl sulphates (eg sodium lauryl sulphate, sodium coco sulphate, ammonium lauryl sulphate)
No alkyl ether sulphates (eg sodium laureth sulphate, ammonium laureth sulphate)
No polyethylene glycol (PEGS)
No polysorbates (eg polysorbate 20)
No ethanolamides (eg cocamide DEA, cocamide MEA)
No chemically synthesized sunscreens
No potentially harmful preservatives such as parabens, sodium benzoate & parfum

My summary: 5/5

Product: Inika precious metallics silver collection

Effectiveness: 4.5 (looses .5 for fall out and because the lip whip is silly)

Packaging: 5

Safety: 5 (pretty outstanding safety considering how well it lasts on stage)

Suitable for day wear: not so much

Suitable for stage: YES!!!!

Price:

AUSTRALASIA : $85 AUD online as a set but available as a free gift when you purchase $100 worth of Inika products online, you also get free postage so it’s kind of like a $95 bonus available until the end of March 2013.

AMERICAS: the package is only $68US with free postage (because you are spending over $50). Makes me want to pretend I am in the US

UK & EUROPE: £45 also with free postage as it is over £32 in value

NEW ZEALAND: $97NZ and free postage as its worth over $60

Where can I buy it: Online for Aussies – click here. For the rest of the world click here

Locals you can also buy it at Kaboodle in Sawtell and Beauty on the Promenade in Coffs Harbour, Studio 287 Coramba and from Millissa Rossow at Moonee Beach.

I have no affiliation with Inika.

Liked this review? Jade publishes natural make up reviews for home use and stage and is passionate about dancers looking fabulous without toxic ingredients. Follow the blog so you can save money and buy what works best.

Nude by Nature eyeshadow review

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.