After spotting it in this month’s Glamour magazine, we decided the next trend that we needed to try our hand at was bright eyeshadow! While we love seeing models on the runway rock this trend – could we make it look just as good? Read on to find out…
Christina – I’m not a bright eyeshadow fan. At all. I stick very firmly to the taupe family of shades, and the Naked 2 palette from Urban Decay is my best friend. So for this week’s CanCantDont I had to dig around to find any kind of bright eyeshadow. I came across an old Urban Decay palette that I had and plumped for an extreme purple called Mayhem. Highly pigmented, I didn’t need to put too much on to achieve the look. Overall, it’s not that I dislike this trend, it’s just that it’s not very me. On others I think this would work well, and perhaps I’m just *whispers* a little too old to pull off such a bold statement. Fancy dress, yes; dramatic night-time look, maybe; but in the day – not for me.
Verdict: CAN’T
Neelam – I don’t own a single bright eyeshadow. The only eyeshadows I own are browns, golds and taupes – neutrals basically (Me and Urban Decay’s Naked Palette go hand-in-hand). So, trying out a bright eyeshadow was very out of my comfort zone! Thankfully, Amrita had quite a few bright eyeshadows so in I went with my brush and applied a bright hot pink shade from Beauty UK’s Day and Night palette to my lids. To be fair it looked much better than I thought it would do, but you won’t catch me rocking any brights on my lids any time soon. I did take it off as soon as I had my picture taken because it’s abit too much for the day but would look pretty good in the evening, as long as you keep the rest of your make-up pretty simple!
Verdict: Can, but I won’t
Elaine – My top three eyeshadow colours are brown, taupe and when I’m feeling particularly wild, copper. Even when I go for a smokey eye I tend to stick with these colours and avoid dark black shades as I think it looks too harsh on me. I was therefore very apprehensive when I heard that this week’s trend was super bright eyeshadows. Images of tacky 80s music videos and Madonna in her Desperately Seeking Susan days instantly appeared in my mind. Not a good look. However I’m always up for a bit of beauty experimenting so applied a green shadow from the Sleek Caribbean Collection palette with a pretty heavy hand. All the girls in the office said they really liked it and that I could pull it off. It didn’t look too bad AND it matched my top but it was just way too out of my comfort zone to keep it on for the rest of the day. Taking it off with a baby wipe and re-applying my trusty MAC Paint Pot in Painterly was an instant relief.
Verdict: Can, but won’t
Amrita – When Neelam first suggested bright eyeshadow I thought to myself was “No problem, I am ALL over that” but how wrong was I. Now, I don’t shy away from bold eyeshadow and have been known to go to town with a full on rainbow on my lids but that’s when it’s paired with an equally rainbow-esque Indian outfit so it goes with the theme and looks fine. This was most definitely not the case when I went for the bright yellow eyeshadow from my Sleek MakeUP Curacao Caribbean Palette. I thought it was a little brave going for the crazy yellow shade but I felt a bit ambitious this time and thought I could pull it off with my black tshirt and chunky necklace. Wrong. Very wrong.
It was way too wild for a daytime look and especially one with an outfit that calls for lashes and lipstick instead of wild colour. I even tried to tone it down with a light matte brown eyeshadow but it was beyond repair. Bright eyeshadow is great on the catwalk and with the right Indian sari or outfit but on Dress Down Friday, I think not.
Verdict: Can – but there’s a time and a place for it
Lizzy – I’ve always been a ‘lip’ girl, if I’m going out I’ll always opt for a brightly coloured, in-your-face pout, so to avoid looking like Dame Edna I avoid having too much colour on my eyes. However, there has been lots of celebs and models rocking a colour-pop peeper, so I was quite curious to try this trend. I don’t think I’ve used a colour other than gold, grey or black on my lid since 1993, so I opted for a Teal shade named Soho from the UK Beauty Palette. I was pleasently surprised that I didn’t resemble a Barbie from the 80’s, and as I applied only to the sockets, with hardly any other make up on (obviously apart from a base… a heavy shovel of foundation goes without saying for a Friday). I would avoid blue colours, if like me you suffer from bags, as a blue would just highlight these. Nice. Apart from that, I might swap my colour-pop to my blinkers this weekend.
Verdict: CAN (only certain colours though)
xxx