Review: Make-up Designory Eyeshadows

Full disclosure: MUD kindly furnished us with the eyeshadows reviewed in this post.

Earlier this week, I wrote a post about Make-up Designory, an American brand backed by a successful makeup school. Today, I'm reviewing some of their eyeshadows, which they were kind enough to give us as samples at IMATS last weekend.

I mentioned in my brand writeup that we had been told that the brand believe in a balance between pigmentation and usability, and that their products all contained as much pigment as possible, but not so much that the formula suffers. With that in mind, I began smushing them into my hands by way of swatching:


I was struck by how soft these eyeshadows are. The texture is almost like a pressed pigment on some of the shades; soft, slightly crumbly, with plenty coming off the pan onto the brush. You do need to be a bit careful when loading your brush; overzealous dipping will cause lots of fallout on the palette. Gentle seems to be the key word when working with these. This softness does mean that they apply and blend incredibly smoothly.

The shades we were given represent a range of finishes; Firebrick (orange with sparkle), Tea Tree (emerald green shimmer) and Moss (golden olive green) are the intense colours, with the most shimmer and sparkle. Opal Sky has an beautiful blue duochrome effect which is very hard to photograph and makes a lovely highlight shade. Smoked Sapphire and Onyx are both matte, and unusually, fairly sheer. I was surprised by this, but found that this sheerness made it easy to layer up a smoky liner effect without the risk of over application.

The neutral shades are my new favourite natural look eyeshadows. Honeysuckle (soft gold), Cashmere (golden beige), and Pixie (golden pink), are very softly shimmery, in a way that looks glowy as opposed to overly sparkly. Sienna and Galaxy have the same effect but slightly less so. To the left, a photo of a simple eye look I wore recently, with Cashmere on the lid and Sienna in the crease, with Onyx used as a sheer, soft liner. There's a real glow to the colours that's not overly sparkly, perfectly wearable for work, and very pretty to boot.

All in all, I'm very impressed with these shadows - they apply smoothly and blend beautifully. I do think that Make-up Designory have hit on a good balance of pigmentation and ease of application here. My only criticism would be to do with the palettes, rather than the eyeshadows; they are cardboard, and while they are sturdy cardboard, they get dusty quickly (particularly due to the fallout from the shadows), and are a little difficult to keep pristine.

If you'd like to try MUD products for yourself, you can get them from the MUD Shop online, where a single eyeshadow costs $13.50 in pot form, or $10 for a refill. Shipping to the UK will cost you a slightly expensive $25.