ColourPop Pressed Powder Eyeshadow Review

Pressed shadows! How excited can a person be over small metal pans with pigment in them? ;D When ColourPop released the pressed shadows I immediately made an order. I like their shades and the quality of the super shock shadows is good, but I don't want to dirty my hands when doing my eyes, as I don't keep my make-up in the bathroom but in a vanity. So I need to get up, go wash my hands, and then continue. Pressed shadows seemed perfect, and they even came with a free empty palette per each four pressed powders you buy. I settled on ten shades I wanted and got two palettes.

It seemed like a waste to only have four pans in one palette, and I heard some people had taken the cardboard from the palette out to fit in more pans, so I tried the same. The glue is pretty sturdy, but the results are good. On one palette the cardboard came clean off, but on the other it ripped the magnetic plate with it, but I simply proceeded to tear off the cardboard (well, my husband did, because he's super nice and I didn't want to break my nails) and glue the magnetic part back.



Let me start with saying that the palette is very nice! The design is pretty, not too busy, the magnetic area is strong, pans stay easily in place, and the plastic window is small, so your shadows are safe. The window is usually the weakest point of a cardboard palette, but it's needed so you can see what it holds without opening the palette.

A ColourPop Pressed Powder empty palette out of the box.

A ripped out cardboard and foam insert.

The glue is quite strong, but it can and will come off if you want to! If the glue is stuck on the magnetic plate, your can just roll it off with your fingers.

A palette without the cardboard insert. The whole black area is magnetic.

And the shadows I got? There weren't many colourful ones that I usually go for, but I've been using a lot of neutrals lately and many appealed to me. I chose these ten: Fire Fly, High Strung, Take it Slow, Come and Get It, Cute Alert, Liar Liar, Backseat, Cloud Nine, Let Me Explain and Hear Me Out. Quite a mouthful!

Instead of four you can fit ten pans close to each other. Shadows on top row left: Take It Slow, Let Me Explain, Liar Liar, Cloud Nine, Fire Fly. Shadows on bottom row from left: Come And Get It, High Strung, Backseat, Cute Alert, Hear Me Out.

All the shadows in their cardboard sleeves. Cute Alert had moved a bit in the packaging, but arrived intact.

The sleeves are not taped shut, they have a little tab you open.

You can see the back of the pan through a hole in the sleeve, so no labels are needed on the sleeves.

Inside the sleeve the pans are protected by clear plastic packaging that also closes with a tab rather than tape on glue, meaning that you could easily put the pans back if you want to sell them or pack them very securely for a trip.

A pan out of the packaging. They are about 2,5 cm wide.

On the back of each pan is a label stating the name of the shade.

Cute Alert

Come And Get It

High Strung

Backseat

Take It Slow

Let Me Explain

Liar Liar

Cloud Nine

Fire Fly

Hear Me Out

And then swatches! These are done over foundation (Missha Perfect Cover BB-cream), powder (NYX HD Studio Finishing powder) and Urban Decay Primer Potion with fingers. Some of the lightest shades were insanely difficult to photograph, but I did my best!

From top to bottom: Cute Alert, Hear Me Out, Fire Fly

Top to bottom: Backseat, Come And Get It, High Strung peeking from the bottom.

Top to bottom: Come And Get It, High Strung, Cute Alert

Top to bottom: Take It Slow, Let Me Explain, Liar Liar

Top to bottom: Liar Liar, Cloud Nine.

All of the shades are of very nice quality. Creamy, lots of pigment, blend easily. They all work well on my green-blue eyes, especially the reddish dark browns Cloud Nine and Cute Alert really bring out the green. The only one I might not keep is Fire Fly. I ordered a couple of skin tone shadows so I could try them and see how they work on my skin tone, as you can never be sure of photos and monitors and all that affects how the shades look in the shop. Skin tone shadows can have the tiniest differences that have a huge impact on how they work on each person. For me Hear Me Out is the perfect skin tone that's just a little bit lighter than my skin, so I can use it as a highlight on tearducts and brow bone. Fire Fly is very close and just as light, but has pink undertones, where my skin leans more towards yellow. There's nothing else wrong with the shadow, the shade is just not for me, I'll always go for Hear Me Out when I need a skin tone highlighter.

So far my absolute favourite is Come And Get It. It's a warm medium rose pink with a gold shift. Very much like NARS Orgasm blush, which I also adore, and the pink once again brings out the green in my eyes. A light, very easily usable shade, and works with every other shade in my palette, except maybe for Backseat.

Take It Slow, Let Me Explain and Liar Liar are very nice light shimmery skin tone shades, easy to combine with almost anything and work as highlights if you like shimmery highlight. I usually go for mattes for highlights (on the eyes), so I've used these on the lid and put something darker in the crease and outer part of the lid for a very easy everyday look. Not unique shades, but handy to have in a palette.

Backseat is more blue and less green than I expected. I though based on the shop pictures that it would be a sea green or more of a petrol shade, but on me it looks plain blue. I'm not good with blues, but it is a lovely medium shimmery blue, if that's your thing :)

High Strung is a lovely copper. Very red, very metallic. It works as a crease shade with Come And Get It, but I like matte shades for the crease better to get some depth there. It could make for a wonderful smoky eye with green eyes, but I have yet to try that.

All in all I'm very happy with the shadows and the palettes. Everything works like it should and 5 dollars per pan is a steal for this quality. To me it seems the quality is equal to my Naked 2 palette, but then again the Naked 2 has 12 shades and costs about 50 dollars, so per pan the shadows are actually cheaper than ColourPop. I do appreciate being able to customize my palettes and to be able to take just a couple of pans with me to trip if I don't feel like hauling the whole lot, so the price is justified in my opinion. Shipping was fast and everything arrived well packed and in time. So once again ColourPop has made me happy!