her own devices

Summary: Great eye shadows, and not just when judged by drugstore standards.  While their advertised 24hr wear time is greatly overstated, these shadows provide excellent color payoff, good wear and a dreamy texture for $7.99 a pop.  Not bad at all in my estimation!

Full Review:

I spotted these at Target last week and was intrigued by the packaging.  Though I consider myself to be an equal opportunity junkie when it comes to satisfying my makeup addiction, I’m not that crazy about drugstore brand eye shadows.  For lipstick, lipgloss, and mascara, I’m just as happy using and buying the cheap stuff as I am with higher end product but the texture, payout and wear of eye shadows from drugstore lines are often not as up to par with my standards.  Things have been improving in quality over the past few years though, so I do stop to try new things whenever something new is released, and in the case of L’Oreal’s Infallible shadows I’m oh so glad they did.  

Seemingly inspired by Giorgio Armani’s much raved about Eyes To Kill shadows, these beauties are lightly pressed loose pigments that feel almost like a cream.  They’re quite soft in the jar and easy to pick up with a brush, and glide onto your skin all buttery smooth.  They feel very similar to MAC’s better textured pigments (like Old Gold, Tan or Teal).  Using a basic shader brush, it didn’t take much effort at all to achieve the vibrant intensity you see in the pot on the eyelid. They blend well with other Infallible shadows and with shadows from other brands. I tried these both on bare skin (just to test out their ridiculous longevity claims) and over Too Faced Shadow Insurance and this shadow adhered well to the skin for both.  

L’Oreal claims these last for 24 hours, but that’s complete horseshit.  I found the wear on them to be good, but no better or worse than that of any other quality eye shadow.  I got about 7 creasefree hours over bare skin, and about 10 over a base.  The times on those will be a little different for everyone of course, depending on the oiliness of your skin, but I can’t imagine that anyone could get a full 24 hours of wear with these even if they had Sahara dry skin.  But then again, no one would expect or even want them to if L’Oreal didn’t boast such a ridiculous claim on the packaging.  I’m not even sure why they bothered.  Who wears eye shadow for 24 straight hours unless they go to bed in their makeup?  And who looks for that in a product?  I’m perfectly happy with a shadow that can make it to 12-14 hours looking pretty decent, and this meets that benchmark.  It isn’t as perfect at 12 hours as it is at 2, yes it will have faded a bit and started to crease some, but not so badly that it looks disastrous.  That’s really all anyone can realistically ask from their makeup.

L’Oreal released 12 (I think?) shades of this product in the US, 3 with a satin finish and 9 with a metallic and/or sparkly finish.  The color range is the only bummer for me in this product, and even that one is minor.  All of the colors are solid and flattering shades, but the drama queen in me longs to see them release a teal or a hot pink.  Maybe someday!

Final verdict on these?  So worth your time tracking them down, especially at the $8 price point.  $8 may seem high for a single eyeshadow from a budget brand, but that’s a steal of a price for the quality.

Swatches: (Going Clockwise) Golden Sage, Amber Rush, Eternal Sunshine, Bronzed Taupe and Perpetual Purple.