Victoria Secret's Silk Eye Shadows are Nothing to Gossip About

Usually in the beauty community the word "dupe" is a good thing-it means that you found a a cheaper version of something you love. In this case, I didn't find a dupe...I feel duped. In other words, the Silky Eye Shadows from Victoria Secret are a fail.

Why do I feel duped? Because when I swatched these in the Victoria Secret store I felt like I heard the beauty fairies singing. I thought to myself, "Hey makeup addict! Look at these gorgeous colours that are only $10!" I should have known that it was too good to be true, especially since I never heard anyone mention them before. My joy was short lived.

When I got home a few hours later, I opened these packages and growled. Yes, growled.

From there it only got worse.

There are two finishes in this range: lustre and sparkle (or what I refer to as bad and worse). Neither formula was consistent across the range. The strong point of this line is definitely the colour range. They are perfect wearable hues that swatch beautifully, but their execution falls flat.

(left to right) Lose Control, Luscious, Pure Honey, Champagne, Between the Sheets, Private Beach, Beloved

The pigment that sold me disappeared after a few blending motions of my brush. In order to get the pigment to show up even remotely as vivid as they swatch, I had to pat on a lot of product. The texture of the shadows is very fragile (as noted by the two shattered shadows), so I had to tap my brush to pick up product. Only problem with that is the product wasn't soft enough to transfer to the brush with just tapping. The more you rub, the more the layers broke away and caused a crumbly mess. The application reflected the poor quality with patchy and uneven colour distribution. The wear time of these shadows without a primer is a couple of hours maximum before creasing and disappearing (4 hours with a primer). 

With some patience I was able to create this look that shows the colour payoff after much layering. Unimpressive to say the least.