New Max Factor Excess Shimmer Shadows And Eye Liners

Whatever is in the water over at Max Factor, its doing them serious good. They are coming out with new products every few weeks its seems, with a full nail varnish line, a foundation and now 2 more added to the ever growing list. Might I first introduce their new *Max Factor excess shimmer eye shadows. Oh mammy now these are something I can really talk at length about, would you just look at them! Six shimmer gel based, cream-like, dark to light pots that dreams are made from. 

The first thing I noticed with these little pots was how well they were sealed. At times you can pick up a product in the shop and you wouldn't be sure if its been opened as there is no protective seal or plastic, so this was a plus for me. I'm getting more obsessive about hand sanitizer and hygiene in general as I get older and make up is a big one. The pots themselves aren't much to look at with plain black lids, but flip them over and you get to see whatever lovely shade you have picked inside the glass. The only thing that bothered me with some of these was the lids tend to loosen and can come off, which is a pain if you popped one in your makeup bag. But a plus is that despite them being glass, they don't weigh down your overall makeup bag. So as you can imagine I'm carting them around (carefully) with me everywhere!

The six shades are all beautiful in their own right with Crystal being a light pearly white - which is amazing on the inner eye and under the brow as highlighters. Next in the light side is Pearl which is still giving me a hard time to work with, I tend to use this near the waterline or the inner corners on my eye and build colours over it. Something like the lovely Pink Opal, its a colour I would never ever normally use as I am too fond of my darks, but wow does this pink shimmer really work wonders for my green eyeballs! 

Although the three lighters shades are lovely, the three darker shades in this collection are my utter love. A Copper that is so subtle you could wear it on its own as a natural look. Then my favourite of the lot, Bronze. I have a feeling this eye shadow will have every last bit dug out from the base and be overused. Lastly a bold black in Onyx that makes the most perfect smoky eye. 

I need to sit down after describing all those shades, they are just too much for me to handle. 

A few things to note when using these eye shadows. For all gel/cream based shadows, its always best to use a base of primer and then a regular powder in a close shade to your base gel/cream shadow. This helps them to stay longer and not slide into the crease of your eye. Thats never a good look. I personally don't think they last the 12 hours that Max Factor say they do, but they last most of the day, with just a little topping up needed if your going out later that night.

 Another thing is that these eye shadows build amazingly, like just wow. With a brush or with your fingers, they are so feckin' easy to work with and blend together really well. A big thumbs up to the lovely people in Max Factor for getting it spot on with these. You can pick them up in Boots right now for €9.99 - but theres a 3 for 2 offer on, so you will be able to get three! (If not more. Enabler? Me! Never.) 

Next is the *Max Factor excess intensity longwear eyeliners. There are already six of these in shops now, but these three colours are going to be released in January to compliment the new shimmer eye shadows. These three are violet, jade and cobalt that twist up to release the eyeliner. I'm a big fan of the strong blue liner over black liner to give the eye a major pop, but I'm a little ifie with the other two colours. I'm certainly not brave enough to go out and about with these striking colours just yet, but around the house I look pretty damn fancy - if I do say so myself.

These are smooth and easy to apply, but I think they could be almost too soft as they snap off easily if you twist them up even a little too far. They also tend to move a bit more then other eyeliners I have tried. But pared with a good primer and I think they stay much longer, without budging. They are definitely not smudge/water proof like Max Factor claims, nor are they near 12 hour long lasting, but they do still work well. I think there particularly handy because you never need to sharpen them - but that could just be the lazy in me talking.  For €8.99 with the three for two offer in Boots at the moment, you can try out the other shades while you wait for these ones to be released in January. 

Do any shades call out to you?

*I did not pay for this item, it was a PR gift.  Please see my disclaimer here.