Dupe Search: Taupe Eyeshadow Comparison Swatches!

Woohoo! Don't you love it when I ransack my stash and do comparison swatches? What's more, these are swatches of taupes, glorious taupes! Now to be fair, these are just some of my taupes, definitely not all of them. It started when I reviewed the new Edward Bess eyeshadow single in Storm, and I thought - don't I already have these colours? So I looked through my stash, and dug out the colours that I thought would be most similar to Storm. So in other words, what you're looking at is just those of my taupe eyeshadows that I thought might have some semblance to Storm.



Here are the shades we're comparing today, in order:

1: NARS Belissima II (darker shade)
2: L'Orea HIP Electrified I (lighter shade)
3: MEMEME Beautifully You Eyeshadow Cafe 7
4: First Light Cosmetics Storm Grey
5: Bourjois Stretch Eyeshadow Brun Nylon 09
6: GOSH Glamorous Eyeshadow Grey Brown 7
7: Edward Bess Storm 07
8: Stila Cloud

Isn't it funny how many taupe eyeshadows that are numbered are given the number 7? And on another note, gosh, it's embarrassing how many taupe eyeshadows I've bought over the years of being a makeup fanatic. Anyway, here are swatches of all of them, in that order, with my thoughts on each of them below. By the way, the eyesahdow labelled L'Oreal Sassy is wrong. The duo is actually Electrified:



NARS Belissima II (darker shade) is the only true matte in the bunch, as the rest all have some sort of shimmer. This is a cool-toned grey-brown with hints of purple. Texture is decent, pigmentation is sheer but buildable.

L'Orea HIP Electrified I (lighter shade) is absolutely rockin'! Don't be fooled by the cheap plastic packaging or the drugstore brand - this is awesome taupe goodness. As you can see, it just stands out among my swatches. Its texture and pigmentation are also excellent, and it has a frosty finish that, depending on your preference, can be a good or a bad thing. I've actually reviewed the Electrified duo before and have even previously compared Electrified to a much more expensive Bobbi Brown Heather Mauve eyeshadow.

MEMEME Beautifully You Eyeshadow Cafe 7 is also another cheapy-but-goody. This is cheap, but good, and I really need to get around to reviewing this sometime. It's a brown-based taupe, and thus would be very wearable for warm-toned girls who find a lot of taupes pull purple or greyish on them. It also has slight shimmer, that for some reason isn't showing up in the photo.

First Light Cosmetics Storm Grey is another underrated gorgeous colour. Like Edward Bess's Storm and MEMEME's Cafe, it's a light brown-based taupe, only that it has more shimmer than either. Pigmentation and texture are also pretty good. An EOTD (Eye of the Day) with Storm Grey is available if you'd like to see more of this pretty little thing.

Bourjois Stretch Eyeshadow Brun Nylon 09 is not as similar to Edward Bess's Storm as I initially thought it would be. For one, it's less brown-beige-y and slightly more purple and grey on. They did look quite similar in the pan, however. Texture is good, and pigmentation is sheer but buildable. I've previously swatched Bourjois Brun Nylon before, and also once did an FOTD with it. My, that FOTD was just a year and a half ago, but I think I actually looked visibly younger then. And my photography skills back then sucked.

GOSH Glamorous Eyeshadow Grey Brown 7 is one of those I keep meaning to review, but never get around to it. No fault of the shadow, though. This one has the texture of baked eyeshadows (it comes in a round, hard dome), and pigmentation is sheer but buildable. It leans more grey than most of the other taupes featured here, and also has some sparkles in the eyeshadow.

Edward Bess Ultra Luminous Eyeshadow Storm 7 is a brown-based taupe. Honestly, compared to the rest of the taupes on my arm, it looks a little blah. But since it leans brown, it's less likely to pull purple or grey on warm-toned girls. Pigmentation was sheer, and not the best, but still buildable. Texture was also decent. I'm not going to say too much about this since I just reviewed it in the last post.

Stila Cloud is a taupe that pulls purple and grey, and has a frosty finish that makes it look silver, like how the L'Oreal Electrified taupe looks silver due to the frost finish. I actually should feature this sometime, I have had this eyeshadow since I first became a makeup junkie years ago and it's still with me...Brings back all the nostalgic times when Stila eyeshadows came in little paper pots, and when collecting Stila eyeshadows was the "in" thing of the day. Anyway, this one is cooler-toned that some of the other taupes, and is more purply-grey than some of the other more brown-based ones. It also has frosty shimmer, which some may like and some may not.

So here you go, eight of my lighter-coloured taupes! As a taupe junkie, I love all of these shades and I think they are all different enough to own all, although I'm sure not everyone would agree with me. They're almost like my babies! I hope this post was useful for some of you who wanted a comparison between some taupe eyeshadows.

Mememe Blush Me! Blush Boxes Swatches

Mememe has recently launched four boxed blushes that are packaged exactly like the Benefit's blush boxes, right down to the square paper box and included brush, and are probably meant to imitate them - after all, Mememe already has dupes for Benefit's Benetint and Posietint, so I guess it was only a matter of time before they tried to dupe the powders.

However, while the packaging is similar, the colours are nothing alike. That may be a bad thing for those looking for a dupe (I know I'd love a dupe of Dallas that wasn't so expensive!), but the colours themselves aren't too bad. There are four colours - Coral, Pink, Bronze, and Rouge. The quality of these isn't too shabby, either - the powders were reasonably soft and pigmented, with the exception of Pink.

Here is the entire Blush Me! range swatched:



Coral is a coral that veers orange. I kind of think Rouge is what my idea of Coral should look like. Probably a better shade for the warmer-toned girls among us.

Pink is a light neutral pink, and this one wasn't very well-pigmented. It was quite sheer, and the texture was a bit harder than the other blushes. But it's a really pretty colour though.

Bronze is a light yellow-bronze. I'm surprised that this isn't too dark, so if you're fair and warm, this might work for you. All the Blush Me! shades are shimmery, but the shimmer is especially apparent in this shade, so it's probably not going to be useful for contouring, although for bronzing your cheeks etc it might be good.

Rouge isn't very rouge to me...I'm not sure about you, but when I think rouge, I think of primary red. This is actually a very pretty coral, and it's less orange than the Coral shade. This is my favourite of the bunch, and it seems to be the most popular too.

Out of all the four shades, Bronze and Rouge had the best pigmentation, while Pink had the worst. Coral was somewhere in between, it was decently pigmented. All the shades were also quite soft, except for Pink, which somehow seemed a bit harder to me. These are cheap and cherry, and if you like your blushes in cute little boxes, you'll probably like these.

Summer Cheek Stains: Mememe Poppy and Pussy Cat Tints Swatches

Legend has it that Benetint, the first rose-coloured stain on the market, was created by the founders of Benefit at the request of a female entertainer to stain a specific part of her body a nice rosy pink (sorry I can't be more direct guys, this blog is rated G, LOL). Since then, lookalike products have blossomed, and Benetint isn't unique anymore. Nevertheless, regardless of brand, stains seem to be more favoured in summer, presumably because they stay on after all other makeup has melted off.

One of the rumoured dupes of Benefit's Benetint and Posietint are the Mememe Pussy Cat Tint, and the Mememe Poppy Tint respectively. Now I wasn't able to swatch Benetint and Posietint beside Pussy Cat and Poppy, so I can't confirm any of the assertions, but they do look to be pretty close. The packaging is also very similar - they come in those oversized glass bottles with a nail polish-like brush, just like Benefit and Posietint. I'd personally prefer a packaging change to a squeeze tube or a pump bottle, so that it would be easier to handle. But hey,I guess if you're trying to copy the product, why not copy the packaging?



Poppy Tint is a sweet pastel magenta pink, while Pussy Cat Tint is a deep but clear rose red.

I personally like both colours, and I swatched them sheered out to show how they might look when actually worn, and also when built up, so you can get a clearer glimpse of texture. The Poppy Tint has a little more of a gel like texture than the Pussy Cat Tint - as you can see, the dollop of Poppy Tint stays where it is, but the dollop of Pussy Cat Tint is spreading out even as I took the photo. But I guess given that the Pussy Cat Tint is a clear transparent liquid, while the Poppy Tint was an opaque liquid, there would be some difference in texture. Both were easily layered for greater colour intensity, and they seemed to do fine in terms of being blendable while swatching.

I walked around with these for awhile to let them "set", and then I tried to remove them with rubbing and water, and I'm pleased to say they both held up relatively well. They held up better to rubbing than to water, but that's perhaps to be expected. I like that they are pretty much rub-proof once you let them absorb, so they won't come off onto clothes. These are probably good alternatives to anyone who wants a Benetint or Posietint dupe - they are similar, but much cheaper.

Mememe Colourama Long Lasting Cream Eyeshadow Swatches!

I really need to apologize for the state of today's swatches, but as some of you who follow me on Twitter may know, the past few weeks have been nothing short of hectic for me. But anyway, today's swatches are from another UK drugstore brand, Mememe. They're pretty cheap, and they have some products that are quite outstanding - in particular their cheap-and-accurate dupes for Benefit's Benetint, Moonbeam and Posietint have been garnering a lot of press (note to self - swatch those sometime!). But personally, my favourites from the line are their eyeshadows, powder and cream. And today, we're looking at their Colourama Long Lasting Cream Eyeshadow.

Mememe's Colourama Cream Eyeshadows come in a tube, with a wand applicator in a doe-foot shape. Personally, I'd rather they put it in a squeeze tube because the doe foot applicator seems kind of unhygenic, but I guess you can't complain. They have 5 colours, and among them, a particularly beautiful taupe.



Top row L - R: 04 Sparkling Silver, 05 Liquid Bronze
Bottom row L - R: 01 Molton Brown, 02 Chiffon Rose, 03 Aruba Blue

01 Molton Brown is the beautiful taupe I was talking about. It's taupe, it's shimmery, and it's gorgeous! It's a brown taupe with silver shimmer. Very pretty. This one is also very work appropriate.

02 Chiffon Rose is a light pink colour that isn't pastel, but isn't bright pink either. If you like a wearable pink, I think this is it.

03 Aruba Blue is, as the name suggests, a bright glowy blue that reminds me of open skies.

04 Sparkling Silver isn't really a silver, so much as it is a frosty metallic white. It isn't quite a true silver (which would imply some sort of grey tinge to the colour). But this is good as a highlighter, if applied sheerly.

05 Liquid Bronze is a nice bronze with a metallic finish. It has a warm medium brown base colour, and is packed with metallic shimmer. Since this bronze is leaning to the warm side, it would probably look better on warmer-toned ladies than on cooler ones.

One of the things I noticed while swatching these is that they dry pretty quickly, so if you're using these you probably won't have all the time in the world for blending. Also, they have good pigmentation, and although the first layer of these shadows is a bit sheer, they can be easily layered for intensity without peeling or caking (as I did in my swatches). Overall, I think these are pretty good quality, particularly for the price.