FashionistA Palette

I'm not a big wearer of eyeshadows, but on my recent girly trip to Birmingham I wanted to try some out. The colour you wear on your eyes can make an outfit; whether you're colour-coordinating or clashing it can make a big difference to your look. On a rare occasion when I do decide to wear eyeshadow, it's normally neutral browns for daytime wear or whites to try and boost my tired-looking eyes, and half way through the day the eyeshadow always seems to have disintegrated on my eyelid (I've never figured out how that happens).

I've never tried any FashionistA products before, but was drawn in to the stand in Superdrug by their bold eyeshadow colours. I've always been conscious of wearing a colour that's too dark or bright for me, but although these colours are bold, they aren't in the territory of making me look like an overdone clown. Thank God. They have a lovely mix of purples, pinks, blues and browns, ranging from electric bright to super subtle skin-tone colours.

Palette with flash

Palette without flash

In the palette, which is available in black or red for £5, I have 'Golden Glow' (shade 38), 'Subtle Glamour' (shade 21), 'Envy' (shade 16) and 'Woodland' (shade 18). The first two are gorgeous shades of brown that complement each other perfectly; 'Golden Glow' is a rich, shimmery, sandy-coloured shade of, well, gold, while 'Subtle Glamour' is a deeper brown with purple-plum hues.

Top Left- 'Subtle Glamour', Top Right- 'Envy', Bottom Left- 'Woodland', Bottom Right- 'Golden Glow'

'Woodland' and 'Envy' are the colours which I was more worried about- they're not the colours I'd usually wear but I bit the bullet and tried them. 'Woodland' is dark, as in 'this colour is almost black' dark, but the shimmery nature of the colour breaks it up a little bit. A plus point though is that the colours are exactly the same both in the pot and on the skin- 'Woodland' is a very dark green, a lot like the dark green you see on camouflage patterns, just with a bit of extra sparkle, and remains the same on the skin, as you can see in the picture.

Without flash

With flash- Left to Right: 'Subtle Glamour', 'Golden Glow', 'Envy', 'Woodland'

 Despite my caution when it comes to overly bright eyeshadow colours, 'Envy' is definitely my favourite out of these four. It's a beautiful turquoise green that doesn't come out too loud when you actually apply it- a lot like the 'Golden Glow'. It can easily be worn alone for a fun daytime look, or blended with 'Woodland' to create a smokey-green evening look that's equally as gorgeous.

What I love most about these products is how well pigmented they are. Normally any eyeshadows I do wear seem full of colour in the packaging, but pale into insignificance when I apply them. Not these ones- the eyeshadows are soft, silky and powdery to apply but are so well pigmented the colour is not only vivid and lively on application, but stays this way for quite a while.

Because the colours are so well pigmented, it makes them brilliant to blend. I've never really been good when blending eyeshadows, or finding colours that will not only be easy to blend, but that will sit perfectly together. These four FashionistA colours can easily be swapped and blended with each other, for example, rather than using the gold with the brown, it'll also look great with that turquoise shade for a fun, pop-like look. The fact that they are so easy to blend means that you can also monitor how bold your look is, such as creating a deeper, richer look or a lighter coverage for a more subtle style.

'Golden Glow' blended with 'Subtle Glamour'

 These eyeshadows are just so smooth, easy to blend and packed full of colour, it may just convert me to wearing eyeshadow more often. The handy little palette makes it easy to swap and change your eyeshadows over to create different looks when blending.

'Golden Glow' blended with 'Envy'

All FashionistA 'Mono' eyeshadows are available for £4 each.