High End / Low End Comparables: Eyeshadows

This is somewhat of a continuation of my previous post on products that I’ve loved that I haven’t found a comparable lower priced item to. This post is all about the products that have a cult following, that actually HAVE lower end comparables, that I have personally used and loved. I haven’t used all of the higher end products, but I have tested them on several occasions that I feel I have a good idea of how well they work for me, anyway.

Eyeshadows – This is a biggie. I am torn on this one, because I’m in love with MAC’s Mineralized Eyeshadows, but I feel that there are many eyeshadows out there that are just as good, or even better than MAC and other Higher End shadows for a lower price:

• Ben Nye Eyeshadows – These range from about $6-10, and are available from costume shops, and speciality online stores.  These are almost twice as big as MAC and Urban Decay shadows, and are pigmented like no one’s business. I use my Ben Nye shadows more than my more expensive ones.
• Wet N Wild Ultimate Expressions Palettes. These palettes have 8 huge colors, and are extremely pigmented. I own 6 of these palettes, both permanent and limited edition. The eyeshadows are soft and extremely blendable. These palettes have mostly neutral colors that are wonderful!
• NYX Shadows – NYX has many different types of shadows, and the vast majority of them are wonderful, they are pigmented, and dirt cheap. The price of these range from $1-6, depending on what you pick up. I’ve tried them all, and I have loved almost all of them.
• L’Oreal HiP Eyeshadows Duos – These are simply some of the best drugstore eyeshadows that you will easily find in the drugstore. Each duo has two cordinating colors that are simply amazing, and some can be considered as dupes to higher end colors. These often go on sale BOGO Free, so it’s well worth your time to pick some up. You can easily get four huge, pigmented colors for the same price as one MAC shadow during a BOGO Free sale.
• L’Oreal Wear Infinite Singles – I recently tried my first eyeshadow from L’Oreal – apart from the HiP line, and I was flabbergasted when I used it. It is extremely soft and pigmented, and it blended like dream on my skin. I am looking forward to trying more in the future. I haven’t tried the quads though. So those maybe different.
• Milani – Milani makes some amazing eyeshadows. The ones that are very comparable to MAC and other brands were their little regular singles. These were amazing smooth and more pigmented than you can imagine. Unfortunatley Milani decided to get rid of these, but they are still available in some places. I’ve seen them in select Walgreens. These cost around $3-4 and were totally worth the money. Another good choice from Milani are the quads, they for about $6-7 and have four huge colors with tons of pigment and are really soft. These are available everywhere.
• TKB Trading Pigments – These are pure pigments of color, that you buy from TKB Trading for $1.50 per sample. Samples are a full table spoon of pigment – this is about the same amount of product that you get in a full sized MAC jar filled. These are definitely worth your time to check out for cheap, but not cheap quality pigments.

So far, these are the shadows I’ve used that are comparable to higher end products. These may not be as smooth as higher end shadows, or they may be slightly more sheer, but the money that you save is worth it. I feel that the price difference and more than decent quality makes these shadows the better choice than the higher end ones.

TKB Trading Haul

Hi everyone! I just received my TKB Trading Haul in this afternoon, and I am LOVING IT!!! The samples are HUGE! I got 27 different pigments and 100 pans to press eyeshadows into. My entire haul including shipping came out to be $50.05!!!!

That is seriously, seriously cheap. Pans are hard to find and are expensive. The pans that I got from TKB Trading are little square ones, which works well for me. For 100 of them I paid $7.00. I was thrilled to death to get this deal, they won’t work in 26mm MAC palettes, but I have other palettes that they fit into, and it’s very possible to create your own palette with empty cd and dvd cases and magnets.

Here is a list of all the pigments I picked up:

After Twilight

Twilight Green

All Eyes on Ria Collection: Midnight Train, All Love Green and Love Song

Artisan Coral

Black Amethyst

Dusty Rose

Glimmer Beige

Ocean Green

Sparkle Rose

Winter Rose

Echo

Moonstone Mica

Swiss Chocolate

Apricot

Ivory Lace

Be My Valentine

Glimmer Green

Athena

Interference Sampler -The 7 Basic Hilites: Gold, Red, Blue, Violet, Green, Orange Copper

Some of these are actually MAC Pigment dupes, so I am planning on reviewing and researching this to let you guys know. You get about the same amount of product in these samples as you do in a MAC pigment. I haven’t measured this, but I eye-balled the amounts from both. In fact you may get more product in some colors from TKB Trading because they are much more finely milled than some MAC pigments.

You can get everything here: TKB Trading