Wet 'n' Wild Walking on Eggshells Trio - Review

You know you have a problem when you can't help but buy some sort of cosmetic when you're at a drugstore. Just something. Anything, really, that looks pretty. I technically broke my self-forced drugstore no-buy for this trio, and I'm very happy to report that it's awesome. The shades are soft, blend-able, pigmented, and it's super cheap! Does it replace my everyday, holy-grail, shadows? Not every single day, but I reach for this usually 2x a week, so that's something. Is it the best palette in the world? No.

Your $4 or so gets you three nice, neutral shadows. This palette is fairly light-toned, none of the colors are deep in any way. I can't see this palette being a go-to for someone of darker skin tones, but for me, an NC15-ish person, it's a great, everyday look. 

You can see I've used it enough to remove the "E" and "C" from the shadows themselves. That should say something. 

Pigmentation wise, these are pretty darn good. From the right side, the browbone color is one of the better highlighting shades I've seen from a drugstore brand. Despite what EmilyNoel83 of YouTube states, it's not a dupe for Shroom (at least, on me. I don't want to start ranting about her dupe video now... but... I could go on and on about how she's not right). For me, Shroom doesn't get frosty. If I still had anything left in my Shroom eyeshadow pan, I'd attempt a swatch, but I can't because it's all gone. Shroom gave an illuminated glow to my skin. This browbone color is a slightly frosty cream (in other words... NOT LIKE SHROOM). The crease color is a shimmery red-toned brown. It's not quite deep enough to define my crease the way I like. The eyelid color is very similar to All that Glitters on me, a shimmery shell-pink color.

I really like this trio. Like the Gilded Age trio, though, this one suffers from the frostiness that is drugstore makeup, it seems. "When in doubt, add frost!" seems to be the mantra of the formulators. I wish the crease shade had been matte, or a little darker, or both. Especially both, since you could use the browbone shade to make it shimmery, should you wish to.

I wouldn't call this a must buy, unless you have no neutrals, or you need a travel palette. It is fabulous for the price, but I think Wet'n'Wild missed the mark with this one.

Who Doesn't Love Something for Free?

I was browsing my local discount department store (Fred Meyer), and noted they had a few of the summer 2011 Wet 'n' Wild trios left. I grabbed one (I suffer greatly from LE-fever, obviously). When I got home, my sanity returned, and I thought "Why not share this with someone?"

So, here we are. I have a new, sealed Gilded Age trio waiting for a loving home. I'm not going to ask you to do anything crazy. Simply follow my blog, and post a comment below telling me (and everyone else) two things:

1) You favorite thing about summer makeup collections
2) Your least favorite thing about summer makeup collections

See? Easy-peasy!

A few more rules, though:

- You must be at least 18 or older
- You must live in the US, Canada, or the UK
- One entry per person, please!

The winner will be determined at random on Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 and announced at that time. The winner will have 24 hours to contact me, otherwise a runner up will be chosen!

Wet 'n' Wild Gilded Age Trio - Review

I remember, fondly, discovering Wet 'n' Wild a long, long time ago. At that time, the quality matched the price fairly evenly, but I could still buy a ton of makeup for very little money. Times have changed only slightly - the quality of today's Wet 'n' Wild is vastly superior to what it used to be.

Wet 'n' Wild recently release a limited edition mini-collection for summer 2011 called "Go for the Gold." I call it a mini-collection because there are only 2 items, a Color-Icon trio (the subject of this review), and a bronzer called "Everything under the Sun," which I also have and am not impressed with. We may discuss this in the future, maybe. If I can bring myself to use it again, that is (yes, it is *that* bad).

The trio, however, is as lovely as all of the other Color-Icon trios - the colors are rich, pigmented, easy to blend, etc. Two of the shades rival some of the best MAC eyeshadows, with the third being nice, but a bit less pigmented than you would expect.

For a product that has a MSRP of less than $3.00, the packaging is flimsy, and very cheap feeling. Since I don't typically travel with my makeup, this doesn't concern me. Wet 'n' Wild kindly threw in a tiny brush and sponge applicator (which will be thrown out shortly). These trios do not include a mirror.

I looked at this palette, after getting it home and swatching it, and thought "I probably have tons of dupes for this already. Why'd it come home with me?" And set about trying to find a dupe for each shade. The "browbone" shade is a frost, peachy highlight. The closest shade I have to it is MAC All that Glitters, but it's not as shimmery/frosty. It definitely reminds me of Stila's Kitten, which was wa-ay to frosty for my liking (and has left this building because of this). The crease color, a shimmery chocolate brown that is lacking in the pigment department, is very similar to MAC's Chocolate Brown pigment, but is not as pigmented. I actually had a difficult time duping the last shade, surprisingly. It's a true, frosty, metallic gold. MAC's Gold Mode Pigment is similar, but lacks the frost finish, and doesn't have the orangey base tone of the lid color. Dazzleray pigment looked promising in the jar, but it much more similar to the highlight shade on the skin.

All of these colors lean warm to me, and last all day on my lids with UDPP and the UD Shadow Pencil in Sin under them. As previously mentioned, they blend nicely. I really wish the middle shade had been matte, though. I really prefer to not have shimmer-city on my lids, and in my crease, and on my browbone. While I'm perfectly aware I don't have to use all three shades at the same time, I can still kvetch about the overly-shimmeriness that is this trio. I find that I'm adding a matte brown to my crease to tone down the frostiness, which is what this trio produces. Especially the highlight shade - heavily applied, it's over-the-top frosty to me. A light hand, however, really makes it look lovely!

Bronzey-golden colors really suit me, being fair and warm-toned with brassy-ish hair. These colors are no different than any others in this family. That being said, I have a feeling that most of us have similar shades in our collections. The only one I didn't have a dupe for is the eyelid shade. While it's nice to have them all in one place, I don't know if this is a must buy for everyone. If you don't have similar shades, I'd highly recommend this trio, if you can find it. If you can't find it, you may wish to look at swatches and other reviews, then compare to your stash. If you really want this, keep looking around. It is limited edition, and may disappear rather quickly. Either way, for $3.00 or so, the quality is fan-freaking-tastic.

Edited 06/05/2011 to add: Would you like to win your very own Gilded Age trio? I happen to procure an extra trio, and I know some ladies are having a tough time finding them. I'll launch a give away in a bit, but... one of the rules will be that you must follow my blog. Additionally, I can ship to Canada and the UK. :)

Edited 06/08/2011 to add: Giveaway is now live!