A while ago, I won a giveaway from Sparklecrack Central and between life getting ahead of her and us not being able to meet up at IMATS LA (there's always IMATS 2013 in 5 months!), it took a little while for her to send things my way. She was super generous with the prize and it happened to include these Concrete Minerals eyeshadows.
I've never tried
Concrete Minerals before though I've heard great things about their products, especially their Electric Eye Primer. They have expanded their product line beyond mineral eyeshadows to matte eyeshadows and lip tints. I always like to see indie companies do more than just loose eyeshadows because I think it makes it feel like it means that they're always constantly innovating and expanding their business beyond eyeshadows. They're also a local company, located in Riverside about an hour away from me.
I got full size eyeshadows in Infinity and Wicked and supposedly a sample of Zealous. I say supposedly because I feel like my Zealous doesn't look and swatch like other peoples' swatches of Zealous. I'll explain more below
Product Info: The eyeshadows contain 1.5 grams and retail for $7.00.
Packaging: Unlike other indie companies, these eyeshadows are packed in 10 gram jars as opposed to 5 gram jars. Each had a sifter and seal though I'm not sure if they're shrink wrapped or not (I didn't receive them that way so I'm assuming they weren't).
Ingredients:
Infinity: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Chromium Oxide Green, Iron Oxide, Tin Oxide, Ultramarines, Boron Nitride
Wicked: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxide, Tin Oxide, Ultramarines, Boron Nitride
Zealous: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Chromium Oxide Green, Iron Oxide, Tin Oxide, Boron Nitride
In the first picture, the eyeshadows were swatched dry over Too Faced Shadow Insurance and in the second, swatched over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. The pictures were taken in natural daylight.
Infinity: "Smooth aqua blue" When I saw the shade I did think of the Tiffany blue and they actually make a note of it in the listing that it's reminiscent of that shade. It's much more blue and less green and was a dream to apply.
Wicked: "Medium purple with aquamarine shift" The listing makes the color look quite red toned whereas I think it's more of a blue-toned purple, more of a smoky grape. I had some application problems with this because it seemed to want to fade as I was applying it more than the other shades. In order to get it to look that lavender in my swatch, I had to really pack it whereas when swept on like in the second picture, the darker base shines through so it looks more like a smoky grape. There is a slight aquamarine shift when applied dry but it needed a glitter fixative like Darling Girl Glitter Glue or Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy to show off the shift best.
Zealous: "Vibrant turquoise" I'll admit I'm a little confused whether I actually got Zealous or not. Other swatches seem to show a bright turquoise blue and while I see the turquoise shift, it's on top of a darker green base. Over Pixie Epoxy, the turquoise shift takes over so the green base is less prevalent but I still don't get that vibrant blue/turquoise I've been seeing all over the place. Considering that all the other swatches look the same and mine is the odd one out, I must conclude that everyone else is right and mine is a weird one. Ambiguity about the color aside, this applied really well without fading on me.
Formula-wise: I don't think I've used many indie eyeshadows before with Boron Nitride as a base and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I did like how it helped with the adhesion. While I did like Infinity and Zealous (?), Wicked was just okay to me. I have been eyeing
Lolita for ages though and might just have to pick it up.
Website-wise: I think it's a very professional looking website with the categories and search bar on the left along with pictures on the front page directing you to the specific listings. If I did have to nitpick on something, I don't like that you have to hover over each category in the sidebar to see the different product listings because I instinctively click on the category which just causes it to refresh the page.
Overall thoughts: I like them enough to consider trying out a few of their other eyeshadows. I especially am thinking about their Electric Eye Primer. I think they used to have samples of the primer along with a Blogger Sample Pack but unfortunately it looks like they stopped offering that. I think it's especially intriguing that they have "Pro Matte" eyeshadows since loose matte eyeshadows can be difficult to work with.
Have you tried Concrete Minerals before? If so, what did you think of them and if not, what would you get?
Disclaimer: I won these eyeshadows through a giveaway. None of the links in this post are affiliate links and all opinions are honest and my own.
