PDP Exclusives by Rebecca

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Dollar Store Beauty? Trash or Treasure?

        I have to admit that less than a year ago I was not that into makeup. I mean, I was, but I wasn't. I have always loved makeup and worn it but I never knew about all the options and things out there. Example, I never paid more than $5.00 for ANY makeup product EVER. My most expensive purchase was a $5 Avon palette!! I did love color and used teals, purples and green but nothing vivid. I did not even know what a primer was, let alone a base. Wearing more than one color at a time? Huh? That was foreign to me. My reason for telling you what a makeup goon I once was, is so you know that I can judge cheaper makeup options without snobbery or prejudice.

           I recently was in the Dollar Tree with my daughters and noticed a couple of eye shadows that caught my eye. They both looked nice and pigmented and I thought for the price they were worth a shot. I fully expected them to be sheer and not blend well but bought them anyway.

L.A. Colors Purple and Teal Mineral Eyeshadow



Swatched you can see just how important a base is. The top of the swatches are over NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk and the bottom of the swatch is bare skin. The purple was almost sheer on bare skin but the teal had a decent opacity over bare skin.

Swatches in the sunlight

I only did one eye and I did it pretty quickly because I did not expect much from this eyeshadow. The purple was not all that great but the teal like seriously blew my mind! This look was done using only the 2 L.A. Colors eyeshadow. My shape is a bit nuts but I wanted to showcase how gorgeous and opaque this teal is!

I was so excited about this teal that I wanted to see if it passed the "Husband" test ( my husband has an extremely good eye at identifying good quality eye shadows and pigments when they are applied). For this look I did apply some Inglot #388 ( bluish/purple) to the crease.
Sadly, this did not pass the "Husband " test.  When I asked him what company he thought it was he said he did not know but it did not look that quality or smooth. Poo on him. I think for $1 it is a HUGE beauty steal! The purple is passable but the Teal is great.

Do you own any L.A. Colors products?
If so what do you think of them?
Any other pressed colors I must try??

Thanks for reading,

                                                           Photobucket

7 comments:

  1. I've never used eyeshadows from LA Colours but have tried lipglosses. They're an okay brand, nothing amazing, but cheap for what they are!

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  2. I think it looks lovely! Go, you! Bargain shopping is a skill set in itself, so not only are you a talented MUA, you are a bargain hunter?! :-) I'm not a brand snob either, I say if it works, AND you can save money, more power to it. Have you tried the Jordana loose eye shadows? Another steal!

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  3. I own a few palettes & was quite impressed with the pigmentation as well considering they are super cheap. They have a palette called "tease" that has some pretty colors & are quite pigmented. I am big on the wet n wild palettes. They have amazing color payoff & are also super cheap.

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  4. I tried a LA colours palette and the photos come out beautifully but it feels chalky and looks a little meh when I look at it in real life. Then again- I'm new to wearing makeup period and the palette I got is pretty colorful/bright, so I could be not applying it correctly. ;)

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  5. I've heard great things from LA colors if you use a base..but IMO any eyeshadow is workable with a sticky base like nyx. I can't use nyx jumbo pencil everyday because it creases within 4 or 5 hours. I love Wet N Wild's new shadow palettes and trios and I bought one of LA colors 12 pan palettes just to see cuz some people have said they are great. They were trash :/ and frankly I was a little scared to use them cuz they were so cheap (12 eyeshadows for a dollar? gotta have pretty poor ingredients). I'm not really a make up snob ( I like some elf products) and WnW is a fairly cheap brand. But I only buy name brand dollar tree make up. Sometimes they have older lo'real or revlon. Now those are a nice deal but these horrid lo'real cream blushes I bought one time. And I'm quite impressed with your husband, some men can't even tell the difference between lip balm and lipgloss XD

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  6. Omg please get the Tease pallete. The pink... Omg the pink. Its so bright and crazy, neon almost!

    I reviewed it poorly onn my blog a while back because the pink stained my lid, but I don't care anymore, it doesnt stain for more than a day... THE PINK!lol. I re-purchased it and Im so happy with my pallete, the colors are just gorgeous and Im working on a follow up review soon.

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  7. I have also found LA Colors to be a great find! I have 3-4 of the palettes, and all but one of them I have found to have great pigmentation. The one I was not pleased with seemed really chalky and had a hard time sticking to my eyelid, but that may have been due to the other eye shadow I was wearing with it. Plus, the top of the palette was dusted with shimmer, though it wasn't blended throughout, which was disappointing and seemed a bit deceitful to me. But, not a huge loss considering the cheap pricetag! As for other cheap but well-pigmented eye shadows, I love the little tiny tubs of eye shimmer by NYX....I got a few at Ulta that I love, and keep meaning to go back for more! Loreal HIP is also pretty great for intense eye makeup colors, though a tad more pricey (though in my opinion, definitely worth it!).

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