Less Than Adored

Sportsgirl’s beauty products have always been a little hit and miss. I have a heap of their nail polishes, and while the formula isn’t amazing, it’s perfectly adequate for the price point ($7.95, but often on sale for $4.95 or cheaper). The large array of shades are constantly updated to deliver the latest trends and there's one to fit every occasion and mood. I use their dual-ended eyeshadow brush every day and I’m a fan of their liquid eyeliner pen and matte lipstick in Fruit Tingle. Some of their lip glosses were huge disappointments though, with very little pigmentation, synthetic smell and taste, and gimmicky packaging (I don’t really need my lip gloss opening up and emanating blue public toilet lighting).

I spotted this Work of Heart eyeshadow palette few months ago when it was on sale. The cute packaging and the combination of wearable and bolder shades made me curious to give it a go. There wasn’t a tester in the store and while I’m usually a little wary of cheap eyeshadow palettes, I'd been using two neutral shades in Sportsgirl's Time to Shine Bronze Cosmetic Palette almost on a daily basis, so I had fairly high hopes I'd like at least a few of the colours.

For the sake of taking a photo, these were swatched like my life depended on it. To cut to the chase, as pretty as they look, these eyeshadows are not good. They're powdery, chalky, lacking pigmentation and devoid of staying power. I wiped these off my arm with a tissue without a trace of residue. There are more matte and light shades here than in the Bronze Cosmetic Palette, which probably accounts for why Work of Heart is chalkier and less pigmented. If you were so inclined, you could try to make these work with a primer and a white base, but that's too much effort for me.

Notwithstanding the fact I can't imagine myself wearing the more colourful shades (that red on the end looks especially challenging), the fact that they're so underwhelming in quality effectively makes them useless. The second and third shades from the left (the glittery peachy gold and lilac-toned silver) are the only workable ones that aren't complete duds in terms of pigmentation and texture. They're actually quite nice colours and I did wear them out once when I first bought the palette. Not sure whether it's worth keeping the whole thing just for them though. Either way, for affordable makeup, Sleek this ain't. I'll definitely need to be convinced from swatching available testers at the store if I decide to take another chance on Sportsgirl eyeshadows in the future.