Tint For Eyes

These Becca Eye Tints are a good example of why I don't really get high end makeup. I'd never buy them at their retail price of $42 each, but since Gilt and Vicuna are Madison magazine freebies this month, I grabbed both. I thought they were a bargain considering the magazine is about a fifth of the cost of one Eye Tint.

Vicuna is described as an "opal" shade but it just looks like a slightly peachy, very light goldish beige to me. I didn't really see any dimension or special lustre to the colour. It wasn't particularly complex, gorgeously shimmery or unique. On the eyes, it didn't do much but create a barely noticeable sheen. I'd recommend this shade only for those with quite fair skin, as I'm not exactly tan or dark skinned, but the colour hardly showed up on me. I can only imagine using Vicuna as an eye primer, or possibly as a highlighter for the face.

Gilt is slightly more promising in that it's a darker shade, a warm, chocolatey bronze with gold shimmer. It's able to give more definition to the eye without looking too heavy because of the sheerness of the colour. This is something you could still wear during the day, despite it looking quite dark in the tube and having the potential to be built up in intensity.

l-r: Vicuna, Gilt

Indirect sunlight

Direct sunlight

Gilt over lid

I'm not enamoured of these Eye Tints for a couple of reasons. First, I noticed when I first squeezed out a bit of Vicuna that there was some clear liquid (oil?) coming out, before any pigment. The product had separated. You have to shake the tube somewhat vigorously to try to prevent this from happening, or squeeze out a bit more of the product to get to the pigment. Second, the colours of the Eye Tints are on the sheer side and they have a slightly runny and thin consistency. They're not creamy and super pigmented, which are two qualities that I'd normally want in my cream eyeshadows. These are far more liquid and easily spread, but in turn, you lose the pigmentation factor. I found it difficult to build up the colour, as the product is both sheer and takes a while to set, so you end up smearing or trying to pat on more product on top of existing product that hasn't fully set or dried.

I feel that I have several other cream eyeshadows from brands like Maybelline, Essence or even Revlon that perform better and that I prefer, so I'm not impressed by these and I can't see how they're superior to justify the much heftier price tag. On the plus side, the packaging is attractive and quite unique, it seems to have decent staying power once it's set, you only need a very small amount, the colours are all very wearable neutrals, and they're relatively quick and easy to apply with fingers. For the price I paid, I'm satisfied that I bought these, if only to have two Becca products in my possession for a fraction of their normal price, but whether I'll actually end up using them over my existing cream shadows is another story.