Essence 3D duo eyeshadow
I'd been thoroughly impressed with Essence products so far so I didn't hesitate when I saw the 3D duo eyeshadow in "irresistible purr-ple" which were two shades of purple; a lilac and a grape.
It's packaging and outward appearance is really pretty and the colours jump out at you saying "buy me".
When applying however, I tried a couple times with just the duo before I got frustrated. No matter how I contoured it, it looked very matte and like I had a black eye.
Wiping my eyelid clean, I wet the grape colour and used it as a liner for my top eyelid. I applied a sparkly white from a different brand to most of the lid, then with the lilac colour I gently smudged just out of and over the inner corner of my eye, and then gently dusted it around the white and winged it outwards.
Then wetting the lilac, I painted a very thin line as a liner for my bottom eyelid.
With a thick coat of dark mascara, this ended up being very pretty, but after 4 hours of wear, it had smudged and I was walking around with "black eyes" again and opted to take it off completely to avoid embarrassment.
For that reason, I won't buy this again. For short wear, this can be a very pretty shadow and liner IF you add another base colour and only use it for contouring. When that's done it does give a 3D effect as it says it does but don't be fooled into thinking only the two colours will give you that effect.
Price-wise... Cheap, but you get what you pay for.