My Perfect Brown: L'Oreal Colour Appeal Star Secrets Eyeshadow Quad - Penelope Cruz

I was going to be lazy and postpone this picture-heavy post for a bit, but when I realised that the quad was LE and being phased out, I put a rush on this review.

I have never paid much attention to L'Oreal's eyeshadows as I've never come across outstanding reviews of them, plus they always seemed overpriced. So imagine my shock when the legendary Steven Sunny, who did my best friend's wedding makeup, rejected his massive collection of MAC, Bobbi Brown and RMK shadows to use... a dark brown from a L'Oreal Quad Eyeshadow Palette.

"It's the perfect neutral brown, with enough gold shimmer to prevent it looking flat, but not so much it interferes with photography," said Steven as he deftly swept eyeshadow on the Bride's lids. He also used it on my eyes and I lo-o-o-o-ved it.

The moment he was done, I pounced on it lightning-quick and found, to my dismay, that it was a long-phased out LE edition quad eyeshadow: L'Oreal Color Appeal Harmony Eyeshadow Quad in Perfect Harmony. Thwarted but not despairing, I set out to find a quad that most resembled it and found this.

Just like the Perfect Harmony Quad there's a light beige (almost white) shimmer shadow, a shimmery sheer gold, a shimmery pink, (to the best of my knowedge) THE brown.

As you can see, it's a lovely lovely brown. I have a bit of a goldilocks complex when it comes to brown eyeshadows. Oh sure I've found ones I like but they are always a little too warm/cool/red/grey/shimmery/matte/sparkly/flat... but this brown leaves me with no complaints. If only the texture was a little creamier...

Ah well there's no helping me is there?

But it's true, L'Oreal shadows are not comparable to high-end shadows. They are sheerer, harder, and not as creamy. But with a little patience, good colour pay-off is attainable, and the shadows can be blended quite nicely.

The three highlight shades are very very shimmery and sheer. I mostly only use the light gold to blend with the brown. The white and pinks double up as highlighters dabbed on the inner corner of my eyes, down my nose bridge, and across my cheekbones.


The shades can be taken easily from day to night, just add more gorgeous brown!

Wear
Over Revlon Colorstay foundation the shadow holds well, and lasts about 6 hours on my oily skin before some smudging or fading occurs. Over Mac Paint Pot, it's good for at least 12 hours straight. Perfect!

Conclusion
I have compared this palette to the latest series of "Made for Me Naturals" and it's just not the same. The dark brown in these palettes are matte and meant for lining (but my goodness they're long lasting - it took 2 days for the swatch I took to wash off! And I wash my hands alot!) and the crease shade is too light and shimmery.

So if you spot this palette, most likely in less frequented pharmacies, do snap it up. It's only RM39.90 compared to the Made For Me Naturals palettes which retail for RM49.90. Just a word of advice, the only way to identify it by name is the signature on the top. Penelope signs "cruz" with the symbol of a cross. So look for the illegible signature that ends with what appears to be a "cross" or "t".