I really wanted to come up with a good title for these shadows, because 8E has been rocking my socks off in particular the entire week, and deserves a ‘hallelujah’ or something!!  But, alas, my brain is slow today and I got nothin’.  Forgive me, my friends

Monday I was home sick, feeling run down and just plain tired from all the excitement and hubbub of my birthday and the upcoming move.  There I was, all vegged out like a sloth, when around 10am the doorbell buzzed (more like screeched – its goddamn AWFUL), and to my delight was 2 (out of 12 shades) of the new Make Up For Ever Aqua Shadows ($23CAD) for me to play with!!  Even better, one of the shades was the main one I was lemming HARD – 8E, described as a ‘matte green,’ though SO much more – it’s a rich, deep teal that is just beyond gorgeous.  The other shade, 32E, which is described as ‘pearly white‘ (which is bang-on), isn’t so much my scene, but I can make it work.

Designed to be long-lasting and easy to use, I got busy right away snapping pics and trying them out, not only because of my major love for the teal shade, but also because I had read such a drab review regarding the application and wear from Christine at Temptalia, and I was determined to discover otherwise.  So, this review is going to be much more in depth than my usual ones, as I tested this out two days in a row for wear, and really took note of how these worked and how to make them work.  First, however, swatches:

As I noted, 8E is a beautiful teal shade that is jewel-toned and more my speed than most other teals, which tend to be either a) shimmery (and therefore quite in-your-face), or b) medium-to-light in shade, which makes them, again, far too obvious, bordering on gaudy for my skintone, depending on how I wear it.  As 8E is matte, it’s so much more wearable too, which I love.  32E, on the other hand, is very shimmery, and because it’s a pearly white (almost stark white with just a touch of warmth to it), it’s very contrasting on my skin, and not in a flattering way, so I have to be careful how I wear it.  Likely it will be relegated as an inner eye highlight for the most part, which is how I wore it for the first of my looks below and which worked quite well.

Waa! Mad scientist hair!All photos above with flash

Above shots in natural light

So, in the look above, I wore 8E as a shadow – I applied it via the pencil itself to my lid and then blended with a finger – and used 32E in the inner corners of my eyes.  I will concede that these pencils are difficult to apply and blend, as they are sort of an odd combo of waxy and dry, so I had to take the time to make this look good.  However, I wore this for 8 hours (sans primer, and with a 2 hour nap in between!) and these did not fade or crease AT ALL (contrary to Christine’s review), which I attribute to the tough-as-nails formula (which is a combination of waxes, oils and polymers which create a long-lasting, crease- and smudge-proof color) .  Worn as a shadow, it might not be your quick look-on-the-go solution, but honestly, the shade itself was such a standout, and the wear was so good, that I don’t mind the drawback of the application.  Note that after my nap, it did smudge slightly under my eye, but obviously most people don’t nap with a full-face of makeup on regularly, so you’re probably safe   And I have more proof of that below, in my next look with 8E:

With flashiPhone pic, sorry for poor quality!

In this look, I just wore 8E as a liner, applied directly to the lash lines and smudged a bit with my finger. This was as easy to do as any other pencil liner would be, and lasted 13 hours sans primer and without fading or traveling (no naps that day!).  I like both looks and would wear either depending on the situation – if I had more time I’d go with the full shadow as I prefer to wear this glorious shade at its full impact if I can.  But as a liner its still pretty lovely and I like that I have the versatility to switch between the two.

I honestly want to wear this shade every single day, which is pretty huge for me as I get bored almost the instant I’ve worn something once.  It just brought out the color of my eyes so well and complimented my skintone better than almost any other shade I’ve tried.  If you don’t mind working with it a bit, I REALLY think you should check these out – in my opinion, 8E is THE shade to own, but they have a ton of others that are much more neutral, and a few key shades like navy and black that would look excellent as well.  So hop to it!!

Have you checked out these Aqua Shadows yet?  What’s your favorite long-wearing eyeshadow?

*Products were provided by the PR company/brand for my unbiased consideration.