Makeup Geek Pressed Eyeshadows - Review & Swatches (Part I)

Today I am reviewing Makeup Geek's Eye Shadows. If you are into makeup and love to watch makeup tutorials on YouTube, you must have heard of Makeup Geek. It was started by gorgeous Marlena a few years back and along with her YouTube channel, she now has her own range of makeup. 

I was really excited to try these eyeshadows for two main reasons; firstly, I adore and love Marlena for being an amazing educator, having a wonderful personality and creating her own makeup range and secondly, since she is a reviewer as well and we all know how reviewers go in depth trying products and are really critical, I really wanted to see how Marlena's products fulfill the needs and demands of a regular makeup user. Let's move to the review now.

Makeup Geek Eye Shadows:

They say: 'These are all highly-pigmented. Half the price of MAC shadows without sacrificing quality. These pans can be placed in empty palettes such as MAC Pro Palettes or Z-Palettes. Eyeshadow pan weight is 1.8G / 0.064 oz. With a separate palette, you can build your own custom palettes. All our shadows are cruelty-free -- we do not test our products on animals. These eyeshadows are Talc and Paraben-Free. We ship worldwide at affordable rates'

Makeup Geek eyeshadows come in 56 different shades. Apart from eyeshadows, Makeup Geek also sells their own gel liners, makeup brushes, and lipsticks.

Product Description & Packaging:

Eye shadows I got to try came in pans. Each pan is securely packed in a beautiful card box packaging. Pans are made up of metal and each pan holds 1.8 grams of product. These eye shadows have matte, semi-matte and shimmery finishes. More details about each shade can be found after swatches' pictures.

Makeup Geek Eye Shadows (packaging)

Makeup Geek Eye Shadows (packaging)

Makeup Geek Eye Shadows (packaging)

Makeup Geek Eye Shadows 

Makeup Geek Eye Shadows 

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

• Highly pigmented.
• Easily to build and blend.
• Great color payoff.
• Stay put without creasing or toning down for over 8-10 hours with a primer underneath. (Conditions; oily lids, humid & hot weather)
• Stay put without toning down much for about 3-4 hours without a primer underneath. (actually pretty good for oily lids)
• No fall outs except for darker shades and that fallout is not too bad.
• Can be used as blush, bronzer or highlighter for face and body. (more details can be found below) 
• Can be used as brow powder or on lips. (more details can be found below)
• Wide range of colors.
• Affordable and easily available.
• Non irritant.

Cons:

• I did not find anything negative about these eye shadows.

Makeup Geek Eye Shadows 

Makeup Geek Eye Shadows (swatches with eye primer)

Makeup Geek Eye Shadows (swatches with eye primer)

Makeup Geek Eye Shadows (swatches with eye primer)

Makeup Geek Eye Shadows (swatches without eye primer)

I took swatches without primer really quickly so you can see how they look like without anything underneath. Please ignore the quality of the picture. I used MUA's Professional Eye Primer (review here) for swatches where I used eye primer.

Shade Descriptions and How I Use These:

• Ice Queen is a slightly shimmery white shade. It can be used to slightly highlight the high points of eye, brows or face or it can be built to its full pigmentation and used all over the lid. Other than using it as a white shimmery eye shadow, I use it to highlight the brow bone, inner corner of the eye and to highlight cheek bones and cupid's bow. A little dab in the middle of the lips make them look fuller. I also tried it to highlight beauty bone and it looked fine.
• Vanilla Bean is a matte neutral shade. It can be used at its full pigmentation or to blend other shades. It works really nice to even out the ton of the whole eye lid area if you have a skin tone that matches this eye shadow. Other than using it for everyday matte eyes, I use it on my brow bone and inner corner of the eye when I don't want shimmery eye makeup. It also works great when I need to blend harsh lines of darker shadows. Looks nice if applied on lips over a lip balm for nude effect.
• Glamorous is a shimmery golden-bronze eye shadow with a slight orange tone. Other than using it as it is, I sometimes like to dab in on the center of my eyelid to highlight my eye ball area which make the eyes pop.
• Mocha is a gorgeous and really rich matte chocolate-y brown shade. I love to use it for my everyday makeup routine. Other than creating smokey eye makeup looks, I use it in the crease, as an eye liner, to fill in brows and to contour face.
• Cupcake is a beautiful matte tea pink shade. I love to use this one for my everyday makeup as well. I use it to cover my eye lid area below crease line and then put some Mocha in crease. I also used it as a blush and it looked lovely. Works fine for lips as well. Just a quick dab over a lip balm or nude lipstick works nice.
• Razzleberry is a really sexy raspberry shade with golden shimmer. This shimmer is not like an overall gradual shimmer but it is more like, 'stars on sky'. (I hope it gives you the idea and actually makes sense). Combined with Poolside & Corrupt, it looks ah-mazing. Other than using as an eye shadow to create soft or smokey makeup looks, I dabbed it lightly on cheeks and it gave a glow-y and youthful effect. This also looks lovely on lips.
• Poolside is a bright blue shade with a hint of really fine soft gold tone. Looks lovely on eyes even if applied with full pigmentation or dabbed lightly. I like to frame my eyes by using it as an eyeliner.  
• Nautica is a shimmery kind-of navy blue shade. It looks absolutely gorgeous if used with Corrupt to create a smokey eye makeup.
• Pixi Dust is a highly shimmery lime green shade. A slight dab of it on inner corners of the eye brightens up the whole eye makeup.
• Dirty Martini is a deep matte olive green shade. Again, it also looks lovely if used to create a smokey eye makeup in combination with Corrupt. It works really nice to contour the crease of the eye or even if used as an eyeliner.
• Envy is a gorgeous metallic green shade. Just think of a smokey eye makeup using this shade. It gives the impression as if you have applied a green shimmer over a matte black eye shadow when you are using only one eye shadow.  
• Corrupt is a mind blowing matte black shade with a tiniest hint of shimmery sparkles, which is not really visible on application. This shade is just stunning. Works like a charm to create smokey eye makeup, to enhance crease of the eye for a casual dinner makeup or to fill in the brows. I have never ever used this much pigmented and rich, black eye shadow. I don't know about you guys but the richness of coals used to attract me so much when I was a kid. I can totally relate this shade with a coal. Too rich to be true. =D 

Overall Experience:

I adore eye shadows with high pigmentation and good staying power. I always measure the staying power of an eye shadow over an eye primer because I have really oily lids. If I don't use an eye primer, no matter how good an eye shadow is, it starts to crease instantly and tone down really soon. Plus, I feel it is unjustified with the eye shadow if you do not use an eye primer or an eye shadow base underneath.

For me these eye shadows stayed even when I was sweating. If I didn't have to stay, I am sure they would have stayed on my eyes for even more than 8-10 hours. This result has eye primer involved and the reason has been mentioned previously. With the use of an eye primer, eye shadows becomes really sweat and water resistant so better get a good one if you haven't already. I am using MUA's Professional Eye Primer currently.

If I talk about application, they are really easy to work with. They buildup easily, blend smoothly and do not give much fallout as well. I, however noticed slight fallout with Corrupt & Poolside but I know it happens with almost every blue and black eye shadow. 

Since I have mentioned all possible uses for these eye shadows already, I would only say that make the most out of your makeup. No book says that you cannot use an eye shadow anywhere else on your body. If you adapt this habit a bit, you will notice how easy your traveling will become. 

Right now I am keeping them in an empty eye lash case with transparent lid but I am looking forward to buy an empty palette to create my eye shadow kit.

Overall, I am really happy to use these eye shadows and I am really satisfied with the result. All these shades are really nice but Corrupt, Mocha & Vanilla Bean are on top.  

Recommendation:
If you want eye shadows that have high end quality but won't go heavy on your pocket, go for MUG eye shadows. Try atleast a few of them and don't forget to get Corrupt. I never tried this much pigmented black shade. Oh, I am in love with this. <3

Cost & Availability:
Each Makeup Geek Eyeshadows pan costs US$6. All the eyeshadows can be purchased online over here. They ship worldwide. You can also buy Makeup Geek products on BeautyBay (free worldwide shipping).

Have you tried Makeup Geek's eye shadow yet or planning to get some? Which one in your favorite eye shadow out of above I reviewed?

Click to read more;

- Reviews on Makeup Geek products

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Disclosure: PR sample(s) sent for review. I am neither paid nor compensated for my opinion. My readers are my priority and providing honest reviews is my responsibility. All opinions are my own and unbiased for the product(s) mentioned in the post.

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