Maybelline: Stylish Smokes Eyeshadow Quads (Natural Smokes, Emerald Smokes and Amethyst Smokes) Swatches and Reviews

Maybelline has a line of eyeshadows out called "Stylish Smokes". They come in 4 colours, I have three here to show you. These come in quads, with labeled lid, crease, browbone and outer corner colours, and directions on the back of how to apply, depending on what intensity you want to create. Maybelline makes very affordable, cheap, drugstore shadows, these retail for about $5-7 CAD. These come with little sponge applicators, but I took those out because I don't use them.

(Left to Right) Natural Smokes, Emerald Smokes and Amethyst Smokes

I was excited about these shadows, but for the most part they look lovely in the pan, but on the eye, I didn't get the result that I was expecting. I also use a primer underneath shadows, high end or drugstore, under these I have the ELF mineral primer.

Natural Smokes comes with a shimmery taupey lid colour, it looks a bit like MAC Satin Taupe. The lid colour is definitely the winner in this quad, it's beautiful, applies very smoothly. The crease is a dark brown with a little red in it. The outer corner is a matte grey with some brown in it. The browbone is a matte white, it does not really show up and is chalky.

And here is Natural Smokes on my eye. As you can tell it looks pretty light, not vibrant at all. The lid colour shows because it is shimmery, also it may look like Satin taupe, but on the lid, it is not at all like it, meh. This quad is good for subtle, everyday looks.

 

Emerald Smokes has a green yellowy lid colour, looks similar to MAC's Sumptuous Olive at first glance. The crease is vibrant medium green, browbone is nicer than the one in Natural Smokes, it is white with green-yellow ting, the outer corner is blackened dark green, it looks brown in the picture, but it's definitely black.

Emerald smokes on my eye. It looked darker in person,  but it looks pretty washed out here. I feel like when you add the crease colour, which looks great, you don't get the payoff on your eye at all. The colours tended to fade a lot on this quad in particular, it looked good when you first put it on, and then once you got finished, the colour did not look the same.

Lastly, Amethyst Smokes, is a standout for me. The lid is medium purple with blue shimmer. the blue really glows through. The crease colour is grapey/plumy purple, also really impressive when swatched. The browbone is a pigmented white. The outer corner is a black with silver shimmers.

Amethyst Smokes turned out the best out of all 3 quads. The colours translate a lot better on the eye, more pigmentation for sure. The lid colour and crease work really well together. The outer colour black isn't as rich as it looks in the pan, you gotta apply it a couple times to get it to appear black.  Purples work really well with green eyes, so I knew that I would like this one. I would recommend getting this one and perhaps passing on the rest.

So, these shadows appear nice in the quads, but on the eye they do not come out looking like that unfortunately. Perhaps, if you applied these wet or really kept applying layers and layers of them you would get a better outcome, I do not have the patience for that. Personally for a highlight (browbone) colour I prefer a more creamy, shimmery colour, as I do apply it to the tearduct and these quads disappointed me with their browbone colours. The shadows were not gritty and did not have any fallout, which was nice.

The Good
* smooth application for some shadows
* Cheap, easily found in drugstores
* no fallout

The Bad
* not very pigmented
* bad/chalky browbone colours
* colours fade quickly
* difficult to pick up much of the product on your brush