I have now swatched all the highlighters and eyeshadows I bought from Aromaleigh Cosmetics. I initially talked about them here.
Highlighters: Part 1, Part 2.
Eyeshadows: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
I’m not usually a loose powder makeup fan. I like things that depot and fit in my palettes. Otherwise I forget I have them and they never get used. I couldn’t pass up the cool duochrome shades of Aromaleigh Cosmetics, especially for the cheap price and ability to buy a sample before a full sized item. I have noticed that the swatches on the site seem to run cooler and darker than the shades look in real life. So keep that in mind.
I found all the shades a nice texture. There is a wide variety in finishes with almost matte shades having a slight shimmer to them, to full on glittery shades. They do sell matte shades, I did not grab really glittery nor full matte shades to test. I stuck in the more satin to shimmery spectrum. I did find the darker shades a bit more patchy in application than the lighter and medium shades. Don’t dip your brush into the powder and apply without swirling it around in the lid to distribute it evenly on the brush. I got a more patchy application this way. It also applied way more intense in areas than I wanted if I didn’t swirl the brush first. This was especially true of the highlighters and when using lighter shades on the brow bone.
I tested a variety of eye primer bases with these to find out what was best. I tested: Urban Decay Eye Primer in Enigma, NYX Eyeshadow Base in Skin Tone, Laura Mercier Eye Basics in Bare, as well as Too Faced Glitter Glue and Shadow Insurance. All the eye bases had creasing eventually, none totally prevented it. Laura Mercier was too dry of a base, it caused the shadows to look most like their base and it didn’t show the duochrome effect well. Urban Decay was better but still didn’t capture the duochrome effect as well as the other less dry bases. Too Faced Glitter Glue wore like iron and the duochrome effect was great, it just dried so fast and it was hard to place the shadow well before it set. It was too hard to soften an edge. Too Faced Shadow Insurance was a touch better but it was still tacky and set fast.
Overall, I preferred the NYX Eyeshadow Base the most for this brand of eyeshadow. It’s creamy, showed the duochrome effect well and didn’t dry down which allowed blending. It is also the only eye base of all of them that doesn’t dry down, so it creases the fastest around 6 hours. With the non matte base or more shimmery shades it was OK to use Urban Decay or a drier eye base, but for the matte and big duochrome shades NYX was the best.
The highlighters are nice. Most are a light glow shimmer, none are glittery. A few shades are borderline frosty but nothing compared to some really frosty highlighters. They can be lightly applied and built up for more intensity. Very cool shades for highlighters, different from the norm. I use them on cheeks and eyes. Nice thing about these highlighters as well, they can be used on lips as well. I tried that, it was nice but I’m too lazy to add it over a lipstick for a cool effect and then have to reapply all day.
I’m glad I discovered this brand, there are definitely a few great shades I found that are nice to add to my collection. For the price you can’t beat trying a few shades out.