Catrice Prêt à Lumière eyeshadow

Whenever Catrice releases new eyeshadows, I am always curious. Some of their formulas are incredible, while others are a bit meh. My favorites have to be the sadly discontinued Liquid Metal shadows. Some of their singles are alright as well and I get on fairly well with their eyeshadow palettes too. So when I spotted these new Pret-a-Lumiere shadows, I knew I wanted to try them. Are these a good addition to Catrice’s ever-changing make up line?

Catrice Prêt à Lumière longlasting eyeshadow
020 Prêt-à-Perlé, 050 La Vie En Rose, 090 Allez Les Bleus

Let’s look at the price point first. Each Prêt-à-Lumière eyeshadow will set you back €3.99 each. For a drugstore single that is fairly reasonable, but if you think of the fact that Catrice has been upping their prices for a while, then I do hope that the balance between price and quality is still alright with these. Each compact contains 2 grams of product, which is a fair amount of shadow.

The packaging is one that I love. The plastic feels a tad cheap as it’s quite thin and lightweight. The concept of the square window showing part of the shadow inside and the large round pan with the name of the shadow embossed does make these shadows seem a lot more luxurious. For a drugstore brand, Catrice always knows how to stay chic.

Catrice Prêt à Lumière longlasting eyeshadow 020 Prêt-à-Perlé

Prêt-à-Perlé is an intense shimmering gold shade with a peachy/ champagne undertone. There were two shades in the line that were very similar: this one and one that was a tad lighter than this. But just a touch, which on the eye, I thought would simply not show up. Out of a total 9 shades, to have 2 that are pretty much indistinguishable seems a bit much to me.

Catrice Prêt à Lumière longlasting eyeshadow 050 La Vie En Rose

La Vie En Rose is a soft pink shade that is as intensely shimmery as the previous shadow. Because it is a fair bit lighter however, it doesn’t show up very well on my pale skin tone. I love wearing these type of shades in the inner corner and this seemed to be a perfect shade for doing just that.

Catrice Prêt à Lumière longlasting eyeshadow 090 Allez Les Bleus

Allez Les Bleus instantly caught my attention. In the array of neutral and very light intense shimmer shades this line contains, this vibrant cobalt blue appeared to be the odd one out. Plus most drugstore brands don’t have a ton of crazy shades in their lines, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a shade such as this pop up in the line.

Prêt-à-Perlé, La Vie En Rose, Allez Les Bleus

As a swatch these colors look intense and well pigmented. The blue shade needed to be build up a bit to become this intense but it only took 2 swipes. The other two went on beautifully. The main reason for this is a different in texture. The blue felt a tad more stiff, whereas the champagne/ gold and rose tone felt much more smooth and buttery.

eye look:
lid: Allez Les Bleus
inner corner: La Vie En Rose
Lower lash line: Prêt-à-Perlé

Of course I made an eye look using these three shades! I did pull in some additional shades to complete the overall look. The blue is the intense pop of color I wanted it to be, but what a nightmare to apply! The gold and rose shade applied a little bit more easily, but end up looking far less intense applied with a brush than with finger tips.

However, the biggest let down with these shades is not their initial application. It’s their blendability. These shadows will not blend. You apply them and then they’re stuck. Of course that is part of the longlasting formula, but I would like to blend out my shadow to avoid it looking like a blob of color on my eye. Unfortunately, these didn’t blend out, however much I tried.

full face

This could have been so great, but alas. These new Catrice Prêt-à-Lumière eyeshadows just aren’t my favorite. They look so stunning in the pan and in the swatch, but applied to the eye they are close to being a nightmare. They build up nicely in color, but blending is a no go with these. To be honest, these are best applied with fingers and then left alone, but that can easily make for messy, muddy and patchy eyeshadow looks. I’m afraid these are a no go for me.

What is your favorite drugstore eyeshadow formula?