Make Up Geek Duo Chrome & Foiled eyeshadows

One brand which I had been curious about for some time was Make Up Geek. For a long time, this brand was fairly hard to get a hold of in Europe, but ever since BeautyBay started stocking the brand, it’s become a lot easier. So a few months ago I decided to take the plunge and ordered some of the eyeshadows by Make Up Geek. I ordered 7 in total: 2 duo chrome and 5 foiled shadows.

Make Up Geek Duo Chrome & Foiled eyeshadows
Houdini, Havoc, Steampunk
Mesmerized, Charmed, In the Spotlight, Grandstand

The main reason why people have been raving about Make Up Geek is the quality you get for the price. Rumor has it that MAC has lowered their eyeshadow price in order to compete with Make Up Geek! The duo chrome shadows cost 6 euros a piece. The foiled shadows are more expensive at 10 euros a piece. That is still cheaper than many other single shadows though and if you over over a certain amount than shipping will also be free if you order them via BeautyBay.

Make Up Geek eyeshadows are single pan eyeshadows. This means you do need an empty palette to place these in which can add to the expense. I still had an empty Z-palette that I purchased some years ago and I’ve decided that if I like these, I will be purchasing more MUG shadows in the future and build my own palette.

The shadows come wrapped much like a MAC single eyeshadow pan. Each shadow is individually wrapped in a piece of cardboard. The duo chrome shadows have a very cool looking holographic design, while the foiled shadows have a metallic rose gold finish.

Havoc

A few shades were very easy to pick. I don’t own many duo chrome shadows, so I knew I wanted to try those. I went with havoc: an interesting taupe/ brown with a green shift to it that I think will be very useful for spicing up many different looks. On the eye I found this quite sheer, but I packed it on over a different shade and loved the result.

Steampunk

This looks like an intense reddish brown shade, but don’t be fooled. Steampunk is a great smokey eye color with a black brown base and a reddish brown shift. Incredibly cool I think layered over a black or dark brown base for that extra touch. Blended out I found this shadow to leave more of the base shade behind than the stunning shift you see in this picture.

Houdini

Since I have brown eyes, teals are usually a great shadow to work with. Teal + brown eyes truly makes them pop. This shade not only looks stunning in the pan, but also on the eye. It is dark and intense and blends so smoothly you wouldn’t believe this to be a powder shadow. Quality wise this is the best one in the bunch.

Mesmerized

I love a good taupe and where mesmerized looks more warm toned in these pictures, it has a that cool grey brown tone to it that I love so much. This shade is very intense, has a great amount of shine, yet remains a good basic to have. In short, this is a good standard shade to have.

Charmed

Charmed is a very interesting and unique shade. It looks quite silvery in some lights, but then it has this hint of green to it which makes it infinitely more stunning. I think this is another one with a great pay off. This looks stunning on the lid, but also on the lower lash line.

In the Spotlight

A good inner corner highlight that is super shimmery is always a good shade to own. And you won’t find a shade more perfect for that purpose than In the Spotlight. This looks a lot more pink in this picture than it actually looks. It is more of a peachy pink with an intense shine that will get any inner corner highlight popping.

Grandstand

Finally, another favorite of mine would be Grandstand. This is an intense coppery bronze shade that will turn any look into a metallic extravaganza. This shade is luscious and intense, though I wish it would show up a little bit deeper then it ends up doing once applied.

When you line up the shades you can clearly see the difference between the different finishes. The foiled shadows all have an intense shine and feel like pressed pigments. Duo chrome shadows are stunning as well and you can clearly see the shift in the pan. However, with a brush I feel none of these shadows apply as intensely as with a finger.

Swatches

Can we just take a moment to look at this gorgeousness? Each shade swatches beautifully and intense. You can clearly see the difference in finish and richness between the different shades. What’s more is that all shadows are buttery soft to the touch. Lasting power is great as well, but application can be a bit of a hassle I find. These simply apply best with fingers and not with a brush.

Look using all shades
Charmed + Havoc (lid)Steampunk & Houdini (crease)
Mesmerized (outer part of lid)
In the Spotlight (inner corner)
Grandstand (lower lash line)

Forgive my tired looking face, but the result of these shadows is an intense smokey eye look that I love. Houdini was the easiest to apply for me. Steampunk pulled a lot darker once blended out than I had expected and I ended up layering Havoc over Charmed to create and intense look on the lid. The shadows don’t necessarily all go together, but I just wanted to play around with these to see what it would look like and ended up really liking the results.

The verdict? Yes, Make Up Geek has some amazing shadows. The purchase of these 7 shadows have definitely intrigued me enough to try more. The only downside I see with these is the application method. To get the intense look of the swatches you will need fingers rather than a brush, but other than that these Make Up Geek eyeshadows work like a dream.

What do you think of Make Up Geek?
Any recommendations on what other shades I should get?