Kiko Water eyeshadow

Kiko is an incredibly affordable makeup brand from Italy that deserves so much more love than it gets. Some of their items can be quite pricey, but they often do sales and other discounts so you can get the products at an even cheaper price very often. One their standout items to me are their eyeshadow sticks, but I have since also discovered their Water eyeshadow singles.  

Kiko Water eyeshadow
200, 215, 227, 228, 230

I currently own five of these and there seem to be 22 shades available. Two of the shades I have are currently not on the website, but those can just be out of stock. The Kiko Water eyeshadow are a wet and dry eyeshadow formula that is shimmery and intense straightaway. The color selection isn’t earth shattering: they are all very neutral. These retail for around €8.90 each and come in sleek looking black packaging with a mirror in the lid and an intricate design printed in the shadow itself.

227 Light Taupe

Kiko doesn’t put shade names on their products very often, so you have to look those up online. The lightest shade I got is light taupe and it is a very pale color. In the pang this looks quite stunning and I have heard of people using this as a face highlight. It has a pinky, purply shift to it that is very subtle and this makes for a great inner corner highlight.

200 Champagne

The next shade is Champagne. While a stunning shade, I don’t really find this lives up to its name. It is more of a rose gold to copper shade. It is quite warm toned, but definitely pulls lighter in real life than it does in these pictures. Champagne has a darker base to it, but the reflect is much lighter. A stunning shade for applying all over the lid.

228 Tortora

Tortora is quite possibly the most unique shade in this selection. Looking like a deep taupy grey, this has a purple shift to it and the more you turn it into to the light, the more it seems to change color. It is not a straight up duochrome though as it is very subtle. Still, this is a very pretty taupe that can be use all over the lid or on the lower lash line.

215 Midnight Blue

This shade I can no longer find on the official Kiko website. Maybe it is discontinued? Or perhaps it is just out of stock? Who knows. But this is a stunning, deep midnight blue. It pulls a little bit greyish as it has a clear grey base to it, but the reflects in it are blue which makes this a very interesting shade as well. Great for a pop of color on the lower lash line.

230 Graphite

Graphite is, as the name suggests, a deep charcoal grey with lots of silver shimmer particles. This gives the shade some dimension and if you are into intense smokey eyes, this is a great shade to layer on top for a bit of extra sparkle. It does pull a lot lighter when swatched though as you can see below. That is mainly due to the fact that the reflects are quite light. The base color is quite dark, but the shimmer in this shadow keeps it from being too muddy.

The Swatches

227, 215, 230, 231, 228, 200

I ended up buying these shadows in two goes, which is why there are two separate sets of swatches. Apologies for that. There also seems to be a black in that second picture which I must have decluttered before I got around to writing this review. As you can see these all pack quite a lot of shimmery. 227 appears to be the sheerest of the bunch, but all of these look much lighter swatched than they do in the pans. Midnight Blue looks more like a grey than a blue to me in these swatches. However finger swatches never tell the whole story though, so let’s look at how these apply.

The Application

Ta-dah! Pretty right?! I find that these shadow perform best, not in a swatch but on the eye. Here, they are apply dry. That’s right. These have not been foiled, nor have them been wet. I am wearing all 5 shades: 200 is all over the lid, 227 in the inner corner, 215 is on the lower lash line, 228 is in the crease and 230 is in the outer V.

Despite the shimmer, these blend well and still work in places where you normally would not think to apply a shimmer shade such as in the crease. These add a lot of brightness to the look and I like how this came out. The wear time on these is good over a primer, but I do find that they lose intensity as some of that shimmer starts to disappear over time.

The Conclusion

The Kiko Water eyeshadows are a great option if you are into singles and love a good shimmer. I am more of a palette girl myself, so I don’t use this as much as I should. However, the finish is interesting. The textures are nice, these blend well and they are pretty affordable too. In short, these are definitely worth a shot and if you like wearing quite simple everyday makeup, these are a musthave.

What do you think of the Kiko Water eyeshadow?