L'oreal H.I.P (High Intensity Pigments) Duos

At one time there was a lot of hype about the H.I.P (pronounced hip, yes, like the body part that joins your leg and body together) duos. In the midst of all the hype, of course I had to purchase some. There are now five different categories of the H.I.P duos: bright eye shadow duo, metallic eye shadow duo, concentrated eye shadow duo, crystal eye shadow duo, amd matte eye shadow duo. Those are the names per the L'oreal website. Until doing this blog, I actually didn't realize how many different types there were!

I personally own three of the duos. Two of these duos are of the bright eye shadow duo variety, and the other is a concentrated eye shadow duo.

The two bright duos that I own are entitled Riotous and Flamboyant. The concentrated duo is entitled Charisma.

When doing the swatches of the shadows, I felt that on the duos entitled Charisma and Flamboyant, the top shades (looking at the swatched paper) were very smooth and almost creamy. The bottom shads however, seemed to be chalky and dusty. I found that in the Riotous duo, it was just the opposite. The top shade was the chalky one, and the bottom shade was smooth. I think this may have something to do with the formulation of the products, as the chalky shades in Charisma and Flamboyant are both matte. In the Riotous duo, the chalky shade appears to have a glittery sheen though, so I don't know if that is the answer.

Overall, I like these shadows. One shade definitely prevails over another in each of the duos, but I feel that for approximately eight dollars, getting one high quality shadow is a good deal. Looking at it that way, the not-so-good shadows don't bother me as badly. It's a shame that they all don't have that smooth and creamy feel though!