Eyeshadow Swatch Project: Yellows

Posted on Monday, at bought • 1485 views

On December 30th, I was sounding off that I needed to get back to work because I was creating too many blog projects for myself...and CydonianMU (she did purples) said that I could join her, KimmieKarmaLove (she did blues), jadecarver (she did blacks/greys), RobynHeartsSlap (she did greens), and Raerae (she did reds and oranges) in an eyeshadow swatching collaboration. ("Oh, I'm not helping, am I?" LOL) The general plan was that to start off, each person would pick a color and would make a list of their 10/15/20 favorite shades of that color...and then swatch them all. Since I was planning to do this for my entire collection anyway, this seemed a good way to get started! I've already begun adding the montages to some of my colors - several older, and some of the newer ones that I bought this winter but hadn't catalogued yet. I started with yellows and golds...and then just continued slowly swatching my way through my collection.

Going through my own collection, I've done:

Eyeshadow Swatch Project: Yellows

My favorite gold/yellow eyeshadow colors, alphabetically by manufacturer and then by color name, are:

  1. Aromaleigh v1's Astonish — I love that this is a rich metallic, with a high shine whether applied dry or foiled. It also switches colors: now it looks silver, now it looks gold!!
  2. Aromaleigh v1's Butterscotch — I got this as part of one of Aromaleigh v1's "garage sales", and fell in love instantly! A near-sheer pink gold duochrome that works as an all-over color, or a highlight. I haven't tried patting this over a darker cream shadow base like Plum-ing for Gold or Tidal Rave...but I'd love to see what happens.
  3. Aromaleigh v1's Georgiana — a gorgeous tan-gold with warm red sparkle, Georgiana isn't a true duochrome, but it's a lovely "neutral-plus". I got some just as they were selling out during the original Angels program, then picked up a few more jars during Aromaleigh v1's final clearance days.
  4. Aromaleigh v1's Oberon — And look! Another mighty morphin' semisheer! I love makeup with a flash of green: eyeshadows, lipsticks, nail polishes... I just keep checking HovercatMittens' blog and twitter feed. She seems to gravitate toward these, and I follow along in her wake, gleefully picking up more pretties :D
  5. Bare Escentuals' Firelight — Fire Opal, the other eyeshadow in the Fired Up Foiling Glimmers kit, has more of a duochrome effect than Firelight...but it's an orange, and I'm making a list of golds. So there you go :D The duochrome in Firelight is extremely faint, and almost isn't visible. You can amp it up by foiling heavily, or by foiling over a green cream shadow; but the color by itself makes a nice pale-bright yellow either for the entire lid or for highlighting.
  6. Bare Escentuals' Hot Spot — really shines when damp or foiled - that's when the violet duochrome is most visible. It can take a bit of work to figure out how to best use this color...but if you're at all attracted to duochromes, it's worth the extra effort and patience.
  7. Bare Escentuals' Soul — buff-yellow matte, excellent for all-over application or for highlighting. You'd think, with the other colors I chose, that this seems like an odd addition to my list of favorite yellows. Not at all! It's an eyeshadow wardrobe essential, to me. Similar to Shiro's Likelike, but paler - more cream-buff than cream-yellow.
  8. Bare Escentuals' Ta-dah — I only discovered this color recently, but it's a gorgeous tan-gold pearl that looks really good on me. You won't be able to find it in BE boutiques just yet, but hit Ebay. That's where I found mine.
  9. Bare Escentuals' Trophy Wife — applied dry it doesn't do much. But applied damp or wet, the gold really deepens.
  10. Everyday Minerals' Scented Candles — Similar to Ta-dah, but less pigmented. Good for highlighting and blending, and before the latest wave of Ta-dah had hit Ebay, this was a really inexpensive way to get this color. Now it's been discontinued...and most of EDM's other colors are not worth the price being charged for them - which is mostly for that thricerotted rollerball packaging...but I digress. I've said quite enough about this vendor elsewhere on my site. But...I really, really, really do like this color. It's one of my go-to shades, and I'm glad I stocked up before it was discontinued and while I could get 45% off if I bought multiple fullsized items.
  11. Meow Cosmetics' Ducat — a softer gold shimmer that's semisheer when applied dry, and a nice gold accent - not too heavy - when foiled.
  12. Meow Cosmetics' Ra — metallic, but less pigmented than Aromaleigh v1's metallics - so it's easier to get a metallic wash of color without foiling.
  13. Morgana Cryptoria's Buried Treasure — gorgeous bright sun-yellow with pink and gold sparkle
  14. Pure Luxe's Promiscuous — Some Pure Luxe colors are obvious repacks (the bubblegum/bright primaries, the heavy metalz, the auras, the fall 2009 colors.) Others are obviously not (the Kaleidescopes.) Others...I can't be sure, but don't really care (the duochrome blues like Helix and Vortex.) Promiscuous, which premiered in spring 2008, is one of those "I can't spot it immediately, and don't care to put in the work" colors (one other shade from that same release-period, Frou Frou, also has a faint duochrome effect.) I like the pale mustard-yellow base with the duochrome green flash!!
  15. Shiro Cosmetics' Pikachu — highly pigmented mustard-yellow. REALLY highly pigmented!! The red sparkle is definite, but sparse - so the yellow shows through. If you're unfond of yellows at all, you might want to be careful with this shade. On the other hand...what better way to break out of your comfort zone than with something this bright and cheerful?
  16. The SheSpace's Roaring Metaphor — one of the colors from TSS' Leo collection that -=isn't=- a duochrome! A slightly tarnished-gold shimmer that shows decent pigmentation levels whether foiled or dry.
  17. The SheSpace's Shot The Messenger
  18. The SheSpace's The Golden Rule — semisheer pink and gold duochrome. Applied dry you mostly see a pale, sheer gold...but even dry, the duochrome comes through.

My list of favorite colors spans vendors, and ranges from semisheer to totally opaque, from matte to metallic. Before I put together this list I knew I had a lot of duochrome colors...but over one third of the colors in this list are true duochromes (colors that change shade, depending on the angle at which they're viewed.) Astonish changes between silver and gold, depending on lighting and angle. Butterscotch and The Golden Rule are both semisheer pink-gold duochromes. Oberon? Green-gold duochrome (much the same as Promiscuous, except that Oberon is more pigmented.) Firelight has only the barest flash of green duochrome; but Hot Spot can -=only=- be enjoyed when applied damp or foiled to highlight the duochrome effect - otherwise you barely even see the pale buff color. Out of a list of eighteen colors, seven are duochromes. That's almost 39%.

I think I can safely claim the Duochrome Fetishist Merit Badge.

Photos that show how the product actually performs...! See how I create my swatches

Eyeshadow Swatch Project: Yellows Aromaleigh v1's Butterscotch Aromaleigh v1's Georgiana Aromaleigh v1's Oberon BareMinerals' Firelight BareMinerals' Hot Spot BareMinerals' Soul BareMinerals' Ta-dah BareMinerals' Trophy Wife Everyday Minerals' Scented Candles Meow Cosmetics Ducat Meow Cosmetics' Ra Morgana Cryptoria's Buried Treasure Pure Luxe's Promiscuous Shiro Cosmetics' Pikachu The SheSpace's Roaring Metaphor The SheSpace's Shot the Messenger The SheSpace's The Golden Rule

(When all of the montages are complete, they'll have four views of each color. Starting from top left and going clockwise, they will each contain: a close-up/detail shot of the color in the pot; the color foiled over bare skin; the color on my eyelid; the color patted dry over primer. I have found that taking pics of the color on my lid, even a single color, is what is technically termed "a stone bitch". I try to close my lid too tightly, which crinkles the lid. Or I don't close it enough, and there's a creepy sliver of eye peeping out at you and I look like a freshly-pithed frog. It is not easy. But rather than let that hold me up, I'm assembling these montages of all of my colors with the detail shot and the two swatches. I'll probably go back and add in the on-lid pictures later...but I've got close-ups of the product, foiled swatches, and dry-over-primer swatches. That doesn't illustrate everything about a color, but it does give you a better idea than just a 200 x 200 pixel photo of the eyeshadow in its pot.

...and yes, for those of you who wonder how long this will take: I'm going to give myself two years. Yes, I could swatch four colors a day every single day of 2011 and be finished by next January 1 (assuming I don't buy anything else...and how likely is that? Yeah. So two years it is.) Let me know how you like these montages!!

What are your favorite gold and yellow eyeshadow colors?

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