| Review | Victoria Beckham Beauty Smokey Eye Brick in Tweed



| Review | Victoria Beckham Beauty Smokey Eye Brick in Tweed

Rich warm browns and burgundy, it doesn't seem like a very Victoria Beckham palette but it is a beautiful inclusion into the currently very limited range of products available. According to Co-Founder and CEO, Sarah Creal, the color scheme was designed for deeper skin tones in mind. I appreciate their effort in trying to include all skin tones, as many luxury brands often forget about deeper skin tones. These rich and warm tones are absolutely beautiful for the fall and winter season but is the formula as rich as the colors appear to be?



The Victoria Beckham Beauty Smokey Eye Brick in Tweed retails for $54.00 USD and is available at Victoria Beckham BeautyThese eye palettes are luxuriously housed in a very sleek compact with an almost-tortoise shell-like pattern on the front. The unique design and texture of the cover feels very Victoria Beckham. It is luxurious, chic, and sophisticated. Everything you would imagine coming from the fashion icon. The compact is very slim and is a lot smaller than I imagined. It's about the size of a credit card. You still get 8.5 grams of product, which for a luxury quad, is a great value. Comparing it to other luxury brands, Tom Ford as an unusually high amount of product in their quads at 10 grams and Charlotte Tilbury only offers 5.2 grams of product in her quads. For the price, I would say you're still getting a good value from these palettes. The compact is light but still feels very significant and luxurious in your hands. Using the little button on the side, you can release the compact and the top elegantly pops open. It feels like a very modern take on vintage packaging. 







I have to commend Victoria Beckham for not only designing a beautiful compact but for making her packaging environmentally-friendly! From the exterior boxes to the packaging itself, she has tried to make everything eco-friendly as possible. The exterior boxes are made of recycled paper and minimal use of plastics in their actual packaging. Their very strong attempt and constant strive toward sustainable packaging is impressive and should be celebrated. Many luxury brands would not put in the effort to create sustainable packaging but they would rather put aesthetics over their impact on the environment. 



SHADES 


Victoria Beckham released 4 different Eye Bricks with 4 shades in each. This is one is modeled after her iconic red carpet smokey eye and includes a grayscale of shades in what is described by the brand as a satin-matte finish. The shades also vary in size depending on the shade. I believe the intention of this is because some shades will be used more or more often than others. For example, the lightest shade has the most product because it will be used the most as an all-over base shade. Whereas, the deepest shade is the smallest section because it will most often be used as a defining, smokey, or liner shade. The reason for all the shades being contained in one pan is to reduce the amount of packaging necessary, making the product more environmentally-friendly. It also suits Victoria's very fashionable and chic aesthetic.





Swatches from left to right: Caramel, Cashmere, Oxblood, Rust

Caramel - This shade is a light warm camel shade with a golden-undertone. It is quite warm and makes a beautiful crease and transition shade for this palette. This shade has some little bits of silver shimmer but it doesn't translate on the eyes. 

Cashmere - This shade is a medium warm plummy brown shade with little bits of shimmer. The shimmer doesn't translate on the eyes.

Oxblood - This shade is a warm deep plum shade and it is the driest of the eyeshadows in the palette. It still applies evenly and the shade adds a lot of interest to an otherwise quite neutral look. 

Rust - This shade is a rich rusty red shade with a warm undertone. This shade is also quite dry but applies fairly evenly on the eyes. This shade, obviously, adds a lot of warmth to the overall look. 

Like many of the Smokey Eye Bricks, these shades are easily dupeable. These eyeshadows from Colourpop are very similar and are a fraction of the price. The eyeshadow palette is the Exes and Oh's palette but you can find many of these shades individually. Here are some comparison swatches for you: 



Eyeshadows from left to right: top row - Side Tracked (single), Stay Golden, Issues, Fortunate 
bottom row - Note to Self (single), Hooky, Reckless, Realness 


Swatches from left to right: Side Tracked (single),  Note to Self (single), Reckless (palette), Realness (palette), Stay Golden (palette)

Side Tracked has a similar finish to the Caramel with the little bits of shimmer but it's peachier than Caramel. Note to Self is a much closer shade in tone and when Caramel is applied to the eyes, it is very similar.

Swatches from left to right: Caramel (VB), Cashmere (VB), Oxblood (VB), Rust (VB),Side Tracked (single),  Note to Self (single), Reckless (palette), Realness (palette), Stay Golden (palette)

I know these Colourpop shades aren't identical to the Tweed Palette but they are pretty close. My point is that the shades in the Tweed palette can be easily duped if you looked hard enough. I just used the eyeshadows that I have in my collection to try to dupe the palette but there are many affordable options if you're looking for similar shades. 

FORMULA

This powder eyeshadow formula is very soft and on the drier side. When you initially dip your brush into the powder, there is a bit of kick-up and as you apply the eyeshadow, I noticed a fair amount of fallout. This powdery texture presents several issues, the first one being that it doesn't adhere well to the skin. This is the cause of the fallout but it also causes the deeper shades, like Fumée, to apply patchily. When I applied Fumée in the crease with a blending brush, it applied a bit patchily but when I patted it onto the lid with a flat eyeshadow brush, it didn't have this effect. The second issue the powdery texture presents is that it doesn't last very long on the eyes before it begins to fade. I was actually shocked to discover that after I applied the eyeshadow, in about five minutes it began to fade. It was really strange and it looked like my skin was absorbing the eyeshadow because it was so much lighter than when I initially applied it. As fifteen minutes passed, I looked at my eyeshadow again, and there was a bit of creasing but there was significant fading! I layered on some more eyeshadow and continued to finish up my face makeup and fifteen minutes later, it had faded again. Keep in mind, I was testing it without an eyeshadow primer but I would still not expect the eyeshadows to fade as rapidly as they did. Although they faded, it did so fairly evenly so, it gave me that kind of lived-in smokey eye look that is still very flattering. The fading is so disappointing because the eyeshadows are actually very pigmented and when initially applied are very true to color. 




With primer, the eyeshadows experience significantly less fading, however, there is still subtle and noticeable fading within the first two hours. By about five hours in, there is still significant fading even with the eyeshadow primer. If you want more intensity and a bit more wear time, you will need a stickier base, like an eyeliner or cream shadow. Even with a stickier base, I still don't find the shadows to maintain their intensity like other formulas, which is a real shame. For some reason, my skin just absorbs and eats up these eyeshadows. I can't get them to stay on my eyes and I have never had this issue with other eyeshadows. 




THE LOOK

For the Victoria Beckham Tweed look, I took Caramel and placed it all over my lid and into the crease of my eye. Then, I put Cashmere into the crease to add more depth and I placed Rust into the crease to add more depth and warmth. Finally, I took Urban Decay 24hr Glide-On Pencil in Akaline (somewhat of a dupe to the VB Bordeaux pencil) and smudged it into my lashine and smudged it out with Oxblood. These pictures were taken immediately after I finished my makeup yet, you can see all the shades are quite muted and soft. I tried o really layer the colors for more intensity but they don't seems to apply the way they swatch. 




This second look was using the Exs and Oh's palette with the same eyeliner. I used a very similar placement and you can see how intense the eye look is. It took no effort to get color payoff and intensity. 




FINAL THOUGHTS 

I really wanted to love these but I just think they're ok. They're not bad in any way but they're not very special. The formula is frankly, mediocre. For a luxury brand, I expect a lot more in formula and performance, this palette falls a little short. The drier texture of the eyeshadows is really the biggest downfall in this formula. It doesn't adhere well, it doesn't wear well, and application requires a fair amount of effort with a fair amount of fallout. All of this produces a decent finished look but isn't impressive in any way. For the price and the prestige of the names behind the brand, I was expecting a much more exceptional finished look and for the application process to be a dream. While I don't regret getting this product, I probably won't buy another one unless there is a formula change. I also have a hard time recommending this product, as it is quite pricey and the quality is lackluster. I really wanted to love these because I'm such a huge fan of Victoria Beckham and I have seen many makeup artists use these eyeshadows beautifully but I can't seem to get these shadows to look as beautiful at the end fo the day. I'm going to keep working with them but I just don't think they're exceptional enough to recommend at the moment. Additionally, these shades are very basic and can be found almost anywhere and unfortunately, with a better formula. 

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for the thorough review! I wanted to try VBB eyeshadows and cream shadows so bad, but they're very difficult to order here. Now I feel like I'm not missing out too much... :P Too bad, the packaging is lovely!

    xx Laura / Laura Loukola Beauty Blog

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