Review: Collistar Eyeshadows

I don't know if you are aware of the Italian brand Collistar. It is a drugstore brand but belongs to the highly priced section so you can imagine the look on my face when a beautician friend of mine gave me not 1 but 5 eyeshadows (here let me remark that I never had to fork out a Euro cent, or back in the day, a single Maltese cent to purchase eyeshadow as I get loads as gifts... check out my eyeshadow collection here). 

Here are the eyeshadows and a swatch of each:

Shade 1 ~ A golden peach (left)

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Shade 3 ~ A true gold (right)

Shade 8 ~ A vibrant violet

Shade 13 ~ A shimmery navy blue

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Shade 20 ~ A light rosy pink

It's kind of annoying that they don't have a name but just a number isn't it? Anyhow, this doesn't affect the quality, so I can live with it! Furthermore, the numbers are only for referral purposes within this post as Collistar has now named the eyeshadows and given them different numbers. Moreover, the 'Luce' ones (nos. 1 & 20) are no longer available. You can check out the whole range of Silk Effect eyeshadows here.

Since the ones I have are usually given out as samples for clients to try, the packaging isn't exactly classy: just a flimsy plastic case (see image below), but the eyeshadow bit itself is quite nice, with a gold rim and the shade number in the corner and a silky-like (let's call it an) eyeshadow pan-holder. So don't worry, yours won't come in the flimsy packaging, but in this professional-looking case:

Oh, and by the way, if you happen to come across some empty eyeshadow palette that is small enough not to be bulky and large enough to hold all five of them, please let me know as I cannot seem to find any :S and I desperately need one to get rid of the plastic packaging.

You can see from the swatches above that these eyeshadows are very much pigmented. However, I would say that the 'Silk Effect' ones are a little bit more pigmented than the 'Luce' ones. They don't crease or fade (even without a primer), so they have quite a good staying-on power. Nevertheless, they are easy to take off at the end of the day.

They don't have any smell and they feel nice to the touch. They aren't very chalky or powdery, so you are guaranteed excellent application without worrying of the eyeshadow dust falling where it isn't supposed to whilst applying it.

I can't really decide which is my favourite out of all 5 because I really like all of them, but I kinda tend to reach for the gold one (3) and the pink one (20) the most, closely followed by the navy blue one (13). I really like the light purpley shimmery undertone the latter one has. With regards shimmer, shades 3 and 13 are a bit shimmery, but not that much. Shade 8 on the other hand is a rather matte colour with inconspicuous shimmery flecks. If I had to compare shades 1 and 20, which belong to the 'Luce' range, I'd say shade 20 has an evident sparkle, whilst shade 1 is a matte colour with just a hint of sparkle.

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