Armani Eyes To Kill 'Lust Red' Intense Eyeshadow

As soon as I saw this post and this post by Grace at London Makeup Girl I knew I was going to buy this. It's everything I love in an eyeshadow; dark, rich & slightly shimmery.

The Eyes To Kill Intense eyeshadow range are vibrant, complex, multi-dimensional colours housed within a hybrid formula which feels like a cream but behaves like a powder. It is, in effect, a loose pigment, but is smooth and compact. According to Armani, the formula is composed of an unprecedented association between binder elements and pearls that creates an exceptional luminosity depth and intensity of the eye colour. I have no idea what that means. I don't particularly care. What I do care about is how it looks, applies & lasts. Lets see, shall we?

I particularly like the little press that comes inside. In fact, more brands could learn from this packaging for pigments.

I'm impressed that the eyeshadow appears in real-life as it does on the promo shots. It's a dark black, shot through with purple/red glitter, not dissimilar to MAC's Beauty Marked eyeshadow, but with infinitely better pay-off.

The website states that the pigment can be used wet or dry. The swatch below is a swipe of my finger, dry. I tried it wet too & it looked exactly the same. Usually you would apply a shadow with a damp brush to intensify the pay-off but this doesn't need it. I'm pleased that the red glitter isn't just for show & disappears as soon as the shadow touches the skin.

These swatches on my lid are the shadow applied directly (no base shadow or primer) using a MAC 217 brush (I thought the brush would disperse the pigment too much & dilute it but it worked fine for me).

Apparently these are supposed to last 24 hours, but can be wiped off easily. I don't know about 24 hours! That's a fairly hefty claim; I will get back to you on that one!

So, what do you think? I love shadows that are interesting enough to be worn alone & all over the lid. I don't have the time (or the inclination!) to faff about doing a crease, shading etc in the morning & favour shadows that can just be chucked on & look amazing with no work and I think this does just that. I'm scared for my bank balance. There are at least half a dozen other shades I need and at £24.50 I'm probably going to have to get a 2nd job...

PS: massive thanks to Pip for traipsing to 2 Selfridges to buy this for me. Go check her out on YouTube