Drugstores in Singapore never carry the full range of Revlon cosmetics, not even the Revlon counters found in Metro or Robinsons. Hear my rant on the inadequacy of cosmetics range in Singapore here.
Imagine my ecstasy when I saw the Revlon Illuminance Creme Shadow Quad in Wild Orchids in a Watsons store at Ximending during my trip to Taiwan! I’d long heard of these cream eyeshadows but they never appeared on our shelves. It felt surreal to actually hold in my hand the chic black palette with small clear plastic circles that pop out.
There was no tester but I didn’t care and immediately grabbed it! I think we are more susceptible to impulse shopping when on holidays. These thoughts might sound familiar:
“I can’t find this back home!”
“It must be cheaper here”
“What’s one more item in the basket?”
“I’ve already got the currency exchanged, might as well use it all”
Well, these thoughts certainly ran wild in my mind when I was considering whether to buy the Revlon crème eyeshadow quad.
It didn’t help that it was the last one on the left too! So I had another thought to add:
“It’s the last one! It must be very popular, that’s why!”
This is definitely a good example of why most things bought on impulse turn out to be completely useless. Bah.
I think I also bought it because I felt patriotic upon seeing the ‘Orchids’ in the name. LOL. The national flower of Singapore is Vanda Miss Joaquim, a hybrid orchid cultivar.
Pretty Colors
Aptly named, the Revlon Illuminance Creme Shadow Quad in Wild Orchids is a lavender-based quad consisting of 4 gorgeous colors of that look like they would make a lovely smokey purple/plum eye makeup look.
Left to right:
Plummy brown brick color with golden shimmer
Light pink lavender with golden shimmer
Periwinkle blue with silver shimmer
Pale pink with silver shimmer
Poor Pigmentation and Blendability
For the swatches, I ran my ring finger many times on the cream eyeshadow and swiped each on my hand once.
As you can see from the picture, it is harder to achieve opacity with the plummy brown and light pink lavender. These have chunkier gold shimmer bits. As you will read in the next section, they don’t last at all and all that’s left of these would be chunky glitter. Not sexy.
It will not be so much of an issue if the colors were more pigmented, but due to that, blending is not easy. More like totally unnecessary because you can’t really see the difference between one color and the next, except for the dark plummy color.
Overall, pigmentation of the Revlon Creme Shadow Quad in Wild Orchids is very poor. The colors just don’t show up regardless of what you use - fingers or a brush.
Poor Lasting Power
I really bought this eyeshadow quad because of how gorgeous the colors look sitting on the shelf. But this could be the worst cream eyeshadow I’ve ever used.
I always make sure to apply eyeshadow primer before any eye makeup to make it last for many hours. Urban Decay Primer Potion is one of the best eye primers you can find in the market and neither Nude nor Eden could make the Wild Orchids stay put. Very Wild indeed!
The colors smudged, creased, and faded after 2 seconds of application. Okie, maybe like 2 hours. But eyeshadows shouldn’t just last for 2 hours!
Then I tried using them as eyeshadow bases and paired them with pressed eyeshadows. OMG. My eye makeup turned into a shimmery hot creased mess by mid-day. They made my MAC and Urban Decay eyeshadows that normally don’t crease, CREASE!
My eyelid creases were so pronounced and void of color from the oily creams that I had to wipe off my eye makeup and reapply powder eyeshadow. Thank goodness I have a good stash of makeup with me at my work place.
I gave it a couple of chances more and it is now resting for eternity in my makeup drawer.
What Bun Bun thinks of the Revlon Illuminance Creme Shadow Quad In Wild Orchids:
What is the worst cream eyeshadow, or any eyeshadow, you have ever tried?
Share with us so we know never to buy them!
