Lakme Eye Color Quartet (Desert Rose) Review

I recently made a trip down to Mustafa Centre in one of my impromptu bored moods, and came across this palette. I don't trust dubious brands, but I have read about this brand in particular - Lakme, which is quite widely used by Indian women. 

I figured that since Indian women have beautiful eyes that any eye product of a trusted brand of theirs should be pretty decent, and I was proved right. I chose the most neutral of palettes to try, which was the Lakme Eye Color Quartet in Desert Rose. 

For SGD$11.50, it is quite a solid feeling case. The covers hinge is stiff and does not flop back down when open. The case is a little hard to open without nails because it's quite hard to grip, but with nails it's easy to edge the nail into the slot to wedge the case open.

The quartet consists of a nice pale gold and pink, a copper and a plum (which comes out a dark copper when swatched). None are matte. I picked this set because I felt that the highlight colours could also perform quite nicely on my face.

The formulation of the powders are very smooth, highly pigmented and easy to blend. They work fine with fingers for me. They are not as pigmented as the Sleek eyeshadows but seem to go on smoother. There is also no fallout of powder or glitter when used. The above swatch was made without primer. The least pigmented shade would probably be the pink shade, a light swatch would look more silver than pink.

The copper and plum shades do look quite similar in colour when swatched, with plum being slightly darker. It would've been nice if the plum was true to pan. I also don't particularly like the copper and plum shades as I don't feel they're dark enough for me nor suit my skin tone that well, but they would be quite outstanding on someone fairer in my opinion.

A dark brown would have perfected this palette for me as my only qualm is that there are no shades that can double up as an eyeliner shade.

Nevertheless, the colours perform well together and alone as a light wash of colour across the lids. I like it better for a soft look. Just in case anyone thinks that my eye picture looks weird, I did edit my eyebrows out of the picture as they were peeking in at the corner being distracting.

The eyeshadows last about 6 hours on my oily lids (without primer) without creasing. With primer I don't even have to worry about it, so that's pretty awesome!


Summary:

Pros:

• Pigmented, smooth and easy to blend
• highlighter shades can be used on the face
• long lasting
• Value for money

Cons:

• Darker colours in the pan do not really suit me
• No eyeliner shade