evil shades spectrum palette. i bought this last year for my birthday (which was in august) for usd$20. they're now usd$30.

the product is wax based pigmented color. it's said to be a cross between nyx jumbo pencils and paintpots. they can be worn alone or used as base to intensify colors of eyeshadows.

at the time of order, there were no color choices. now you can customize the palette with colors of your choice. it comes with 2 sponge tip applicators.

color swatched at the back of my hand applied about 3 to 4 swipes with the sponge tip applicator.

i thought i've already written a post about this. apparently i forgot.

initial thoughts

i read some great reviews the spectrum pots. nyx jumbo pencils don't work for me. i was hoping these will.

the first disappointment was the color intensity. i've seen swatches with intense colors. however, as seen from my swatch, i had to do apply many swipes to get some color intensity. i couldn't get the green to show up. imagine how sheer it is when applied on the delicated eyes. it was after reading more reviews that the colors are in fact that way. i've learned not to rely too much on arm swatches, where the colors are usually more intense. they are great to demonstrate the color complexity but they don't usually end up that way on my eyes.

it was the color intensity expectation i found application difficult. i couldn't get any colors on my eyes. i found the sponge tip applicator useless. it just wipes off the primer applied before it and eyeshadows creased badly. it was hard picking up colors with my fingers. i couldn't work out how to appy. instruction from the website also suggested stiff brush (which i don't have) and cotton swab (couldn't apply the color evenly).

the disappointment is gone after learning that that's how they should be.

the next disappointment was the crease factor. nyx jumbo pencils crease on me. if used as color base, increased the rate of eyeshadow creasing.

i do have difficult eyes to work with. a lot of products crease even though many claimed that they work. i was hoping this will be the exception. like nyx jumbo pencil, while color of eyeshadow are more intense, it increased the rate of eyeshadow creasing. sometimes eyeshadow creased almost immediately! i tried different ways of application and they all failed.

i concluded back then that it's another failed product! i've not touched this palettel for months since then. until x'mas holiday.

second chance

while tidying my makeups during the holidays, i came across this palette and was debating to keep it or not. since i hate things going wasted, i decided to work on it again.

i'm not sure if it's due to the nature of the palette packaging, they will become drier. and it works better on me when it's drier!

from memory it was waxier when i got it a few months ago. it's harder to pick up product with my finger due to the drier consistency, but there are products there. on the other hand, i find that the colors are a bit more intense when padded on my lids than initial use.

in addition, eyeshadow last longer than when i first tried them. i've been using them as base quite frequently this holiday, when i don't wear makeup full day. surprisingly, eyeshadows did not crease until about 4 hours later. on the eye that has very bad crease problem, the eyeshadows faded greatly by about 6 hours. these were used over either udpp or tfsi.

while they may not last whole day on my eyes, i'm glad to find out they are usable now. i will not wear them on normal working days but i can use them when i'm only wearing makeup for a few hours.

update 16/05/2012

i haven't used these much for a few months. maybe since mid-february.

the reason this post was updated because i saw a photo on twitter showing 'unusual' moldy-like tingy on a spectrum pot.

i went to check my palette. the product appears like dried clay. nothing 'additional'.

i tested the color. when rubbed my finger over the product, i couldn't get any color. i tried again rubbing harder, i got little pills.

it was purchased august last year. it's unusable in less than a year. the texture went from waxy to dry clay. what a bummer. i thought at one stage it was working for me.

maybe it's the package. it has no seal and caused the product to dry up.

maybe it simply reached its lifetime.