Review - Maybelline Color Tattoo Pure Pigments

Recently, Maybelline released pigments as part of their Color Tattoo line. As a huge fan of their Color Tattoo Cream Shadows, I knew I definitely wanted to give these a try. I picked these up from Ulta a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, they actually had one of every color at the Ulta I visited. But, by one of every color, I literally mean just one of each color. Only a few shades had multiples left! My first instinct was to buy all the neutral shades, but I decided to venture out and picked up an assortment of colors. They're priced around $6-$7 depending on where you buy. Maybelline was on sale that day so I got mine for around five bucks. Woohoo!

OK, onto what you're really wanting to know. How does the quality compare? I have to say that I have mixed feelings about these. Below are dry swatches of the colors I picked up. My first thought upon opening was that the powder is very very fine. These are quite messy and you have to be careful when working with them. The second thing I noticed is that the pigmentation varies from shade to shade.

Black Mystery isn't really the blackest black. It is quite pigmented, but it's actually more of a dark charcoal grey. I really loved this color when I swatched it. It had a fine blue glitter running through the color and looks gorgeous. I found Brash Blue to be more sheer than the others. I had a little bit of a love/hate with this color. I think the bright cobalt is beautiful, but it was difficult to get the full color intensity. It definitely needed a few layers to build up. It also stained my skin. When I wiped off all the swatches, the blue would not come off with soap or remover. I had to scrub to get it off. Not cool. Forest Fatale is probably my favorite of all the colors. It has great pigmentation and is a really sophisticated sagey olivey green color. Win for this one. Wild Gold is also very pigmented and intense. I found it easy to work with and swatched as expected. Lastly was Improper Copper. The only neutral shade I picked up. And yes, I picked it up because of the name. Does anyone else do that? Nail polish names always get me too! Anyways, this one is a really pretty intense copper. I've probably gotten the most use out of this one.

Overall, I have to say that in my trial and errors of applying these, they work best when applied using fingers or a dense flat eye shadow brush to pat the color onto the eye. They are quite messy so I would suggest using these prior to applying foundation in case any powder falls. I also found that they look more intense and just better in general when applied over an eyeshadow primer or base. I actually started layering them over my Maybelline Color Tattoo Cream Shadows and it really brought these to full potential. The base will give the powder something to cling to and will intensify the color. Also, these can be applied wet for more intensity as with any pigments, but you really want to just slightly dampen your brush. Too much water will make these go to a funny consistency since the powder is so fine. I actually found that the glitter looks better dry because when you wet the pigment, the glitter sort of just melts into the color. In general, I'm not so sure I would recommend these highly. I liked some, I didn't like others, so it's kind of a toss up. They're really messy (then again, all loose powders are) and from the looks of it, each shade performs differently so it's difficult to really know what you're going to get without trying it. I would say that Forest Fatale and Improper Copper in particular are really beautiful (I would repurchase those) and it's great to see a brand creating a loose pigment considering there aren't that many drugstore pigments available. NYX does have some, but I can't think of other drugstore brands that sell loose pigments. L'oreal do have pressed pigments though that are gorgeous. And because they're pressed, they're less hassle too! Not that these are bad, but I would recommend any shade of the L'oreal pressed pigments all day long over these. Hope this review helps. Until next time....