Stila Shadow Pot

I was re-arranging my makeup drawer recently and came across my stash of Stila Shadow Pots. Many eons ago I had bought almost all of them on a crazy spree, probably there was some GWP involved! Anyway, I found that some cracks had appeared in my Smoke Shadow Pot as the cap was not tightly screwed on but it had not dried out and was still useable. So I've been using it the past few days as an eyeshadow base instead of my usual Testimo Eye Bright Up Base and in the process discovered that it's seriously excellent as a base. It's a shimmery light silver grey that I usually apply from the lid to the crease area. After that, I just apply any powder eyeshadow that I fancy that day on top of it.

The great thing about Smoke is that not only is it an excellent base that makes the eyeshadows last all day without creasing or fading, I find that many of my eyeshadow colors look much better layered over Smoke than on top of my usual primer, whether it's Testimo or UDPP. The silver shimmer helps to pump up the colors and make them appear more vibrant. The dark powder eyeshadows that I use as liners also blend extremely well with Smoke. It's somewhat similar to the effect that I get with Visee Aqua Shining Eyes GY003 except that Aqua Shining Eyes GY003 is too dark to use all over the lid.

So far I've tried using MAC's Showflower and Pandamonium quads as well as Stila's Touchdown in Tokyo eyeshadow trio with excellent results for all three. With both Showflower and Pandamonium, I applied the darkest shade in the quad from the lashline to the crease and the pink/purple shade in the outer part of the crease blended softly into the liner shade and then just any pale highlighter shade over the browbone area. The Touchdown in Tokyo trio is a particularly tricky palette to work because the moss and mustard shades in this palette are a flat matte so if you're not careful, it pretty much looks like fungus/algae/moss (take your pick) and mustard smacked on the lid. But when layered over Smoke Shadow Pot, the silver shimmer of Smoke shows through the Touchdown in Tokyo eyeshadows and gives them that extra sparkle such that they end up looking much more flattering.

Anyway, just wanted to share that discovery!