Look into my eyes - Femme Fatale loose eyeshadow review

I hope you've all been enjoying your Easter holidays - I know I have! This is, of course, why there hasn't been a lot of thinky content here for the last couple of days. I'm taking a break from braining as well as work, so in keeping with the theme, here is another picture heavy post of pretty!

Femme Fatale is an Australian indie cosmetics brand, and I've showed you some of their amazing glitterbomb nail polishes here before. In an uncharacteristic show of spontaneity, I decided to get some of their loose eyeshadows - while I wasn't 100 per cent I could actually use them properly, the colours they offer are just so rich and delicious I figured it was worth a shot, and I'm so very glad I did. Femme Fatale's sale options for their eyeshadows support just this kind of dabbling, which I think is a brilliant idea. Loose eyeshadow can be challenging in and of itself, and all the swatch photos in the world won't guarantee it will actually look good on your particular eyes, so offering options like sample sachets and mini sizes is a great way to encourage people to give it a bash. For reference, the sample sachets I've gotten have been enough for two, maybe three light applications. All the other shadows I have from Femme Fatale are the mini size, and even though I've been wearing it every day the only one I've really made a dint is one that unfortunately got dropped on the floor because I'm a clumsy oaf. This is my collections as it currently stands.

I may also have five more on the way, because I have a problem.

It seems like a lot, until you look at the site and realise this is 11 out of at least 80 shades they currently stock. A lot of them are vegan friendly, and there is a large duochrome collection as well. I never thought of eyeshadow as being something that would benefit from being duochrome, but the ones I have are really just the most beautiful things, and it also makes them very versatile. If a shadow is purple with a green shimmer, I can pair it both with other purple and also other green shadows, and it creates a little rainbow that dances across my eyelids in the sun. The amount of time people have caught me staring at my eyelids in the mirrors in the lift at work observing just this phenomenon has gotten a little embarrassing.

Some overall notes about these eyeshadows before I show you each one in more depth; firstly, you will probably have to use an eyeshadow brush with these. I've attempted applying it with my fingers, and results are okay, but not great. It does have a tendency to wander all over your face, so rubbing it on with big clumsy fingers like mine has resulted in some rather spectacular failures. You don't need to get a whole set of brushes or anything though. I've just been using an angled eyeshadow brush I had around, and it's doing just fine.
Also, at first I had an enormous problem getting the stuff to actually stick to my lids. I'm a big fiddler, and I rub my eyes way more than I should, and I was finding my eyeshadow was looking amazing when leaving in the morning, but by lunchtime had worn down to a mere ghost of it's former glory. Enter my Twitter think tank, where I got the most excellent advice to get my hands on Napoleon Perdis Cake Eyeliner Sealer, which you can see in the middle of the above picture. This stuff is MAGIC. It's around $20 a bottle, which seems like a lot, but you only use two or three drops per application, so a bottle lasts a LONG time. The way I've been using it is to put a drop on the back of my hand, dip the brush in it, then dip it in the eyeshadow, and apply it to my eyelids with a motion that is somewhere between painting and dabbing. There is probably a better way to do it, and please feel free to advise in the comments. This is just the way I've figured out so far. It's a little fiddly, and I'm still getting the hang of making it spread smoothly and not settle in the creases of my eyelids, but the colours are just so incredible it's all worth it.
You'll have to forgive me if these photos are a  little hit and miss - I discovered it's extraordinarily difficult to get colour accurate pictures of loose shadows, especially the duochromes, but I've done my best. 

Dreamstate is a gorgeous dark peacock blue, with flashes of teal green that make it look even more like the colours on a peacock's tail. The Nightmare looks very dark when you first put it on, but settles to a solid royal purple, with a strong emerald green duochrome shine. I've been using this mostly in the corners of my eyes, with Darkmist over the rest of the lid, because it's a lighter slightly warmer purple, with matching green flecks. I've taken to calling Darkmist "Joker Purple" in my head, because that's what this particular shade reminds me of most - I consider this a good thing though, because I love The Joker's sense of style.

Unholy is the poor unfortunate soul that got dropped the other day, which is a real shame because it's one of the most versatile of the bunch, and I probably would have used it the most. It's more or less a straight up slate black, with a slight green sheen to it in certain lights. It goes really well with the lovely lady beside it, Lady of The Red. This has a strong copper sheen to it, but the base colour is a red right down the cooler purple end of the spectrum, so it goes well with Darkmist as well.

 

Planeshift is the only colour I've gotten so far that I haven't been super happy with, but it's nothing to do with the actual shade itself. The gold sheen is a lot stronger than I expected it to be, and unfortunately the grassy, gold colour just doesn't work on me at all. However, I can imagine if you had warmer skin than me, it would look amazing. Eternal Trance looks quite pale from the outside of the container, but is actually a gorgeous rich teal. I've been wearing a LOT of this one, because it matches my eyes beautifully. Jewel Scarab looks like Eternal Trance's darker older brother to my eyes - a similar colour, but darker and perhaps a tiny bit greener.

If you're not ready for all these rich, jewel toned shades, then I would recommend you at least pick up Time Lost and Sandscale. They are perfectly matched, and with a little Unholy right in the corners of your eyes, it's an amazing workday look. It's ridiculously difficult to find browns and sandy colours that I actually like - they're always too red or too blue, or too nothing for me to bother with. Time Lost and Sandscale are PERFECT. And unlike the brighter colours, if you mess it up, it's super easy to just blend it out and cover it up!

Icemist Diamond on the end there stands as the most delightful surprise I've had from this collection yet. The description on the site mentions a blue shimmer, and I was all, "yeah yeah, I'm sure. Still, whites are useful for highlighting." But Icemist Diamond just GLOWS in the light. There is no missing this "shimmer", and I freaking LOVE it.

Icemist Diamond in direct light, and indirect light

Femme Fatale loose eyeshadows are available from their site, in sample, mini, and full sizes. Femme Fatale are also able to ship these internationally, so for once I don't feel like I'm leaving out my foreign friends. I'll leave you with some looks I've put together using these shadows; try not to judge my technique, but lookit the pretty colours instead!