Flower Beauty Color Play Crème Eyeshadow - Orchid-ing Around and Time Willow Tell

I adore Drew Barrymore. She is a beautiful, intelligent, successful lady who has managed to rise above the typical Hollywood child star story, and I admire both her commitment to her causes and her business savvy. I was incredibly excited when I heard about the launch of Flower Beauty, her cosmetics brand, and I took advantage of a road trip state-side to raid the nearest Wal-Mart display.

I tried to sample a little bit of everything (minus complexion products, as the store I went to had been ransacked and the colour choices left behind were poor). Across the board, I have to say that I have been more impressed than not by the items I picked up. A couple, however, were more problematic.

Such was the case with the Color Play Crème Eyeshadows.

Under artificial light.
Orchid-ing Around and Time Willow Tell

That picture doesn't capture how beautiful those shades look in the pot. They are full of multi-dimensional shimmer that is absolutely stunning.

Swatched, you get that color impact, but it also becomes clear that these have a problematic texture. They are like whipped cream - soft, fluffy, and a little greasy. (They are also so goopy that at least one of the ones I tried came out in a chunk attached to the lid insert.)

The clump of product that was stuck to the insert.

They slide all over when you try to apply them to the lids, making it difficult to build depth. If you try to get them more opaque, they take a while to set, at which point they tend to crease all over the place. They do better over a primer, and better still when set with a powder overtop - but then you lose the impact of that shimmer.

When sheered out, and do give a nicely ethereal, sparkly effect. Like a fairy came and dusted your eyelids with her wings. It's pretty, but due to the texture it's easy for the product to thin out too quickly, and they still have a problem with fading and creasing. They can also be applied overtop of another eye product to give that sort of wet-shine finish.

Natural indirect light.
Top to bottom: Time Willow Tell and Orchid-ing Around.

The Color Play Crème Eyeshadows can be worked with to create some beautiful effects, but for something that is marketed to have mass appeal, I don't think these measure up to the success achieved by many of the other items in the line. I'm surprised at how finicky they are considering the target audience.

They are also competing with some top-notch cream eyeshadow formulas at the drugstore, such as the Maybelline Color Tattoos and the l'Oréal Infallible range, which are easier to use, with more reliable results.

Availability: Select Wal-Mart locations in the US. No information yet about Canadian distribution. Price is 7.98$

Pros: Beautiful color and multi-dimentional shimmer. Has a bit of a wet-shine effect.

Cons: Difficult to built up to true colour, best when worn sheered out. Tends to fade and crease. Texture is gloopy and slippy, can be messy both in the pot and for application.

(I purchased these items.)