Stroll in Green Park by Buckingham Palace while wearing Rimmel Glam Eyes HD Eyeshadow in Royal Blue

Hail Britannia! Anglophiles will love the look of the Rimmel Glam’ Eyes HD Eyeshadows, which I’d read about online a few months ago. I never thought I’d see them here because, well, I never hold out much hope for anything so everytime we do get a collection or item in, I’m always pleasantly surprised. Better that way eh? 🙂

Anyway, I spotted these one day while at a random Guardian Pharmacy trawling the aisles and I decided to pick up both Rimmel palettes on a whim just to see what the fuss was about. If you don’t see them in the top display, look lower – these were hidden on the lowest shelf, towards the back as if it was some illicit drug – I never understand the marketing techniques of some brands. But anyhoo….. 😛

The shades I got were Royal Blue on left and Green Park on right. Green Park in particular, has received widespread raves internationally for being a very nice green and gold palette and above all, being inexpensive with great quality. I naturally had to see if it lived up to the hype 😉

Might I just say right off hand that I am a bit of an Anglophile – I blame it on a steady diet of Enid Blyton books as a kid. You cannot imagine my delight the first time I went to a fair and had toffee apples and barley sugar. Granted, I was a university student by then, but in my heart I was 12 and itching to picnic on heather hills and eat toffee apples all day long (which are delicious btw!). That was also when I realised that with the temperamental and mostly wet British weather, its amazing how anyone actually manages to squeeze in enough sun for a picnic – Enid wasn’t quite telling us all the facts 😛

Rimmel Glam Eyes HD Eyeshadows Union Jack palettes Left: Royal Blue Right: Green Park

Green Park is a park near Buckingham Palace, and the name of a Tube station near the said park. I enjoy strolling through Green Park in autumn – its a lovely place to have a spot of lunch 🙂 The Rimmel eyeshadow palette is laid out in the shape of the Union Jack, which is a very nice touch (In fact, the Royal Blue could easily be the Scottish flag if you disregard the cross in the centre!) but as I will show you below, quite impractically designed.

 

As you can see, the palette isn’t very large – I have small hands too so while its quite easy to get to the main colour that you see in the cross, the other shades are quite hard to reach even with a small brush. Its a right pity, because the textures and formula is very impressive.

There are 4 colours in each palette, and each colour is soft to the touch, pigmented and infused with shimmer that isn’t over the top. There is a main colour, a highlight colour and 2 deeper crease colours. The ones I have the most trouble with are the smallest triangles in each palette. I honestly think Rimmel could have done better with these – make them larger, for example. The concept is a good one, but whoever designed these palettes isn’t a makeup user, that’s for certain!

Top: Royal Blue Bottom: Green Park swatches

When you manage to get the colour out, they are very lovely.

Royal Blue – Shimmer Teal, Shimmer White, Black (Little Shimmer), Navy Blue (Little Shimmer)

Green Park – Shimmer Green Gold, Shimmer Gold, Shimmer Dark Brown, Shimmer Brown

The shadows are a little soft, and you may experience some fall out. I apply them using the dabbing method – dab it on your skin to make it stay put longer and have better colour intensity – and it lasts most of the day for me. By the evening, it does tend to have faded a little but then, what do you expect from these, really! 😛

I like the shimmer in the shadows. They aren’t over the top, and they are so pretty from every angle. That gold colour in Green Park deserves special mention for being a gorgeous gold shadow… if you can get your brush into the narrow bit of the palette that holds it.

In a nutshell

Inexpensive innovatively designed eyeshadow palettes from Rimmel. The texture of the shadows are good even if the formula is a little soft. However, if you use the dabbing method to apply you will experience less fall out or if you use a primer. The quality is overall, very good with good pigmentation and shimmer that isn’t over the top nor too glittery, given the price. The palettes are a little hard to use given that some of the colours are very small and hard to get to with your brush. However if you aren’t overly fussy I’d say these are nice eye palettes to check out.

Pros: Affordable, Good pigment, Nice shimmer without being over the top or being glittery, Soft texture makes it easy for brushes to pick up colour

Cons: Soft texture can result in fall out (use the dabbing method or primer to apply to counter this), Palette is a bit hard to use especially the very small sections which fit only the smallest of liner brushes

Here are a couple of eye closeups to give you an idea of how I wear both palettes.

Green Park – wore this one with just a touch of green in the edges, but mostly just using the gold. This is a warm gold toned green palette that you can wear to show off mostly green or mostly gold to your fancy. The deep brown isn’t quite deep enough for lining on its own so I still need a separate liner.

Royal Blue – I wore most of the teal all over the lid with the white shimmer to blend it out and only using the navy blue and black to line. I experienced more fall out with Royal Blue than with Green Park but less fading as the day wore on.

I actually quite like these. They are nice to use and I use a little liner brush to get into the darkest shades to use as a liner. The triangle of the second darkest shade can fit a pencil brush if you are a wee bit more careful so on an overall basis, I’d say this is still a winner of a palette 🙂 I didn’t see many colours locally though – only Royal Blue, Green Park and True Union Jack which has as it main colour, a bright pink I didn’t think I could rock 😛

Have you seen or tried the Rimmel Glam Eyes HD Eyeshadow in the Union Jack palette? Have you tried any Rimmel shadows before this? I’m not too familiar with Rimmel cosmetics so if you have a rec, I’d sure love to hear it! 😀

Paris B

Rimmel Glam Eyes HD Eyeshadow palettes Price: RM35.90 Availability: Rimmel counters at local pharmacies