Model Co Eyeshadow in Bronzed Goddess

I picked up a magazine a week or two ago when I was in need of some mindless reading (don't get me wrong, I am the first person to admit I have a slight - or maybe not so slight - love for magazines, but they are hardly great medical textbooks, are they?!) and it came with a Model Co eyeshadow trio. I wasn't aware of this when I bought it as it came in a 'lucky dip' type thing and it was hidden by foil, and I ended up with the eyeshadow in the shade 'Bronzed Goddess.' At first sight I was in love with the colours but really not expecting anything. After all, it was a freebie in a magazine, how good could it really be? It claimed to be worth $39, but we all know these claims are a load of rubbish, right?

Wrong. When I got home I looked it up on the internet. I like to research my makeup and since I had never come across this brand before I figured it might be a potential brand for the future. Believe it or not, it does sell for $39! I checked out all the possible shades and I am overjoyed to say that the shade I got is my absolute favourite. Score!

When swatched, I found that each of the shades were definitely my kind of colour. The lightest colour was a little bit chalky and came out in glittery chunks, but I figured I would probably be able to work with that. The pink colour looked lovely and the brown seemed to be very pigmented. They were a little glittery but I figured that would be okay.

The real decider was when I tried to apply the shadow to my eye. The pink barely showed up, in fact, all that showed up was huge chunks of silver glitter. The lighter colour was awful in texture. It applied in glittery chunks, unevenly with a heck of a lot of fallout. As for the brown, well that was just a mess. What seemed like a pigmented shadow, like the others, had more glitter than colour. It wouldn't blend and just crumbled.

I gave it a second chance, but this time used the sponge applicator it came with to apply it rather than my own eyeshadow brush. Admittedly, it did go on much nicer but I really struggled to create a nice look without a brush. The brown would not blend at all, so that looked awful. Of course, the sparkle was still unbelievable which is a big problem for me.

It also creased pretty quickly, then rubbed off in no time at all. After reading several online reviews it appears as though other people have actually liked it. I know that the magazine was trying to get rid of unwanted stock, hence why they had a random two prizes per magazine. I am wondering whether the shadow I received was a bit old, had suffered unfavourable temperatures and had been bashed and battered around a little too much for its own good. Whatever the case, I am not particularly impressed.

My favourite part is probably the packaging. The packaging is really lovely, with an inbuilt mirror and sleek black covering. It comes with one of those sponge applicators, but I prefer to use my own brush. It's nice and heavy and feels sturdy.

Did I like these eyeshadows? No, not at all. Waaaayyyyy too much glitter, poor quality in that it crumbles and has so much fallout and the pigmentation and blendability (ooh, new word!) of the shadows vary significantly from one to another. Would I spent $39 for it? Absolutely no way whatsoever.

I give this 3 out of 10, although I am going to give it the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe it is just old and had been bashed about too much for its own good.