Purchasing eye shadow can more of than not, be an exercise in frustration.  For every five you pick out, there is only one you can wear (and that's if your lucky).  

Why?

Details like formulation quality, performance, color choice, and skin sensitivity are all issues that will determine whether you actually wear the eye shadow your purchased or not.

These tips will help you make better eye shadow choices that will not only look great and wear well, but shopping for them will become a pleasant purchase experience. 

What you need to know about purchasing eye shadow...

1.  Be aware of quality details when comparing low end, to medium and high price points.

Eye shadow comes in many formulations with great range in quality.  Not always but generally speaking, you will find that eye shadow performance will be linked to price point.

In other words, the better deal low end product that looks the same, will not perform the same.  Perform meaning, apply easily, evenly, and have some staying power.

A quality product will have a fine, soft, smooth consistency and when applied, will adhere to your eye lid evenly, with good color/pigment presence.  You shouldn't have to excessively apply the product to see it.

A prestige brand like Christian Dior is very pricey but they do deliver brilliant quality when it comes to their eye shadow ( I would love to say it is all in the marketing, believe me.).  Dior's Five Color Shadow palette kits, are especially beautiful and have received top reviews from professional makeup artists.  

One mid to higher end brand that delivers great quality shadows, in beautifully coordinated colors and at a better price point, is Vincent Longo Trio Eye shadow .

2.  Eye shadow comes in generally, three types of format; matte, satin and frost.

Knowing the difference is very helpful, especially if you have sensitive skin or your eye area has lines.

Matte eye shadow has no sheen or reflective qualities. Satin has some shimmer or reflective ingredients and frost has strong shimmer and reflective properties.

Shimmer and frosted shadows, will exaggerated the presence of lines.

3.  Sensitive skin should  stick mainly to quality matte and minor shimmer, satin shadows .

The old rule when it came to eye shadow was, matte by day and shimmer by night.  However, these days, shimmer is in everything and often has a lot of appeal.  If you are like me, wearing a frosted eye shadow for very long will result in irritated, itchy, inflamed eye lids.  It is not a quality issue, it is the *metal ingredient iron within the formulations, that produces the frosted shimmer, and  my resulting skin sensitive reaction 

*According to the American Association of Dermatology, metal allergy is the most common type of contact dermatitis.

To spare myself of this reaction, I wear primarily matte shadows and strategically placed satin shadows.  You can pick out the shimmer factor in an eye shadow simply by holding it up to the light and looking for reflective properties.  You can also review the ingredient list for names like iron oxides and manganese violet.

You can find gorgeous, quality matte shades like "Devon" or "Persia" at CARGO Eye Shadow Eyecolor .

4.  The trick to beautiful eye makeup that makes your eyes sparkle and you appear radiant, is by picking the right shades for your skin tone, not by eliminating entire color groups from your options.

An example, emerald green may be a hot shade, but it will generally not compliment an olive skinned person.  However, a more mossy tone would compliment olive skin.  Red eye shadow on anyone will likely make them look ill.  

My point is, the shade of color chosen is crucial to the success of your objective, and that is wearing makeup that will enhance your coloring and your individual beauty.

Here are some general rules of thumb, they are not absolute because some individuals can wear both cool and warm tones.  What shades work for you will be lead by your skin tone, hair color, eye color and ultimately decided by your comfort zone and personal style. 

Generally, warm tones ie. earthy, golden etc. will compliment warm skin (yellow based, olive, medium to dark skin ) with eye colors medium blue, hazel green, hazel brown, medium brown.

Cooler tones, pastels etc will compliment cool skin tones (very fair, very dark, light to medium) with eye colors light blue, blue-gray, deep blue, clear green, dark brown.

With these four tips in mind, you should start to experience satisfaction with the eye shadow purchases you make.  Feeling good about your appearance really boosts your confidence, and makeup can really enhance your appearance.  This may sound like an understatement to some of you, but I mean specifically, play up what makes you unique which will contribute to a good self image.

If you would like to comparison shop pricing and reviews of Eye Makeup, click here.