Experimenting with Shiseido Luminizing Satin Eye Color Trio - Opera GD804

I've been wanting to purge this eyeshadow trio in the longest time because the colours do not flatter me as much as my other eyeshadows. When I first bought this eyeshadow palette, I applied the colours liberally all over my eyelid and turned to my mum to show her how it looked. I'll never forget her slightly awkward and frozen expression as she looked back at my muddy eyeshadow application. 

Well, for sentimental reasons, I haven't been able to get rid of it. I used to work near the Paris Garnier opera house that inspired the colours in this palette, and owning this palette reminds me of the period of time when I lived in Paris. 

credit: blog.parisattitude.com

Aren't the colours just perfect? Ok, let's see how they translate onto my skin. This was taken in overcast lighting, hence the darkness of my arm: 

I have the most trouble with the blue and olive shades. Experience informs me that clear colours are most easy to wear on my skin, and that pastels also do not work well on me. 

As with all Shiseido eyeshadows, they are pigmented but not opaque, so the colour of the eyeshadow will change when applied on the eyelids. This is part of the problem, as the powdery sky blue can make my neutral-warm, olive skin look a bit washed out when applied too liberally. 

This is the look I decided to go for in the end: 

Laneige Snow BB, MGPIN cream highlighter, Guerlain Meteorites Teint Rose and Lanolips lip ointment in Sunshine

Main points from this look: 

• Following a rounded (or 'tulip') eyeshadow placement, I contoured my eyes with the olive shade and avoided applying it to the centre of the eyes. My inner corners do not naturally have very prominent contouring, so instead I focused more of the dark shadow on the outer corners and the crease. 
• I used some of the gold shade to lightly pat over the centre of the lid and added a concentrated dab in the inner corners. 
• The light blue was added all across the lower lashline for a brightening effect. I really like how this part turned out! 

Here are some creepy eye close-ups for you:

There was also a failed attempt at layering - I initially applied a layer of Chanel Stylo Eyeshadow in 47 Blue bay on my mobile lid and layered the blue shade over the top. This turned out to be pointless because the layering couldn't be seen at all. The blue eyeshadow grabbed onto Blue bay a little too well. Also, Blue bay did not blend out quickly enough, so its placement was just restricted to my mobile lid. If you squint hard enough, you may be able to see a hint of blue on the mobile lid in the photos, but it's really not very noticeable. 

The eyeshadows look surprisingly neutral on my eyes, and I adore the powdery blue shade too much to let the palette go. But I'm still not entirely convinced that I should keep this. Perhaps the placement is a little too low. Hmmm. What do you think? :)