Monday, April 8, 2013

NYX Glam Shadow Sticks : Product Review


NYX is a brand that can be extremely hit or miss for me. If you've been reading this blog for a while, then you've seen the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil pop up on here fairly often, but for every one of their products that I love, there is a product that I dislike just as much. If you can't tell which direction this review is going, I'll just let you know right now that it's not good. Keep reading to find out why I disliked the Glam Shadow Stick so much.


First and foremost, I want to let you know that I only have two shades of this particular product, so there is the possibility that other shades are better. The two shades that I purchased are Dazzling Quartz and Enchanting Jade; the former is a goldish taupe color with a lot of sparkle and the latter is a rich green with a hint of blue and gold sparkle. I tested these on my hand at the store, so I knew what the shades looked like on my hands and they are both gorgeous on the hand.

I read the description on Ulta several times after I first used these to make sure that I didn't have any misunderstanding about what they are supposed to do. The description there reads:
"Entice the paparazzi with your intense eyes using the Glam Shadow Stick obtainable in 16 hues. These shadow sticks provide extreme pigmentation with the right amount of sparkle that will out shine the flashing lights. Weep for joy since these darlings are waterproof. So go ahead and steal the limelight with your glam eyes!

Soft texture that applies precisely onto eyelids, leaves an even payoff of rich color and shimmer that won't smear or fade. It's texture is thin, non-oily and blendable, but will not crease. The pen is retractable, to make it easy to apply, even on the go."
Let me go ahead and say that almost everything that they describe is false for the two shades that I got. Let's start at the beginning, when I test these on my hand, they are very pigmented, but when I try to put them on my lids, Dazzling Quartz lost all of its color; Enchanted Jade managed to apply well to my eyes.

The next statement they make is that these are waterproof, which I just have to laugh at. They might be waterproof, but they aren't smudge proof and without being smudge proof, you can't really test waterproof. Let me show you.


I applied Dazzling Quartz on the left and Enchanted Jade on the right. They are both gorgeous when you apply them to the back of your hand. I let them sit on my hand for about 2-3 minutes and then tried to smudge them.


And this is what happened when I tried to smudge them. There was no resistance from the product at all, it just all wiped off on my finger. The description clearly states that it wont smear or fade (ha!) and that it's thin and non-oily and blendable... it is thin and I'm sure it's blendable, but it's very oily feeling on the lids. You can feel it just sitting on your eyelids.

And the last claim; it won't crease. This is just so laughable it borders on ridiculous. I had this product on my eyes for 4 hours and decided to look in the mirror and there were creases on both eyelids. I had applied the jade shade on my lower lash line (not water line) and it had disappeared within about 5 hours.

It's not that these sticks were expensive, they were $4.50 a piece, but it really irritates me that they basically described them as wonder sticks and that they failed on every claim. I am curious if every shade is as bad as the two that I picked up, but I don't want to waste any more time on these. 

If you are looking for an eyeshadow stick, I would look elsewhere.

(all photos copyright Allison Richardson Photography and not available for use without permission)

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