Amid the deluge of gray falling on eye palettes this spring, Dolce & Gabbana stands out. In the pan, their Smooth Eye Colour Quad in Eden ($59) looks like a garden with pretty pastels in mint green and pink.
Dolce & Gabbana usually scores with their quads — hitting them out of the park with rich pigmentation, a buttery, easy-to-blend texture, and shadows that exhibit very little fallout, but I think this new one falls a little short.
As the one and only quad in the new Secret Garden Collection, Eden’s shadows are uncharacteristically uneven when applied.
I wore the colors in the palette today and kinda struggled to blend them together. They weren’t as smooth as I’m used to from the brand and looked patchier then I would’ve liked.
That said, it isn’t all bad. I kinda like how sheer they are. In fact, I can see that coming in handy for single washes of color over the lids, but it might be an issue for fans of the brand accustomed to bold eyeshadow pigments.
PRICE: $59
AVAILABILITY: At Saks Fifth Avenue stores and online
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B-
For more on the Dolce & Gabbana Secret Garden Collection, check out…
- Swatch Me I’m Falling for Dolce & Gabbana Secret Garden
- Visitors Are Welcome in the Dolce & Gabbana Secret Garden Today
- It’s No Secret: I’m Looking Forward to the Dolce & Gabbana Secret Garden Collection This Spring
- $20 Dolce & Gabbana Nail Lacquer in Platinum Looks Like a Million Bucks
Watch out boy, she’ll chew you up!
Much to the relief of El Hub and Tabs, I’ve finally moved on from my most recent Wham phase.
I can’t blame the boys for complaining; I can see how I’m Your Man can get a little annoying to hear after the two hundredth consecutive time. 🙂
Now I’m jamming to another outstanding ’80s duo: Hall and Oates! Remember hits like Man Eater, I Can’t Go For That and One on One? Pure. Awesome.
No can do!
Perfect material for an ’80s karaoke night, am I right? 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
OMG ur concealer looks AWESOME! 😀
Thanks! That’s MAC Prolongwear working its magic. Here’s the review, just in case you’re interested:
MAC Pro Longwear Concealer Is Catching Up to TimeBalm in the Polls
Meh. Too sheer and too pastel for my nc44 skin!
I hear ya. At least there’s more spring stuff to look forward too, right? 🙂
Right! 😀
Haha, I LOVE Hall & Oates. Maneater is my jam!
I love to add Tabs’ name into that song:
Tabs only comes out at night; the lean and hungry type.
Nothing is new I’ve seen Tabs here before.
Watching and waiting…
Ooh, Tabs’ sitting with you, but his eyes are on the door.
LOL! Clearly I have too much time on my hands.
Haha, I do the same thing! When I sing hip hop to my cat, I replace the n-word with ‘kitty.’ My favorite song for that is TI’s ‘You Don’t Know Me.’
Haha! Tabs especially loves when I weave his name into Biggie songs.
Tabby, tabby, tabby, can’t you see?
Sometimes your words just hypnotize me.
HAHAHA, I do the same thing with daughter, Xochi, xochi, xochi, can’t you see…
I am HUGE fan of the song Sara Smile…makes me weepy just thinking of it!
I’ll pass the D&G Quartet – not a fan of patchy and it would probably look chalky on me. I still want the Platinum nail polish though.
I’m all for making my shopping list shorter!
Platinum is HOT, babe. You should see it on toes. *clutches heart*
Stay on that 80s music wave, Karen — you know I love it! I like to make Missy dance to You Make My Dreams.
Aw, that must be so cute! Tabs is sleeping in his cat tower right now… maybe I need to make him dance with me.
I hope you’re feeling better today. Enjoy the sunshine! 🙂
Love Hall and Oates! They’re coming to Honolulu for a concert in March! I know I’m about 10 years too young, but I’m so going. Haha.
SHUT IT DOWN! If I lived there I’d be in the front row in a hot second.
You better take out your glow stick and wave it in the air when they sing One on One.
These colors look TOUGH to wear – I imagine folks who aren’t super pale risk all kinds of ashy action from these. That being said, I bet they’d look wicked cool as a heavy wash over the lid with a thick black cat eye line.
Totally! I love the idea of a mint green/black cat liner combo with some shiny, glossy pink lips.
I’m going to pick up the lippies and nail polish ,they can keep the quad!!
The nail polish is AMAZING!
BTW, I’m wearing the Love lipstick from the collection in the top pic.
The colors are pretty but not the easiest to wear. And it’s a shame they are so sheer and kinda hard to blend. I think I’ll pass…
I know! I wish they threw in a brown in there. It would’ve made it easier to wear.
that quad might be a bit too light for me — i still want the duo though!
did you watch top chef??
I did! What did you think? I kinda have a crush on Fabio.
Also, did that Marcel guy get his own show?
i think that marcel guy is getting a show on SyFy … 😀
fabio is awesome, isnt he? i have a crush on blais though! 😀
that blueberry pie looks yummy!
That’s what I thought. El Hub saw a commercial and said he saw Marcel, but he’s also blind without his glasses sooooo….
I wanted to both the desserts. And the chips. 🙂
and that egg, cheese and bacon dish! yum!
YEAH! Dale sure can cook. I wish he was less angry though!
I’m actually pleasantly surprised by how much nicer they look on you than what I’d imagined from just seeing the pans/swatches. I’d be terrified of a highly pigmented hot pink or sea foam green, though. I know not everyone has those irrational fears. 🙂
Oh, shoot, can you believe I forgot to comment on Hall & Oates? One of my first 45 purchases as a very young gal was Kiss On My List. I just realized that 90% of the people reading this are probably like “what’s a 45?”. Gracious, I’m old. 🙂
Do you ever wonder what happened to all your old music? I still have some of my vinyl from back in the day — Madonna’s Like A Virgin, The Bangles Different Light and maybe even some Whitesnake (LOL)! I’ve got some tapes too.
Anywho, you could SO do mint green. Do not fear the pastel, woman!
Believe it or not, we still have boxes of vinyl. My parents even have some old Elvis (and 45s like Palisades Park). Of course, we haven’t had a turntable hooked up in almost 20 years, but no matter. I do still have some tapes in the boxes too – how can you really get rid of the “mixed tapes”? 🙂
Well, you haven’t steered me wrong yet, so I guess I’ll have to reconsider the sea foam green!
Honestly I’m kind of delighted that the quality of the palette isn’t A+! The price was to high for me anyway, but it still looked so absolutely beautiful, plus I’m very pale – all the colours would show up on my skin… But a product that’s not “excellent” for a price like this – naaah, thanks!
Hi Dea,
If you get the chance you might still want to check out the other Dolce & Gabbana eyeshadows quads and duos some of them are really, really beautiful.
Have a great day!
I love Hall and Oates- Um Sara Smile(LOL) and Rich Girl.
I loooove the intro to Rich Girl!
I wish there was a way for us to do virtual Hall & Oates karaoke, LOL!
Haha, there is!! Have you ever heard of singsnap.com? Its a live streaming karaoke website. You can just sing along, or if you have a microphone and webcam, you can invite your friends into a private chatroom and sing for each other, its like a virtual karaoke party!! You can also record yourself and post it for others to hear. They have a decent free song selection but if you pay a little for a year, you get WAY more songs and options like changing the key. I’m hooked! (especially since I have my stereo and my roomie’s LCD bigscreen hooked to my laptop, so its like a karaoke studio in my apartment. 🙂
WANT! I’ve been bumping Erasure all morning and keep thinking to myself that I need an audience to torture, LOL!
I’m so in love with yoooooou… I’ll be forever blue….
I’m sorry, but for $60, I expect it so so much more than this. You could have bought Loreal or Covergirl for a sheer wash of color.
Ya know, I’ve heard and seen multiple complaints about how even high end shadows are much sheerer than most people are used to lately. And this across multiple brands. I think there is a shift right now in makeup trend to a more “washed” look. As make-up fiends we all want the most highly pigmented, bright (or deep) makeup-y looks we can find. I just think there is a trend toward more sheer pastel colors right now and I’m not sure it’s just for spring.
I’m not convinced by these pastel shades – they look a tad washed out and for the amount you pay, a bit of a let down!
Hopefully D&G will right their wrongs before they lose an army of loyal followers!
Seeing Tabs in the background made my day! Thanks again for the great reviews!