Now here’s something I can honestly say I’ve never seen before: kidney bean-based beauty. Each of the eight new L’Oreal Paris Studio Secrets Professional The One Sweep Eye Shadow Palettes (say that five times fast!) comes with a kidney bean-shaped brush designed to grab its three coordinating shadows in one fell swoop.
Team L’Oreal says that a single swipe of the contoured brush picks up the perfect amount of each color for your lid, crease and brow bone. Just slide the loaded brush horizontally across the area from the inner to the outer lid to distribute all three shades evenly, one atop the other, from lash line to brow bone.
Natural for All Eyes Palette on the left; Playful For Blue Eyes Palette on the right
Playful for Blue Eyes
Natural for All Eyes
Swatch of Playful for Blue Eyes on the top; Natural for All Eyes on the bottom
Yesterday when I gave the Playful for Blue Eyes and Natural for All Eyes Palettes ($10 each) a try I was admittedly skeptical of the brush. I mean, the whole concept has a gimmicky feel to it (a one-size-fits-all brush?), but you never know until you try, right?
Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, the shadows applied unevenly with the brush, with all three shades mixing together on my skin. A little time invested in perfecting the art of the kidney bean brush would probably help, but I doubt it would ever be able to compete with the versatile MAC 217.
I think it’s an interesting concept, and I give L’Oreal points for creativity, but it’s probably more of a gimmick than a practical tool.
PRICE: $10
AVAILABILITY: At select drugstores, Ulta and online
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: C+/B-
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Happy Thursday, young lady! 🙂 I hope you’re having a wonderful day.
This concept seems really weird to me. Even if you didn’t have the problem of the colors running together, everyone’s eyelids are different sizes, shapes, and proportions, so there’s no guarantee the colors will end up where you need them.
Word. I tried a bunch of things to make it work (holding the brush at different angles, etc.) and could just not make it work.
the first thing i did when i saw this product at walmart was laugh. what a gimmick!
“A little time invested in perfecting the art of the kidney bean brush would probably help, but I doubt it would ever be able to compete with the versatile MAC 217.” 😀 😀 No I don’t think it could compete with that 😀 😀 Will definitely check these out the L’Oreal counter just to see the brush!
Reminds me of those creepy press-on eyeshadows at Sephora. Next: press-on lipstick!
and after that: press-on foundation!
ugh…
Don’t they have a roll-on foundation? LOL
I’m not about to put my MAC brushes out of commission!! I have hooded eyes and jut don’t see this working out for me.
This is a beauty crime waitng to happen.
So agree with you!
Comments on the brush are hilarious, but I also think it’s kind of funny that blue is a “playful” color for blue eyes!
The other HUGE potential problem I see with this is that it promotes non-blending…there are 3 different colors clearly on there, and if you just stuck that right on your eye, it would look like 3 blocks of color.
I’m trying to place this item on the stupidity scale in my brain. I don’t know if it should come before or after those press-on eyeshadow sheets. It’s right there, though.
I think Natural could be an awesome blush.
one of those reminds me of the NARS limited edition eyeshadow. i checked those out at CVS but passed. i have far too many eyeshadows!
Natural kinda looks like Calanque from far away!
yep a little bit. like 2nd cousns fourth removed. 😀
Either you mean NYX, or you need to point me in the direction of one seriously awesome CVS! 😛
i meant i saw the Loreal eyeshaow @ CVS. sorry, my bad.
What a silly & utterly useless idea, just like those press-on make-up pads. I mean, if you can’t even apply your make-up in 3 non-blending strokes yourself… It’s just stupid, who honestly thinks the world is waiting for this?
I know, right? I’m lazy, but come on!
This is like those awful shadow strips. Even if you manage to get it on the eye, you still have to blend and everything. Otherwise, you’d look ridiculous with one color on top of the other (on top of the other).
I remember those!
I laughed when I swa these at the drug store. I mean, who the heck did they make these for? And talk about frost overload on the blue one!
Not gonna lie — my inner lazy girl wanted these to work, LOL!
Yeah thats a little odd.. I mean really one swipe and it applies prefectly? lol But it was a great idea.. maybe if MAC were to get a hold of it and really make it work they could make ALOT of money!! Thanks Karen!
I think maybe in the waaay distant future (when we have flying cars like in the Jetsons) this could work, LOL!
I think that they should take the gimmick even further and create brushes based on different beans, lima, black eyed peas etc… 🙂
LOL, my vote goes to cannellini! 🙂
I wonder if this is kind of like that “tattoo your eyelid” thing by hard candy. Have you seen those? its just eye shadow on strips of paper and you just throw it onto your eyes? (i’ve only seen the packaging). i saw this the othe day and thought it was a bit weird. I don’t know anyone who would layer up their eyeshadow like a rainbow! :p
Or how about those weird eyeshadow stickers? Remember those from sephora?
What a silly gimmick! I wish you could have perfectly applied makeup in just one swipe but even if you managed to place the colors evenly, you’d still have to blend… I just don’t get products like this..
I know! I appreciate the thought of making it easier for us… I just wish the execution was better.
I noticed these at CVS a week or so ago, and my initial reaction was a shake of my head and a sardonic chuckle as I walked away from the display. After your review (and thank you very much, I admit I WAS curious!), my initial reaction stands! 🙂
I’ll give ’em points for trying something new… I just wish it worked! 🙂
How bizarre!
It’s weird, right? Creative, though!
Yeahhh I figured this wouldn’t work. Did the shadows at least have a nice texture?
yes, if the sponge doesn’t work for you the colors are still usable with a brush
Unusual.. I’m tempted to try it just for novelty value and probably never use it again 🙂
bad habit
I’ve seen the pad ones on Oprah but I don’t like the idea. This is something for lazy people.. and this is never ever going to come out as a eyelook you’ve put efford in.. picking out colors, blending them together.
This is not meant for me.. I love playing with different colors together and spend some time doing my make-up in the morning.
It totally works for me. I am sure I can’t be the only one. Shimmery pretty eyes in two (not one) swipe. I got playful browns
I really dislike this idea. Not just the gimmick-ness but also that the shades don’t seem to be usable separately which gives even the colors no value to me. I just think someone should have said no to this concept before they even started making it…
Interesting concept. And by interesting, I mean O.O
very pretty palettes 🙂
That is the weirdest brush I’ve seen in ages!
It’s quite odd, yah?
As much as it would be awesome for this concept to work,I can’t see many girls pulling it off.
I know! The brush is pretty goofy.
What a crazy idea! Although, I do fall for gimmicks every now and then=)
We got these in Italy too but those weird brushes never impressed me much. Guess it’s all about marketing, like L’Oreal roll-on foundation or Lancome vibrant mascara. By the way, I often found L’Oreal powder eyeshadows good, maybe they could be used with old, traditional brushes.
will be good for monolidded girls (like me), since the dark colours gradiating to lighter colors is the ideal “smokey look” for asian girls and etc. 🙂 gonna try this out when i see it
What is most offensive about this whole product is that I saw this in the newest Cosmo mag & the promo pictures are beautiful & the eyeshadow is oh-so-perfectly placed. /sigh. Were they thinking people still live under rocks & don’t know what airbrushing & photoshop is? I will pass. 🙂
I have the one that’s Playful for Blue eyes. At first, I hated it. The next time I tried it, I only disliked it. After that, I started getting better at it, and now I love it. It takes a little practice, but it’s actually a pretty decent product and takes very little time to apply now.
If you do buy this and find that you don’t like it, don’t give up on it right away. Keep trying. If you really find that you truly hate it, you can always use an eyeshadow brush to apply the shadow individually.
Of course, I should also say that I think I happen to have the perfect size/shape eyes for this to work for me.
I personally love it. it took me about 30 mins of practice but its great. I do have to blend the colors a little but otherwise its brilliant. MAybe you all should give it a little more time before bashing it. It really saves me time in the morning.
I received a sample through the BzzAgent service. I really LOVE the color pallet they have for my eye color. However, I did find that if I used my own eye shadow brush, I got more even coverage and better defined eyes than the kidney bean brush. I do need a little more practice with the brush though. Using this pallet with the Eye Illuminator mascara for my eye color did give make my eyes stand out!