REVIEW - I-Mark Eyeshadows (Available through Avon)

mark I-Mark Custom Pick Eye Shadow

• Product: 4 out of 5
• Packaging: 5 out of 5
• Quality: 4 out of 5
• Overall: 4 out of 5
• Would I buy again? YES
  
• Price: $4.50
  

Where to Buy:

• Avon
• eBay
  

They describe it as:

“Mix and match classic shades of this long-wearing powder along with five new shades previously only available as limited editions to create your own customized color palette.”

Advantages:

• Great price/very affordable
  
• Nice variety of colors to choose from (30 shades!)
  
• Shadows come in a palette pan so you can customize
• The shadow pan is big so you get a lot of product
  

Disadvantages:

• Expensive to buy mark. brand palettes as they only fit 4 shadows
  
• You have to find what base works best for you as these shadows definitely need one
  
• Takes a minute to get used to working with the product
• Can't swatch colors in person
  

Overall Opinion:

These eyeshadows are a great deal and a really good product. It took me a minute to get used to working with these when I first started b/c I found the texture really powdery, however they're a great product overall and the color payoff is great. See my Look of the Day here with the quad of shadows I purchased if you haven't already. I'm going to see what shades I don't already have or that aren't similar to what I've got and buy 'em up. The hard part with buying makeup through Avon is that you can't swatch the colors but the good part (as always!) is that you can return or exchange anything if it doesn't work so I have nothing to lose!

These shadows also save you a step without having to depot your eyeshadows and put them in a palette to customize your own. Now, you can approach this in a few different ways b/c they do arrive nicely packaged in palette pan:

You can buy the mark brand called "mark Snap To It Mezzo Custom Color Palette" where you can put the mark shadows or blushes in them so they are universal in that respect. They only come in small (fits 2 shadows) or large (fits 4 shadows). The small is $4 and the large is $6. For the money, you mine as well get the large and call it a day, right? I mean, for only two bucks more why wouldn't you buy the large? BUT... that is so expensive considering, for double the price, you can get a MAC palette that holds 15 shadows and they'd all be in one palette as opposed to buying two mark mezzo palettes for $12 that only hold 8 shadows and you have to carry around 2 cases. No bueno! The mezzo cases are well built but have a bit of heft to them as well. Read: weight. Heavy-ish. Meh. I need to cut corners where I can b/c you don't want to be lugging around extra poundage when you're running around with all your other stuff. If you don't plan on buying more than 2 or 4 shadows or blushes, I say get the mezzo case but if you do plan on investing in this brand, seek the other options I list below!

The mezzo cases look like this, Large on the top and the Small is pictured below that. (in the picture, they have a mark blush and two shadows in the Large case, but you get the idea.):

 

Another option is to get the large Z Palette size but those are a tad costly as well at $20 but they're very big and deep and hold a good amount of shadows. Here's the Z Palette:

One final option I can recommend (and prefer!) is getting a MAC palette (they retail for ONLY $12!) and taking out the divider, go to Michael's or any craft store and buy some self adhesive square magnets that you can stick to the back of your shadows and then you'll be good to go!

Here are the four I-mark Eyeshadows I got in the large mezzo case:

And the swatches, from Top to Bottom: Rebel (similar to MAC's White Frost or a toned down version of Urban Decay's Polyester Bride), Luvstruck, Saucy, Corset (similar to MAC's Print)

I heart mark.!