Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle (Barry M Dazzle Dust Eyeshadow Pots)

Member Name: bondgirlk8

Product:	Barry M Dazzle Dust Eyeshadow Pots
Date:	12/12/08 (297 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sparkly, glittery, pretty, very wide choice of colours, great effects

Disadvantages: Can get everywhere, takes a bit of practice to get the effect you want

I'm a bit of a magpie, and anything shiny has unbelievable appeal to me. If it glitters, I want it. As a result, I've been admiring these little pots of sparkle for a long time and waiting for an excuse to justify the cost.

So, as you may know, I'm doing a dance show at the moment. It has been inspired by the film Moulin Rouge, so saying it's a bit glittery would be somewhat of an understatement. During the last week of rehearsals, whilst planning my make-up (supposedly from what I already own as I'm a bit tight what with Christmas, recession etc.), I discover that Superdrug have 3 for 2 on all Barry M cosmetics (offer running until Christmas I believe). These two factors conspired and I caved - who cares if I'm skint, I'm having them.

Given that I am wearing them for a show in which I have a variety of different colour costumes and no time to change the make up to match, I selected the following goes-with-most-things colours:

Charcoal (Dazzle Dust 11)
Silvery Black (Dazzle Dust 91)
Silver (Fine Glitter 4)

The silver glitter is particularly sparkly, and bright enough to hopefully be effective on the stage. Tested on my hand the colours seemed to blend really well together and the likely effects appeared promising. Unfortunately, I tried quite a lot of colours on my hand, so by the time I eventually made my choice my hand was a stained and glittery mess. Lucky (mainly due to germ paranoia caused mostly by the tube) I carry antibacterial wet-wipes all the time, and so could clean myself up.


PRICE

The main thing that stopped my buying these before was the price. Each pot is £4.50 and they are teeny little things. I nearly did buy them once or twice, but only being able to afford one and there being so many colours left me confused. I wanted each colour equally and the best effects, judging by the promotional pictures in the displays, were clearly achieved through using at least three if not four of them to create exciting eye effects.

The 3 for the price of 2 promotion meant that I got three of them for £9, which is not so bad really.

I still think that they are expensive, but having now tried them, I can see that not only do they give a beautiful effect, they unexpectedly have the potential to last quite a while so are definitely better value than I initially thought from a volume point of view.


PACKAGING

The whole Barry M range is really appealing and well designed. It is the kind of counter that you just have to glimpse from the corner of your eye and it will instantly demand you attention. You know straight away that it is full of stuff that you need. Not want. Need.

The packaging of the dazzle dust and fine glitter range is a major success. They are dainty, sparkly, sleekly designed pots which on the shelf create a whole lovely glittery rainbow which is near-on impossible to resist. The little jars are made of clear glass through which you can see the powder, and have a black lid with gold writing. They do for make up what Innocent did with the packaging of juice - made it just so nice, you can't say no.

The jars are sealed when you purchase them, so you know you are getting a full fresh jar. Under the lid, there is no protection for the powder, it is all just in there. There isn't one of those plastic bits with holes in that I've seen on similar products like the pots of loose glitter they make. So you've been warned, DON'T drop it. It would make an awful mess.

The lid does fasten really well, and I've transported it all round London during the show and never yet suffered any leakage.


TEXTURE

The dust is really pretty. It looks incredibly fine and powdery. It feels nice to the touch and the existence of the glitter does not affect the texture. I'd have expected the glittery bits to feel a bit rougher or abrasive perhaps, but it doesn't at all. It is smooth and silky and easily glides on to the skin. It's like fairy dust, I like it.


APPLICATION

OK, I think I'm missing something here. Everything I've heard about this product is brilliant, but I found applying it to be such a challenge. I tried with a variety of brushes. I tried them wet, I tried them dry. I ended up with eyes that looked pretty cool, but also with excess dazzleage all over my face. To be fair, for a dance show, it's pretty difficult to be wearing too much glitter and its location isn't so important. As long as you sparkle, you're cool. I'm not sure how I'd feel about this was I just wearing it for some random night out however.

The getting everywhere problem is even worse with the darker colours and of my selection I ended up using mainly the silver fine glitter as this meant the rest of my face would merely sparkle - rather than have dark powder blobs that when rubbed only get worse.

My frustrations led me to check out the Barry M website - it's quite good, check it out if you haven't already. Their suggestion was to place a very thin coat of Vaseline on your eye-lids first. This, to an extent, really worked. The powder stuck much better to my eyelids. It went on smoother and easier and was more controlled. It also meant that there was less excess landing on my face. However, it did not stop bits falling off the brush during the actual application process so I still had to be a bit careful to not end up with it peppered all over my face (and any nearby surfaces!).

The brushes I eventually decided I could control the best were a foamy type applicator that was shaped like a very small bullet on a long handle for the larger areas of coverage, and a lip liner brush so that it could be applied like an eyeliner.

Having practiced a bit now, and being aware of the Vaseline trick, I've revised my original opinion and decided that they do apply pretty well. They still lose a star for getting everywhere and the trick taking a while to stumble upon. I'm usually more resourceful than that so it surprises me I never thought of it, but there we go.


IMMEDIATE RESULTS

So, having experimented and have the Vaseline and the two brushes of choice at the ready, what does it look like? Well pretty good.

I used the charcoal as an eye-liner, put a nice smudge of the silvery-black above this on the lid itself and covered the bit below my eye-brow and pretty much all round the rest of my eye with the glitter. I also intentionally used a bit of the glitter on my cheek bones. I topped the whole thing off with some giant fake lashes. It looked pretty cool.

The dazzle dust itself is pretty much a shimmer, not a glitter as such. This means that the shimmery effect is visible close up but really not from stage (for sparkles to be seen in the audience, the bits of glitter have to be quite a bit bigger than glitter that would show up in normal situations). The glitter was visible from the audience in that it made my eyes sparkle, however, my spies were seated in the first few rows so I'm unsure what the effect would have been from further back. I suspect invisible, but this is expected.

LASTING EFFECT

On the first night of the show, I ate no solid food all day and already had a severe sleep deficit. After a sweaty performance, I went to the bar still in make-up and wisely rounded off the day with a few glasses of Red. Great plan! I then caught the grim last-tube-home. By the time I got home the make-up was still intact, and didn't look THAT bad, considering. Unfortunately I was too pooped to take it off, and next morning both me and my pillow were a glittery mess.

Thanks for reading

© BondgirlK8 - December 2008

Summary: I need ALL the colours!