I have always been a fan of the "smokey eyes" look when it comes to eye shadow and have spent the last 15 years or so trying to perfect it using various eyeshadows and brushes, but still that elusive perfect effect is lost to me! No matter how much effort I put in to getting my eye makeup looking good, it never seems to quite get there and NEVER looks like the people in magazines (oh for a little airbrushing in real life!). I do find, however, that the trios of eyeshadows you can get from various brands (and to suit a variety of budgets) do tend to work quite well in building up the look that I want using different but complementing colours.

I had always used browns on my eyes until a makeup artist friend of mine recommended I should think about using greens and gold to complement my red hair and blue eyes. So when I saw these Number 17 trios in Boots and was looking for something to spend my hard-earned advantage points on I decided to take her advice and treat myself to the "Green With Envy" trio, which no longer seems to be available, but included a gold, pale green and darker green.

The first time I used it I was very impressed. Many eyeshadows can be very powdery and on more than one occasion I've ended up with more shadow on my cheeks than on my eyelids. This one, however, whilst not a cream shadow, is a slightly creamy powder, which means it is easy to apply without spilling it everywhere and it is also very easy to blend the colours together (which you would expect from a set with three eyeshadows meant to be used together, but you'd be surprised how many of these sets often don't blend well at all).

I always use the palest colour as the base, all over my eyelid up to my brow, the mid colour covers my eyelid and then the darkest colour I use in the socket crease and as a smudgey liner. One of my favourite things about this trio is that the colours really do work well together but none of them are really very dark. As I have very pale skin I don't like dark makeup as I tend to end up looking like a Goth gone wrong, so these colours are just perfect for me. It doesn't really give me the smokey eyes that I hanker after, but that is more down to the colour choice I made and if I had chosen one of the darker trios I suspect it would work very well in this respect. But I tend to use this more a an every day eyeshadow anyway rather than and evening/heavier look.

This Number 17 eyeshadow seems to have very good lasting potential. I usually apply it at around 7am on a weekday and it still looks good when I get home around 6pm. I never feel the need to reapply any of it anyway.

The eyeshadow trio comes in a little round plastic case about 2 inches in diameter, with the shadows separated into three different sections and with a clear lid (so you can see the different colours) which simply unclips and flips up. I've been using this set for around a year now and the casing is still in one piece, despite being dropped on the floor several times, so it is very robust. A plus point, for me at least, is that it doesn't come with one of those cheapy plastic eyeshadow applicators. I personally like to use proper makeup brushes when I apply my eyeshadow as I find they work best and give a better finish. So when eyeshadows come with those little applicators I tend to end up with the bottom of my makeup bag being filled with them and never actually using them.

All in all I have been very impressed with this eyeshadow trio from Boots. It is part of their Number 17 range, which is their own brand mid-price range and is available on their website in 12 different colour combinations, so there really should be something to suit everyone! It's currently for sale on their website for £5.49, but is also on a 3 for 2 offer, so could potentially be free! For the price it costs I really think it excellent value as their single eyeshadows can cost up to £3.99 in the same range and the equivalent product in their next range up (No 7) is priced at £10.50!

The only slight criticism I have of this particular trio is that the whole case is divided into three equal sections so you get equal amounts of each colour shadow. But most people I know that use these tend to use a lot more of the paler colours and less of the darkest one, using this mainly as a highlighter/liner. So for me personally, more gold, slightly less pale green and even less dark green would have been much better as I have now nearly used all the gold but haven't even worn through either of the greens yet. But this is such a minor criticism that it would by no means stop me purchasing this again and isn't enough for me to deduct a star from it either!

Having said that, it means I can now go out and just purchase a single gold shadow and keep using the greens with that instead of having to get another trio, so I suppose it's not all bad! (Although I like the practical aspect of only having to take one eyeshadow case with me if I go away and don't want to take my entire makeup bag with me.)