UV eyeshadows for the raver in you! (Stargazer Florescent Pressed Powders)

Member Name: missixty

Product:	Stargazer Florescent Pressed Powders
Date:	25/07/08 (299 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unique, can look brilliant, attracts lots of attention! Cheap

Disadvantages: Hard to apply, takes a lot of hard work to get them looking good

Now a few months back we were on a night out and throughout the course of the night every single person in the club had at least two stripes of UV paint on their face. Many had painted several more bits in different colours, one person had painted their entire face. Where were we? A rave? No, an indie club! It seems UV has no boundaries, and ever since that first time, the UV face paint seems to be a permanent fixture even in our favourite little dingy student (although we're not students, we're just young at heart and skint!) indie club.

On the trowl for some to take myself, so that this time I could spread the UV love, I came across Stargazer products. I purchased a tube of UV paint but was also delighted to see they had the funkiest range of cosmetics that I instantly fell in love with and they were all so cheap!!

To make the postage worthwhile (there's that woman logic for you!) I ordered some black glitter, a neon green glitter, the paint and three UV eyeshadows. Yes, that's right UV eye shadows! Excellent!

After buying them I couldn't wait to try them out, but then we happened to be completely and utterly skint (that'll be my Lush/make up habit then...) and unable to go out for roughly around forever (we haven't infact actually been out in this country since then and this was months ago!).

The eye shadows themselves were very very bright! Certainly very neon! I ordered orange, yellow and green. They are also available in pink, red and blue. I was at this point wondering if their "UV" advertising simply meant neon. I would have still wanted them either way as I love bright funky eye shadows and these are certainly the brightest out there. However, I was intrigued to see if they did glow under the UV lights, and hoped they did.

Un able to wait till my next night out I decided to have a play around, although obviously I wouldn't be able to tell how they would be under UV lights.

Firstly I tried applying these dry and my advice is don't. The colours were so weak and patchy and just looked terrible and not even bright as it was barely showing up. Disappointed but not defeated I continued to play around.

Next I made sure I applied Urban Decay's Primer Potion, which not only makes eye colour last and not crease but makes the colours appear much more vibrant. I also this time applied the eye shadow wet using my home made mixing medium (1 part glycerine, 3 parts water). This makes colours so much more vibrant and also apply better, in a paint like form.

Applying like this I did manage to get a fairly good level of cover. It wasn't perfect and I did have to pile the stuff on, putting on thickly mixed wet eye shadow and then putting it on dry over the top, layer after layer.

It didn't apply easily, it didn't go on well, it was patchy, it was hard work but if you really worked at it was possible to get a fairly even and certainly vibrant covering. I was still a little let down but figured for a night out I would put the effort into the hassle of getting it to look okay and see how it reacted under the UV light.

Before I ever got around to going on said night out to try it out I came across a brand called Sleek cosmetics. They make a product called Ink Pots, which are a coloured gel like consistency supposedly for use as an eyeliner but with no reason not to use over the entire eye as a colour. Their will be a separate review of this product but I found that alone they weren't anything special, a little disappointing, much like my Stargazer eye shadows. Conveniently I had purchased the Ink Pots in orange and yellow so I used these as a base for my Stargazer, and what were two average products alone, suddenly came to life together.

On a base of a matching colour, still applied over Urban Decay Primer Portion, and then the Ink Pot, the Stargazer (applied with mixing medium still) went on evenly, and strongly giving a vivid smooth finish with minimum fuss and effort, it was suddenly not difficult to get it to look half decent, it now looked great, without any messing about! (Well if you don't class using an Ink Pot under it messing about but it didn't take long!)

It wasn't until recently that I actually put the UV part to test. On a night out on holiday I did rainbow stripes on my eyes, with the orange and yellow closest to my lash line (I've lost my green one before ever trying it) incase they did glow up as it would then look like UV eyeliner, not random UV with other non UV colours. During the course of the night we ended up in a nightclub with UV lights and sure enough they colours lit up! I myself, couldn't see this, and it wouldn't show up on my camera but I was assured it looked very cool and I got stopped so many times for people to look at my eye shadow (that may have had something to do with the rainbow though!) If you created a rainbow out of all the UV shades it would look fantastic although it would need to be done with the corresponding colours in the Ink Pot range for maximum vibrancy and they can look a bit of a mess without this.

Obviously these aren't a look for the daytime, even not under UV these are very bright neon shades. Even for nights out these most certainly won't be for everyone, it's a very bold look and it's not so much a pretty looks enhancing look but more just a fun party look.

These stayed put throughout the whole night out and didn't smudge despite my fears that with the heat and humidity my rainbow would smudge and end up looking like two bruised eyes, by 7am the next morning when we were getting in and waiting up for breakfast to start the rainbows were still as perfectly intact as when I first applied them.

That said they come off really easily with a wet wipe. When you remove them you really do notice exactly how bright they are as your wet wipe looks like you've been drawing on it with highlighters!!

These eye shadows are far from perfect, the quality in all honesty is one of the poorest I've seen in the many millions of eye shadows I have tried but they are unique. If you can be bothered with what it takes to create a good look with them then it can be done and when you get it right they do look amazing but it does take a little work.

These definitely aren't for everyone and aren't great quality but I do love them due to their originality and the looks I can now create with them but it did take a bit of trial and error. On the Stargazer website these are £3 each but I got mine for £2 each from www.bodyjewelleryshop.com who I had no problem ordering off. Do bear in mind for optimum effect you would also need to purchase corresponding Ink Pots which I can't remember exactly but I think are around £2-£3 also.

If you want UV eyes for in the clubs then go for it but be prepared to find a way of making them work for you as it's not just a case of brushing them onto your eyelids.

Summary: If you fancy something a bit different then these are a funky option!