Trish McEvoy Demure Sparkle Eye Base Essentials

The entire Trish McEvoy Demure Collection has finally arrived instore at Nordstrom. A few days ago I wrote about the lipstick Gorgeous Demure, today I'm bringing you a feature and review on the new Eye Base Essentials in Demure Sparkle which retails for $24.


My thoughts on this product: The more I experiment with it, the more I like it. The first time I tried it, I wasn't wowed, but still ended up purchasing it. I tried it on instore and reluctantly agreed to a mini Trish McEvoy makeup application. The artist applied it heavily on the eyes without any eyecream and the proceeded to apply more light lilac-pink shadows on it giving me a chalk-like look. It didn't help that she kept using the phrase "I love it, don't you love it?" over and over and over again.

In my past experience with other Trish McEvoy Eye Base Essentials, I know they aren't great alone on the eyes. They are simply too dry. But I find this the case with MAC Paint Pots too. My solution = apply a light layer of eye cream on the eyes first and this helps the color blend out better. (I really like the Eye Cream from Nars because it's a gel base rather than a heavy cream.) So I knew that chalky-powdery look I got instore wouldn't necessarily be what I got at home applying it myself.

The color is a pale powdery pink and you can only see the sparkle when it is blended out. On my hand it looks really chalky. On the eyes alone it appears chalky too, but I don't think it's meant to be worn alone as an all-over wash. I think it's really intended to be an eye base for other shadows.

Here it is swatched heavily:

Here it is swatched but blended out:

Compared to some other pale pink cream eyeshadows including Bobbi Brown Ballet Pink and Laura Mercier Pink Chiffon:

Swatch comparisons, 2 swatches of each color, the first one is applied heavily, the second is blended out:

If you're fair skinned and find that most pinks look too dark on you, the Trish McEvoy Demure Sparkle might be the answer to your search. If you're medium skinned or darker I think you might find it too pale. I used this as a base yesterday with NARS Brousse and All About Eve Duos and I have to say I was pretty impressed that my eyeshadow lasted all evening through a 4 hour client meeting and 2.5 hour class.

It depends on what you want for this type of product. If you want an eye base and like pale colors, you will like this. If you're simply looking for a pink cream eyeshadow - I suggest you look elsewhere.

The items featured in this collection include:

• Gorgeous Demure Lipstick - light nude pink (as in very light and washed out)
• Irresistible Pink Lip Gloss - shimmery bright rosey-reddish pink (seems similar to a discontinued color, I want to say it was called Rose, but I'm not 100% certain)
• All Over Face Color in London and Capri - simply a repromote of her discontinued face shines, London is a pale champagne, Capri is a deeper bronze, they seemed really sheer and just looked like sparkle on the skin
• Translucent Finishing Powder - pressed translucent powder
• Demure Sparkle - pale pink cream with subtle sparkles

I was initially excited from the promo photos (you can see these at TrishMcevoy.com or on Karlasugar's blog) but my first reaction to seeing the entire collection in person was "meh." The lipstick was too pale, the lipgloss was too bright, the face shines too sheer/sparkley. It made me wonder, am I a difficult customer? Or do I just have too much good stuff already? Probably a little bit of both.