NYX Eyeshadow Base in 03 Natural: Review, swatches

So I'm a big fan of eyeshadows and almost always like to play up my eyes and just go with a neutral gloss or lipstick to keep the focus on my eyes alone. But some eyeshadows tend to crease or fade and I've been looking for an eyeshadow base to hold em in place. I tried MAC's paint pots but I found them too heavy. I know *gasp* how can anyone diss the paint pots! But they really feel like something's sitting on your eyes. Me no likeey. So when I saw some reviews of this NYX eyeshadow base online and saw how cheap it was I decided to try this. I bought this from urbantouch for Rs.500 for 7g of this product. They only had this in the other two shades-White and Pearl and I wanted the Skin Tone one so I mailed the UrbanTouch people asking if they could source this for me and yay they did! In about a week's time they mailed me saying this item was in stock with the link. And of course I lost no time in buying it. Opted for COD and got it in 2 days' time.
These are the pics. Click for a closer look.

NYX Eyeshadow base in 03-natural

NYX Eyeshadow base in 03-natural

NYX Eyeshadow base in 03 natural

Swatch-left:unblended, right:blended

Swatch of Eyeshadow without base on left and with base on right

After smudging the eyeshadows a little- without base on left and with base on right

Naked eye

Base dabbed on

With base-after blending

After setting base with powder

My lids arent very oily but I wanted something to hold my shadow in place and prevent fading. So does this hold up? Umm.. yes and no. See this is only an Eyeshadow base, not a primer so it wont solve your creasing problems but as you can see from the above pics where I've swatched the eyeshadow it does intensify the colour and prevent/resist fading. But, you will need a primer beneath to prevent creasing coz it creased on me in 3 hours. Cant use by itself.


Yay for:

• Matches my skin tone perfectly (I'm NC40)
• Quite pigmented, provides medium coverage. Can be layered for full coverage
• Can also be used as a concealer
• Easy to blend
• Quite creamy and sets in about 2 mins
• Holds shadows very well
• Intensifies the colours, makes em pop
• Prevents/Resists fading
• Has yellow undertones so cuts out any pigmentation very effectively
• Feels lightweight on the lids, doesn't weigh them down
• Lasts a good 6 hours
• Not very expensive
• Cruelty free, not tested on animals

Boo for:

• Creases, cannot be used without a primer underneath
• Availability is an issue since NYX isn't available that easily in India
• May not work too well for people with oily lids coz it contains mineral oils and is quite creamy
• Has a weird smell (why do eye products need to be scented?!)

So I'm not too thrilled about this product coz it needs to be layered over a primer and I like to use tinted primers so I dont really need a base over it. I wouldn't recommend this. I would rather recommend the HD eyeshadow base from NXY instead which I'll review soon. :)

Oh btw in case you're curious to know what eyeshadow it is that I've swached on my arm, its the blue from the Peacock quarter from Lakme. This is a very pretty shade but fades like its going out of style so picked this to test. :)

You can buy the NYX eyeshadow base online here. Also available for cheaper if you buy from BeautyJoint or PorkDaisy. I recommend BeautyJoint though, has the cheapest rates.

My rating: **

Edit: I was trying to make this work on it own and hit upon the right combination recently. The trick is to blend this well over the lid area. I generally do this with my finger. And then dust some neutral colour eyeshadow immediately over it and again blend with a pencil brush. I use a slightly shimmery pale champagne colored shadow. Viola! It works! It holds the shadow in place and didn't crease on me even after 5 hours. Slight fading was noticed though, but that's ok. After dusting with the neutral colored eyeshadow you could layer more colours over it to create any look you want. So I wear this for my neutral make up looks as this product feels very light on the eyelids. I'm so proud o myself that I could make it work! :)