In the way that Christmas’s go-to decor colors are red & green, Hallowen’s are orange & black, Valentine’s is pink or puke, New Years Eve’s is glitter. Glitter, glitter, glitter.

Naturally, I expect you’ll be incorporating this central tenet into your New Years makeup look. And by “you” I mean those readers who still actually leave the house to celebrate New Year’s (and are therefore young enough to get away with wearing glitter makeup without soliciting pitying looks from passers-by.) I, on the other hand, am probably (definitely?) outside the age range for whom a glitter get-up is advisable, but, turns out, with age comes not giving a crap about what other people think. Thus, I’ve been in the market for some shimmering, glittery eyeshadow.

Since I don’t expect to wear eyelid bling very often I didn’t want to break the bank. I decided to buy four different brands of drugstore makeup and pit them… LID TO LID.

I picked a random selection from a Rite Aid in New Jersey (because, honestly, if ever there was anybody who would stock obnoxious glitter products…) and decided on gold as my first test color in this… the first ever…

SHIMMER SHADOW SHOWDOWN!!!!!

the contenders

The challengers include:
1) Cover Girl Bombshell Shineshadow (315 Gold Goddess) for $8.99
2) Maybelline Color Tattoo Pure Pigments (25 Wild Gold) for $6.99
3) NYC Sparkle Eye Dust Eye Shadow (883 Amber Glitz) for $2.99
4) Wet N’ Wild Color Icon Glitter Single in Brass ($0.99)

The events include:

Texture, Application, Glitteriness, Authenticity of Color, Removal

So… without further ado… let’s get down to it.

Contestant #1: Cover Girl Bombshell Shineshadow (315 Gold Goddess) for $8.99

Coming in at the highest price point I was optimistic though I’m not a Cover Girl loyalist by any means. Their marketing just sucked me in with their claims of a NEW! EXCITING! SHIMMERY! Line of cream shadows so I decided to indulge.

Texture: it is indeed creamy; it has to be squeezed out of a little tube; kind of a softer, milkier version of toothpaste
Application: I used fingers; the creaminess didn’t lend itself well to going onto and then off of brush bristles
Glitteriness: eh, it was more light reflective than actually sparkly
Authentic Color: it was okay, more metallic gold than anything
Removal: more difficult that I anticipated which may speak to its staying power; it was surprisingly stubborn despite my trusty Clinique Take The Day Off Remover and transferred from my top lid to my lower lash line whilst trying to remove it
Overall: a contender, particularly if you’re looking for a more metallic-y look, but definitely not today’s champion

Contestant #2: Maybelline Color Tattoo Pure Pigments (25 Wild Gold) for $6.99

I’ve tried and highly enjoyed other hues from the Color Tattoo line so I thought this guy would be a challenger. The Color Tattoos I have must be from a different ilk (not the pure pigment persuasion). My old ones are a cream pot based product and I was expecting the same from this newbie.

Texture: basically a loose powder that you shake into the lid and then apply (quite unlike the Color Tattoos of yore… AKA a few months ago)
Application: I used a regular fluffy all over shadow brush; it picked up the pigment fairly well, but I find myself distrustful of loose powder + brushes (there’s gotta be sorcery afoot — where does the powder go?!); I mean, I guess the powder goes between bristles, but why can’t I see more of it? I think this is perhaps a personal problem that leads me to over saturate my brush w/ product… which, with a powder, leads to a lot of fall out with application
Glitteriness: I’d say more glittery than the Cover Girl color, though still metallic; I think this would do well as a final flourish on top of matte eye makeup, but as a stand alone… not so much
Authentic Color: definitely the most GOLD of the lot; it really looked like pulverized gold dust
Removal: it took a cotton circle doused in Take The Day Off held against my lid for a minute, but then came off easily
Overall: I don’t hate it. Again, I think for a finishing touch it would be great and add a nice glittery shimmer, but overall the glitteriness is far too tasteful for New Year’s Eve

Contestant #3: NYC Sparkle Eye Dust Eye Shadow (883 Amber Glitz) for $2.99

Cheap, the namesake of my favorite city, and “sparkle” right there in the name? No brainer.

Texture: kind of powdery whilst silky, it comes in a mascara-esque tube
Application: it comes with an applicator that could easily masquerade as a lipgloss wand; the wand was good for getting the product out of the tube and onto my eyelid, but once on my eyelid I switched to a regular eyeshadow brush; it behaved much like a regular shadow from that point on, not bad
Glitteriness: meh, again, more metallic-y than sparkly, but less nicely metallic than the Cover Girl one
Authentic Color: it showed up a more bronze/copper on my skin/barely showed up, and while I do have kind of olive-y undertones, I wouldn’t have guessed how blah it would look
Removal: no more difficult than regular ole eyeshadow
Overall: not terrible; I’ve had worse eyeshadows on my face (the Mary Kate & Ashley Wal-mart line comes to mind…); might be better in a different color that’s less flesh-ish

Contestant #4: Wet N’ Wild Color Icon Glitter Single (352B Brass) for $0.99

I’d heard through my various makeup blog wanderings that Wet N’ Wild has undergone a revolution of sorts in the past few years. I remained skeptical, just saying Wet N’ Wild conjures the smell of nail polish for me, but decided to see what the hype was all about.

Texture: a far more “traditional” glitter appearance; it looks like glitter from the craft store pressed into a little square pot
Application: it not only looks like craft store glitter, it kind of behaves that way; initially I had trouble being sure I was picking up the flakes because they kept disappearing into my brush bristles, but after some googling I came across the hint of adding two drops of redness reliever eye solution to the brush (I’m sure saline solution would work too) and then scooping up glitter with a moistened brush — this worked much much more easily than the dry brush
Glitteriness: OH HELL YES, THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!! The advantage of a craft store glitter mimic is that it indeed is legit glitter on your eyelids
Authentic Color: a gorgeous gold all the way
Removal: well… let me put it this way… I applied the showdown contenders 3 days ago and I’m still spotting a freckle of glitter on my face intermittently
Overall: Love love love. AND it’s $0.99!!! The clear winner and my new dark horse fave for 2015! (I mean, Wet N’ Wild! Who knew!?)

(I need to figure out a way to better photograph makeup (something tells me that using an iPhone in my bathroom mirror may not be the optimal set up…). I look like I have wilted poinsettia water rubbed on my eyelids which really isn’t fair to the eyeshadows. Alas, it’s the best I can do for today.)

Of note, Cover Girl and Maybelline were only applied to my right eyelid (the leftmost in the pictures). NYC and Wet N’ Wild were applied to both lids.

Do you have a favorite shimmer shadow? How are you planning to do your makeup this New Year’s Eve? Hashtag aboutboulder on any facebook pics of your makeup so I can see!

Nancy Novak, MD