Monday, September 1, 2008

Testing. 1-2-3, Testing. (Make-up that is.)



Last season, my requests for NY Fashion Week tickets paid off two-fold. Not only did I score tix to shows as a blogger, but now publicists occasionally send me stuff for coverage here on People.Places.Things. Now because I work in publishing, I know this game very well but it is new for PPT. Recently, a publicist reached out to me about the make-up line: POP, in particular the Green Eye Cakes line. I decided to test it and post the results here. However unlike the mainstream women’s mags (with a couple of rare exceptions), I wanted to test the line on a woman who actually wears make-up regularly and has dark skin. I get so annoyed when I read a fashion/beauty pub and they feature a story with light, medium and dark skin and the dark skin example is Jennifer Lopez. What the crap is that about?!

Since I know this type of foolishness frustrates you as much as it frustrates me, I asked my girl Tress to test the line. Not only does she actually wear eye make-up pretty reularly (unlike moi), but she without a doubt has some of the prettiest skin…well, ever. No lie, her complexion gets noticed by men, women, people of all races, ages, on other continents even. We’ve been friends since 1990 and I’ve never known her to have a pimple or blemish. And since the folks that rep POP claimed the line was wearable for everybody, I figured I would see exactly who was included in "everybody". Ya dig? Why not give Tress the green eye shadow to test, right? It would have been so lame (read: predictible) to test on someone with light skin and/or eyes. Well, here is what Tress had to say:

Olive Eyes

"I found the shadow easy to use and good to mix and match."
I'm pretty indifferent about this one. But it is good to know that the products are user-friendly.

Linear Eyes

"I really like this one. I used a very thin brush, applied a bit of water and lined my eyes."
This one is my favorite too! The blue/green tint on the eyes is such a pleasant surprise, especially on a dark brown woman. I would love to see this paired with an all white look.

Naked Green Eyes

"The color comes off waaay too gold and unattractive."
Tress liked this one the least and I have to agree with her. The pigment is too strong for her complexion and forces the product to appear caked (excuse the bad pun) up on her eyelids - not cute. It could perhaps still work if blended with a darker shade to balance out the metallic brightness.

POP Green Eyes, $19, sephora.com or ulta.com. Or, for even more POP Eye Cake goodies, visit their official website here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey bridge,

what an awesome story! thank you for your compliments. also thank you for allowing me to be the beauty product test junkie. I'd like to say that I wasn't sure if the product was marketed for brown eyes. But I gave it the good ole college try and some colors truly flattered my skin. I'm sure if you're creative you can mix and match with the combinations presented so that you can have a fabulous look.

Food Lover said...

The blue is the best--now all I have to do is convince myself that a soccer mom can rock something so edgy without looking out of character...