Review: The Body Needs Mineral Eyeshadows

A few weeks ago I was contacted by The Body Needs to see if I was interested in trying some of their self-made mineral eyeshadows in exchange for an honest review if I decided I liked them (or didn't!). To be honest, I was excited but skeptical because I'm not a big loose eyeshadow user. I have my Sugarpill Goldilux which I love, but even then I rarely use it because I feel that loose eyeshadows have quite the learning curve if you're used to pressed shadows. Despite my skepticism, I decided that I wanted to try to use The Body Needs mineral shadows; I mean, what's wrong with learning a new medium? So I chose 5 shades in a wide range of finishes and in a spectrum of colours that I could create looks with easily and waited for them to arrive. When I got my package in the mail, I received not only the five mineral shadows but a mixing medium! (I used The Body Needs mixing medium for the swatches, if anyone is wondering!)

Onto the review! (I'll discuss the colour/pigmentation of each colour separately and then review the products as a whole at the end.)

Aquamarine - Shimmers Teal

Envious - Teal Brown - Matte Violet

Overall:
Pigmentation: 7.5/10
(Hard to generalize for all the colours, but if I have to, they are decently pigmented dry and amazing foiled).
Price: 9/10
($1.99 for the 5 gram jar or $3.79 for a 10 gram jar. Like I mention in the review, the 5 gram jars have enough product that they'll last me forever, so $1.99 is excellent).
Overall: 7.5/10
(I would most likely buy more - especially mattes(!), but mineral eyeshadows are still my weakness; I'm sure it'll get better! :) )

Aquamarine: This was probably the colour I was most excited about; it's a muted minty green/blue colour that just shines in the jar. I've had the most trouble getting really good pigmentation out of this one so far, but it's still a gorgeous colour. (I used it in the previous two looks on my blog, so you can see that it is possible to get better pigmentation out of it with layering).

Teal Brown: My swatches really don't do this colour justice. They don't pick up the beautiful duochrome of this shadow; this shadow is a slightly different coloured version of what I imagine MAC's Blue Brown pigment to be. It's a medium brown with a teal duochrome (as the name would suggest...). The pigmentation on this one is good dry and better wet (when foiled, the duochrome is 10x better!).

Envious: I feel like this colour is a hidden gem. It's so much more than just a dark green pigment. You can see better in the picture of the shadow in the container that it has so much sparkle in it and I just couldn't pick it up in the swatch picture. This colour applied wet is amazing.

Matte Violet: This is my favourite! Dry and wet the pigmentation is amazing and it blends beautifully and the colour is a gorgeous purpley magenta. I was most wary of this one when I was choosing them because mattes seem to be the hardest to get perfect, but the Body Needs has done it.

Shimmers Teal: Since I have neither, I'm only guessing but I think this is what Sugarpill Lumi or MAC Reflects Transparent Teal would look like. It's a translucent white shadow that reflects teal. I really want to be head over heels for this colour because I have been wanting a shade like this for a longg time, but it really needs to be layered. I used this is my look 2 posts back as the lid colour without a colour underneath(and dry) and I had a very hard time getting pigmentation (as you can tell by the dry swatch), but if you look at what it looks like over the black base, it's magical!

Now, the products in general:

Sizing:




The TBN mineral eyeshadows come in 5 gram jars and are sold by weight, not volume. Two level 1/2 teaspoon scoops are added to each jar and weighed and the weight is written on the label, so you may notice if you buy many that the weights on each one could be different. All of mine are around 1 gram. It may not seem like a lot but you use very little because of the pigmentation of them that they will last a long time. The jars are about the size of a quarter, as you can see by the pictures.

Functionality:


Each jar comes with a sifter on top with 5 small holes. This sifter is easily lifted if you want to be able to plunge your brush into the pigment unguarded. The only problem I had with this is with the Matte Violet; I'm thinking the matte colours are probably not as finely milled and don't come through the holes so I had to take the sifter off the Matte Violet (which is fine in my books). All others worked perfectly.


Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked these shadows. I would definitely be inclined to buy more of the matte mineral eyeshadows and try some of the other products The Body Needs makes. They were a pleasure to correspond with and the products are high quality.


*Disclosure: Products were provided to me; I was not paid for the review nor even required to provide a review in exchange for the products.