Review: Concrete Minerals in Smut & Wicked

I had to do two takes of this one because the first time round I did it when I was incredibly tired and... let's just say I really ought not be trying to do anything with makeup when I'm tired. (Long time readers can have a laugh now).

Concrete Minerals was on my list of places that I absolutely needed to try because it popped up on Phyrra's list of "Affordable Cruelty-Free Brands." I've slowly been trying to make that shift with all of my makeup -- not just to cruelty free, but just shift over to Indie brands in general. I was incredibly happy when Kara's Way handed me two full-sized eye shadows to test out.

I received the eyeshadows "Smut" and "Wicked." Smut is described as a "dirty silver with pink-purple undertones" whereas Wicked is "medium purple with an aquamarine shift." So, you might notice that beyond the flash burnout, the two eyeshadows I have are blue and purple. For a while, I held off this review because I was a tiny bit perplexed since Wicked came out very blue. I'm not hating as it's a lovely blue, but it definitely doesn't match the swatches on the website.

Wicked on the left and Smut on
the right.

Right off the bat, the colours aren't really that buildable. The Wicked comes off as a sheer colour and while it's just the kind of blue that I like, I had a feeling that it would disappear on my face. The Smut came off as a vibrant coppery purple.

Wicked on the left and Smut on the right. Over primer, full
eyelid, no blending, and no, I did not go out like this.

You can see what the first test looked like above. Even though I packed on the Wicked, it didn't really come but you can see the shimmer and the hints of it around my eye. The Smut appeared but only along the the very edges of my eyelids by the lashes. Keep in mind I applied both of them to the entire area without any blending over a primer.

I've had this issue with eyeshadows before so I decided that I needed to run a second test. First I redid the swatches. Below you can view the new swatches -- no primer but multiple swipes to test buildability. The first stripe of each is (so that would be from left to right, the first and the fourth) one that doesn't include multiple swipes whereas the other two that follow have multiple swipes. They all looked pretty much the same no matter what light or setting I tested it in. The only new thing I noticed what that Smut was now showing up with a black base underneath.

From the left to right: First three strokes are Wicked &
the last three are of Smut. No primer.

I decided that the eyeshadows probably needed a better "canvas" to be built upon so I grabbed my Sugarpill Tako (white) and Sugarpill Bulletproof (black) to help them along.

The blue and purple creation.

After starting off with white in the center of my eyelid and black in the highlight and crease area. For the outer lid I used the Smut and for the inner lid I worked the Wicked inward toward the middle of the lid over Tako.

For the brow, I worked the Wicked a bit upward toward the Bulletproof and mostly worked with the Smut to blend the two so that the Bulletproof wasn't as strong. On my eyebrows I blended Bulletproof and Wicked.

I used the Honeybee Gardens eyeliner in Blue Jeans (navy blue) and finally on my lashes I used Mark's Lash All You Want High Volume Mascara in Violet.

The final look took forever to get a good picture of since it mostly came out blue. Any type of high flash on the camera meant that it looked like I was barely wearing any eyeshadow at all. But as those of you know, mineral makeups tend to be a bit harder to photograph (unless you have a good camera, which I do not have).

Overall, I think that Concrete Minerals is a good addition to the collection. It does take a lot more effort to get it worked in and if it weren't for the Sugarpill, I'm not sure that I could really get it to show up on me. It doesn't really build on it's own and requires other colours for that jump start. I'm also still a bit puzzled about how far off the swatches on the website are from what I got. My assumption is that since this is an indie brand that likely mixes it themselves, this batch might be a bit different than the norm.

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These products are slated to be featured in an upcoming Kara's Way box and was given to me complimentary for my evaluation.

Product: Concrete Minerals in Smut & Wicked
Price: $7 each.
Would Recommend? Perhaps...
Takeaway: The colours didn't quite match the website and add the fact that they go on sheer. It took a couple of combinations with other products in order to really get the colours to pop.