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I think it’s fair to say that Colourpop broke the internet. Overnight, my Youtube and Instagram feeds were flooded with raves and impressive swatches of the Super Shock Shadows.

Colourpop Super Shock Shadow Reviews

What the hell are they? Powders? Creams? WUT.

Prior to ordering, I did some research. It felt as though after each subsequent review, I had more questions and growing confusion because JUST TELL ME ARE THEY CREAMS OR POWDERS.

To sum up countless blog and Youtube reviews: much pigment, so creamy, wet-feeling, ooh sparkle, SO pigmented, long wearing and perhaps most prevalent… it’s unlike any shadow on the market and you just have to try it for yourself. So I did.

My thoughts: I would define Super Shock Shadows as a thin, cream shadow – my swatches set entirely and I couldn’t budge them with a finger (i.e. not a powder). The formula is silicone heavy so the consistency feels slippery and velvety to touch (this is where the wet-feeling/moussey claims come into play). Colourpop suggests you tightly screw the lid, another indication that indeed the formula resembles a cream.

Are they unlike any formula on the market? I would say they’re not terribly dissimilar to the Chanel Illusion D’Ombre Cream formula – NOT a dupe but if you’re familiar with that texture, Super Shock Shadows are in a similar vein.

Swatchfest

Colourpop Super Shock Shadow Reviews

NB: All mattes are infused with a very fine shimmer. We see this frequently, absolute mattes are hard to formulate.

Animal – Satin Finish // A mid-toned vibrant coral with sparse gold flecks. Colourpop describes this as neon, I’d say it stops short at vibrant.

Cheeky – Satin Finish // Pale peachy pink with fine, multicoloured reflect. Runs a bit sheer on my medium skin.

BAE – Metallic Finish // Eggplant base with emerald reflect. The duo-chrome is underwhelming since the shimmer is a bit sparse (but I’m garish, y’know).

Bandit – Matte Finish // Medium warm, rusty brown. Infused with very fine shimmer.

Game Face – Ultra Metallic Finish // Rusty copper. Densely packed with pink, lime and gold sparkle.

Sequin – Metallic Finish // Rich copper base with pink, gold and silver shimmer. I would class it as part of the ‘Ultra Metallic’ line, actually. Potentially my favourite.

La La – Metallic Finish // Pinkened sand base with multicolour reflect. Colourpop describes this as rose gold… not quite pink enough for my idea of rose gold.

Hustle – Matte Finish // A reddened burgundy infused with fine shimmer.

Desert – Satin Finish // A sandy gold with pink and gold micro shimmer. Registers as sheer on my medium skin.

Dare – Metallic Finish // Vibrant pinkened violet base with violet and silver shimmer. This one swatches better than it applies on the eye.

Mittens – Matte Finish // Deep reddened brown infused with very fine shimmer.

Get Lucky – Metallic Finish // A cool toned gold base with pink and gold reflect. Another that I would classify as ‘Ultra Metallic’.

So Quiche – Metallic Finish // Muted olive base with pink and gold reflect. Another duo-chrome that I found underwhelming, could have been more generous with the shimmer.

Best/Worst Performing Shades

Colourpop Super Shock Shadow Reviews

Overall, the Metallic/Ultra Metallic shades performed better than the Matte (matte-ish?) shades. The greater the shimmer, the better the payoff and blend-ability. The shades I love and would recommend: Sequin, Game Face and Get Lucky (in that order).

In hindsight, I could have easily skipped Cheeky and Desert, both are uber subtle on my NC20-25 skin (although subtle may be your thing!).

I was super excited about the idea of a matte cream shadow but unfortunately, I was underwhelmed. The matte shades are tricky to blend on my normal/dry lids, a powder shadow is much less hassle.

Application

Colourpop recommends applying using a finger and I totally agree, pressing the product with a finger provides true-to-pan payoff. I then quickly blend edges with a synthetic crease brush, whereby I have about a minute playtime. Crease work becomes tricky because one must use a brush – I found that I had to build quite a bit to reach full opacity and the edges were a bit choppy for my liking.

The shimmery shades do produce a bit of fallout as you blend, thankfully it’s not glitter of the herpes variety and any stray flecks are easily swept away with a brush, no biggie. I did experience a minor amount of fallout as the day progressed, but again, easy to sweep away. If fallout is your dealbreaker, do keep this in mind.

Longevity

Super Shock Shadows are incredibly long wearing on ma face: no creasing, fading or migration. I trialled the shadows with and without a primer and didn’t notice a difference in wear time. If anything, applying the shadows over a primer made blending a headache so I won’t be doing that again!

Reviews suggest that oilier lids do benefit from a primer to mitigate creasing, but I can’t attest to that personally.

Blendability

Perhaps my only legitimate complaint: I would have liked a little more slip to the Super Shock Shadow formula to aid the blending process. This may be a function of my skintype (dryer every year) but if I attempt to create an entire eye look using Colourpop alone, I’m left with tide lines above the crease that I cannot for the life of me buff out.

As a consequence, my most successful looks involved a Coloupop shadow on the lid, edges blended with a synthetic brush and crease work accomplished with powders, as usual. I demonstrated this in my Spring Goddess Makeup Tutorial

Colourpop Super Shock Shadow Reviews

Sequin on the lid, FYI.

Price & Value

Super Shock Shadows are priced VERY competitively at 5USD a pop for 2.1grams or 0.07oz. Returning back to the Chanel Illusion D’Ombres, which retail for 36USD for 4grams or 0.14oz.

Colourpop Super Shock Shadow Reviews

My So Quiche arrived smashed, apparently Colourpop has impeccable customer service but I wasn’t blown away by the shade, so I didn’t enquire. MY POINT IS: the product is only a few millimetres deep, which surprised me and I imagine it would be rather easy to hit pan. But it’s 5 bucks. And would probably dry out before you finish. Just a thought.

Overall

I love the Metallic/Ultra Metallic finish Super Shock Shadows as a lid shade paired with powders in the crease. They are indeed an interesting formula and the shade range is beyond exciting. I introduce a Colourpop shade as a focal point but it’s not a one-stop-eyeshadow-solution for me.

At the time of writing, Colourpop ships to USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands and APO’s.

Have you tried the Colourpop Super Shock Shadows? I have some Lippie Stix and Lip Pencils too, if you guys are interested in that. I leave you with this…

Colourpop Super Shock Shadow Reviews

xxkarima

Disclaimer: Colourpop provided a voucher for PR purposes. I pitched in plenty of my own moneys because HAULING.

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  1. I love your reviews! You’re so thorough, and I appreciate the critical eye. I figured the mattes might be a bit awks, but I think I’ll give the metallic ones a shot. also YES TO THE LIPPIE STIX AND PENCILS REVIEW! I’ve seen them literally all over the Internet!

  2. A big yes to Lippie Stix and Lippie Pencils! I love your reviews so much girl… You don’t even know 🙂

  3. Nice pictures!
    I’ m totally in love with Colour Pop and just ordered further lippie sticks and eyeshadows.
    I love the shades and kind of smooth texture 🙂

  4. Hello Karima! I have a question…is “BAE” from ColourPop comparable to the purple shadow from the SUQQU Sumiredama quad? I have Sumiredama and I’m always so hesitant to use it since it is a rare quad but I LOOVEE that shade so much…I’ve been looking for a dupe and from pictures this looks like one of the closest ones I’ve seen shade-wise. What do you think?

  5. They sure look really tempting!

    However I will not be getting any right now: I have plenty of cream shadows and eye bases to use before they dry out!

  6. Thank you for this honest review! I totally agree 100% with all
    Of what u said. I cannot blend the matte shadows for the life of me and they end up very patchy. I still like metallic or glittery shadows but wow they are a lot more difficult that made to seem on YouTube community. I reallyyyyyyyy enjoy their lipsticks though. My favorite is Lumiere.

  7. I just picked up some Colourpop shadows, both matte and ultra metallic. I really like them but I can tell they won’t be a staple for me…I’m much too obsessed with the TF cream shadows to go for the colourpop with the same regularity. They are pretty tho.

  8. Is it a cream? A powder? A hybrid? Karima, The Makeup Detective, sets out to find the truth! 🙂
    Good work xxx

  9. Never would’ve imagined the pans are so shallow! I already knew the lipsticks had a small amount of product, but I expected as much due to their thin, twist-up format. Hard to tell when weights/volumes are not listed on the site! I just placed an order yesterday so I’ll have to see what the packaging is like (it looks really big for how small the pan is in photos!).

  10. Your awesome. I found the same results as far as blend ability and fall out with these and while I find some of the colors beautiful I hesitate to open some because according to colour pop they only last a year once opened. 3 years if unopened, so I only open and use the colors that I will use consistently. I didn’t realize how shallow the pan was. What a waste of packaging and misleading. $5 is $5 and even though it’s not a lot cost wise it’s not that great a value if you don’t get much product. I would much rather spend $21 on a Make Up Forever Single and get more product that won’t dry up in a year. Or better yet $9 on a Ben Nye eye shadow. Cause I need my make up to last as gross as it might sound let’s be real here if we are reading this blog we all have too much make up in our collection and rotate what we have. I rarely finish an entire eye shadow. So while I’m not terribly disappointed I have some Colour Pop lippies, eye shadows, and blushes. I wish I read your post before buying them and I won’t be repurchasing. Lippies feel dry and dragged on my lips. Not comfortable at all. Felt like cheap Wet and Wild lipsticks which I like better because those are $1.00

  11. Hmm they sound like they’re too finicky for my liking, although there isn’t much to lose for $6 a pop. I’ve noticed you tend to gravitate towards rosy shades. I just rewatched your video featuring the Hourglass Modernist Palette in Infinity and it reminded me of Tom Ford Orchid Haze. I’m in the market for something like those palettes. Do you prefer one over the other?

    Great post and swatches as usual 🙂

    1. Finicky is a good word to describe it! If I had to pick one over the other, I’d go with the Hourglass Palette because of the mattes shades (love me a matte!) although you might prefer the TF formula.
      x

  12. Thank you for the critical review! I read so many blogposts about them where people raved about basically anything; I couldn’t really imagine what the eyeshadows would be like, though. Now I’m way smarter and a bit unsure about them. I don’t like application with bare fingers, though I adore the effects. I suppose I wouldn’t use them very much if I bought some.

    1. If you’re unlikely to use your fingers, I think you’ll be underwhelmed by the Colourpop shadows. Brushes don’t do them justice, although a sponge tip applicator does work well.
      x

  13. Thank you Karima for your very thorough review! After a typical review I usually have a few unaddressed questions but a Karima review answers questions I never even thought about. There is so much hype about Colour Pop & I was curious but I’ll pass because lately I don’t feel like putting in too much work on eyeshadow.