Review: Sydney Grace Pressed Eyeshadows

Hi everyone! Back in early August, I spoke about my experience hauling from Sydney Grace during their Christmas in July sale. After using their products for two months, I am ready to review of the products that I hauled! This review will include swatches as well as some eye looks.

My haul consisted of all pressed eyeshadows, so that’s what I will be reviewing today. I also received a mystery bag which was filled with more random products, and I will be reviewing the products included in that bag in my next review. In the meantime, read on to see what I think about Sydney Grace’s pressed shadows!

THE BASICS

Sydney Grace is an indie beauty brand hailing from California. They offer a multitude of products at an affordable price, and their offerings include eyeshadows in a variety of mediums (pressed, cream, loose pigments), pressed blushes and highlighters, loose powders, and lip products. You can purchase their products from the Sydney Grace website.

PRESSED SHADOWS

Sydney Grace pressed shadows come in 3 finishes: matte shadows, pressed pigment shadows, and shimmer shadows, and the prices range from $5-$6, depending on the finish. I ordered mostly matte shadows and pressed pigment shadows; and only one of the shadows I purchased is a shimmer shadow. When I picked my shades, I had three different “sets” in mind: a warm-toned set, a cool-toned taupe set, and a purple set.

THE PURPLES

Milk & Cookies: Ivory in a shimmery satin finish. This isn’t a purple at all, but I put it with this group because I think it looks great with the purple shades. I always look for satin highlight shades in palettes, so of course I had to include one in my own customized palette. This shade is really pigmented – a little too strong, to be honest, so I have to be careful! Luckily, this is a firmer shadow, so there’s not much of a risk of picking up too much product.

Winter Wonder: Light warm-toned matte lavender. I was hoping that this would act as a purple transition shade (I don’t own any purple transitions), but it barely shows up on me. It’s a pigmented, pretty shade that I think would work well with really fair skin tones. Although I don’t reach for this much because it’s too light for me, I find this to be a unique shade that not many people will have in their collection.

The Greatest Gift: A light pink with a green shift. This is a gorgeous duochrome shade, but I feel like this is actually somewhat dupeable. It reminds me a lot of Glass Bull from ColourPop, which is a SUPER popular shade. It IS simliar, but Glass Bull flashes more purple instead of green. It’s very pigmented, blends well, and lasts all day on the lids.

Regal: Medium matte purple that I use this shade to deepen up the crease. This is a really interesting and unique shade that has a buttery soft texture. I don’t own any shade like it! The formula is very soft, making it have quite a bit of kick-up. This isn’t bothersome to me because soft shadows like this one tend to be very pigmented, and this one is no different.

Totally Worth It: Bright shimmery lavender. This is SUCH a pigmented, metallic shade. I love this all over the lid, with a deeper purple in the crease to define the look. I do find that the shade fades a bit over the course of a work day, but it’s not a dealbreaker to me because I don’t expect a shadow to last 10+ hours.

You, But Better: Deep royal purple. This has more of a satin finish compared to the other pressed pigments. Purples are notoriously less pigmented than shadows of other colour families, but this is easy to work with. Like Milk & Cookies, this is pressed more firmly than the other shimmery shadows and requires more building up, but the colour payoff in the end is beautiful. It also fades a bit after a full day of wear.

The look below is what I’ve done with the purples. I took this after a full day at work, so it doesn’t look as fresh as a newly applied eye look. As I mentioned, You, Only Better fades a bit after a full day (about 10-12 hours of wear) and most of the shades aren’t as vibrant as when it’s freshly applied – nonetheless, they are all gorgeous shades.

THE WARM TONES

Camel: Warm matte tan. This is the perfect transition shade for a warm look, although it’s a bit on the light side for my skin tone. It’s more tightly packed and not as powdery as some of the other matte shadows and doesn’t have as much kick-up.

Harvest: Matte mustard yellow. This shade has amazing colour payoff and is SO awesome for the fall! I tend to use this to deepen up the crease.

Golden Rose: Shimmery warm pink. This seems like the odd shade out in the palette, and it’s because I thought that there would be much more of a golden flip to it than there is. There aren’t many shadows in my haul that would be cohesive with this shade, but I already own lots of eyeshadows that will work well with it.

Lords a Leaping: Deep red-toned brown. I use this to deepen up the outer V area in red-based shades. This feels so smooth and silky in the pan, and the pigmentation is wonderful.

Beyond: Deep matte brown. I use this the same way as Lords a Leaping, as an outer V deepening shade. Lords a Leaping is more for warm, red-toned shades, but I love shades like Beyond because this type of brown goes with pretty much every look, whether it’s a warm look or a cool look.

Siren Call: Matte hunter green. This shade also sticks out from the rest of my choices, but I actually bought it for pairing with the various shimmery olives I already have in my collection. It’s a lot brighter than I anticipated, but it still works well in the looks I envisioned.

Since these shades don’t exactly go together, I couldn’t really do a cohesive look with all of the shades together. I decided to go with a green look for this blog post, because I specifically bought Siren Call to pair with olives from my other palettes. Here, I’m wearing Harvest in my crease and Siren Call in the middle of the lid.

THE TAUPES

I can’t create a custom palette without choosing some taupes – it’s physically impossible! You may or may not know this, but taupe is one of my favourite eyeshadow shades.

Speedway: A light cool matte taupe that acts as a great transition shade. I don’t own very many cool-toned transitions, so this was a welcome addition to my collection. This is very soft and has a lot of kick-up, but the pigmentation is awesome!

Grounds: Cool-toned medium matte brown. This is great for either deepening the crease, or even using in the outer V for a lighter look. This works well with both warm and cool looks.

Tiara: A metallic silver-taupe. This shade is crazy pigmented and buttery. It looks very similar to Troops, which will be reviewed next, but it’s cooler and lighter than Troops.

Troops: Shimmery brown-taupe with purple undertones. Like Tiara, this shade is really metallic and has intense colour payoff. One of my favourite shades from my haul!

Officer: A deep cool-toned matte brown with a purple tinge. This is a really unique shade in my collection and I love using it to deepen the outer V in my cool-toned looks. It works well with these taupe shades, but also with the purple shadows I reviewed above.

Here’s a look I did with the taupe shades. If you’ve been a long-time reader of my blog, you might know that I absolutely LOVE taupes, and I’ve been wearing this look frequently! These shades stand up really well for a full day of wear.

THE SUMMARY

Overall, I truly love, love, love these shadows – there’s not a single poorly-performing one in here. The pressed shadows have a soft, buttery consistency and intense colour payoff. A lot of the shades remind me of ABH shadows in that they are very soft in texture, which means they can kick up a lot of powder, but this also makes them super pigmented.

There were a few shades that don’t work with my skin tone or are too light for me, which is difficult to avoid when ordering online. Overall, I would definitely make another order from Sydney Grace, despite the high costs of shipping.

Have you tried anything from Sydney Grace? What are your favourites from them?