ColourPop Pressed Powder Shadows Review & Tutorial

Is there anything ColourPop can’t do? The brand recently released their Pressed Powder eyeshadows, their take on the standard pressed eyeshadow. They have a new range of mattes, shimmers and satins that— in my humble opinion— are pretty dang gorgeous. I picked up several during Generation Beauty last weekend, and have been so excited to share with you!

The new Pressed Shadows go for $5 and come as individual pans that you can either stick in one of their own cardboard palettes or a Z Palette. My honest preference is a Z Palette, since the brand’s palettes only have space for four shades and are rather bulky.

First off, we were given the Weekend Warrior palette which was part of ColourPop’s collaboration with Amanda Steele. The shadows in this palette aren’t available for purchase individually… yet. (The brand occasionally makes palette or gift set shades individual due to high demand)

Weekend Warrior contains three mattes (swoon) and one pale pink highlighting shade. They did a great job with the careful selections of these shades, as they all work very well together to create complete looks, despite only being four shadows. They all have a muted feel to them, though the teal can be built up for more of a pop of color.

I was very surprised with how pigmented they were for mattes. Even the light grey/mauve stood out against my skin tone, though I would categorize it still as a transition shade. The texture is super smooth and silky, and they blend extremely easily. I will say that the mattes tended to fade on me noticeably after 5 hours, but I think a stickier base could have helped remedy that.

Next, I was able to pick 4 free individual Pressed Shadows at the ColourPop booth at Gen Beauty, and house them in this exclusive palette. These are shades you can purchase separately among the many others.

Left to right are:

• Let Me Explain | a beautiful champagne shimmer that can also double as a face highlight!
• Ipster on Fleek | now, this is supposedly a Generation Beauty exclusive that they said will not be sold online, but I have my doubts… they’ll probably release it under a different name
• High Strung | a coppery rose gold with a metallic finish
• Goody Two Shoes | a charcoal with blue and silver shift

ALSO READ: ColourPop 2016 Fall Edit Haul & Swatches

All of the satin/shimmer shades have completely opaque pigmentation, though I did use my finger for these swatches. I find that using your finger with these, just like their original Super Shock Shadows, picks up more of the color. With the exception of Let Me Explain, brushes tend to pick up more of the shimmer than the actual pigment with these shades specifically.

This is a look I created using a mix of all of several of these shadows. Watch the video at the top of the page to see which ones I used and how to recreate it.

All in all, I think this was a fantastic move on ColourPop’s part. I absolutely adore their original Super Shock Shadows, but I’ll be honest— I often forget about using them because they’re singles. With these, you can still pick and choose which shades you like but then combine them into a custom palette for convenience, both at home and while traveling.

Have you tried any of the ColourPop Pressed Shadows yet?