Product Fail

Edit: I tried again quickly with the shadows.  Scroll down for pics.
I don't usually post about things that I don't like, but this is so bad that I thought a warning might be in order.  I'm talking about the Accessorize Back Stage Hot Smudge.  It comes in a pretty cardboard compact, that has too much packaging to product ratio, with a duo applicator that has the standard sponge on one side and a useless brush on the other. 

I'm pretty cautious about what I spend my mullah on, I have tons of products and know what works for me, but I thought that if these were any good they'd make a nice addition to my festival make up bag; it would have been dead handy to throw on a quick smudgy look.  Sadly they are rubbish!

notice the absolute waste of packaging

I bought 2, why?! Black Cat comes with a sparkly charcoal shadow and a black liner, Back Stage comes with a deep shimmering khaki shadow and black liner with green sparkles.

Doesn't that look like it should be pretty? (please ignore the bad photo, I found it so difficult to capture this well as the sparkles are so tiny)

Wanna see just how crap these liners actually are?

Huge macro photos of skin are so flattering no?

Back Stage is on the left and Black Cat on the right.  I did umpteen layers for this and it's still a patchy hot mess that went on terribly (using my own brush, the one included is a floppy piece of uselessness).  These might make ok bases to go under shadow, I've not tried it yet, if not they're going in the bin.

The khaki shadow in Back Stage is quite nice, not particularly unique, I'm sure I have about 3 dupes in my stash, but it's ok, pigmented and blended well.  I didn't use any base or primer under it here and went pretty light handed.

This was the only pic that wasn't so awful that it wasn't fit to be seen by anyone.

Black Cat is on the right.

edit: later on I tried out the shadows again, using the shimmering charcoal from Black Cat on the lid and the khaki from Back Stage in the crease.  This came out much better and gives a good idea of the pigmentation. No primer was used.

The Black Cat shadow is alright, but trying to use it all over and without primer was a mistake.  It wasn't easy to blend and looked messy.  In the pan it reminded me of Creep from the Urban Decay Naked palette so I thought I'd do a quick comparison.

Creep is on the right, you can see they aren't even close.  Creep is much darker and the shimmer is much more subtle.  Black Cat has a fair bit of silver going on. 



You can buy Black Cat here and Back Stage here for a fiver each, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Doesn't the mascara look pretty?  Should I waste any more money trying it out?  I'm such a sucker for cute packaging.



Have you tried these yet?  Did you manage to make them work for you?