Maybelline Shadow Blocks are a newer eyeshadow release that are available in 5 shade variations and retail for about $10 each. They come in stacks of 3 shades – two are mattes and there is one complementary shimmer. When playing with these, I accidently pulled apart one shade from the stack… apparently that’s something you can do with these if you like the idea of mixing and matching shades from different ones to create your own version. The only ones you can’t do this with are the bottom shade of each trio.
As soon as I started swatching these I noticed that the mattes were VERY sheer and easy to brush off the skin. The shimmers seemed have a little more substance to them. Some were more opaque than others but they had a creamier feel and more color payoff than the mattes in general. All the palest mattes hardly show up on the eye and the deeper ones that do show up end up looking patchy because they don’t adhere very well. They blend out so easily that they are easy to blend away.
I only tested wear-time with the North 3rd & Bedford Ave stack and did looks with all the rest. This trio lasted decently well over primer but was noticeably creased by lunchtime without. I wore all the others all day as well but just didn’t pay as much attention to how they held on. None of them looked great by the end of the day though.
I get some fallout if I attempt to build up the color payoff with both the mattes and shimmers. The fallout isn’t a huge amount and doesn’t stick to the face too much.
These may bring to mind the Kaja Beauty Bento Bouncy Eyeshadow Trios. Those are a little more than twice the price but is the quality more than twice as good? I think so. I don’t have to spend much time at all building up the color, they blend just as readily, and adhere to the lids with zero issues.
These are mostly a miss. There are a few things that I like but for the most part, they are not worth your time or money.
26th and Madison Ave
This has one very light matte highlight shade, one very deep matte, and a pale shimmer with a just a hint of light green to it. I feel this one could use another midtone matte to help get a better blend out of the darker green shade. The deeper green is not quite pigmented enough and applies with a patchy appearance. This was the best I could get it to apply just over bare lids and with a regular eyeshadow primer. The shimmer shade is the best shadow of the selection here and even that is not all that impressive.
82nd and Park Ave
This trio has more of a rose gold theme. It was definitely better and easier to use than the green trio and as with that one, the shimmer was the best quality shade. The deepest shade isn’t very dark on me and so it was easier to get this to look evenly applied.
Broadway and Prince St
Here is the purple trio. This one doesn’t follow the pattern of the others and instead of including a deep matte, it includes a pastel lavender as the bottom shade. This pastel shade hardly shows up on me but it did kind of give the look a misty appearance… not intended but I don’t mind it. The shimmer is very sheer but has a bright enough base color to show up well.
West 4th and Perry St
I like the color selection of this trio the best and was impressed at how these shades swatched compared to all the others, but I wasn’t happy with how they applied to the eye. The shimmer in this one is probably the most impressive of all the shades in this product line but it is patchy and uneven once applied to the lid. I can spend extra time messing with it to get it to look better but it is a pain in the ass to use and there are better eyeshadows like this out there. The lighter matte was decent and the deeper one was hard to blend out smoothly.
North 3rd and Bedford Ave
This was the first of these trios that I tried and I liked this one the best of them all despite how sheer all the shades were. The deepest matte hardly adhered but somehow ended up looking very evenly blended. This is one I might use again for a barely there kind of eyeshadow look.