This Summer, Make Up For Ever has launched a range of new eyeshadow crayons – the Aqua Shadow. I have been testing them and creating multiple looks with these pencils for the past few weeks and I can’t wait to share my thoughts about them with you.

If you are a fan of Make Up For Ever’s Aqua line, you will surely love these. They are easy to use and superbly pigmented. In this post, you will find swatches of 6 of the Aqua Shadows and my thoughts about them.

Each retails at S$37 for 4g of product, made in Germany. Available in 12 shades, for more details about them, check out my introductory post here.

Let’s start with the packaging – they come in crayon form which needs to be sharpen – size wise, they are similar to Inglot Eye Pencils, Sephora Jumbo Liners, Illamasqua Fat Pencils, Estée Lauder Intense Kajal Eye Crayons and Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Shadow Pencils.

Like the Sephora Jumbo Liners, the covers and end of these Aqua Shadows are coloured according to its shade – great for storage and easy to easy to pin point shades.

Amongst the pencils I have, I find the Aqua Shadows one of the easiest to work with. They are not as creamy and soft as the Sephora Jumbo Liners, not as hard and dry as the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Shadow Pencils. The Estée Lauder Intense Kajal Eye Crayons has a slightly powdery feel as compared to the Aqua Shadows.

These Aqua Shadows have a creamy and thick consistency – thick in a good way. It’s superbly pigmented and a little goes a long way. They set pretty quickly but offers enough time to blend. I would strongly recommend applying them on one eye at a time because once they set, they are budge proof.

When testing them out alone, I didn’t experience any creasing nor fading for the entire day with or without primer. Do note that I don’t usually have problems with creasing.

However, I prefer to set them with a matching powder eyeshadow – it seems more complete and the edges seem more softer when I layer powder eyeshadow over. It also looks great when I lightly dust a layer of iridescent eyeshadow on top – especially over the matte shades.

Above are swatches of #0 Matte Black, #6 Matte Navy Blue, #8 Matte Green, #24 Pearly Pink, #28 Pearly Beige and #32 White.

In general, I like all of them but I prefer the matte shades. I find the colours more unique and it looks beautiful when layered with a little shimmery/glittery powder eyeshadow/pigment over. Highly recommend the matte shades.

For a typical smokey set of eyes (with the matte shades): I usually apply directly from the tube to my lids. Draw a few strokes and use the Urban Decay 24/7 Blending Brush to spread out the colour. For softening the edges, I will use realTechniques Deluxe Crease Brush. MAC 239 does a great job for layering powder eyeshadow over and to complete the eye look, I use MAC 217 to blend everything together.

May seem like a lot of work but the outcome is pretty spectacular.

For natural wash of colour (with the pearly shades): Very easy, apply directly from the tube to my lids and blend with fingers. For the lighter pearly shades, for me, there is no need to set with eyeshadows.

Check out the look I did with Matte Black and Matte Navy Blue here and three other looks you can achieve with these amazing pencils here. Sarah did a tutorial using the Aqua Shadows, want to know how to add drama to your eyes in just 5 minutes? Check out her post here.

Thank you for reading.