Bobbi Brown Metallic Eye Shadow in After Hours

Bobbi Brown Friends and Family sale is going on until December 2, 2009. I though I would bring you yet another favorite eyeshadow from the Bobbi Brown collection. Since I have already hooked you all on Rock Shimmer Wash eye shadow, I thought I would turn your attention to the Metallic formula of eye shadows that Bobbi Brown offers.

Of course I am writing this review while the sale is going on, so getting a quote about the Metallic eye shadow formula is slow going. All you makeup crazies have inundated the website and have slowed it down to a crawl. No, please don't worry about me. I'll wait....
Done yet?
OK Then.
So Bobbi Brown describes Metallic eye shadows as:

"The high-shimmer, high-pigment formula applies smoothly and evenly and stays crease free for long-lasting wear."

OK. I totally agree that it is long wear and crease free. But High Shimmer? Well I guess the shade I chose, After Hours, described as a "Deep Chocolate Mauve" is not as shimmery as say...Navajo (which is a loverly shimmery ivory)...but that's all beside the point. The issue at hand is the terribly misleading product swatch that Bobbi Brown has on it's website.

image from bobbibrowncosmetics.com

OK. Does THAT look like a deep Chocolate Mauve to you? No. It looks like a Deep Blue Based Purple. Perhaps Violet? No wonder so many people are disappointed when they purchase this off the website and get this:

This is more of a puce color in real life. Don't get me wrong. After Hours is a beautiful color in real life, but the Bobbi Brown swatch is so very misleading there is no way that Bobbi Brown could claim that the violet color on the web is the same as this puce color in the pan.
Regardless...let's move on from the color discrepancy.

I would NOT call this a taupe. I know some people really would call it a taupe, but the purple and brown combined with no hint of grey...well. I just can't in good conscience call this a taupe. I will however label it as a taupe, because a) it's my blog and b) people will search for taupes and might come across this gem and decide they need it too. I'm sneaky like that.

So what is this color? Is it brown? Yes. Is it plum? Yes. All I know is that this metallic chocolate plum shade looks AWESOME in the crease when combined with a light peachy pink ivory shade as a base or used as a lid color for a dramatic smokey eye. The metallic formula blends effortlessly and is highly pigmented. I have used this shadow 5 times since I have purchased it and it has yet to look worn in the pan. Yet another testament to how pigmented Bobbi Brown shadows are.

As usual, the shadow comes in the signature sleek Bobbi Brown compact that is easily depotted into her 6, 4 or 3 pan palette system. I love how easy these shadows are to depot and how easily they click into the palette. I think I'm going to pair this with Champagne Quartz and Espresso.

Do you NEED this? Well. if you are VERY cool toned, probably not, but neutral to warm tones ladies will love this shade. Use it as a liner, a crease color and an all over lid color. What a nice versatile shadow! Now if Bobbi Brown would only make a shadow that looks exactly like that incredibly misleading swatch color on her website!