I didn’t take a single powder eyeshadow on my recent holiday to Greece. In the face of hot weather, humidity, swimming pools, monsoons, an active lifestyle and erratic hormone levels, creamy long-wear shadows have a greater ability to stand firm.
Among the most robust is Make Up for Ever’s Aqua Resist Smoky Shadow stick (£20). I took this in Sunrise, a beautiful, universally flattering golden taupe shade and wore it across my upper lids and swiped under my lower for two weeks straight. It looked relaxed, casually pretty and when I say it didn’t budge, I mean it: one night, having fallen asleep while bingeing on Netflix, I woke up at 4am, staggered into the bathroom and found my eye makeup was still perfectly intact, despite having basked in sweltering heat for 19 hours.
Revlon’s ColorStay? Cream Eyeshadow (£7.99) is similarly hardy and can be swept straight from pot to eyelid with a fingertip. It withstands seemingly anything but cleanser, and the Caramel shade suits every skin tone.
The issue with both the Make Up for Ever and the Revlon shadows is that they’re almost all shimmery. As with metallic nail polishes, shimmery shadows seem to have greater longevity than their matte counterparts, but provide a look that’s perhaps more summery when it catches the light softly. In winter, mattes can look smarter and more congruous.
For a similarly easy application and long-lasting finish minus the sparkle, I always recommend a Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Cream Shadow Stick (£29.50). I hesitate to do so yet again if only for the sake of originality, but the truth is that these represent a gold standard that is yet to be matched by any other brand.
They are more blendable, come in abundant, well-considered, wearable shades and last longer than anything I’ve tried. I’m never without the Taupe shade – an ostensibly boring but endlessly useful and chic-looking neutral mousey brown – and the paler Sand Dune, a brownish beige.
Both can be scribbled carelessly on to the lid up to the socket line, then fluffed out beyond it with a clean, fluffy, medium-sized brush (be sure to complete one eye before applying it to the other – these set after about a minute) and either left at that or layered underneath a darker shade.
There are heaps of shimmery shades too, if those are your cuppa, but there’s something about Make Up for Ever’s perfect Sunrise shade – neither too warm nor too cool – that isn’t represented in the Bobbi Brown lineup.
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Lighting tech: Declan Slattery. Hair and makeup: Sarah Cherry. Model: Emily I AT Nevs