Physicans Formula Shimmer Strips Eye Shadows - Nude Eyes and Brown Eyes

I have always looked at the Physicians Formula eye shadow palettes when wandering the drugstore, but I never bought one because $12 always seemed a bit pricey for what they were. This summer there were a couple of good sales on Physicians Formula items, and I had ExtraBucks burning an hole in my pocket, so I finally caved.

The first palette I picked up was the Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Shadow & Liner in Nude Eyes.

The packaging of this palette is absolutely adorable. I love the lace and the bow. The lid snaps closed thanks to a magnet.

Here's a look at the inside of the palette. It has a total of nine shades broken up into three trios intended to make progressively darker looks. The palette also comes with an angled sponge-tipped applicator.

One of my first complaints about these palettes was the size of each strip of color. The wider strips are almost exactly the width of the EcoTools brush I used for size comparison, and the skinner strips are quite a bit smaller. It makes it hard to get a single color on a brush unless you use mini brushes.

Another disadvantage with these palettes is that the shadows are extremely soft. In the picture above, you should be able to see small divots in several of the shades. Those are from the Q-tips that I used to swatch the palette since the shade strips were too skinny for me to use my fingers very well.

All of the Physicians Formula shadow palettes are aptly named "Shimmer Strips" since all of the shadows have a nearly identical shimmery finish. Each of the swatches above was done with a Q-tip on bare skin. The shades have decent but not outstanding pigmentation.

Now it's time for a confession, I've only worn these shadows on my eyes a couple of times. I disliked using the so much that I couldn't bring myself to test them more.

On the lid, the lightest shades lost their color for me. All I could see was the sheen that looked almost white. I also didn't like the look of having a completely identical finish on both the lid and in the crease. I tried doing a look using the darker shades to have the color stand out more, and I used the dark brown that is second from the left in my crease, and I had a hard time getting it to blend out. That might have been because it is darker than colors I usually use in the crease or just my general lack of blending skills, but it was still irritating for me.

Before I had tried this palette out enough to realize how much I disliked it, another great Physicians Formula sale popped up at CVS, and I got the Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Shadow & Liner set in Brown Eyes.

The packaging of this palette is just clear plastic. It opens the same way the Nude Eyes palette does, but it has a more traditional hook-like closure.

Again, the shades have okay pigmentation, and all nine of the shadows have a nearly identical finish. The lighter flesh-toned shades lose their color on the lids. You can see in these pictures that they appear nearly white. I don't think I tried the purples on my lids at all.

Final Thoughts

I have a strong dislike for these palettes. I didn't like their arrangement in the pan or how they applied on the eye. However, these are not the worst eye shadows out there. My dislike comes more from personal preference rather than a really terrible product. I know there are plenty of people out there who really enjoy using them. I'm just not one of those people. If you are interested in picking these up, I would suggest waiting for a good drugstore sale first. I would also suggest being smarter than me and only picking up one to begin with and decide if you like it before picking up more.

Do you own any of the Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips eye shadow palettes? What do you think of them?