Although I don’t find the colours very exciting (apart from 03 which is all grey-greens), there is something about the textures of The Body Shop Down To Earth Quads that’s addictive. They’re literally so silky – probably the silkiest shadows I’ve ever encountered. The thing about the quads is that they’re undemanding – anyone can wear them and made a very pretty, smooth smoky from them so while they might not be exactly fashion forward, they are completely, every-day wearable.
01 and 02 are variations on a smooth, autumnal toned eye – smoke it up or keep it simple (and the packaging even shows you how) with pigments that are strong but not overwhelming. It transpires that the reason for the silkiness is down to babassu, marula and sesame oil that keeps the formula sleek and non dusty. Adding oil to dry formulas is really the best thing that’s ever happened to eye shadow formulations – it makes colours stronger and bolder, texture softer and more blendable, and more importantly, gets rid of the dusty thing. If I come across a dry, talc laden shadow these days I’m quite shocked at how poor they are in comparison.
So, here’s 03 – just lovely, satiny greys that are earthy and velvety. There’s a green edge to these greys – it looks khaki to me at times. As with all of the quads, two sheens, one sparkle (not very) and one is a matte.
There’s nothing difficult about the looks that are illustrated on the back of the pack so if you’ve ever been shy with palettes because you don’t quite know what to do, it’s all simply shown. I’ve checked on the Body Shop site and these are individually named (03 is Smoky Grey) but I can’t marry up the other two because the pictures aren’t great. There are also Smoky Black and Smoky Purple quads.
They’re £15 each HERE. You can click the colours out and add new colours in, but since they don’t seem to sell the colours separately, you have to buy a new quad to swap about with.
Leave a Reply