So… I went to the Gucci store in Knightsbridge. It was not my first time in the store so my plan was to go in get my eyeshadow and get out… that was the plan. Gucci is a store where the door is opened for you but a tall man in black suit who may or may not have an ear piece.
So I thank the nice gentleman and headed straight for the tester unit. The store was empty and as I said, I had already swatched ALOT of colours so I was choosing between two of the individual shadows. I swatched them both and plumped for the purple (obvs). During the swatching process, a male sales assistant appeared at my right and said ‘can I help you madam?’ I said yes please, I would like that one and pointed to the shade I wanted. He looked at me, looked at the tester, looked at me again and said of course madam, excused himself and magically a female sales assistant appeared at my left.
‘Hello madam, how can I help you?’ she said. I would like that one please, I said pointing to the tester unit. ‘Of course, madam’, she said and promptly got on her knees to look through the drawers to find my eyeshadow. It turns out that she could not find the shadow that I wanted so the male sales associate started to help her. Still no luck so a second female sales associate was called. She clearly had the magic touch as she found my shade and handed me the product. I was then pointed int he direction of the till where another females sales associate carried out the transaction. That is a total of FOUR sales associates to help me purchase one mono eyeshadow. To be honest it was overwhelming and quite unnecessary. Four people! In future I will be purchasing online because it will take a tenth of the time.
On to the review. Ultra Violet is AMAZING. Pat McGrath is the brains behind this make up range and she has not disappointed me. The texture of the shadow is not as buttery as the Dolce and Gabanna shadows which are also under Ms McGrath’s wing but is lovely.
The colour is outrageous (in a good way) this is my signature purple, a healthy does of blue, registers as purple on the skin – not brown or blue or bleurgh. It has fantastic staying power, does not need a primer for longevity or to intensify the colour beccaus it lasts ALL day and it is BEAUTIFUL. There are teeny tiny reflex particles in gold and silver which add an extra dimension without being gritty or getting into your eyes. This shadow has no kick up and no fall out.
The Gucci embossing is pretty deep in the product so you can use it more then five times and the embossing is there. The mono shadow is two grams of product and is housed in signature black and gold packaging. As with the Marc Jacobs palette it collects fingerprints readily but the lacquered finish mean that a calotherm cloth can sort it right out.
I love this eyeshadow. I wear it by itself, to intensify the out v, over a purple cream shadow (even though I don’t need to) and generally it is on my lids at least twice a week. With the Gucci range it is definitely worth checking out the mono shadows if like me the combo of colours in the duos and quads does not float your boat . Gucci do amazing greens, but I already have the Tom Ford Sahara Haze palette so I did not pick it up. In terms ofpurples, the offer is not as good, but this colour is fabulous. Highly recommended for all the purple junkies out there.