Review: Annabelle Studio Pigments & Giveaway

One brand I always look at when I'm in a drugstore is Annabelle. They are a Canadian makeup brand based in Montreal, who carry a lot of great products. Their eyeshadows are quite wearable, and easily depotable into MAC palettes (always a plus for me!), and they always have the most colourful promo visuals among drugstore brands.

I've tried their regular pigments before, and they are excellent, comparable to NYX, Barry M, and MAC. These were no different!


The Studio Pigments:



The Studio Pigments are part of Annabelle's Studio line, and come in 6 shades:

Magentini, LOL, Greed, Dragonette, Cobalt, Karma



The jars these come in are thicker and feel more hefty. I do prefer if they had made it less bulky but if these are being kept in your traincase it will be fine.


The powders are finely milled and pigmented. Some shades are more matte / shimmery than others - usually the matte shades are the more pigmented colours.

Left to right:

Magentini, LOL, Greed, Dragonette, Cobalt, Karma




Magentini: Magenta pink colour with a shimmery finish. Well pigmented and smooth to apply

LOL: Primary yellow shade, like an egg yolk colour :) Has a very matte finish, thus it does apply a bit chunky at first. Superbly pigmented - exactly what I'd imagine a pro colour to be.

Greed: Camouflage green colour that is more shimmery and wearable. The colour is sheerer than the others in the collection so I had to pack it on more for the swatch




Dragonette: Another superbly pigmented colour with a matte finish, the shade reminds me of MAC Teal pigment - a strong, dark green-teal. I'd say this is its matte cousin.

Cobalt: True blue colour - reminds me of MAC Freshwater in pigment form. It looks mostly matte but has a slight pearl finish

Karma: Shimmery purple similar to MAC Violet but it is a bit less pigmented so I had to use more to get the same intensity that Violet would have given me.




I apologize for the lack of face pictures to demonstrate but my skin has been extremely uncooperative :/ I did however use them as a liner - Karma (purple) on top and Dragonette on the outer lower lashline:




My only complaint about these, and the same complaint I had about their regular pigments, was the container. It has a very small opening at the top, making it easy to ration out the amount you want to use (see below picture).



However once you do that there is always some spillage on the side surface, which will still leak out if you carry them around in a makeup bag. The best way to use this it seems is to always pour out the amount you need on the back of your hand or a clean surface, since there is no other way to pack on the colour on your brush.


In general, these pigments remind me of the MAC Pro Neon pigments, except that these are all eye-safe while some of the MAC Neons are not. They also apply smoother than most neon pigments which is a bonus. I'd say if you love bright colours and want to try a Canadian, more economical alternative go for these Annabelle pigments :)

Each jar retails for CDN$8.50. The weight of each pigment jar does vary by colour, probably due to the differences in product density.

POIDS NET WT 0.02 OZ / 0.7 G / LOL
POIDS NET WT 0.04 OZ / 1.2 G / Magentini, Karma et Greed
POIDS NET WT 0.02 OZ / 0.7 G / Cobalt, Dragonette

They will be released come August 16 exclusively at all Shoppers Drug Mart locations, so keep your eyes peeled! Don't worry if you don't live in Canada, US residents can also order by phone - details on their website.


In the meantime, courtesy of Annabelle, you Canadian readers have the chance to win your own set of the 6 pigments AND 2 eye brushes!



Brushes: A-8: Small Shader brush and A-14: Angled brush
Pigments: A brand new set of all 6 pigments

How to enter:
1. Be a public follower of my blog.
2. Leave me a comment indicating you are a Canadian resident and would like to be entered for the draw.
3. Tell me what your favourite makeup product(s) are that are made by Canadian companies.

Contest closing date: August 22nd 25th, 2009. The winner will be randomly drawn out of the qualifying entries using the random number generator at Random.org and announced through a post on my blog. I know there may be comments that are not entries so only comments that answer all 3 questions above will be counted in the draw.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to those entering! :D