Swatch This! - Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eyeshadow

Product purchased by me

Some of you may have seen the new Milani display of Bella Eyes Gel Powder eyeshadow popping up at your local drugstores. As the display boasts:
               "A First! Pure Color. One Stroke Application. Power Wear."

What this tells me that the formula should be quite pigmented and it would stand up to long hours of wear. There is only 12 colors available on the display, but there will be total of 30 colors. These new shadows will replace the current Milani shadows. e
These shadows come in different finishes: metallic, shimmer, satin, and satin matte.

How Much Is It?

The price at my local CVS (Los Angeles) is $4.59 each. But I recall reading on another beauty blog that it's $3.99 at Walgreens. Not sure if that's a permanent price point or on sale... But $4.59 for a single eyeshadow is not overly pricey in my opinion.

Swatch It!

Okay, okay, enough talk, let's see some swatches:

The top swatch is just a single swipe. It's very sheer and very close to my skin tone. It's barely visible. The middle swatch is a couple swipes. You can see the eyeshadow a little better, but the color is not very intense. The bottom swatch is swiped over primer. This swatch is the most prominent out of the 3, but still not very intense. 

From these swatches, I have to say I'm pretty disappointed with the pigmentation of this shadow. The statement on the display advertises these newly formulated eyeshadow to be very pigmented and vibrant. But what I'm seeing from my swatches is that the shadow is very sheer, which is completely opposite of what I was hoping for.
I wanted to be really sure that I give this eyeshadow a fair chance, since I'm a fan of Milani's products, I tried it out on my eyes to see if I could get a different result...

With primer

Without primer

I'm sad to say that the result was not different on my eyes. Sure, applying the shadow over primer helped, but not enough to make me say "Wow!". I was hoping this color would make a great transition color or an all over lid color, but at this point, I don't even know if how much I'll be using it. I'd like to get a different shade and give it another go, but... I don't know. Right now, I'm just not willing to spend another $4.59 for a sheer eyeshadow. 

This is a huge disappointment for me. Like I said earlier, I'm a fan of many Milani products. I love their liquid eye eyeliners, eye tech liquid liner, lip products, and blushes. I thought that the eyeshadow would be a shoo-in. It looks like I won't be purchasing any more Bella Eyes eyeshadow...

Have you tried the new Bella Eyes gel powder eyeshadow? If you did, please, tell me your thoughts in the comment section below! I'm dying to know if I'm the only one who's not thrilled with it.

-Stay Pretty!

Wendy