More Of a Good Thing: Rouge Bunny Rouge Eyeshadows in Snowy Egret, Sweet Dust Seriema and Chestnut Napped Apalis

Because having more of Rouge Bunny Rouge When Birds Are Singing Long Lasting Eyeshadows is... L♡VE? RBR eyeshadows were among some of my favorite make-up products I've tried in 2014, so I couldn't resist getting a few more when the brand debuted on HauteLook a couple months back. I had longed to try their Matt (sic!) formula, so I purchased Sweet Dust Seriema and Chestnut Napped Apalis ($25 for 0.08 oz/ 2.4g each), as well as another shimmery shade, Snowy Egret ($19 for 2g).

You have probably spotted right away the difference in size and price between these eyeshadows. The two matte shades I purchased are only available as single compacts, while Snowy Egret is available as a refill pan. All the shimmery shades from Rouge Bunny Rouge have slightly smaller pans than the matte single compacts. It's a bit confusing, and while in theory it's nice to get more for your buck, I wish the matte shades were the same standard size of a MAC eyeshadow, so I could plop them in my custom palette. As it is, I've depotted the single compacts and keep shuffling my two RBR mattes between different Z-Palettes (as a side note, melting the plastic underneath and piercing it with something sharp to wedge the pan up and out has worked great for me; I was also able to peel the labels off and stick them to my depotted pans without any problems).

Before we start swatching and comparing, I apologize for a slight lighting/ white balance discrepancy between the photos; I took these shots on two separate days and I'm guessing the temperature of the natural light I was working with must have been different. But I think that also shows you different aspects of these shades, no?

Let's begin with Snowy Egret (described as smoked palest gold iridescence), which is at once easy and difficult to review. Easy, because I knew right away that I would love the formula, having already experienced and loved four of the When Birds Are Singing Eyeshadows previously (click for my review and swatches of the shades Unforgettable Oriole, Bohemian Waxwing, Delicate Hummingbird and Eclipse Eagle). Difficult, because it's a rather complex shade. I would describe it as a very pale platinum with a white gold sheen.

When I took it out of the packaging, it immediately reminded me of Surratt Beauty Eyeshadow in Scintillante, and while they're not too far apart, Snowy Egret is warmer and has a stronger reflective quality, while Scintillante is more cool pink/ grey (well, for a white gold shade, anyway...) and has more of a subtle scattered sparkle finish.

L-R: RBR Snowy Egret, RBR Unforgettable Oriole, Surratt Scintillante, MAC Vex, NYX White Pearl

I'm sorry these swatched don't stand out very clearly on my skin, but I'm fair and they tend to blend in quite easily. You can see here that RBR Unforgettable Oriole is warmer, deeper and more of a champagne tone, but Snowy Egret is not a stark white either, compared to NYX White Pearl. I also shot these swatches in direct sunlight to show you the intensity and tone of shimmer in these shades (my usual swatches are in diffused natural light, by the way).

L-R: RBR Snowy Egret, RBR Unforgettable Oriole, Surratt Scintillante, MAC Vex, NYX White Pearl

Let's discuss matte Sweet Dust Seriema (semi-opaque cool dusty mauve taupe) next. I was very much looking forward to owning a basic cool-toned transition/blending eyeshadow shade, as many of the often recommended shades for that purpose run too warm and orange on me. But Sweet Dust Seriema is seriously cool-toned; it has that grey aspect of a natural shadow on the skin, but with enough mauve/ purple undertone to balance it out. It pairs beautiful with cooler shades on the lid, and I think that for pale and cool toned skinned like me, it could even work as a cheek contouring shade (because see how much cooler it is than NYX Powder Blush in Taupe?).

Now, in terms of formula and performance, the Rouge Bunny Rouge Matt eyeshadows really are as stellar as everyone else made them out to be. The texture of the powder in the pan is incredibly silky and smooth, so they apply and blend on the eye without any effort, and last an entire day. Compared to my other favorite matte eyeshadow formula from Inglot, the RBR shadows are slightly less opaque but also not as soft and powdery (less powder kick-up when picking the powder up with a brush or a finger). I'm not sure if I necessarily like them MORE than the Inglot; Inglot single pans are $6, RBR are $25. Both are stellar formulations, and I like how complimentary the RBR shades are compared to my Inglot counterparts. But if you're on a budget or don't have easy access to Rouge Bunny Rouge, you'll still be good with your Inglot Freedom System choices.

L-R: RBR Sweet Dust Seriema, Inglot Matte no. 337, Red Apple Lipstick Clean Slate, NYX Powder Blush in Taupe

Lastly, Chestnut-Napped Apalis (semi-opaque chestnut puree with a hint of cocoa dust... Say what?) is a fantastic neutral blending shade, running neither too warm or too cool. While I forgot to include that comparison in the photos, it is in fact a very similar shade to that NYX Taupe contouring shade - so yes, I'm sure it would double as a face sculpting powder on just about any skintone as well.

Compared here to some warmer matte medium brown shades, it stands out as the most cool-toned, but you could see how warm it looks against Sweet Dust Seriema. It's just a staple neutral brown, I think a must-have in a good eyeshadow collection. The formula is just as good as Sweet Dust Seriema. Love, love this shade, even though it seems like such a boring color - but it's hard to find something that's just right!

L-R: RBR Sweet Dust Seriema, Too Faced Velvet Revolver from the Natural Eyes palette, Annabelle So Foxy (similar to MAC Charcoal Brown), a medium brown from Physicians Formula Canyon Classics quad, Inglot Matte no. 344.

As you can probably tell, I'm very happy with the new additions to my Rouge Bunny Rouge eyeshadow family - I don't know if I need to have them all, but I can't rule out getting a few more shades in the future, even if that means depotting and defiling the beautiful packaging. I haven't yet met an RBR eyeshadow I was disappointed in. I hope this post was helpful to anyone looking for good transition mattes as well; I realize that my shade comparisons are somewhat limited as I can only compare to other things I own, but hopefully that gives you some idea about the shade depth and warmth. Rouge Bunny Rouge newbes, do you have any of these shades in your stash? RBR collectors, which shades am I missing from my line-up?