Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eye Shadows Collection – Review & Swatches

When I first got word to expect the Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eye Shadow Collection, I literally squealed both in excitement and joy.  You see, if you don’t already know – I’m a huge fan of Milani Cosmetics and have been enjoying their products now for several years… but I haven’t been completely awed by their eye shadows up until this point, so I was really excited to see what kind of awesome they had in store.

PRESS SAMPLE

The new Milani Bella Eyes Shadow Collection includes 30 beautiful shades in a variety of colors.  These eye shadows retail for just $3.99 (major steal) for 0.05 oz/1.4g worth of product.  Made in the USA, these shadows are said to be a Gel-like powder that will provide a rich, vibrant color that applies effortlessly in one single stroke, delivering a stunning and multi-dimensional effect.  Now, in the video I stated that I am really not sure how they got the name “Gel Powder” but after doing some reading I found out that the formula used to create the shadow starts as a gel and then is transformed by a special process into a stunning powder with pure color and power wear.

Check out my review with swatches via YouTube here, or scroll down to see my video review embedded below.  Don’t forget to check out all the swatches and my thoughts on each.

Below are the photos of each shadow as well as their swatches and my thoughts on each.  Please note that the shades may be slightly different depending on your screen resolution and color set up.  I tried my best to get the colors as close as I seen them with my regular eyes so I photographed with the best lighting possible.  All swatches are done dry and without primer so you could see how they work on their own.  The names of each shadow and swatch are listed from Left to Right to compare to the photos.

BELLA IVORY ~ BELLA SAND ~ BELLA CAPPUCCINO

Bella Ivory is a Satin Matte shade and I have been using it as a browbone highlight shade as well as an all over the lid shade.  Considering this is a satin matte shade, it has great pigmentation and applying just one application will yield great color.

Bella Sand is a Shimmery shade that is perfect for all over the lid.  It is packed rich with color in one swipe and perfect for most if not all skin tones.

Bella Cappuccino is a Satin Matte shade and is a medium brown tone.  While I think this shade does have pretty good pigmentation, it can take a little to get it to the deepness in shade that you will want if you have darker skin like me.  This works as a great transition shade for me and I can also use it to fill in my brows.

BELLA CAFFE ~ BELLA TAUPE ~ BELLA ESPRESSO

Bella Caffe is a Satin Matte that is a great shade for me to use in my brows for light shading in the sparse areas of my brows.  This is also a great shade to use all over the lid or in the crease, even as  transition.  This color does take a little more effort to apply in some cases and I noticed I needed to build the color up a little more on it than on other shades, but it still offers pigmentation.

Bella Taupe is one of my favorite shades to deepen the crease.  It is a Satin Matte that has almost a purple tone when swatched but blended with other shades, it works really well.  This is a great color for a crease shade.

Bella Espresso is also a Satin Matte and is much lighter of a shade then I had expected when seeing it in the pot.  This is a great smoky eye shade or can be used all over the lid.

BELLA WHITE ~ BELLA SKY ~ BELLA NAVY

Bella White is a Satin Matte white shade.  While this is a matte shade, it really lends to be almost metallic without any shimmer. It’s a pure white that makes it very pretty for an inner corner highlight or all over the lid.

Bella Sky is a Shimmer shade and lends for a gorgeous baby blue almost silver.

Bella Navy is a Satin Matte shade but lends for an almost metallic finish.  It’s a deep navy blue.

BELLA GRAY ~ BELLA CHARCOAL ~ BELLA BLACK

Bella Gray is a Satin Matte shade that is perfect to deepen the outer v or crease or use all over the lid.  This color lends for a silver look which is perfect for smoky eye looks

Bella Charcoal is a deep silver Shimmer shade.  I absolutely love this color and this shade would look beautiful on most skin tones

Bella Black is a Satin matte shade that is rich in pigment.  I absolutely love this black to deepen the outer v or crease or to use as an eyeliner.  Used wet this shade is a great eye liner.

 

BELLA PINK ~ BELLA VIOLET ~ BELLA PURPLE

Bella Pink is a cool toned shimmery pink shade and lends for an almost white hue.  This shimmer shade is a perfect lid color.

Bella Violet is a violet (kind of lavender) shimmer shadow and is gorgeous when applied dry or wet.

Bella Purple is a beautiful Satin matte shade that applies beautifully both wet or dry but is a deeper richer shade if applied wet and a perfect transition shade or to deepen the crease if applied dry.

BELLA CHAMPAGNE ~ BELLA KHAKI ~ BELLA EMERALD

Bella Champagne is a beautiful pink toned champagne like shade with a shimmer finish.

Bella Khaki is a gold khaki type green – kind of an olive green (one of my favorite colors in the whole collection) that has a soft gold shift.  This is a shimmer shade and applies great wet or dry.

Bella Emerald is a deep green (definitely a great emerald) with a shimmer finish.  There is a gold shift to this shadow and it applies beautifully both wet or dry.

 

BELLA ROUGE ~ BELLA SILVER ~ BELLA TEAL

Bella Rouge is a beautiful metallic pink red shade.

Bella Silver is metallic silver that looks a little deeper in shade in the pot then it does swatched.  Nonetheless, it’s a gorgeous color.

Bella Teal is probably one of my favorites (as many know – Purple is my favorite color and teal a close second).  This is a Metallic shadow and while it’s not pictured above, it has a soft gold/green shift that is just beautiful.  This shade applies perfectly both wet or dry and even better over a teal or black base.

 

BELLA GOLD ~ BELLA COPPER ~ BELLA BRONZE

Bella Gold is a gorgeous metallic shadow.  This is a warm yellow toned yellow with a light copper/bronze shift, that may not be a favorite of those who like softer gold shades but this works great on the lid or all over in any creation you can think of.  I love that it can be worn both wet and dry.

Bella Copper is a true copper metallic shade.

Bella Bronze is a true bronze brown shade.  It is warm toned and will go nicely as an all over shade or worked into the crease or outer v.  Rich and highly pigmented, one of my favorites in the bunch.

 

BELLA COBALT ~ BELLA FUCHSIA ~ BELLA MANDARIN

Bella Cobalt is a medium toned blue with a satin matte finish.  It looks almost metallic in the pot but has a satin feel.  This blue is gorgeous wet or dry.

Bella Fuchsia is a Satin matte fuchsia pink.  While it’s a gorgeous shade, the pigment is just not as bright as others in the collection and when swatched or applied to the eyes, you have to really build up the color to get the intensity in the pot.  It will work as a great transition shade and will apply much more of a bold shade if over a base like a white, pink or black.

Bella Mandarin is a satin matte medium toned orange.  This is the only orange in the entire collection – I had hoped for a metallic one.  I have been using this as a transition shade and it works well on the lid but I do suggest applying over a white base.  When used wet this shade can be patchy.

 

BELLA CHIFFON ~ BELLA ROSE ~ BELLA DIAMOND

Bella Chiffon is probably one of my favorite shades in the whole collection.  It is a cream/ivory shade with a gold shift.  I love to use this shimmer shade in the inner corner of my eyes to help brighten and highlight my eyes.  This shade is my favorite because of the color as well as the shift of gold.  It makes it perfect for summer.

Bella Rose is a light pink shimmery shade with a soft silver hue.  It certain light it looks almost silver and would also be a perfect highlight shade or used on the lid.  This shade looks great wet or dry.

Bella Diamond is a shimmery white with a light metallic silver hue.  This is a great all over the lid shade or used as a highlight. It’s gorgeous.

Like I mentioned in my video, when you first feel the shadows, they do not offer a gel like feel – they feel like a powder shadow.  But, I noticed that I had little to no fall out from these shadows as I would normally experience from other powder shadows.  Unless they were overly shimmery, they applied really nicely and made clean up really easy after my makeup application was done.

As I mentioned in the swatches above, there are a few shadows that took a little effort when applying or using them and most of those shadows included those that are matte/satin shades.  While that can be a problem, I don’t think it was an actual con in my opinion.  Honestly, those shades made such great transition shades for my eye looks because of their soft texture, that even if I want to build up the color a bit, I’m still very impressed.  If you have tried Milani’s original single pot shadows or their baked shadows and were not completely wowed by any of them… I think these will offer redemption quite easily because I’m super impressed.  Honestly, it’s been difficult switching these out and using other cosmetics in my collection… I really enjoy them.

In the makeup look above I am  using Bella Mandarin as my transition shade, Bella Bronze as my crease shade, Bella Gold as my lid shade, Bella Taupe blended and placed into my outer v to deepen my crease, Bella Ivory as my brow bone highlight shade and Bella Chiffon as my inner corner highlight shade.  A tutorial for the makeup look can be found here.  As you can see from the look – the colors are pigmented and can be used for an every day or sultry look.

If I could make a few suggestions it would be to add a rich Metallic or satin matte Red shade to the collection (or both) as well as a metallic orange.  I would also love to see a softer gold shade that is similar to that of Urban Decay’s Half Baked.  While the packaging is still a bit bulky and I don’t believe these can be depotted, I love that they top of the pot is flat, allowing for stacking the shadows, which was unable to be done effectively with the single baked shadows.

Pigmentation is wonderful.  Again – while a few shades were not as perfect as others, I still know I’ll be using them and I love that some of the cool toned browns give me the option to use them to fill in my brows.  The feel of these shadows are unlike those I use often.  They have a buttery like texture, minus the fall out and dust you get from a buttery shadow.  Application on the eyes is smooth and over all I’m pretty impressed.  These Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eye Shadows are definitely a great value for the price and overall, I think they are pretty awesome.  Great job Milani – I’m really loving these.

 

Disclaimer:  I did receive these products as a part of a Press  Sample however, all opinions are my own and 100% honest & unbiased.