Milani, Eyeshadow On a Budget

by Hanzky — Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 10:51 am

in Cheap Thrills, Makeup and tagged with Eyeshadow, Milani

When it comes to make up and colors, I’m sure most of us will automatically think of MAC, I know it would be nice to have every eyeshadow colors they have available, but at $14.50 a pop, it might take a loooong time for some people to accumulate all of the colors they like to have in their collection. So what a girl to do? Well that’s when Milani comes to the rescue..:D.

Not a lot of people know about Milani since their products are not widely available. Some drugstores like Walgreens and CVS carry this brand, but not in every location, even if one location has it, the collection is usually far from complete..so you just have to visit every Walgreens you happen to pass by..:D

What attracted me the most about Milani when I first saw it was their gorgeous color of eyeshadow, if I didn’t see the packaging, I could’ve sworn they were MAC..:D. I immediately snatched one of the eyeshadow palettes and tried them on without much expectation because I haven’t found one drugstore eyeshadow with strong color payoff. Turned out, Milani is not your regular drugstore brand, in terms of pigmentation, I don’t see any difference between Milani and MAC, they are just as smooth and do not crease The only catch is they tend to crumble easily if you drop them or push them too hard with your brush, but other than that I have no complain…and the sweetest thing is, they cost just $3.49 a pop.

So how come a $3.49 eyeshadow can rival a $14.50 eyeshadow? Because we all know that most of the time, quality comes with the price. Well, for one, there’s a big cost difference between renting a store or a counter in your local mall and renting a shelf in your local drugstore. And there’s that luxury thing that MAC offer, the fancy packaging, the paper shopping bag, the generous sample, the million dollar deals with the famous celebrities and the sales people that we help contribute the salary. None of that is provided by Milani and that’s why they are able to price their products perfectly for penny pinchers like me..:D

Anyway, at first I wasn’t really interested in buying their single eyeshadow because well that’s just me, I never bought an individual eyeshadow, I always buy the palettes because it’s cheaper, it’s more practical and I didn’t have to think hard to mix and match the colors. But thanks to jeng uberboston, who has introduced me to the art of depotting the single eyeshadow into the empty palettes, I now have accumulated 15 of them in just a matter of 2 days. What makes it even more fun is that Milani makes perfect dupe of MAC eyeshadow (the dupes list goes with me whenever I leave the house, just in case I passed yet another Walgreens..:D)

Here’s some examples:
MAC Brule = Milani Almondine
MAC Black Tied = Milani Storm
MAC Electric Eel = Milani Atlantis
MAC Nocturnelle = Milani Shock
MAC Sable = Milani Java Bean
MAC Sumptuous Olive = Milani Antique Gold
..and the list goes on and on

If you’re interested in depotting the eyeshadow, this website has the step by step guide…but I placed the eyeshadow on top of a burning candle for 1 minute instead of placing them in the oven, and it took me about half an hour to transfer all of them into MAC palette pan. I have to admit that this is one of the most satisfying DIY project that I have done..:D…and no, I’m not content yet as I’m still on the hunt for some more specific colors..:D

Btw, I’m sorry I brag about something that is not available back home, but hey, just in case your cousin or your co-worker is having a trip to the States in the near future, you can always ask them to bring you back some of these babies…or maybe someone is our forum is kind enough to offer a custom purchase?…:D

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pink-bow says:

February 29, 2008 at 11:09 am

kan ada yg milani yang terabaruu,,,lebih bagus,, namanya milani wet and dry,

mir@cle says:

February 29, 2008 at 11:11 am

kalo diliat dari warna-warnanya, e/s nya milani ini worth to try. dan keliatannya keluar warnanya (diliat di tangannya hanzky
with gorgeous colours and good price, this could be the next HG e/s (of course, besides MAC) :p

piscanilie says:

February 29, 2008 at 11:13 am

nice blog for penny pinchers like me too ..hihihi

Hanzky says:

February 29, 2008 at 11:23 am

pink bow yang wet and dry gue belum pernah nemu tuuh di walgreens..:(

mir@cle worth to try banget..beli MAC nya yang warnanya nggak ada di Milani aja..:D

iyank secara yaa masih banyak yang laen yang perlu di beli jadi eyeshadownya yang murmer aja, yang penting warnanya keluar…:D

Ambung says:

February 29, 2008 at 11:33 am

Han…dah penuh aja tuh palette 15. hehehhehe. Cantik deh warna2nya…hmmmm kira2 lo menitip pembukaan order milani gak pas lo back for good ntar? heuhehehe

oh ya…klo boleh tau, e/s nya made in mana yah say? Disini ada yg murmer juga, Eianto, tp e/s nya made in china boo….pdhl produk lainnya made in korea, malaysia, & some in Italy.

February 29, 2008 at 12:08 pm

hanzkyy di cvs ada, well ga semua cvs siyh.
bagus dehhh

Koukla says:

February 29, 2008 at 12:16 pm

Haaa I swear, kalo gak baca isi postingan ini dan cuma liat foto pro palettenya, gue pasti nyangkain itu eyeshadow mac! I can see Black-tied, Sable, Sumptuous Olive and is that Expensive Pink? OMG! Unbelieavable!

wLn says:

February 29, 2008 at 12:36 pm

Hanzky, so exciteedddd ini muncul di blogggg!!!

Wortje says:

February 29, 2008 at 1:14 pm

oke, that’s it!
siapa mau CP??!!

hahahaha…

yustin says:

hanzky.. welcome to bancies group ya.. hihihi, dalam 2 hari lgs mborong 15 single e/s..

cp-in maksud gue, gue termasuk korban juga tinggal di sini.. huhuhuhu

sLesTa says:

February 29, 2008 at 2:41 pm

ya ampuuunn… si uber emang racuuunnnn…!! untung gue punya madunya.. apa sih? hehe..

han lucu banget!! bikinin buat gue dong!! hihihi.. *cup cup*

jingga says:

February 29, 2008 at 2:47 pm

Mbak Hanzky, ini gak ada di Indo yah? kasian deh aku… AKu masi dalam taraf pencarian warna eyeshadow yang bisa bener2 keluar. Kalo MAC bener2 out of budget deh… Bisa suggest e/s yg bagus yang bisa dibeli di Indo gak… Danke!!

February 29, 2008 at 3:18 pm

gue lagi gue lagi
Ini mah bukan kerjaan gue, sLes… si Hanzky emang minta diracunin berhari2 (buang badan)

Durian says:

February 29, 2008 at 3:55 pm

Hanny cakep bgt warna2-nya!
Good choice and very smart indeed
Thanks for the info!

irasistible says:

February 29, 2008 at 8:02 pm

Jeung Hanzky, kalo gak salah nih, dulu di Indonesia pernah ada deh cosmetic line bernama Milani. Kosmetik ini dijual brg liquid soap, lotion, dll yg size-nya gede2 di beauty shop (lupa nama tokonya) yg tersebar di beberapa mal di Jakarta. Akhir ’90-an gitu lah, jaman2 gue SMA.

Gue pernah punya bbrp lipsticknya. They were gorgeous and very cheap (it costed me 15 rb utk beli 1 lipstick, jaman dolar masih 2500 ya..). Tapi skrg udah gak ada lg tuh tokonya. Dan gue gak tau juga, apakah Milani yg lo tulis di sini sama dgn Milani yg gue maksud, hehehe… Maap gak membantu :p

jellyfish says:

February 29, 2008 at 8:23 pm

Nice entry, Han from what I heard dr make-up artist, e/s emang ga perlu mahal2 kok… so u can save the $$$ to buy some other make-up products yg emang perlu yg mahal & good quality (e.g. foundation, concealer, etc)

Juleha says:

February 29, 2008 at 11:23 pm

Alamakkk Hannn .. bikin gw lgsg ngubek2 ke website milani deh … racunn disini menular bow

mizzdevi says:

March 1, 2008 at 1:36 am

good post, Han! dan tengkyu juga buat saran jellyfish.

tari says:

March 1, 2008 at 2:55 pm

Nice post Han…
Mau coba cari disini.. siapa tahu ada

nenoQ_wulan says:

March 1, 2008 at 8:50 pm

mba Han, itu 15 e/s abis brp bulan ya mba

vveen says:

March 1, 2008 at 11:15 pm

Gw masih ngga percaya ini hanzky yg nulis. hehe

lyn says:

March 2, 2008 at 12:27 am

udah resmi jadi one of the bancies dong han abis beli 15 e/s dlm 2 hari heheheheee

tinkerbell says:

March 2, 2008 at 2:52 am

masarakat, itu palet udah penuh aja dlm 2 hari, hihihi. bener2 deh han, kali ini elo juaranya

kembang gula says:

March 2, 2008 at 7:20 am

mendukung wortje di atas, saya tunggu penawaran CP dari kakak-kakak cantik di negara asal milani

agastya says:

March 2, 2008 at 1:27 pm

pas bener nich, dari kemaren lagi hunting2 eyeshadow murah meriah, thanks for sharing

smiley says:

March 3, 2008 at 7:25 am

Waduh, Han … cakep-cakep amat
Swatch-nya juga bagus, kereng gitu
Ayoooo … :bighug: siapa yg mo nampung CP, udah pd mupeng nih

Lena says:

March 3, 2008 at 9:00 pm

*speechless melihat palette*

at least racunnya si you-know-who membuat dikau menulis tentang beauty stuff again…kayaknya udah lama banget ya

silvershore says:

March 3, 2008 at 9:05 pm

Wow!!! Daku takjub padamu, Hanz. Eyeshadow cantik2 dan sebanyak itu, didepot pulak. Bener2 percaya deh kalo dirimu udah keracunan, Hanzky. Ikut syenaaang!

Eke juga jadi pengen Milani, deh.

sisil says:

March 4, 2008 at 9:22 am

Hanzky, cuma bisa *glek* melihat eyeshadow2 cantiksnya… Ahhh seandainya walgreens dan cvs bertebaran disini…

Ria says:

May 11, 2008 at 6:02 am

hwaaa, td gw ‘menemukan’ counter Milani ini di mall. entar mo balik ksana ‘n beli aaahhh *ktularan bencong :p*