e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow in Confident: Review, Swatches & Comparisons

I bought Confident, a mineral eyeshadow made by e.l.f, months back but wore it for the first time last Saturday.  I'm not sure why I waited so long to try it out, other than I go through phases when it comes to using loose mineral powders.

Confident is a lovely, shimmery taupe.  It actually reminded me of some bareMineral eyeshadows that I picked up several years back, so I dug them out to compare texture and finish.

e.l.f. Confident (sun)

e.l.f. Confident (shade)

Sand Dune was part of the Siren of the Sea set that came out in 2009 and was available at Sephora and QVC.  Sand Dune is a "high shine" light golden taupe, and you can see that it looks different in texture even in the jar.  It is very reflective and a bit crumbly, although it smooths out nicely, albeit with some fall out.

bareMinerals Sand Dune

Kudos is a bareMinerals Glimpse shadow in light taupe.  The Glimpse shadows are supposed to be soft, lightweight eye colors with a little less shimmer than the Glimmer shadows.

bareMinerals Kudos

Confident, Sand Dune, Kudos

No exact dupes here, but the finishes of these shadows are similar and I can't really tell any difference in quality and wear.  e.l.f. products are made in China and are significantly less expensive at $3 a jar, compared to bareMinerals $14 price tag.  I was encouraged to read that e.l.f. is cruelty free, so I'm going to keep an open mind going forward, although in general I'm ambivalent about beauty products manufactured in China for a variety of reasons  (working conditions, animal testing, quality control). 

For this look, I used Confident from lash line to just below brow bone, and Kudos on inner eye and along brow bone.  I used Urban Decay's 24/7 eye liner in the dark brown matte Demolition to line upper and lower lashes.  The mascara is Julep's Boho Glam lengthening mascara, which is a dark brown.  

Disclaimer:  I purchased this.