I really enjoyed writing last week’s Friday Flash Review – spontaneous, rambling and somewhat therapeutic. For me, at least. For you, it probably made no sense and was about as helpful as a hysterical hippy in a hostage situation. (That was off the top of my head – this is Friday Flash, and it’s all about recording immediate thought, not about style of prose.) Here we go with my thoughts on the Miners Dip & Define Eye Powders.

“Ooh. A package. What could it be? It feels very light, perhaps it’s a feather. No, that would be ridiculous. Who would send a feather?! [Five minute mental detour thinking about the type of person who would send a feather.] Let’s open the jiffy bag shall we? It’s from Miners! They used to sell Miners in my local chemist! Miners cosmetics, not actual Miners.

Six little bullets inside – very light. I like the look of three of the shades; Khaki Gold (pictured above), Cosmic Copper and Cloud 9 (both pictured below).

Cosmic Gold looks like my kind of shade – great to create a really sexy smokey eye with deeper coppers and brown tones.

Cloud 9 is very ‘disco’ – in my little mind I’m picturing myself as a fifteen-year-old doing my makeup with my Rimmel pan-stick and frosted pink lips. This eyeshadow would have complemented my teenage look perfectly…

Let’s take a closer look at Cosmic Gold. What is it exactly? Let’s unscrew the lid before we’ve even checked what might be inside. That’s always a good idea, especially when you’re wearing your new pale grey Paige jeans. Oh! It’s a semi-loose powder! How delightful – and how readily it fixes itself to fabric!

[Laundry break.]

OK. So this Dip & Define thing, it’s a loose powder, but not. I mean, inside the barrel it’s loose, but it can’t really escape into the outside world unless you’re an idiot and you turn the whole thing upside down, without the lid on, and shake. That’s quite handy really, because who an earth can be bothered with loose powder? I can’t think of anybody off-hand. It’s an absolute pain in the neck. The Dip & Define takes away this pain in the neck (uh?!) by providing a little sponge applicator attached to the lid, that lives inside the powder 24-7. When you’re ready to apply, you twist off the top and the applicator is pre-coated in loose powder.

So in theory, the Dip & Define provides us with  an easy and foolproof way to apply loose powder. Or does it? Let’s have a little try.

Whoa! The lid is spring-loaded! What fun! If you let it go at the right time, you have yourself a miniature powder-coated missile! Hmm. I’m not sure that I see the point of the spring loading, except that it makes the closed product shorter. Whatever, it’s fun. The mechanism is pretty flimsy and cheap, and it makes a funny squeak, but we’re not talking premium cosmetics here. We’re not talking NASA-designed packaging.

The strange spring thing does make the applicator far less sturdy than I would like – it’s a bit like trying to paint the ceiling when you’re up a wobbly ladder. But the powder itself is lovely – a vibrant, strong copper that looks amazing with blue eyes. I might take a little picture of my efforts:

(Please don’t judge too harshly, this is just me having a muck about. Look at how pale my eyelashes are! It’s like I have bald lids!)

Nice? I think so. This picture makes the powder look glittery, but it’s actually not, it’s just very metallic. Layered with other powders this could look really nice. Oh hold on though (I hear you say)  – I have loads of coppery goldy eyeshadows! Why do I need one more? One with a spring-loaded shotgun action and a wobbly ladder application effect?

£3.49 is why! Pretty good, eh? Now I’m not saying swap your Estée Lauders, burn your NARS, anything like that, but if you’re looking for a cheap and cheerful copper with good staying power (it sticks around really quite well) then this could be your no-risk investment. For the same price of a coffee and a biscuit you too could own a miniature rocket launcher complete with metallic powder fall-out. In all seriousness, I do think that the Cosmic Gold is a lovely shade. The packaging feels cheap, but that’s because it is cheap.If you’re after a professional finish, you’d also want to think about using a proper brush to blend the powder after initial application, but despite the slight wobble, I actually find the foam applicator quite simple to use.”

There! Another Flash Friday. You can buy Cosmic Gold for £3.49 at Miners.co.uk!