Maybelline City Mini Swatches and Review
These little Citi Mini palettes have some of the prettiest shimmer eyeshadows you can get at the drugstore. BUT – you have to do something extra to make them pop. These palettes also offer some great color stories that are very wearable, and each one had a good range of shades from light to dark. When you see the swatches, keep in mind that these are not high end shadows and they don’t swatch as well as high end shadows. But if you give them a chance on your eyelids, I think you’ll be happy with their performance.
That “extra” thing is to use a sticky base. This can be a glitter glue primer, a regular eyeshadow primer that you haven’t set with powder or anything else you might use to get just a little stickiness to your eyelid. I’ve used Milani eyeshadow primer, ELF Glitter Glue Primer, and Nyx Glitter Primer- they all work splendidly.
The mattes perform well for me. They aren’t the most pigmented, but that does allow for an easier blend.
Swatches of all five City Minis shown on one arm. Ran out of room, so the green palette ended up on my hand ?
Where to Purchase
These City Minis can be purchased at multiple retailers, but they don’t all have the same color selection. Walgreens seemed to have the biggest selection near me, and that’s where I was able to purchase the green palette (Urban Jungle). I’ve also seen them available at Walmart and Ulta.
There is a tool on the Maybelline website that you can use to figure out where to buy the color you want. I thought that was very helpful!
They retail for $9.99 each, but some stores like Walgreens or Ulta will do buy one get one half off.
Downtown Sunrise City Mini
Chill Brunch Neutrals City Mini
Swatches were made using no primer at all – I recommend using a sticky primer for the sparkly shades when you apply to your eyelid.
I decluttered this little palette after awhile, but it’s really SO good! I purchased it again so I could make swatches for this blog post.
Blushed Avenue (510) City Mini
Blushed Avenue swatched out as perhaps the most beautiful among the five I have.
Rooftop Bronzes (400) City Mini
The swatches of Rooftop Bronzes impressed me quite a bit. I get Natasha Denona Bronze palette vibes from this.
Urban Jungle City Mini
I’ll be testing this one out and reporting back. This is one that I expect to work beautifully on the eye when a sticky primer is used. Swatches below were made using no primer whatsoever – just my finger and my arm.
