Armani Eyes To Kill No 9 Medusa

Just last month Giorgio Armani extended their eight Eyes to Kill (ETK) quads to twelve, calling the quads Eyes to Kill Shimmer Eyeshadow Palettes. I was checking around at eBay at the end of February when stumbled upon a seller from France selling ETK Palettes no 9 and 12. I couldn't quiet understand if the numbers were written wrong as I knew those were only supposed to be until no 8. Looking at the picture, I have seen the green palette and I knew this was not one of the released shades. I was too curious, so ordered both of them sight unseen. Upon receiving the palettes, I was amazed by the green one, but the purple one was a way too similar to no 8, which I own too. I checked the website of Armani to find out what they were, but couldn't find an information back then.

Armani Eyes to Kill Shimmer Palette No 9 Medusa

These appeared sometime mid-March at Armani's US website, followed by a new product alert in Temptalia. Only then I knew it was a new release and everything made sense. Asking at the local counter here in Germany, I have learned it was only a matter of time for the new palettes to arrive here too. In fact just with a minor delay of two weeks, we now have them at Armani Counters across the country as well as online sellers.

The new four shades are: No 9, a palette of greens, which I will review today, No 10 mostly consists of gold and browns, No 11 has cool tones taupes and No 12 cheers up the purple fans like myself. Those are more pigmented than the previous releases. Another difference which I could point out was the quality of the matte shades. To my opinion the first 8 eye shadow palettes were gorgeous, no doubt, but the matte shades on those were way too dry for my taste. With these new quads, Armani solved this problem. Matte and satin shades have the same smoothness and pigmentation.

Armani Eyes to Kill Shimmer Platte No 9 close-up

No 9 Medusa consists of a matte red brown, a satin vibrant mid-green with yellow undertones, a darker khaki green satin shade and a matte black. Below I swatched them on my arm, picking up the colors with my fingers and applying heavily starting with the black shade at the bottom of the palette and moving up respectively.

Armani Eyes to Kill Shimmer Palette No 9 arm swatch

As you see from the swatches, the originality of this palette, to my opinion, is the reddish brown shade which appears to be out of place. Does this remind you of another green palette having an interesting shade in between? Can that be a very recent one from Spring collections?

Armani ETK 9 Medusa vs. Guerlain Coup de Foudre 502

Guerlain's Spring release Coup de Foudre was the first thing came to my mind, when I first saw Medusa of Armani. Coup de Foudre is without doubt one of my favorite palettes among the spring 2013 collections. They do look pretty together but are they really that similar?

Armani ETK Palette No 9 vs Guerlain Coup de Foudre

I swatched the similar shades from Coup de Foudre right above Medusa. Instead of the black matte shade, which can be used as a liner, Coup de Foudre has a metallic gray, which I rather use as a defining shade. The darker green of Medusa palette, which I almost defined as khaki is now under a real khaki shade of a similar finish. The green shade of Coup de Foudre is much more frost in finish and also lighter. The coral shade of Coup de Foudre is more vibrant and lighter than Armani's red brown and they are of similar matte finish.

Armani's Medusa can be used to give a green smokey eye, defined by the brown shade, which is the way I found I am using it most often.

Armani Eyes to Kill Shimmer Palette No 9 Medusa in action

To achieve above look, I used the vibrant green shade on inner lid, darker shade on outer lid and brown shade on the crease. The black shade was used as liner.

Armani Eyes to Kill Shimmer Platte No 9 Medusa on eyes

As you can see, once applied, the reddish brown doesn't appear to be out of place. In fact it blends beautifully with the other shades. If you think this is boring and you want to try something more fun and springy, then I recommend you go for the Guerlain Coup de Foudre as make some use of the coral shade such as the look below. For this one I used the light green on the inner lid, blended into coral and applied darker green to the outer half of the lid. I used the darker shade on the crease.

Guerlain Coup de Foudre in action.

Final thoughts: Although similar in concept, Armani Medusa and Guerlain Coup de Foudre are very different once applied. Armani Medusa can be used for a rather low-key green smokey eye whereas Guerlain Coup de Foudre can give you a vibrant springy look depending on the usage of the coral shade. Both quads have great quality and big thumbs up from me. Don't miss those if you are a green fan.

Have you tried any of the new Armani palettes? Are you planning to get any?