I love this for days when I want a natural look. It gives an amazing glow to my eye area and blends fairly well, though I don't care for the sponge tip applicator. It basically sucks and doesn't help with blending. All I need is mascara or eyeliner to add more depth and I'm set. It is very affordable and can be used to highlight

I am a blue eyed NW10 (NW20 when tanning from a bottle).

This is a cool toned palette, which looks nice on my blue eyes. However, the shadows are too soft and blend out to the same shade. Hardly any pigmentation. Same issues as with the Cafe Au Lait trio.

Beautiful cool toned everyday neutrals:

-Left shade is the warmest of all 3, bronze brown with gold shimmer
-Middle is a soft taupe, with silver shimmer (most wearable for me)
-Right is a pearlescent pink, appears silver on me


I use the Left in my crease & outer v, the middle as all over lid & right as a higlight under my brows & inner tear ducts. I've used the Left shade under my lower lash to smudge as liner, the middle shade alone as a wash of color, & the right on the bridge of my nose & cupids bow so MULTI FUNCTIONAL.

When I first tried this trio I was disappointed at the pigmentation & wondered how tan/dark skin girls raved of it since it barely showed on my NC25 skin. Then I realized its meant for a daytime, soft, barely there look, to enhance effortless beauty. If your looking for a smokey, bang, cut crease look this isn't for you. This palette has grown on me & I keep it in my purse/car to touch up & get a quick polished look. 3 simple shades in 1, very handy! continued >>

I was addicted to Rimmel's Smokey Brun quad as my everyday neutral look, but Shimmering Sands has replaced it! The shades are so beautiful, have good pigmentation, go on silky with no fallout, and the 3 shades coordinate beautifully for a natural daytime look. I like the generous sized squares, and CG shadow wands are durable and long lasting! I am becoming addicted to CG shadows, as you can see from my other reviews, but this one might just be me favorite because of it's wearability. If you love neutral quads or trios, I highly recommend this drugstore gem!

Finally bit the bullet and bought the infamous Shimmery Sands trio in the latest Cover Girl packaging (the slim flat grey rectangular compacts). I'm glad this isn't the first Cover Girl eyeshadow I've ever tried as the line has some small gems here and there. When I swatch this on my hand the colors are lovely basic neutrals, decently pigmented, not too glittery or overly frosty and looks like an eye brightening set of colors... Unfortunately when applied to my eyes, it's just shimmering with no sands. I can keep building on the shimmer and never see much color as if all the shades are really close to the natural colors (and contour colors) of my eyelids... It's bizarre.


I have found that I can make this trio work by playing with various eyeshadow bases (white, bronze, brown, etc). This method will get the colors to show up on my complexion more but unfortunately due to that type of hassle I can't see myself repurchasing this. I can understand the popularity of this trio because it's quite fool proof even if you're not great at application. It probably shows up better on those with super fair complexions or much darker complexions. I'm a MAC NC15/Covergirl Classic Ivory for reference.


P.S. Shimmering Sands is really similar to Wet n Wild "Walking on Eggshells" trio (which is actually a set of shadows I can use with no problems or requirement for colored bases, these two trios don't look that similar in the pan but when swatched on the skin the colors are like sisters). The shades are very similar except the Wet n Wild is a tad frostier however much more pigmented and a few bucks cheaper at $3.

This is a great d/s neutral eye shadow(s). I'm 30yrs old w/ fair, oily skin, & believe it or not, this was the color I wore on my eyes EVERY DAY in HighSchool & now 12yrs later I still love it! Seems like CG's eye shadow's are either not pigmented at all or pigmented beautifully - no inbetween & it's totally hit or miss (I know this b/c I've bought other CG e/s & thrown them str8 in the garbage!) But this is one of the great ones, & yes, over the years I've strayed to other e/s - some even higher end, but I have to admit this is pretty great. I wear all 3 colors in this trio when I'm doing the "natural makeup look" or if I want to do a "bold lip" kinda look :) The lightest/pink shade can even be used as a face highlighter in a pinch! (for someone fair skinned like I am at least!) Not to mention it really is DIRT cheap! It's great :) continued >>

Wow. I remember this trio being one of the first one I have ever owned, like 12 years ago, and here I am, buying it again!

After years of buying all kinds of crazy unflattering colors, I am back to neutrals and I realise that i don,t actually need 15 different colors: I am not a make up artist. And between you and me: i can barely differentiate between this or that shade of beige/brown/neutral.

All that being said: this little CG trio is perfect for my needs: I want my eyes to look less tired and subtly defined, without the makeup overpowering my face. These colors do just that. Of course, the color payoff is not amazing, but it is still great for 7,00$CDN. This trio is perfect for everyday.

This is my second favorite powdered eye shadow.
The colors compliment my dark hair and skin color.
I use the darker brown on the outer half of my eyelid, and then use the shimmery light brown on the inner half of my eyelid.
Lastly, I use a small cosmetic brush and use the lightest color for under the eyebrow.
If these colors came as loose eye shadow, they could very well be my favorite eye shadow.

I wish they would sell the middle color as a single also, that's always the one I end up running out of first, it's a shame to buy a whole new compact for one color. Either way, good stuff, I have been buying this since 2005, I don't wear it all the time, but whenever I do, I get reminded how awesome it is, haha. Good stuff to have around.

This has been a favorite trio of mine for a long time. I have hit pan 3 times on this. I don't get the reviews complaining about the shimmer, if you don't like shimmer, why try something with the name Shimmering Sands.

These are very wearable neutral shades. You can use these for both work or a night out. I feel like Cover Girl has improved the quality of the shadows over the years. This is one product that I reach for frequently and will continue to repurchase.