Benefit Creaseless Cream Eyeshadow in Strut (Review)

Texture: Strut is a very smooth and velvety cream eyeshadow that is easier to apply than MAC's Blackground (I feel like they are similar in color and wear).  But this is only pigmented when layered and I have a hard time getting it to blend out without looking patchy.  I have used a few brushes and my finger.

Wear: It does last while, I wore it out all night last Friday, but it was layered with eyeshadow over it to set it.  I'm not sure whether it would last as long by itself, but by no means does it wear off in less than 6 hours.  It's a great primer/base to bring out other colors, but at $22, umm...
Color:  This is a very metal gray that I thought would appear more like a dark gray with a taupe accent.  I'm not a large fan of flat silvery or metal colors so I wouldn't have bought this if I hadn't swatched it in store with the tester.  I hate testers because I feel like so many people have played with them that you don't buy what you think you are buying.  I'm sure the swatch I did in-store was mixed with another shadow.  I really don't like this by itself.  I wish it were richer and looked how it does in the pot when applied.  And the more you layer it, the more these shimmer chunks appear that you thought the product didn't even have in it.

 Now I don't want to sell this product short because it's not terrible.  It is quality, just not to my satisfaction with color.  You can see the heavy shimmer in the photos above.

Above, you can see how it's semi-patchy and that's after three layers and touching up.  It does blend out fairly nicely though.

This is my finished look with Strut, but I also used MAC Satin Taupe, Sephora Cream Liner in Black, Lorac Black, I can't remember the highlight color

Why do I feel prettier with my hand behind my head?

Same look, just curled my hair.