EYELINER

Best Korean Pencil Eyeliners – Clio Gelpresso and Holika Holika Jewel Light Review and Swatches

July 9, 2013

I’ve been really into Korean makeup lately – not only because they are very affordable, I truly think the quality is comparable to the higher end for some products such as the pencil eyeliners. I bought some from Clio and Holika Holika. They are not as luxurious as my holy grail Three flash performance eyeliners (reviewed here), but they are good enough to be used on a daily basis. Both brands offer a very large selection of colors to choose from, and they vary from the most fashion forward colors to the day-to-day basic colors in matte or shimmer finish.

Holika Holika Jewel Light Waterproof Eyeliners (retails for around USD$8 each, available here). They all have a silicone-based formula for an easy and smooth application which will not tug your delicate skin during application. Lasting power is also comparable to the gel liners in the pot. Once you let them set after a few seconds, they don’t budge and stay smudge proof and waterproof all day long. The shimmery colors from the Jewel Light series contains visible flecks of glitters for a high shine finish which are great for highlighting purposes, and the matte ones are highly pigmented.

From Left to Right: 08 Pink Topaz (shimmer); 09 Gold (shimmer); 13 Royal Red (matte); 11 Bronze (shimmer)

Clio Gelpresso Waterproof Pencil Gel Liners are slightly more expensive but they are formulated in Italy (retails for around USD$10 each, available here). As the name suggests, these are the gel eyeliners in a pencil form. They are similar to the Holika Holika, but I have to say the texture is a tad better as they feel more buttery soft and smoother with a more even finish. You also pay the extra dollars for better packaging. The design is very similar to the Chanel Stylo Yeux eyeliners – it’s a twist up eyeliner that comes with a built-in sharpener attached at the opposite end. I personally much prefer the gel pencils than the pot ones as they are easier and quicker to use, and best of all they do not dry out!

From Left to Right: 01 Beige Shine (shimmer), 04 Dark Choco (shimmer)

All of them are highly pigmented. Swatches with only one swipe.

From Left to Right: HH 11 Bronze; HH 13 Royal Red; HH 09 Gold; HH 08 Pink Topaz; C 01 Beige Shine; C 04 Dark Choco

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Labels: EYELINER • Holika Holika

Lancome Le Crayon Kohl 015 Jazzy Taupe Review and Swatch

December 3, 2012

If you are looking for a perfect taupe eyeliner, look no further than the Lancome Le Crayon Kohl in 015 Jazzy Taupe from their Holiday 2012 Collection. I didn’t think I needed any more eyeliners after I got my hands on the THREE Flash Performance Eyeliners (reviewed here), but this one is just a must have for me!

The packaging is just downright ugly for such a high end brand. It reminds me of those really cheap eyeliners you get at the drugstore – a plain pencil type with a gold cap. No sharpener, no sponge applicator, and it was glad wrapped without a proper case… But do not get discouraged by its cover, the texture of this pencil is near perfection based on my holy grail standard of THREE . It’s a kohl pencil eyeliner with a buttery texture. If you ever wonder how soft are the THREE Eyeliners, this one is about 90% close! It gives a shimmery satin finish without any glitter. It glides on my sensitive eyes easily without tugging the skin, and stays put all day. Best of all, it is the most perfect brown taupe and it complements my mostly neutral eye shadows perfectly. I probably need a back up of it as taupe eyeliners are just so hard to come by!

Swatch of Jazzy Taupe

Compared to Urban Decay Underground, Chanel Rose Platine (reviewed here), and THREE 01

Le Crayon Kohl Jazzy Taupe is part of Lancome’s Holiday 2012 Collection in Australia (I believe in Europe as well..), but it is not in the Holiday Collection on the Lancome USA website. So I am a bit confused! Can any of you shed any light on this 🙂

I bought this for AUD$45 at David Jones. You can also get this here or here from UK.

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Labels: EYELINER • LANCOME

THREE Flash Performance Pencil Eyeliners Review and Swatches

November 4, 2012

There are a lot of Japanese exclusive makeup that tempt me, but I have been strictly following the golden rule of “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” as there are just too many other good things that are more accessible – until I read the review of THREE Flash Performance Pencil Eyeliners on Kate’s blog. She described these as the eyeliner equivalent of the Suqqu creamy glow lipsticks, and I was immediately sold by that as they are also my HG lipsticks!

The THREE Pencil Eyeliners totally lived up to my expectations. Texture wise – they are the silkiest, creamiest and most buttery pencil eye liners I have ever used. They feel the same as Suqqu lipstick that has a melt-into-your-skin texture when applying. The most wonderful thing about them is that they do not budge at all. Even when I tried to scrub them off forcefully, hardly any came off.

They offer a reasonably wide selection of colors and I picked the two safest colors.

Shade 01 is a muted rosy beige color with silver shimmer. It is highly pigmented and I mainly use it for my lower lash lines. The color adds a nice touch of rosy sheen to my eyes with a beautiful gleam.

Shade 05 is the most gorgeous and complex olive-green black with multi-colored shimmer that has a duochrome effect on the eyes. It makes a great alternative to the usual pure black and it looks unbelievable when the shimmer is reflected under the sun.

Swatches:

Bottom Line: The most amazing eyeliners that completely blow the other high to low end eyeliner pencils out of the water.

Out of topic: My friend posted them to me from Japan by EMS. I paid about $15 for a small package with about 6 beauty products and it reached Australia within 2 days. So I highly recommend EMS for an affordable and express courier!

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Labels: EYELINER • THREE

Chanel Stylo Yeux Eyeliner BEIGE CLAIR and GRENAT Review and Swatches

May 8, 2012

I bought the Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof Eyeliner in BEIGE CLAIR from the Le Blanc 2012 Collection and in GRENAT from the Spring 2012 Collection recently. Both of them are limited editions. I normally don’t buy high end pencil eye liners but Chanel always make me break my rules!

Out of the two Beige Clair is the best purchase in my opinion. I have been searching for a creamy matte flesh-colored eyeliner pencil for the longest time, and I am so glad Chanel has finally released one. I like to wear it along the lower inner rim, as it instantly makes my eyes appear more energized, brighter and bigger. The formulation of Stylo Yeux Eyeliner is hands down the most smudge proof and waterproof that I have ever used. I have quite watery eyes, and Beige Clair lasts on my eyes for the whole day without fading . The color is so versatile so you can also use it as a nude lip liner or a pointed concealer pen.

Grenat is another unique shade. I don’t usually wear colored eye liner, so to me Grenat is nice to have but not a must. It is a rich plummy brown shade, and it would look absolutely gorgeous on green and blue eyes. As for my eyes, it looks the best when it is paired against cool toned eye shadows, otherwise it seems to emphasize the redness of my eyes. The lasting power of Grenat is also phenomenal.

Wearing Grenat on my eyes

Comparing them with Rose Platine.

From left to right: Rose Platine, Grenat and Beige Clair

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Labels: CHANEL • EYELINER

My Picks for the Best Eye Makeup 2011

January 13, 2012

It is Friday night! I usually don’t blog on Friday night as it is my “happy hour” time, but I wanted to lose a couple of pounds after the festive season so I decided to stay home and just vegetate, and in the meantime killing my time off blogging…This post is about my picks for the best eye makeup year 2011! The same with my previous post – I picked one or two of my favorite and most used items from every eye makeup category.

Best Eye Shadow Primer – Nars Smudge Proof Eye Shadow Base

Best Liquid Eye Liner: Dolly Wink Liquid Eye Liner in Jet Black, reviewed here.

Best Gel Eye Liner: Bobbi Brown Gel Eye Liner – an oldie but a goodie!

Best Eye Liner Pencil: Dior Crayon Eyeliner Waterproof – I use an eye liner pencil to define the outer third of my lower lash line, and I like the Dior as it is soft and pigmented so doesn’t tug my skin, and it stays put for a whole day without any smudge.

Best Eye Brow products: I get asked all the time what eye brow products I used in my FOTD. They are always by my holy grail combination – The K-Palette Real Lasting Liquid Eye Brow Pen in dark brown, followed by the Laura Mercier Brow Powder Duo in Deep Blonde

The Laura Mercier Brow Powder Duo in Deep Blonde has a light brown ashy color which works really well with my complexion. I use the dark shade to define my eye brow and the lighter shade to contour the bridge of my nose.Best Eye Brow Tint: MAC Brow Set in Girl Boy. If I go for a very soft and fresh makeup look, I tend to tint my eyebrow slightly lighter and I really love the color of MAC Girl Boy.

Best Cream Eye Shadow: Chanel illusion d’ombre long wear luminous eye shadow, I like the weightless texture and the shimmery semi-translucent finish.

Best Pigment: Inglot Pigments

Best Single Eye Shadow: Le Metier de Beaute True Color Eye Shadow. I haven’t used them long enough to do a proper review yet, but I was impressed and they win for their exclusiveness!

Runner Up: Chanel Ombre Essentielle Soft Touch Eye Shadow. Chanel offers a beautiful and wearable selection of single eye shadows. I have collected quite many of them and both the texture and the colors never let me down.

Best Eye Shadow Palette in general: Without a doubt that it’s my Suqqu Blend Color Eye Shadow, the entire range is easy to wear on a daily basis.

Best Cool Neutral Eye Shadow Palette: Other than Suqqu I have also included a few of my all time favorite neutral eye shadow palettes in this post. For the cool neutrals, Chanel Les 4 Ombres Quadra Eye Shadow in Prelude wins my heart. Do you know Chanel les 4 Ombres has also won the 2011 Japanese Cosme best eye shadow award?!

Best Warm Neutral Eye Shadow Palette: the legendary Lunasol Beige Beige – perfect for a “no makeup” makeup look.

Best Sparkly Neutral Eye Shadow Palette: Tom Ford Eye Color Quad in Golden Mink (reviewed here)

Best Collectible Eye Shadow Palette: Shiseido Maquillage Eye Creator by Alexander Wang (limited edition). This is my most precious makeup as I am huge fan of Alexander Wang’s modern and edgy design. I was lucky enough to snatch up some products from his first makeup collection in collaboration with Maquillage.

Best Drugstore Eye Shadow Palette: Kanebo Lavshuca Melting Eyes – as the name suggests, the eye shadows are so fined milled that they almost felt they were melting into the skin.

Best Mascara: The Helena Rubinstein Lash Queen Mascaras. I have both the original lash queen and the feline extravaganza lash queen. The feline adds more volume to the lashes but the original defines the lashes better and gives a soft and feathery finish. Absolutely adore this range!

Runner Up: Fresh Supernova Mascara – it gives super thick and dramatic lashes (almost doll like). The only downside is it doesn’t hold the curl well so I have to use another mascara or a primer underneath.

Best Drugstore Mascara: Kiss Me Heroine Make Volumising Mascara

Best False Eye Lashes: It’s a tie between the Princess Lee criss cross 7 in light black and the DUP Eyelashes. They are the most natural looking falsies I have used so far – soft and feathery and the human hair blend into your own lashes. I get a panic attack if I don’t have multiple backups of them. Just a note to those of you wanting to buy the Princess Lee lashes, be aware that there are so many counterfeit on the internet as Princess Lee lashes are extremely exclusive.

What a long post! If you have made it to here, well done! Hope you all have a good weekend 🙂

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Labels: CHANEL • DIOR • Eyebrow Pen • EYELINER • EYESHADOW • FALSE LASHES • FRESH • Helena Rubinstein • Heroine Make • INGLOT • Laura Mercier • Le Metier De Beaute • LUNASOL • MAC • Maquillage by Shiseido • MASCARA • NARS • SUQQU • Tom Ford

Best Liquid Eyeliners

July 12, 2011

Nothing defines my eyes better than the use of an intense black eyeliner – it is something I cannot live without since high school! I am always on the hunt for the best, blackest and smoothest black liquid eyeliner. I have tried tons of them from the most expensive brands to the most affordable. This post is going to be a comparison of some of the best liquid eyeliners that I have tried so far, and the good news is..most of them are drugstore brands and cost less $12 bucks!

All of these eyeliners are intensely black. They all have a fine tip which allows for easy application and gives a precise and clean line. They go on smoothly and fluidly without smudging and last all day.

From Left to Right:

1. Dolly Wink Liquid Eyeliner in Deep Black: felt tip

2. Majolica Perfect Automatic Liner in BK999: brush tip

3. Koji Linequeen in Strong Black: brush tip

4. MAC Superslick Liquid Eye Liner in On The Hunt: felt tip

5. K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner 24h in 01 (best seller in one of the biggest Japanese drugstores): has a brush tip and claims that it wears like a tattoo for 24 hrs

Battle 1: THE FINEST TIP

Winner: Koji Linequeen has the most ultra fine tip of only 0.1mm – perfect for defining the winged look precisely. (shown in the far right)

Runner Up: K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner 24h (shown 2nd from the right)

Battle 2: THE BLACKEST BLACK – tested with swatching each eyeliner with only 1 stroke at the same pressure

Winner: Dolly Wink Liquid Eyeliner in Deep Black

Runner Ups: MAC ties with Majolica

Battle 3: MOST SMUDGE PROOF – tested with rubbing my fingers over them several times

Winner: Majolica Perfect Automatic Liner – the opacity stays the same while the rest show signs of fading.

Worst Performance: MAC – the only one that starts to flake off.

Battle 4: MOST WATERPROOF – tested with spraying water over them

Winners: All good except for K-Palette

Worst Performance: K-Palette starts to come off as soon as it touches the water

Battle 5: BEST STAYING POWER – swiping them off using a cotton pad

Winner: Dolly Wink

Runner Up: K-Palette – although the color has faded you can still see the remnant (“the tattoo effect”) in a smooth line

Battle 6: EASIEST TO REMOVE -removed them using Bioderma Sensibio H2O Crealine Cleanser

Winners: All good except for K-Palette

Worst Performance: K-Palette: it definitely wears like a tattoo

Prices:

MAC: >$30 in Australia (cannot remember the exact price)

The rest of the brands: <$15

I know we are all looking for different qualities from an eyeliner. I hope this post would help if you are interested in any of these brands. After years of experimenting I really think there is no point of spending more than $15 on a liquid eyeliner. The drugstore brands, especially the Japanese ones are just as good. As for me, hands down, I would repurchase Dolly Wink and Majolica over and over. They are the best!

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Labels: Dollywink • EYELINER • KOJI • MAC • MAJOLICA

Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof Eyeliner – Rose Platine

June 7, 2011

Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof Eyeliner in Rose Platine has been featured in many beauty blogs so far. It is definitely one of the must have items from the Chanel Summer 2011 Collection. A taupe eyeliner is just hard to come by – not many brands have a taupe eyeliner in their permanent collections. I am a big fan of this color so I bought this one without even checking out the tester.

Now you have seen the closeups and the swatch, here is my thought after using it for about a week.

Texture: It is not eye khol hence don’t expect this liner to be as buttery soft as your eye khol pencils. Nor it is hard. To get a decent color payoff as shown in the swatch above I need to swipe it 2 to 3 times.

Lasting power: Amazing in this department. It literally lasts on me for the whole day considering I have quite oily eyelids.

Usage: I won’t use this eyeliner to define my upper lash line. It just won’t do anything for my eyes – the shimmery silver taupe will make my eyes look more puffy than more awake. I need a liquid eyeliner for that.. On the other hand, I like to use it along my lower lash line as a highlighter – a good alternative for the usual white eyeliners. It creates a soft shimmery effect without looking too harsh. I used this eyeliner in the FOTD I did yesterday. Here is a close up shot of my eyes:

The only drawback is that it looks more silvery rather than taupey when it is applied against my dark brown eyes. The brown eyeshadow shades I used as well as my eye color bring out more of the silver tone – which is quite a disappointment to me.

I went through my stash and couldn’t find a close dupe of it. But I have found some of my favorite liners that serve the same purpose (but not the same color) as the Chanel, for a soft shimmery effect on the lower lash line.

From Left to Right

Korres Soft Eyeliner in 6S: yellow gold

Guerlain Crayon in Cupidon – My second top pick: a pinkish champagne

MAC Eye Kohl in I Get No Kick – My top pick: a champagne beige

Chanel Rose Platine

The Chanel Stylo Yeux Eyeliner retails for $44 in Australia. I like this product but my hunt for the perfect taupe eyeliner continues.

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Labels: CHANEL • EYELINER • GUERLAIN • KORRES • MAC

BECCA Lost Weekend Eyeshadow Palette FOTD

June 6, 2011

I have previously reviewed The Becca Lost Weekend Eyeshadow Palette and as I promised – I just did a FOTD with it. This makeup was focused on conturing – Becca Lost Weekend Eyeshadow palette was used to contour the eyes and all along the side of the nose. I also thickened and extended my eyebrows on both ends so they connect to the contours on the side of my nose bridge . On my face, lots of bronzing shades were used to contour the cheeks. Lip color was tossing between a berry or a nude shade – in the end I opted for a glossy nude shade.

This is the final look:

A quick rundown on the products I used.

FACE PRODUCTS:

Dior Extreme Fit Foundation: I will be doing a review for this foundation this week. Overall it is a natural looking foundation with decent coverage that hides all my freckles!

MAC Bronzing Powder: applied the brown shade down the side of my cheeks to the jawlines.

Nars Blush in Madly: was applied along the hollow of the cheeks to the temples.

Guerlain Meteorites in Beige Chic: started from my cheekbones to the temples.

EYE PRODUCTS:

Bobbi Brown Long Wear Cream Eyeshadow in Suede: was used as a base color all over the eye socket area to make the colors that were applied later pop out more.

Becca Lost Weekend Eyeshadow Palette: layered the shimmery mauvy shades with the matte mauvey shade all over the eyelids up to the sides of my upper nose bridge. The medium brown shade was then applied from the outer edge of the eyelid and blended into the crease, creating a v shape.

Majolica Perfect Automatic Liner: for upper lash line

Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof Eyeliner in Rose Platine: was all along the lower lash line, intensified at the tear duct areas.

Lancome Le Crayon Khol in Brown: used to darken the outer edge of the lower lash line.

Laura Mercier Eyebrow Powders

False Eyelashes: Princess Lee Criss Cross in 7. (picture of it can be found in my previous FOTD)