Smoky Eye 3 Minute Beauty Set by Estee Lauder

Smoky eyes and me, well, I've yet to really figure that one out. I still try and all, but my narrow eyes and fair coloring just seem to be at odds with the whole smoky eye thing. However, I'm in love with Estee Lauder's Little Black Primer and am collecting them like crazy, so this set appealed to me on several levels.

You get a black patent carrying case with a nice double sided mirror, Sumptuous Infinite mascara (deluxe travel size), Little Black Primer (deluxe travel size), and Magic Smoky shadow pencil in Burnt Black for $32.50.

I've been using the Little Black Primer for over a month now and it will be a staple going forward. It definitely adds "oomph" to my less than obvious lashes, plus it makes any (ANY) mascara I pair it with smudge proof. That's a godsend to my lower lash line in particular, as my oily skin tends to make most mascaras smudge. An added bonus is that it wipes easily off my skin, yet once it's on the lashes, it doesn't budge. I do find my mascara harder to remove in the evenings, as this makes mascaras waterproof whether you wear it under or over lashes, in my experience.

The Sumptuous Infinite mascara is both a lengthening and volumizing mascara with stretchable fibers that fuse with the lashes as the mascara dries.  I would not have guessed fibers were in the formula, as it seems like any wet mascara formula when I apply.  I do like the brush, as I find smaller brush heads easier to maneuver on my small eyes.  Sumptuous Infinite mascara is supposed to be clump-resistent, flakeproof, smudgeproof, and sweat and humidity resistant.  I've only worn it paired with the Little Black Primer, and I'd say it's meeting it wear claims quite well in the swamp like climate of Mobile, AL.

The Magic Smoky shadow pencil in Burnt Black is a soft, hazy looking black that is easy to apply and smudge out.  Building up to opaque black is not really going to happen unless you wear a dark base underneath, but I do like the precision that the pencil gives when applying along the lash lines.  Plus, it's easy to buff out edges with a brush, so there is a fair amount of flexibility with this type of pencil shadow formula.  Intensity of color is not how these work, though, so think "smoke" instead.

I opted to wear black, smoky eyes on November 1 and 2, which are the days when The Day of the Dead is typically celebrated. I guess I needed a reason, as I'm a bit shy about wearing intense makeup looks to work :-)  The first day I wore the pencil without a dark base underneath and wasn't quite happy with the result, although it was definitely more work appropriate than when I went all balls out on day 2.

I primarily used Estee Lauder products both days, including the Double Wear Lite foundation in 2.0 mixed with Bronze Goddess Summer Glow Illuminator in equal parts. The color palette for day 1 and full FOTD:

The second day I used Milani's Shadow Eyez pencil in Black Ink as a base for Burnt Black, with two Pur Cosmetics matte shadows in BFF and Adore to blend out the crease.  I lined my upper and lower lash lines with Urban Decay's Perversion 24/7 pencil, which was an exercise in futility. Nothing stays on my water lines more than 10 minutes.

I was a little scared to leave the house once I was finished, but figured what the heck, I'm observing the Day of the Dead, after all. I really do love the whole concept of remembering loved ones who are no longer with us, and hope someone leaves out chocolate, flowers, and liquor for me once I'm gone.

Necklace I picked up in Albuquerque, NM

Clinique Skinny Meets Chubby Set: Review and Swatches

Disclaimer:  I purchased this.

I picked up the Clinique Skinny Meets Chubby gift set ($27.50) back in November, as it seemed like a good way to try two of Clinique's eye products that were new to me: the Skinny Tints eye liners and the Chubby Shadow Tints. Mine arrived with two of the bullets loose (hence the damage you see above), but it was easy enough to fix so I did not return them. The set does give you a bit of savings as it's worth $45, and it's still available at Nordstrom, which is also having a Clinque GWP offer at the moment.

The set contains:

• Bountiful Beige Chubby Stick (0.04 oz.)
• Skinny Jeans Skinny Stick (0.001 oz.)
• Lavish Lilac Chubby Stick (0.04 oz.)
• Petite Plum Skinny Stick (0.001 oz.)
• Ample Amber Chubby Stick (0.04 oz.)
• Slim Sable Skinny Stick (0.001 oz.)

The Chubby Sticks are super easy to use for a one and done lid color and once they set I got a good 8 hours of wear on my oily lids (over primer, always). They are not what I would call impactful colors, as the shades are soft but do have a nice luminosity on the lid. I like 'em for an easy day look.

The Skinny Sticks leave me a bit ambivalent, as I was hoping they would be good waterline liners. I can get maybe 2 hours of wear on the water line but they seem to fade pretty quickly. I would not call these soft liners either, as it takes a bit of pressure to lay down color. I did not have any migration or smudging issues when worn on the upper lids, so there's that.

Ample Amber + Skinny Jeans

Bountiful Beige + Petite Plum

Lavish Lilac + Petite Plum

Overall I'd say I like the Chubby Sticks more than the Skinny, and I'll be reaching for the Chubsters again.

Rose Gold Caviar Stick Eye Colour by Laura Mercier

I've wanted to try one of Laura Mercier's Caviar Sticks for the longest, having heard such good things about them.  The travel sized Rose Gold was part of the Flawless Eyes set exclusive to Saks (review of eye shadow palette here), and it's a beauty.

This is the kind of color that I love for an all over base shade on it's own, or as an inner eye and lower lash line brightener.  The formula is so easy to work with, as the color lays down smoothly and wears well on my oily lids for a good eight hours over primer.

I did a comparison with Vasanti's Rose Gold eyeliner pencil. Urban Decay's 24/7 Shadow Pencil in Sin (discontinued), Rimmel's ScandalEYES in Bulletproof Beige, and Tarte's SmoulderEyes in Champagne (LE).  No exact dupes to speak of, and all of these are good performers.  I'd say the Caviar Stick fomula is one of the easier ones to use an an all over eye shade.

At $28, these are on the higher end of the spectrum, but I'll be keeping my eye out for any future sets of the Caviar Sticks.  Very nice.

Atomic Nucleaire Smoky Shadow Stick by Revlon

The Smoky Shadow Sticks by Revlon were all marked 75% off at my Rite Aid, so I picked Atomic Nucleaire to try out.  Some things are totally impulse purchases, especially when they are deeply discounted, as the risk is minimal.  I've also occasionally discovered some items I really like!  Was Atomic Nucleaire one of them?

Yes, I think so!  These dual ended shadow sticks are supposed to be smudge, fade, and crease proof for up to 12 hours, plus give you an easy way to create a smoky eye.  Smoky eye looks are not my forte, but I can say that I found both shades easy to apply and smudge out with a stiff brush, and they wore well. 

The lighter shade base shade has a rounded end and is a golden apricot shimmer.  The darker loden green side has a more defined tip that allows for lining, but it also as a wider flat side that made it easy to fill in color.  Both colors are really lovely and are shades I enjoy combining together.

These start off as more of a sheer wash of color, although intensity can be built up.  As I like combining cream and powder shadows, I used the pencil as base shades and then did a very light dusting of powder shadows on top, using Solar and Levity from the Le Métier de Beauté shadow kaleidoscope Gravité. 

I'm not sure if these are being discontinued, although the deep discount may be an indication that they are.  The Smoky Shadow Sticks are regularly $8.99 and have five different color variations. At 75% off they are $2.25, so you might want to pick one up at that price :-)

stila Smudge Crayons in Smoke, Umber and Black

These mini smudge crayons by stila were part of a recent Ulta gift with purchase that I took advantage of.  I'm a big fan of stila's smudge stick eyeliners, so thought this would be a good opportunity to see what the thicker crayons are like.

Black, Umber, Smoke

 Available in 8 colors, these are a gel-based eye primer, shadow and liner all in one.  They are supposed to be waterproof, long-wearing, and crease resistant.  However, stila also notes that they wear for 6+ hours, which is the first hint that perhaps long wearing may a bit subjective.  

They are indeed easy to apply. but I did not find them as smooth or opaque as I would prefer.  You have a short amount of time in which to blend before they set, and once they do, they are resistant to smudging.  I do find that stick shadows are rarely as smooth on my lids as cream shadows in a pot.  This could be because my lids are not as smooth as they once were, but I'm finding pencil shadows work bettter as liners for me as opposed to all over color.

I did use these as a base shadow for this look, and it turned out pretty well.  However, I did have major fading and creasing after 8 hours, even worn over primer and with powder shadows on top.  So, I did not find these to hold up as well as other pencil based shadows that I have.  For that reason and because of their $22 price, I would not invest in more unless the formula was improved. 

Milani Naturally Chic Shadow Eyez

Disclaimer:  I purchased these.

I looked everywhere in Mobile for the Milani Naturally Chic Shadow Eyez pencils, to no avail.  I read on another blog that Cherry Culture had them, but when I checked, they were sold out.  I resisted getting them from Milani online, as I didn't want to pay their shipping.  Fortunately, Cherry Culture had a sale a few weeks back, and to my surprise, the Shadow Eyez pencils were back in stock and on sale for 10% off, which covered the shipping costs, so I got all of them!  Was it worth all of this?

Sadly, I'm going to say not so much.  Or perhaps kind of, sort of?  All of the colors swatch beautifully on my arm.  However, my lids are another matter, as they are looser and getting a bit crepey (sigh, it happens).  You can use a brush to smooth out the shadow before it sets, but this also seems to contribute to  the shadows becoming muddy and/or patchy.  Applying a thicker layer and then blending with my finger seemed to work a bit better.  I guess there was more of a learning curve with figuring out how to work these to their best advantage!

Almond Cream (matte)

Sand Dunes (shimmer)

Cafe Au Lait (matte)

Golden Bronze (shimmer)

Espresso (matte)

Ink (matte)

The colors I was most excited about were the mattes Almond Creme and Cafe Au Lait, as I thought they would make great bases for powder shadows.  However, I'm finding that they do not apply as smoothly as I would like to my lids and end up looking a bit patchy or muddy.  Here is how Almond Creme and Cafe Au Lait looked when blended out with a brush.  Scary, I know. 

The colors I almost ended up passing on were the sparkly Sand Dunes and Golden Bronze, and they are my surprise favorites!  They make great highlighters over other shadows and apply easily, so I can see using these often.  The two I was most neutral about, Espresso and Black Ink, will work as liners, but the thickness of the tips make them not as well suited for that as many other pencils I already have.  So those two are a bit of a wash, I fear, although I  do want to try the black with Maybelline's Waves of White on top.  It was hot out when I was taking pictures and I messed up Black Ink when I took the cap off, which was stuck.

I've seen plenty of good reviews on these, so it's possible that the mattes are just not a good shadow base option for my lids.  Wear time over Urban Decay's eye primer was about 7-8 hours before I could see the shadows starting to fade and disintegrate, which is about average for me.  I've got other cream shadow bases I like and that wear better, such as Maybelline's Color Tattoo's.  So my bottom line is that Sand Dunes and Golden Bronze were worth it, but not the others.  

Cherry Culture still have these in stock for $6.99 each, if anyone is interested.