Bon Vivant Beauty: G'old McDonald and In the Taupe Ten Stylo Eyeshadow Pens by Catrice

I recently picked up two more of the Catrice Stylo Eyeshadow Pens ($5.99) when Ulta was having a sale, after having loved Brown to Earth so much. G'old McDonald is a light gold shimmer that performs nicely as an all over lid color or as a highlight on it's own or over other shadows. I'm a fan.

It's lighter than Julep's Warm Gold Shimmer Eyeshadow 101 pen, which has more of an apricot tone to it. I don't think I have any dupes for G'old McDonald in pencil format.

Julep's Warm Gold Shimmer

In the Taupe Ten reads more gunmetal gray than taupe to me, and the formula was a bit problematic. Initially I thought the bunching up you see below might be because the pen was sitting in the heat while I was taking pictures, but it still applied rather patchy on my eye when it was at room temperature.

All is not lost, however, as it works well as a base shade with powder eyeshadows on top. I'm wearing a new favorite, Estee Lauder's Fierce Safari, over In the Taupe Ten below, and all evidence of patchiness is gone.

This is such an easy dark/smoky eye look, and I even got compliments on it, so In the Taupe Ten redeemed itself in the end.

I do have a close dupe to In the Taupe Ten, Julep's Gunmetal Shimmer Eyeshadow 101 pen, which has a much better formula, albeit also a higher price ($18).

Julep's Gunmetal

Brown to Earth is still my favorite of the Catrice Stylo Eyeshadow pens, as both the color and the formula are fantastic. Here I'm wearing Brown to Earth with Fierce Safari, and I love the metallic smokiness that resulted.

In other less happy news, my Westie Lulu passed away on Thursday. She was almost 15 years old, and we had a wonderful life together. I miss her terribly.