Hello Chanel...: Les Beiges Hydrating Lip Balm + Long-lasting Eyeliner 916 Perle de Lune swatches and review

I finally cracked... all the reading of bloggers that love Chanel have led me to make a couple of purchases as my first foray into this line. I tried not to expect too much, but I did, and I was thoroughly impressed with one, and half let down by the other. 

The first purchase was a tinted lip balm. Of course I started with that, it's my favorite type of lippie! First all, the packaging did not disappoint...it looks like it'd feel like the cheap black plastic that some other high-end lippies come in, but nope, it's not. It's hefty and weighty and feels luxurious to hold. The design is also simple and elegant. I love it!

Unfortunately it went downhill from here...

with direct flash - Chanel lip balm on the left, next to YSL candy balm in Tangerine on the right

Let's talk about the formula first. The formula really wasn't bad. It's not one of those heavy sticky/thick balms, it's rather light and weightless. It does moisturize my lips, however not greatly so. 

bounced flash

Ok onto where I became disappointed...the shade...on my arm it actually doesn't show up much at all, so I thought, well worst come to worst it's like a non-tinted lip balm...I wish that were actually the case, as actually this shade does layer up on my lips, and layers up to a very sickly shade on me. I feel like this shade will suit middle-aged pale caucasian ladies perhaps, but not me...It's so disturbing I didn't want to take a lip swatch photo. I am actually really sad about this, as the packaging I adore, the formula is definitely good enough, but oh why couldn't they come out with a more red/berry shade :( 

Alright, now onto happier things. The Perle de Lune waterproof stylo... I have been wearing this non-stop and it is such a cool and interesting shade! It also smudges only minimally on my lower lid by the end of night, which happens with the best of my eyeliners so I'm fine with that. It's a soft formula that doesn't tug on my lids and sets fairly quickly.

It's a twist up style and comes with a sharpener too, though I've not had to use it as I find it wears down fine enough, as with this shade I don't feel the need to draw a super thin line. 

I guess I would describe this shade as a pearly warm taupey-silver, with complex shimmer. It's super brightening and natural at the same time when used alone. You can also use this above your black eyeliner to amp up the look and add some some extra oomph to your liner. 

This has been my go-to eye look recently. It defines my eyes, yet doesn't scream "hello I'm wearing eyeliner!" Love love love it!

 

Overall, I'm impressed by Chanel. I've never seen an eyeliner quite like this, and am so glad to have this in my collection. As for the lip balm, I'm impressed by the packaging, enough that I will go seek out another lippie, probably in the actual lipstick line so I can get a shade that suits me.  

Chanel fans, please let me know your recommendations for lippie shades or what other Chanel product I should try out next? Thanks in advance!

Marc Jacobs Highliner Gel Crayon #54 (Brown with shimmer) review and swatches

one swipe

I don't have a lot of high-end liners, so was excited to see this in Sephora's 100pts perks. It did not disappoint! Brown is brown, easy to use and natural, but THIS brown is special with it's shimmer.

It glides on fairly easily, with a bit of tugging but is a well-pigmented line in 1-2 swipes on my lids. It stays all day, and I only experienced a small amount of smudging on my lower lids at the end of the night. For me that is pretty good as a lot of liners smudge a lot or very quickly on me. Perhaps one day I will find a HG liner that doesn't do this... (I thought I found this with the Julep gel liner but it dried out so quickly that it was HG for only 3 uses...can't have a HG product that only lasts 3 uses...)

Here's a bare-eye swatch with only a bit of mascara. If you draw a very thin line right on the lashline, it gives the most natural yet a barely-there "lit" look due to the shimmers.

I've loving it!

Sephora Color-Proof Eyeliner in Matte Brown vs Benefit They're Real Waterproof Eye Makeup Remover

So I was testing out a new liner, and thought, "hey... why not test out that new remover too"!

The liner is a matte dark brown as the name would suggest. The eye swatch is one dip of the liner tip.




As you can see, the line is not great with one dip. With two dips however it makes a nice opaque line.


As with any other Sephora eyeliner, the tip is soft and comes to a nice point that allows you to make a sharp line and wing. See my other Sephora liner review to see a photo of the tip. 

 Now onto the remover 8-9 hrs later... As you can see, it's a thick/cream consistency.





Despite the thick consistency, the directions said to put it on a cotton pad like you would any liquid remover, and go at your eye as per usual. I hadsome concealer and neutral eyeshadow and blue mascara as well for removal.  From previous experience I knew the eyeliner would flake and be the most difficult to get off even with my beloved Lancome Bi-facil.

The result is the cotton pad on the right after one-go. The  process felt odd as the cream remover didn't absorb into the cotton as a liquid would, so it felt strange smearing a cream over my eye. Also not enough came off with the first go... this definitely is not comparable to Lancome's infamous Bi-facil remover, which removes any and all eye makeup in one cotton-pad-shot. Benefit got off maybe 60-70% of the stuff and with more wiping. 

What's worse than needing a second-go, is that it STUNG my eyes like mad and made my vision blurry for a good hour or so. Especially with removing mascara and eyeliner/tightliner, it's inevitable to get some of remover in the eye despite how careful I am. With Bi-facil, there is no stinging and only mild blurriness for a few seconds. The Benefit remover however made me seriously worry about my eyeball!

That said, when I went on to my second eye, I realized the Benefit remover is actually really awesome on a Q-tip, and can remove makeup in a very precise manner (yay for cleaning eyeshadow or eyeliner mistakes!). I was able to clean the eyeliner down to a neat thin line without trouble and no stinging (since I didn't get it in my eye that time). 


Conclusion:
1) the liner is good, color is a non-exciting matte brown which is good for more natural looks, just be aware of flaking when removing which is annoying. It is waterproof and non-smudgeable throughout the day as advertised which is great in the summer.

2) the remover one needs to be careful with... beware and only use it on a Q-tip to remove PRECISE areas. It's really good for this as the thick cream doesn't run like a liquid might off the Q-tip, and therefore won't remove more than you wanted. However, I do NOT recommend using this on a cotton pad for overall removal of the whole eye makeup or suffer the stinging and blurry vision!

Have you tried either of these products? Let me know what you thought of them!

Benefit They're Real! Push-Up Liner

This new eyeliner from Benefit has been getting tons of positive reviews and press recently, and I finally got my hands on one from a sample deal on Sephora. Unfortunately, it really did not work out for me... see bare eye swatches below (eye liner on bare eye with no other products), if anyone has any tips for me on how to make this work for me please let me know!

This eyeliner has quite a unique slanted silicone tip. The shape is great for making a wing, and the tip does feel soft on the skin.

After loading the pen and wiping that part off, I made one click and drew a few lines. At this point I was getting hopefully as it looks like it can make thin and very pigmented matte black lines.

And yes, waterproof and smudgeproof as heck. Above photo was taken after using a makeup wipe, bioderma sensibio, and then oil-based makeup cleanser in that order. Really held up!  The only thing that gets this off in my kit is the Lancome Bi-Facil eye makeup remover.

Ok so now onto bare eye swatches...where my excitement became let down...

This is with one click, on one eye. Very uneven, limited pigmentation
(no flash)

I'm thinking it's a technique issue, so here's hoping with the other eye... and here's my other eye, with another click. Mildly better but not great.
(photo with bounced flash)

I added another click, and although it got thicker and more pigmented, the line came out real patchy and just...gunky (sorry for lack of better vocabulary).

From far away, it doesn't look overly bad, but get close at all and you'd be able to see the evenness and ugh...  (note: if I were to actually use this in a look I'd tightline as well, doesn't look great to have flesh tones showing through the liner).


This liner has gotten such rave reviews though and I've seen such great looks of it online, what am I doing wrong?! Sigh...

Have you tried this new liner? Let me know how it worked for you and also how you made it work!

Sephora Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner Review - Purple Glitter

Ever felt like stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something crazy?! Ok this is not that crazy... but given my usual natural/classic makeup style, purple glitter eyeliner is totally out of my comfort zone. What triggered it...a sale of course! This was $7 on Sephora... Read on to see swatches (including eye swatches) and my full review on this product!

Too Faced 3-Way Eye Liner Review

This is actually more of an "empties" review since I've had this about a year now and it's dried up! This liner was considered very "innovative" when it first came out as it's unique, as you see, it's got a 3-pronged tip and was advertised to be great for tightlining (lining the base of the lashes). It recommends you wiggle the tip between the lashes and dot the skin right at the root.

First off, the formula. It's quite smudgeproof once set when swatched. Unfortunately my oily lids outdid themselves and managed to smudge this by end of the day when I wear it. If you don't have oily lids though, this is gonna be as smudgeproof for you as it gets without going into a waterproof formula.

The color as you can see is black with a slight sheen. It's not the most black I've ever used, but black enough.

Finally, the 3-prong idea...sounded great in theory...but in reality when I used it to "dot" in between my lashes, I looked very odd...like there were black dots drawn on my ash line...unnatural black dots that did not translate to thicker lashes.  So I ended up using this like any old pen liner. For that it did the job! Though so would have a regular pen liner...

Overall, now that I'm done with this...I will not repurchase.

Have you tried this? What did you think?

Face Atelier Cake Eye Liner and Transforming Gel Review

I've forever on the look out for the perfect eyeliner since my lids smudge easily, and recently I came upon these cake liners by Face Atelier. 

These might look like eyeshadows but are formulated quite differently.  For example, FA eyeshadows have these base ingredients: MICA, ISOEICOSANE, POLYISOBUTENE, IMIDAZOLIDINYL UREA

Cake liner however, has these base ingredients: TALC, IRON OXIDES, PEG-SM, LAURETH-4, SORBITAN SESQUIOLEATE, CALCIUM SILICATE, ISOPROPYL PALMITATE, LANOLIN OIL, PHENOXYETHANOL, METHYLPARABEN, PROPULPARABEN

They're certainly not meant to be used as eyeshadow (and will not blend properly like an eyeshadow), but rather are made to be activated by a liquid (usually an "activator" the same company makes; some will say water can be used but I recommend sticking with the official "activator" due to ingredients that will help with stability of the product on the skin). 

Face Atelier makes this "activator" called Transforming Gel. It makes these cake liners into an opaque liquid which can then be applied with the brush of your choice (I prefer push liners but any eye liner brush will do). This particular product can also be used to make any glitter/shimmer powders into a paste that can be applied as eyeshadow, or one can use it to transform an eyeshadow into a liquid brow product. 

Transforming gel ingredients: WATER, GLYCERIN, GLYCERYL POLYACRYLATE, CUCUMIS SATIVUS (CUCUMBER) FRUIT EXTRACT, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, SODIUM HYALURONATE, AESCULUS HIPPOCAST-ANUM (HORSE CHESTNUT) EXTRACT, DIAZOLIDINYL UREA, PANTHENOL, TETRASODIUM EDTA, IODOPROPYNYL BUTYLCARBAM

(*see, not just water right...)

So how does the transforming gel + cake liner combo actually perform...

The paste comes out looking like something between a liquid and gel liner. It lasts all day without fading. Unfortunately I do get a bit of smudging on my lower lid after a few hours if I tightline, but it's only a small amount. I'm ok with this as I've tried many much worse liners that smudge horribly (=> panda eyes). So this small amount I can deal with (just gotta remember to check the mirror after a few hours into my day).

The best thing about the cake liner though, is I will never have to concern myself with expiry dates/bacteria growth like with liquid liners, nor with the product drying out like with gel liners. It dries back down to the hard pan product after use and bacteria does not grow on these hard surfaces.

Overall, it has not hit HG status but is one of the better eyeliners I've used. It is certainly kit worthy (personal or work) for ease of use, sanitation, and long-lasting-ness!  (it's Friday, the day to make up new words...)

Have you tried any cake liners before? Which are your favorite? Share with me in the comments I'd love to try them out.

*Disclosure: none, I have no affiliation with this company and I bought these products myself.

Battle of Blue Kohl Pencils: Sephora vs Lancome

When Lancome launched their Spring collection this year, there was a lot of hype about the Kohl in Love pencils. I bought the blue version called "deepwater blue" as it seemed to be the most wearable for day to day, and it has come to replace my previous loved blue kohl liner from Sephora.  Click the jump for swatches and more detailed comparison!