Nars Hollywoodland / Goddess Soft Touch Shadow Pencil reviews/ swatches (eyeshadow liner)

Nars soft touch shadow pencils are chubby cream eyeshadow pencils with a Nars signature (i.e. disintegrates quickly and attracts a lot of dust) plastic cap. You need a thick sharpener for these as a usual eyeliner sharpener would be too small for it.

Top is hollywood land and bottom is Goddess. The colors match the end of the eyeliner pencils.

Top (or left) is Hollywoodland and Bottom (or right) is Goddess.

Goddess on left two, and Hollywoodland on right two swatches.

Goddess is a peachy pink shimmer, while hollywoodland is a more champagne gold shimmer. I liked goddess much better since it's a softer looking color and hollywoodland is a bit too yellow even for my Asian skintone.

Without flash:

Blended out:

Honestly these look far prettier on smooth skin than on my eyes- any minor skin creases make these look creased as well and the shimmers can look uneven or a bit chunky. I didn't really intend to use them as an upper lid eyeshadow or liner, but rather as a lower lashline highlight or liner for that dewy eyed look. 

Unfortunately I think the textures are just not refined enough to give a totally natural look and any skin lines or creases will make the shades look stark and uneven.

As a cream eyeshadow for upper eyes, it still will accentuate any skin lines you didn't think you had- even with eyeshadow primers like urban decay.  The textures are just a bit too 'thick' to be blended out evenly on eyelids.

Really wanted to love these, but for the price they just don't perform up to expectation. Rating 2/5.

Chanel Ligne Extreme Liquid Eye Lines eyeliner 307 OR (gold) review/ swatch

Every year it seems Chanel goes back to doing a slightly gold themed collection (same with a neutral / earth toned collection). For 2011 Christmas again, it was the ligne extreme eyeliner liquid in shade number 307 "OR", (which means gold).

It comes in a standard elongaged box packaging about similar size to the twist-up eyeliners.

There's a very elongated handle on the narrow side, the actual liquid eyeliner is on the thicker end only. Essentially most of the actual tube is just the handle.

Here it is - comes in quite a small, fine brush tipped bristle. The bristle is not hard, on the slightly softer side. The brush seems to hold up reasonably well and doesn't splay. You can see despite the length of the handle, the actual  brush section is quite short.

Here are a few swatches , on the top I smudged it out, in the middle less so, then on the bottom is a full application which had a bit of product on it.

The shade is as the name suggest- gold- it looks like 24 carat gold color (not as pale as 18k gold, so it's more 'yellow' gold). It is not like bronze or orange or brown, just simply liquid gold. The shimmer factor is more obvious in real life. 

Unfortunately it's a really hard shade to wear- it doesn't really work blended out to be a liquid eyeshadow, yet it's too dark a gold to be worn as an under-eye liner or in the inner rim for highlight, best worn I thought was using a black pencil eyeliner to lightly line the top eye, then apply the liquid gold liner over it. If you want to apply any eyeshadow , this shade will need to be touched up as once you press an eyeshadow over it, it loses that liquid gold lustre.

It stays on reasonably well and doesn't seem to "flake" off like a lot of colored liquid eyeliners do.

Overall I wish it was a more wearable gold like a champagne gold, but it serves its purpose and would look nice if you really had a lot of time to do a proper eye make up. I cannot think of any dupes in other brands  (not sure of MAC) but at least of any Japanese brands I can think of.

Rating is 4/5. It does take a few seconds to dry, otherwise it could smudge.

De Javu Lasting-fine liner Dark Brown swatch/ review

De javu  is more famous for their Fiberwig mascara which is still a staple of mine.  Gradually they released more items. This one is their eyeliner in 1mm thickness and apparently, 24 hrs water and oil resistance.

It comes in 3 colors, Deep Black, Real Black, and Dark Brown. (Deep black being darker than real black).

I'm reviewing Dark Brown.

It comes sealed in plastic container (bulky- I didn't keep or photo), in a cardboard background and the liner in the middle.

It's a rather slim liner , fits into my makeup bag easily (not too long)

Up close- I would say it's not shiny, but not entirely flat/ matte either. I twisted it up a little bit extra than I normally would (it is retractable so don't worry if you twisted out too much, just twist it back).

Here's bare eye- the little dot is a freckle..

Now with eyeliner very tightline- you can see it adds a tightline effect quite well and looks quite thin if you want it to be. I layered it a few times so it does come out rather dark.

Here's the swatch: the top bit with 2 lines, the bottom is when I smear it out as soon as it is applied. The shade is a nice deep brown, it's neutral/ dark bitter chocolate brown, not much red tone. However looks soft enough on the eye compared to black liners, while dark enough to be able to add enough depth.

For a twist up eyeliner that doesn't require sharpening , 1mm thickness is actually quite decent. I wouldn't twist it up too much when applying as it is possible to snap the lead inside. However it seems sturdy enough so far. I can actually wiggle it deep enough against my lashline to tightline, however it doesn't quite apply onto the "pink" section of the waterline if you are wondering. The texture just isn't built for it. That being said, as a normal eyeliner close to the lashline it is quite terrific.

While it lends itself to be smudged when freshly applied, it doesn't budge at all after about 10 seconds once it sets. I've tried to rinse with water and it doesn't come off at all!. I haven't had much issue with smearing after a full day wear either. It is truly water and oil resistant.  While it's not a super fine line, it is actually still finer than other eyeliners I can think of , most conventional pencil liners that require sharpening.

I think the finish almost reminds me of a gel-eyeliner, with the dense and rich color.

Overall 5/5.

It retails for probably under 10USD in Japanese drugstores, not expensive at all.

Estee Lauder Artists Eye Pencil Kohl #15 Opalescence review/ swatch

Estee Lauder eyeliners Arists Eye Pencils feature an array of different shades from normal blacks to browns to a few more interesting ones. I got #15 Opalescence - which is a very misleading name. It's really a plummy brown bronze, it's not just plum or just bronze but an interesting mix of both.

Comes in dual ended, 1 side is the liner and the other side is just a generic blending sponge tip.

Here it is close up- isn't it pretty! It's actually not too red toned or anything, which makes it a wearable shade of variation of plums.

Swatch: on the very right I tried to blend it out:

It's definitely an interesting twist of brown eyeliner I usually go for- it has a soft nice shimmer but doesn't have visible glitters, instead it just leaves a nice sheen.

As for wearability, wow this is a lot more long lasting than I expected. Once it sort of sets after application, it's actually quite hard to remove. I still get a bit of wear towards the end of the day just because my lids are oily at times. However, just normal water will not make this budge.

Overall 4/5. Wish the pencil could do finer lines, but this is a good color as an outter top liner, there's enough color to make it visible, and it's dark enough to provide enough depth as a liner on its own as well.

Shu Uemura Shimmer Eye liner 01 black review/ swatch

Shu Uemura shimmer eye liner was released in 2009 I think. They don't seem to be part of the permanent line.

I got the shade in #01 Black.

It's a twist pen mechanism which will release more liner liquid when you twist the end. It is in a brush bristle tip which is somewhat firm. But the end is quite fine.

Here it is on the skin. Personally there's barely any shimmer so it's just a plain black eyeliner liquid with very few flecks of fine shimmers.

Compared to Kanebo Kate's ultra fine eyeliner below (the tube for kate is a bit battered from my handbag! lol).  The top one is Shu and bottom is kate.

Personally I tend to tightline and only need an ultra fine line, I do like lining on the top too but for both jobs, Kanebo Kate eyeliner does a much better job. I find the Shu Uemura liner just not quite black enough and hard to control the width of the eyeline on application.

Overall 3/5. Might work better for those who do a more obvious line, but I don't find it oustanding in terms of color, application or longlasting. It will smudge a bit by end of the day.



Sonia Rykiel Crayon Yeux WP (Eyeliner Pencil WP) #06

Sonia Rykiel is definitely one of those brands that gets very little review online, probably because it is relatively hard to obtain as it is sold mostly in Japan.  It is sold in Taiwan as well (but there are quite few counters that sells it in department stores).

This was early 2010 color I believe, not sure if it's limited edition. I'm reviewing this because of the unique color. Most of my eyeliners I favor either liquid eyeliners in black (so I can tightline), or various taupes and chocolate browns.

I don't have too many mid-tone colored eyeliners because I suppose they are not dark enough to show through in color. However they are excellent to use as eyeliner once you have tightlined using a black liquidliner, then use some mind-toned eyeliner colors to line again, then blend out with othe eyeshadows.

This is a very complex color, difficult to describe. It's a bit purple, a bit plum and a bit brown, with nice jewel toned shimmers that does not show up as glitters. It wears smoothly, relatively waterproof ( but most eyeliners smudge on me after 5 to 6 hours anyway).

Comes in the standard Sonia Rykiel packaging- even the eylienr pencil itself features the signature striped color. Makes it very easy to find amonst other eyeliners in my brush holder.

Ingredients are in the back...in Japanese mostly.

Here's the swatch on the skin.

An extra little heart swatch below =)

Overall rating 4 out of 5.
It's smooth, non-tugging, applies color easily. I cannot fault it for not being dark enough  (as it is not meant to be). Interesting color choices for sure.

MAC Undercurrent Pearlglide Intense Eyeliner

MAC Pearlglide eyeliners are shimmering eyeliners with a medium tip, it's hard to do a fine line with these, but they are richly pigmented and shimmery, which is refreshing as a lot of so called shimmery eyeliners often barely shows any shimmers once on the eye.

Undercurrent is a rich forest green with shimmers, very gorgeous. The pearlglide eyeliners apply without much tugging, I do find depending on the weather they can sometimes be a bit soft and crumbs on my eyelashes, which is a bit hard to clean and affects my mascara application.

Overall 4/5. Wish the consistency would lead to less crumbiliness.