It all started because I needed an eyelash curler (funny story, after my last few blog posts, where I mentioned that I needed one, I am now awash in eyelash curlers. More than I could ever possibly need. So thank you, those of you who felt compelled to make sure I have curly eyelashes well into old age. Your thoughtfulness is very appreciated!) and, because big brother is watching us, Facebook showed me an ad for an eyelash curler on the elf website. Click.
I found out that with my purchase of $25 (too easy) I would be the lucky recipient of the following free gift, one of their Baked Eye Shadow Palettes, along with a mascara and a liquid eyeliner. Sold! I have been wanting to try baked eye shadow for the LONGEST and decided I could also face down my fear of liquid eyeliner at the same time.
Before I got there though, I also purchased the Every Day Glow Set because I needed an eyelash curler, I'm obsessed with gold eyeshadow, and this one was also baked. Mostly the eyelash curler though.
** A bit of business, before I get back to my review. After my purchase, all of a sudden, everyone and their mother on social media was talking about the Mad For Matte 2 Eye Palette which I did not buy, sadly. I looked at it, and thought about it, but I was really in the mood for an eyelash curler, so I passed it up. Apparently, that was my mistake, because according to the interwebs, its just about the greatest palette in the history of makeup. So I am probably going to have to buy it, and then build a house for myself out of eye shadow, because if I bring one more into our existing house, there will be no room for me. The Deans are moving this year, hopefully sooner rather than later. We need more space, which I say is for our three growing kids, but is really for my growing collection of eye palettes. My name is Halley Dean, and I'm addicted to eye palettes. I've gotten way off track here, but the point is, if you are looking for an eye palette, this, apparently, is a great one. Sorry I'm not reviewing it here. I'll do better next time.**
So, of the items I purchased, and was free gift with purchased, some I loved, and some I did not. I have not actually tried quite all of them yet, but when I do, if there are any I have super strong feelings about, I will edit this post.
Here are the goodies when I took them out of the box:
The only thing I actually tried today from the Every Day Glow set was the eyeliner, which is that white pencil you see. It is described as a "brightening eyeliner pencil-black." I did not love. It was crumbly, and didn't go on smoothly at all. I only wear liner on my lower lash, in my water line, and unlike lipstick, where the quality is the same no matter the price point, the same cannot really be said of eyeliner pencils. In my experience, you get what you pay for with those. My particular favorite are the gel pencils, which have extra glide to them whilst still being a pencil. I hear the Cover Girl and Maybelline both make good gel eyeliner pencils, but since neither of those brands are cruelty free, I couldn't tell you myself. The Marc Jacobs Highliner will probably forever and always be my favorite, but while we're told less is more, when it comes to eyeliner pencils, really more is more. Its probably the only time you will ever hear me say that, but I have not really found any budget brand eyeliner pencils that I'm impressed with. If you have some, I'd love to hear about them. I can't show you the pictures yet, because we're still getting there, but suffice it to say that this pencil is meh. On a good day.
I did jump right in to the baked palette though, with excitement. For those unfamiliar, baked eyeshadow is meant to be applied wet. Like watercolors from kindergarten. Literally, I dipped my brushes in water, and then into the shadow. As examples, here are a few of the colors swatched wet and dry:
As you can see, it is nearly impossible to see the dry pigment. Its always funny to me when I read bad reviews of baked shadow and the reviewer is talking about not getting any color payout. There is a reason for that: user error. If ya don't know, now ya know!
Up close, the palette itself looks like this:
Pretty, right? The jury is out on whether people prefer palettes with or without a mirror. I like mirrors myself. They aren't deal breakers, but I was impressed that this had one. It is made in stiff, sturdy plastic, with a latch, very similar to the Morphe Palettes. This thing is really strong, and really hard to get open, which for me is GREAT considering the two year old makeup thief who lives with me and thinks all of this makeup actually belongs to her. In looking at this, its hard to believe that it only runs $10.00, because the packaging is really nice. They didn't skimp on it at all.
Here's what I learned: baked shadow is not easy to apply. I'm going to keep trying, and probably buy more baked shadow to find out if it is just this brand or not, but this stuff is hard to apply. It really does remind me of water colors. It really, really doesn't blend. Even cream eye shadows, which are a little more unwieldy than your basic powders blend, but this stuff really doesn't. When I apply eyeshadow, I typically do five colors: a base color, while I apply over the whole lid, a crease color, and then a second darker color in the crease for definition, a lower lid color, and a color on the inner corners. The idea is to make them all work together into something pretty fluid. The more days I do this, the more I feel like I get a smooth gradient on my crease color, which pulls everything together. There are no smooth gradients here. Not only will you be able to see every block of color, you will see that one eye is much darker than the other. Because we're all still learning here together at Red Lip Nation.
But I still cannot show you the pictures. Because there's more.
My gift set came with a liquid eyeliner, which I have never touched before in life. I don't wear eyeliner on my upper lid (a decision that was reinforced today) and I really don't wear wings. I did try it out today, just for shits and giggles, and it was not good. Its just not my aesthetic. You have to be way cooler than me to wear a wing. Maybe if I had false lashes on to kind of balance out the weight, it could be done, but I took one look and myself and said "nope." I took a few pictures, so we could all laugh together on the internet, and then I reminded myself that I am 35, and not the kind of cool 35 year old who can wear a nicely cut eyeliner wing, and I took that shit off.
However.
Lets say you are the kind of cool 35 year old who can pull this off. Or cool 50 year old, or 16 year old, or whatever. Check out this point:
Because the silliness here is mine. Its user error, its not the product, which is really, really impressive. This thing, in addition to having the pointiest of points, really glides on, and was very smooth to apply. The Intense Ink Eyeliner will set you back $3.00, and if you love liquid eyeliner, or know what the hell you're doing, I'd wager that this is money well spent.
And now, without further ado:
yeah... so... that happened.
And then off came the wings, because I just couldn't hack it:
See how the pigment on my left eye is way different than the pigment on my right?
So... learning curve. Turns out baked eye shadow is not that easy to apply. I would consider my makeup expertise at this point to be somewhere in the medium range. If love were skill, I'd be an expert, but alas, it is not. I'm going to keep working at it though, because I love how deep and rich the pigments *can* be, if I figure out how to wrangle them properly.
I also did not feel like it stayed super well throughout the day:
I realized two things this morning. The first is that baked shadow is hard, and the second is that I cannot, in any way, read about, listen to, or watch anything having to do with current events while I put makeup on. He who currently resides in the White House had me so fucked up this morning, I forgot to fill in my brows. So I walked around all morning with sparse brows, which did nothing to improve my opinion of the dear leader. The picture on the right is at lunch time when I ran out and got an eye pencil. So the brow problem got fixed, but as you can see, the eyeshadow has largely left the building like Barack Obama. Damn. I miss you Obama.
There is one product though, that I tried and love love love lovity loved.
The Volumizing Mascara. Every makeup brand in creation has a volumizing mascara. The elf website has 11 products listed under the heading of mascara. This one is at the very bottom of the page and costs $2.00. I wasn't expecting a lot from it. The packaging is basic, its not one of the fancy mascaras, and I just figured it would be another clumpy, gloppy one that I tossed on the pile. Boy, was I wrong.
The first thing that really got me when I pulled out the wand was how sturdy it was. Its a natural fiber brush, which I typically hate, but thats because they are usually so flimsy. This one didn't bend at all coming out of the tube. I can't remember when I have ever seen that. It also didn't have a bunch of product caked up all over it. Because I wore eyeliner on my upper lid ( I just got rid of the wings) you really can't see my eyelashes, and for as many pictures as I took, none came out the way I wanted them to. I absolutely fell in love with it though. The thing that impressed me most was the separation. I didn't have any lashes sticking together. I definitely feel like it made them look longer, and darker, but there was nary a spider lash in sight. I live in fear of those things, but I didn't have any problems. Im going to wear it again tomorrow, without the eyeliner, and try and get some good pictures for instagram. This stuff is AMAZING. And its only $2.00! Thats cheaper than my other true love, the Lash Princess, but it is still incredible. Maybe even better. I don't know. I am not sure which one I like more. But considering you can get them both for less than $10.00, I say everyone try it out and see for yourself which one you prefer.
So, thats my eye review for now. I'm going to keep after it with the baked shadow and see if I can get any better with it. In the mean time, if there are any baked shadows that you really love, that you think I need to try, please let me know!!
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