Recent Bright Eye Looks

Been a while since I've posted an eye of the day, hasn't it?  I've been forgetting to take pictures.  Plus, I've been wearing variations on the same three looks for a while, so nothing really worth photographing I guess.  Here's some recent ones that I enjoyed wearing because they were bright and fun.

This was:
MAC Chrome Yellow over MAC Chromaline in Primary Yellow
MAC Nighttrain
Physicians Formula Eye Booster liner in Ultra Black

This was:
Ben Nye Tangerine
Ben Nye Aztec Gold
Ben Nye Ice
Sugarpill Poison Plum
Physicians Formula Eye Booster in Ultra Black

This was:
MAC Acid Orange pigment over MAC Chromaline in Genuine Orange
MAC Rocking Orange glitter over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Sugarpill Poison Plum
Make Up For Ever #92
Make Up For Ever #75
Physicians Formula Eye Booster in Ultra Black

This was:
Stila Stay All Day Wet-to-Set 3D Eyeshadow Trio in Daybreak
Stila Stay All Day Liquid Liner in Turquoise
Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Liner in Turquoise

Kinda spring-ish, kinda summer-ish, right?  It sure doesn't feel like spring, but maybe if I wear some brighter colors it'll start warming up outside.

Stila Online Warehouse Sale

Thought you might want to check this out!

Click on the photo or follow this link to shop.  I've done reviews of a few of the items that are on sale in case you wanted to see a swatch or two.

New Stila Jewel Eyeshadow for Spring 2012 Swatches and Review

Remember that Stila Jewel Eyeshadow palette that came out in 2010? It had only four shades (Rose Quartz, Amethyst, Black Diamond, Golden Topaz) and it was really tiny, but it packed a huge, sparkly punch. So much of a sparkly punch that I've nearly hit pan on all the shades and ended up buying backups because I loved it so much... that Jewel palette.

Stila's 2010 Jewel Eye Shadow Palette

I loved that palette, hard. So when Stila released their brand new, larger Jewel Eye Shadow singles this season, I didn't even have to think twice about getting all of them. Four of the new shades are re-releases of the original Jewel shades, though this time around, they do look and feel different from the previous versions.

Aquamarine, Black Diamond, Blue Sapphire, Citrine, Golden Topaz.

Each shade is available individually as a 0.08 oz single, but there's also the option of the new Jewel Trio:


This trio contains three full sized Jewel shadows in Opal, Rose Quartz and Black Diamond, but at a significant discount- $38 as opposed to the $60 it would cost to buy each shade alone.

A better view of each shade in the pan:

Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Amethyst

Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Aquamarine

Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Black Diamond


Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Blue Sapphire

Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Citrine

Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Golden Topaz

Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Opal

Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Rose Quartz

And swatched (heavily), no base, natural light and flash:

Aquamarine, Black Diamond, Blue Sapphire, Citrine, Golden Topaz.

Opal, Rose Quartz, Amethyst.

Compared to the old Jewel shadows, these have a finer, more delicate, "diamond dust"-type sparkle that's easier to crush into smaller pieces. The old ones were a little flakier and had more glittery sparkle that didn't break apart so easily. But, similar to the originals, these don't have much pigment on their own but can be built up or layered for a little more color and density.

My two favorites so far are Citrine, which is really the most amazing smoky bronze color with a glistening, wet-looking finish, and Black Diamond, which actually has quite a bit of pigment to it and smokes out beautifully. Here's a couple looks I did using these:


This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance Lemon Drop
Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Rose Quartz on lid
Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Black Diamond in crease and on lower lashline
Stila Jewel Eye Shadow in Opal on browbone
Physicians Formula Eye Booster Lash Boosting Eyeliner in Black

I didn't like the way this turned out, but it really shows off that wet-look shiny finish that these can have. The black base of Black Diamond does turn to more of a dark grey when you blend it, but it blends so smoothly and it's really easy to get a smoky look with it. Next time I won't use all the Jewel shades together because I don't like the greasy look it gave my eyes without a matte or low-shimmer shade to balance the sparkle.

This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance Lemon Drop
Stila All Over Shimmer Eyes #2 (light gold) on lid
Stila Jewel shadow in Citrine in crease
Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow pencil in Clash on lower lashline
Stila Jewel shadow in Aquamarine over Clash on lower lashline
Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner in Electric on waterline
Physicians Formula Eye Booster Lash Boosting Eyeliner in Black

This turned out a lot better because I balanced the sparkle with a less shimmery shade and it didn't look quite so shiny. This is a look I used to wear a lot back in the day (gold and bronze with blue underneath), and I have to say that I like it better with the new Stila Citrine color in the crease. Citrine also has more pigment than the others and can easily be worn alone.

After testing these out for a couple weeks, here's my impression of them.

What I liked:

• I like the new larger size. No need to worry about backups.
• You can buy each shade individually and they each come in a hard plastic compact.
• One of the only non-cream and non-chrome shadows I can think of that gives a wet looking finish.
• They are very smooth, not gritty like glitter.
• The sparkle is delicate and twinkly. Not huge glitter chunks (which I like, but it's good to have different finishes).
• Black Diamond is great for a subtly sparkly smoky eye.
• Citrine is also great for a bronze-toned smoky eye when used on the lid and smoked with some black liner.

What I didn't like:

• They're weird to use. It's hard to pick up the color from the pan. Using a brush doesn't grab enough, but using your fingers seems to pack down the product too tightly into the pan, making it even harder to pick up enough color. The best way I've found is to stab at it with your brush and kick up some dust and then either pat it onto the lid with the brush or a fingertip.
• Most of the shades have very little pigment. They're basically just a bunch of sparkle on top of a sheer colored base. It's easier to layer these than to use them alone.
• The color selection is bland and some of the colors are downright ugly on me- Amethyst is a murky, dull, non-purply purple and Golden Topaz is way more warm and peachy than it was in the original Jewel palette.
• Lots of fallout.
  
• Not really as sparkly as I'd hoped they'd be. They have a fine, delicate type of sparkle, not a glittery-flaky sparkle like I expected.
• They're expensive at $20 each for only 0.08 oz of shadow. Urban Decay Stardust Shadow is a nearly identical product, but it contains 0.12 oz of shadow for the same price.
  
• The pans are really loose in the palette and in the compacts, they wiggle too much when I'm trying to pick up color.
• They can make your eye look shiny and greasy if you use too many at once.

I've found that I get the best results with the sheerer shades when I use multiple layers over sticky base. The more pigmented shades apply easily on their own and the sparkle sticks without any extra help, but the sheer ones don't go on as evenly and don't hold onto their sparkles as well. The directions say that you can use them wet, but I haven't tried that.

Overall, I'm not in love with all of them like I was with the original four Jewel shades, but there are some really good ones in here. Citrine and Black Diamond are the easiest to use and most versatile for me because they're the most pigmented and blendable. Aquamarine is really nice layered over a sticky base, and Opal is gorgeous in the inner corners of the eyes. The rest seem so bland to me, and the fact that they're sheer and tricky to apply just makes me not want to reach for them often. If the application was easier and the colors were more vivid and less dull/bland, I'd feel compelled to use them more. I like them enough to not return them, but not enough that I'd buy them all again if I had the choice.

Stila Jewel Eyeshadows are available at Sephora and Ulta, but the Jewel Trio palette is exclusive to Stila.com. Individual shadows are $20 each, the palette is $36. As far as I'm aware, these are not limited edition.

(Black Diamond was sent for review, the rest were purchased by me.)

Stila In The Moment Eye Shadow Palette Spring 2012 Swatches and Review

Stila seems to be on a roll with these new ten-shadow palettes. One last fall and then two more for Spring 2012? I can get on board with that. These things are great. The shadows in these are regular Stila quality, not the watered-down "value set" formula. So, of course, as soon as I saw a purple palette, I had to have it. This latest one is called In The Moment and it's a Sephora exclusive.

It's the same construction as the other two. Cardboard palette, flip-open lid with gentle magnetic closure, ten full shadows and one full Smudge Stick liner.

The Smudge Stick eyeliner that comes with this one is called Tetra, and it's a smoky purple shimmer.


The eyeshadows in this one are: Instinct, Impulse, Glance, Improvise, Catalyst, Desire, Wonder, Spontaneous, Whim, and Captivate.


Really, I just wanted this palette for that purple shadow (Glance). It's so gorgeous looking in the pan. Slight blue duochrome to it.


Swatched without primer, natural light and flash. Left to right: Instinct, Impulse, Glance, Improvise, Catalyst. Click on that last blurry picture if you want to see a closeup of the tiny rainbow shimmer in Improvise and Catalyst or the blue duochrome shimmer in Glance.

Natural light and flash. Desire, Wonder, Spontaneous, Whim, Captivate.

Stila Smudge Stick Eyeliner in Tetra (natural light and flash).

I've only used this three times so far, but that's enough for me to form an opinion. So!

What I liked:

• Cool-toned color selection works better on my skin than the warmer shades in the last two palettes.
• Contains a full size Smudge Stick.
• Eyeshadows have a very soft, silky texture.
• Most of the shadows have excellent payoff.
• There's a color light enough for a highlight and dark enough for a crease color, so it has every color I need for a complete look.
• This style of palette takes up little space for the amount of product inside and it stacks and stores nicely.
• These palettes smell really good, like new shoes.
• Comes with a booklet with ideas for looks using the palette.
  

What I didn't like:

• The shadow I looked forward to the most, Glance, had horrible pigmentation. It swatched well on my arm, but when I've tried to apply it, it barely shows up and goes on streaky. The color also starts to fade immediately after applying.
  
• The shimmer tends to blend out of the darker shades, leaving you with just plain black or brown.
• The Tetra smudgestick isn't very pigmented and I had to go over my line several times to make it opaque.
• The Whim shadow is very deceptive. In the pan, it looks like a bright semi-metallic copper, but it applies as a coppery-brown with only a little shimmer.
• Can't help but feel that the color selections in the last three palettes are very bland. Way too much brown. Not enough color.

I'm on the fence about this one. On one hand, this one works better on me than the last two because the colors are mostly cool-toned... But on the other hand, it's still brown-heavy, a little boring, and doesn't really seem all that different from the other two. The only color that sets this one apart from the others is the bright purple, but it had rather poor application, so it's not really worth buying the whole palette for. I'd say that this is still my favorite of the three, but they really need to start putting some more interesting colors in these. There's nothing unique here. I know that Stila is known for subtle/classic looks, but adding a little more color wouldn't hurt. I probably won't buy the next one if it's all browns/champagnes/neutrals with only one splash of color in it.

But, the quality is there, the shades all apply and blend well (with the exception of the purple), and it's very easy to wear, so this is really a nice palette for someone who doesn't already own seventy bajillion and therefore won't have duplicates of these colors.

The Stila In The Moment palette is a Sephora exclusive and retails for $39. Sephora doesn't say that it's limited edition, so I'm going to assume that it's permanent.

Stila Love At First Blush Palette Spring/Valentine's Day 2012

This thing is so adorable. Maybe not quite as unique/impressive as last year's, but still insanely cute and absolutely perfect for Valentine's Day.

Under fluorescent light, the coral color of the middle stripe comes out more.


But under natural light, the pretty rosy pink tone of the bottom stripe comes out more.

Unlike last year's palette, I can actually swatch this one without ruining it since there's no overspray. This is the three shades swatched over bare skin (no primer) in natural light, and then all three shades blended together (natural light also).

I've used this a couple times and I really like it. It is a little powdery at first, but has surprisingly good payoff. The color it creates when all three shades are blended is really natural and flattering and not as shimmery as I thought it would be. But, I also like picking up the shades separately with a smaller blush brush (those flat Benefit brushes are perfect for this) and using the more coral pink shade in the center as my blush and the light pink shimmer at the top as my highlight.

Normally when I buy something this pretty, I never end up using it because I don't want to ruin the design. But this time I went ahead and tried it and I'm really pleased that it's actually useable and that the design doesn't get too messed up after using it. Either way, I thought this was a steal at only $14.

I got mine from Stila's website, but Sephora has this alone and as a kit with two mini Lip Glazes for $20.

Stila In The Garden Eye Shadow Palette Spring 2012 Swatches and Review

Picked up the new Stila In The Garden palette last week. I really liked the NaturalEyes/Natural Eye/In The Light palette they did for fall last year, so I was hoping this new one would be just as nice. Turns out it is! Maybe even a little better.

The Stila In The Garden palette is a set of ten shadows plus a full sized Smudge Stick eyeliner.

The shadows are Chinois (matte creamy white), Breeze (shimmery beige), Bark (shimmery taupe), Freesia (shimmery violet blue), Rosette (metallic pink violet), Nectar (matte creamy beige), Honey (metallic bronze gold), Sage (shimmery translucent green), Moss (dark olive green with shimmer), and Juniper (deep shimmery forest green).



The Smudge Stick liner that comes with this palette is called Starfish. It's a smoky greenish-black with big chunky gold sparkles.

Closeups of the shadows, with flash and without. Please click to enlarge.

Swatched over bare skin (no primer), with flash and without. Chinois , Breeze, Bark, Freesia, Rosette.

Nectar, Honey, Sage, Moss, Juniper.


Stila Smudge Stick Eyeliner in Starfish.

And a couple looks using the products:

This was:
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
Stila Sage on lid
Stila Breeze patted over Sage on inner lid
Stila Forest in crease and on lower lashline
Stila Chinois as highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Demolition as liner
Stila Moss on brows

I don't know why I try to do winged liner with a pencil. I can never get it to turn out right. Besides the crappy liner application, the shadows looked great. They apply really smoothly and they smoke out perfectly. These shades were very easy to blend.


This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance Lemon Drop
Stila Breeze on lid
Stila Nectar patted over Breeze on lid
Stila Moss in crease
Stila Rosette on lower lashline
Stila Smudge Stick in Starfish as liner
Stila Jungle on brows

Again with the pencil winged liner! It didn't turn out good at all. I'm kinda embarrassed to even post that picture because my liner is so bad, but the sparkles in Starfish showed up so well in the picture that I just had to put it up. Starfish isn't very pigmented and it's not as smooth as the other Smudge Sticks I've tried (Koi and Damsel), but the sparkles really do show up on the eye. These shadows applied just as nicely as the others, no problems at all.

What I liked:

• I like the color selection better than the brown-based NaturalEye/In The Light palette.
• Shadows were soft and smooth, not as powdery as the last palette.
• Pretty good pigmentation on all the shades that I tried.
• Easy to blend.
• Perfectly suited for smoky eye looks. These shades smudge and smoke out very well.
• Comes with a full sized liner.
• Magnetic closure on the front of the palette.
• This palette doesn't contain Kitten eyeshadow! Glad to not have another duplicate color.

What I didn't like:

• The Starfish liner felt dry and didn't have very good payoff. It wasn't smooth and creamy like the other Smudge Stick liners I've tried. It tugged when I applied it and I had to go over my line multiple times to build an opaque line.
• Smudge Stick liner doesn't retract. If you twist it up too far, you're pretty much screwed. Be careful not to twist up more than you need to line your eye.
  
• A lot of the colors are frosty.
• Not really the most exciting color selection. Looked more vibrant online.

This reminds me a bit of another one of my favorite palettes, the Wet n Wild Comfort Zone Color Icon palette. They're not dupes of each other, but the theme and a lot of the colors are similar. When I want smoky, green-based earth tones, that's usually my go to palette, so that's probably why I liked the colors of this one so much. I do wish that the colors weren't so smoky and dull, though. With a name like "In The Garden" I was thinking they'd be a little more fresh and leafy. Maybe it's really supposed to be "In The Garden in February." :) Overall, though, I'm happy with the quality of the shadows and the size of the palette. These Stila palettes stack really nicely and don't take up much room even though there's ten big shadows and a full sized liner it them.

I ordered mine from Stila's website, but Sephora has this too. $39 and it is not limited edition.