Pink and Undecided: eyeliner

Eye Stories 10 : NYX Retractable Eyeliner in Black/Noir (SPONSORED)

Hey guys, i'm welcoming you (back, hopefully) with another eye related product review.

I know i review a lot of lip products before, but it turns out that this blog has its seasons and it is now definitely eye products season >.< (yes, it's a way of telling you to be ready for more eye products' reviews, don't get bored!).

This time round, i am reviewing a retractable eyeliner from NYX that Sociolla kindly sent me.

NYX Retractable Eyeliner in Noir (or Black. Noir just sounds so much sexier and more mysterious *LOL*)

Let me begin by honestly telling you that i have a not-so-good experience with NYX's eyeliner before (the liquid kind. I got a dud one or something, it was so dry from the first time i opened it and the color won't come out! I practically bought it for nothing because it couldn't be used like, at all >.<) and eyeliner is probably the least exciting thing for me when it comes to makeup (it's not like i don't like eyeliners, i can't live without them! They're more like a staple product that i am contend for having one or two max at any given time, i have no desire to try 10 different ones at the same time. They're simply not something i get excited about!) so... I felt like "meh..." when i saw it *LOL*.

Clearly the eyeliner and i didn't start on the right note and it probably sensed it -___-.

The brand new eyeliner is sealed with a clear plastic wrap (clear in one side, white on the other)

And the list of ingredients are printed on that plastic wrap so once you rip it open, you can no longer say "I'll just read it later" haha. Anyway, here's the ingredient list that i found online :
Cyclopentasiloxane, Synthetic Beeswax, Microcrystalline Wax / Cera Microcristallina, Mica, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, VP/Hexadecene Copolymer, Myristyl Lactate, C30-45 Alkyl Cetearyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Myristyl Alcohol, Tocopherol, Lecithin, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Glyceryl Stearate, Magnesium Silicate, Ferric Ferrocyanied, Glyceryl Oleate, Citric Acid, Tin Oxide, Iron Oxides (CI 77499), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Red 7 Lake (CI 15850), Red 6 (CI 15850), Iron Oxides (CI 77491). Red 28 lake (CI 45410).

To use it, you need to rip the plastic wrap off *sorry for being Captain Obvious here!*

How the eyeliner looks once you take off the plastic wrap

It's waterproof but it doesn't state to be smudge proof or water resistant (which is important if you have oily eyes)

NYX Retractable Eyeliner comes in a very basic slim plastic tube (each color has corresponding tube color as the product, now that's actually really nice! I think i would be a lot more excited if i got any other color but boring black >.<) that well, can be retracted *LOL*. You just need to twist the bottom to control it

The mechanism of the tube is not bad at all, i had bad experiences with retractable products that didn't retract *GRRRR* in the past so i am always super cautious about winding them up too much in fear of ruining it, but this one feels very sturdy and reassuring. So much that i dared to do this :

Twisting it up to the end so i can show you how much products you would get (0.35 gr. And that's a lot of eyeliner alright, would take me forever to finish)

Yes, it retracted back easily and without any fuss. I tried to use it on my eyelid (FYI, i normally only use liquid eyeliner on my eyelid and crayon/pencil liner for my waterline. 90% of all crayon/pencil liner would smudge on my eyelid because of my eye shape-i have tapered eyelids) for this blog post, and for a second i was beaming because : 1. It's EXTREMELY pigmented, i mean... With very soft swipe, the jet black color already shows on my skin. 2. It's super soft and creamy.

But on the next second, this happened :

It broke, and broke my heart with it -___-

I really hate it when my brand new makeup (or any possession la, i'm very OCD you know) breaks >.<. I tried to calm down and inspect the damage (it was bad). Because it broke straight, i was left with a flat, fat surface. How am i suppose to line my eyes with fat, flat crayon??? I also have no idea how to sharpen crayon eyeliners (i know there are special sharpeners for them, but i don't have them) *sigh*. I tried to calm down and use it anyway -___-.

And ended up with very fat, not precise line

You can see how opaque the color is though, even when i swipe it super lightly in fear of breaking it even worse

One more thing, even though it's soft and creamy, it actually drags a bit on my skin (otherwise it wouldn't break so easily i think)

I actually love how pigmented it is, but unfortunately i really have no love lost with this eyeliner >.<, she's just not the one!

I was supposed to go out right away, but some problem arises and i ended up going about an hour later. I was really really sleepy so i took a 20 minutes power nap. Woke up like this :

Er. It doesn't look that bad in the picture, but i was quite shocking IRL. I was like "WHOA!!!" when i saw myself in the mirror. Sadako wants her eye ring back, #Pink!!!

It's definitely not smudge proof. I actually expected it to smudge a little bit, but not this bad. It also stains my upper lid, but not as bad as the way it melts under my eyes.

I was able to salvage the damage with some makeup remover and adding concealer+powder, here's how it looks with full makeup on :

I think this eyeliner is probably better suited for drier, colder climate? Because i saw positive reviews from other users (granted, each color might have different quality. Maybe the other colors are more forgiving than the black one?), but for me who lives in a very hot and humid city (Surabaya is HOT y'all!), even with my air conditioner on maximum capacity, this eyeliner is not a match mad in heaven for me.

I think it's usable for you who are aiming for a smokey look? I totally think it can be blended easily (i tried, forgot to take pics) for a sexy, smokey eyes. And i would still use it for my waterline, i just need to apply eye shadow before hand (Tip : matte eye shadow helps to hold and lock the eyeliner in!).

It's not like i don't like NYX as a brand, i honestly haven't been trying a lot of their products (i like their Candy liner! It's the liquid, sparkly ones! It dries out fast on the tube though) but i do love their lipstick (singular, because i only have one). I just think that i don't have the best of luck with their eyeliners >.<. This doesn't prevent me from wanting to try out their other products though.

I would recommend this eyeliner for those of you who are looking for a very pigmented, soft and creamy eyeliner that can be smudge easily for smokey eye look.

Not recommending this for those who have the same type of eyes and skin type as mine and looking for smudge free eyeliner (i'm not saying it's unusable, it CAN be used with different tricks, but that require a lot of efforts *LOL*).

NYX Retractable Eyeliner is available in a LOT of other colors :

While i would not repurchase the black one for obvious reason (dear NYX, it's not you, it's me...), i wouldn't mind trying the other, more exciting color like the Aqua Green one!

NYX Retractable Eyeliner (and other products from NYX) is available in Sociolla for IDR 105.000. If you want to shop for NYX products (or other brands), don't forget to use my referral and discount code to take off IDR 50.000 from your purchase (with minimum spending of IDR 200.000. My code has been renewed and can be used for the next 6 months, yay!).

Thank you Sociolla for sending me the product ^^!

#Pink

10:45:00 PM
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Eye Stories 08 : Clinique Cream Shaper for Eyes in 03 (Egyptian)

clinique

Helloow ^^!

Weekend's here again! Whatcha'll doin? I'm still in hibernating mode after a rather late show of Gods of Egypt last night and plenty of things to do starting tomorrow i just don't feel like going anywhere today zzz.

Anyway, I was about to write that this seems to be my first eyeliner review, but then i checked and i actually did a Collection glitter eyeliner review before that i totally forgot about (hey, i have over 700 posts by now, you can't exactly ask me to remember them all alright!)-but this is definitely the first normal (if you can call olive green eyeliner normal, that is) colored eyeliner.

Anyway, this eyeliner i'm about to review has a rather... Different name, it's Clinique Cream Shaper for Eyes :

I received this eyeliner as part of a goodie bag from Clinique's event so i don't really know how much it costs. According to their official website, it's USD 16.50, which is over IDR 200.000 *faints*. I've never purchased such an expensive eyeliner, let's see if it's worth the hefty price tag!

I got the shade 03 Egyptian, which is olive green color with gold specks

It comes in normal pencil shape, which means you'd have to have to use eyeliner sharpener-something i hate coz it's such a waste of product but at the same time it's a good thing because you can get the pencil tip to be as thin as you want it to be

I always use liquid eyeliner for my eyelid and alternate between pencil liner and eyeshadow for my waterline, but for review purposes i decided to use this eyeliner on both my eyelids and waterline.


No need to be alarmed with the "olive green" part, i think it looks very natural and nice when worn

It's super easy to use too

Snapped the photos before i line my waterline, sorry!

How it looks with full makeup. I combined the eyeliner in the waterline with a gold eyeliner from Make Over (which i loveeee)

Clinique Cream Shaper for Eyes is one of the creamiest (without being too fragile or crumbly), non-tugging, soft to my skin eyeliner i've ever used. It glides on gently without me needing to add extra pressure, the color also shows up easily which means it's pretty pigmented too.

I love the fact that i don't have to work extra hard to make the color shows (extra pulling on eye area is always a no no!) and how soft it is to my skin, although it has gold shimmer or it there's no gritty feeling that some of other glittery/shimmery eyeliners can have. Don't worry about the shimmer too, no need to be afraid to look like a disco ball since the shimmer is very soft and subtle.

According to their website :

Creamy-smooth eyeliner pencil with a hint of shimmer. Shapes and defines with intense, stay-put colour. Non-smudging, water- and transfer-resistant. Easy to sharpen, too. Ophthalmologist tested.

So i can totally vouch for the creamy smoothness, how about the non-smudging, water and transfer resistant part?

Well, i wore it to an event, for about 5 hours or more and here how it looks after :

Notice the smudges on the waterline?

It definitely smudges on me haha. To be fair, most pencil liners tend to transfer to my upper lid due to my eyelid shape (tapered double eyelid) and Clinique Cream Shaper for Eyes doesn't, it stays quite neatly on my lid. I do have a very oily skin and i live in a high humidity country, most pencil eyeliner doesn't stay a chance to be stay smudge free for long! (Tips : you can prevent smudges on your waterline with application of powder eyeshadows beforehand, totally works for me!)

I read the reviews on their website and most confirms that it doesn't smudge and stays on its place-so maybe it depends on where you live (drier climate would probably be the best bet for non-smudgy liners to be true to its claims) and skin type.

I splashed my face with water (forgot to take pictures zzz) and it stays put (as long as i don't touch it) and doesn't seem to change when the water dries out, so water resistant-yes.

I think for a creamy eyeliner, it's definitely quite superior. I mean, it doesn't smudge as bad as most other pencil liners on me, it stayed put on my upper lid, it's soft but not to a point of being crumbly, it can be sharpened easily and it doesn't break (some pencil liners drive me crazy coz they keep on breaking when i sharpen them!) and it doesn't dry out on when i don't wear it for a while (ahem Collection eyeliners -___-. They become super hard and impossible to use after a while).

It is very expensive though for an eyeliner (although admittedly eyeliners can last a while even when you wear them daily)-i don't really know how much their local counter's price is but it's around IDR 280.000 at strawberrynet . It does have a luxurious, high quality feeling when used though.

I would recommend this eyeliner to those of you who are looking for high quality, super creamy but not crumbly, easy to apply eyeliner with an unusual, but not stark or tacky, color (i'm talking about this shade, of course).

I would not recommend this for those with limited budget (obviously), lives in tropical countries but want their eyeliner to be 100% smudge free.

I honestly won't buy this with my own money, i love Clinique and all but i prefer to spend my money on their other products. For eyeliner, i already found my holy grail one that's less than half of this one's price and works better for me. Are you interested to learn about my current holy grail pencil liner :D?

#Pink

7:31:00 PM
4 Comments

Eye Stories 04 : Collection Glam Crystals Dazzling Gel Liner (8 Dancing Queen)

british brand

Hi everybody :D.

OMG it's been more than a year since that Collection event and since then i've used most of the crazy loads of products i got from them but i haven't even reviewed one of them. WTH. Horrible horrible... Anyway, i took the pictures long long time ago with my Pinko so the quality are... As you know. At least i can still blog about it, yeah (too lazy to retake the pics :(...).

The first (of many) Collection products that i'm going to review is their famous (Dona said it's one of their most popular products) Glam Crystals Dazzling Gel Liner in shade number 8, Dancing Queen.

Glam Crystals Dazzling Gel Liner shade 8 Dancing Queen

I have no idea why in all of the promotional pictures this shade looks hot pink when in fact it's more red than pink. Let's take a look of the real product (again, apology for the fugly pics and angling, i was a total rookie when i took them..)

Got blurry some more zzzz

It's a red liner with red, gold and silver glitters (GLITTER, not shimmer)

Collection's Glam Crystals come in a transparent (sturdy) plastic tube with black top. It's long and slim like the typical liquid eyeliners.

It has a long wand

And sharpish brush

According to the description here, it's actually tiny glitter particles suspended in a clear gel, so not red-based as i thought it was. But the main color is definitely red (or fuschia, like they stated) and i disagree with the word "tiny" coz the glitters are actually quite pronounced!

I think i've mentioned this before, but i am most comfortable with marker type of liquid (or gel) eyeliners. I am quite scared of the wand type because i don't have the steadiest hands in the world and i am simply not confident enough to use them in the past. I've since used Maybelline Hyper Glossy Liquid Eyeliner and actually not half bad at applying eyeliners that come with wands, but i still 100% prefer the marker type. Plus i found the Maybelline Hyper Glossy to be easier to maneuver because they have a short and snuggly wand.

This Collection Glam Crystals' wand, however, is what my eyeliner nightmare is made of. It has a very long wand, for me it makes it that much harder to adjust my fingers (i like to hold my wand/marker as close to the tip as possible for precisions).

Fortunately, this is not a black or any opaque colors so even though i applied not super neatly, it was not very obvious!

Looks pretty neat, if i may say so myself hahahaha

When i close my eyes then it's not that neat afterall... *LOL* (it doesn't dry very fast as well, you can see my upper lid stained with red glitters because i have tapered eyelids and they stick together when i open my eyes)

The consistency of this eyeliner is a bit hard to explain. It doesn't feel particularly gel-ish, more like... wet with loads of glitters. It's totally packed with glitters (that's why i think Donna said Collection's targets are mainly teenagers and young girls coz teens love glittery eyeliners, right? I myself do love glitters, especially silver and gold but red, not so much) and feels quite gritty.

Application is quite easy but since it has a clear base, i found it hard to make a clean line with just one swipe. I had to go back and fill in the obvious spaces between the glitters.

And when i used my eyelash curler as usual :

And a blob stuck to the curler!

Moral of the story? Wait for a while (5 minutes or so) until the eyeliner's completely dry before using eye curlers (because i had to go back a few times for a neater line, the eyeliner piled quite thickly so it took longer to dry) . When i waited until it completely dried, i had no problem with the eyeliner sticking to the curler anymore.

How it looks like on my eyes with only mascara :

Hmmm... Yea... It looks okay... But i am too fond of my black eyeliner and i feel kinda naked going out like that! I think it's a great alternative for a bling2 and colored lids if you want a quick alternative to eyeshadow (just slick it on, no need to blend or whatever).

I am personally quite oppose to red (or even hot pinks, i just think that lip and blush colors are not really for your eyes *LOL*) eye shadows/liners so it was quite a step outside my comfort zone.

Then i tried it on top of my normal black eyeliner :

I filled in my entire double eyelid so it was more like eyeshadow hehe

Because of my eye shape, you can barely see it when i open my eyes, just a flash of red blings whenever i look down/to the side/close my eyes, which i like!

I love it even more with full eyeliner and other makeup ^^

A few claims for this gel liner is :

- It includes precision brush for easy application

Yes, the brush is quite small and pointy so it's quite easy to use. However if you want a more opaque finish (not like there are a lot of empty spaces between the glitters) then you have to go back and forth a few times so it's not THAT easy. Plus you need to be very careful when putting the wand back to the tube, my fave Glam Crystal is the silver one (amazing for inner lower water line! Especially for parties) and i wasn't paying attention when i shoved it back to the tube, next thing i know... the brush is totally ruined. Looks more like a water fountain now and it's not fixable *cry*. Any tips to revert back a ruined eyeliner brush's shape???.

-Quick drying

I find it dries fairly but not that quick, as i told you earlier it stain my upper lid when i opened my eyes, but then again i did apply quite a thick coat so maybe it is fast drying with one thin coat?

They also say that the color is fuschia, but i stubbornly see it as red and i cannot unsee it!

The Collection website stated that you can use it over eye shadow or alone with mascara. I have yet to use it with eye shadow because when i wear eye shadow, i like to wear black eyeliner to accentuate my eyes. For me personally using strongly colored glitter eye liners with eye shadows (except very soft, neutral colors) would be too much, but that's just my preference. I also feel like colored eye liners that are not dark colored make my eyes look smaller and sleepier.

I prefer to use it as a substitute of eye shadow or for under eyes as an accent. But with makeups you can wear it in anyway and any style that you like, of course!

You can also use it for a more daring and creative eye makeup

Yes, i am aware of how bitchy i look in this pic, thank you *LOL* (and yes, i went to the mall with this eye makeup haha)

You can also use it to draw stuffs on your face, glitter tattoo style!

Staying power of this gel liner is actually quite superb! Once it is set, it won't budge (not even when i cried watching a movie) and stay perfect until i remove them. Removing them is a bit of a pain though! I have no problem removing them when i use them under my eyes, but for the lid-when i use my eye makeup remover (i soak my cotton pad with the remover and press it on my eyes for a few secs to loosen up my eye makeup), the glitters often gets in my eyes and it's super annoying and uncomfortable!

I don't have a lot of experience with glittery gel/liquid eyeliners (so far i only own NYX's other than Collection's, i love the NYX's consistency better but Collection's a lot more pigmented) so i cannot comment on whether this is a fantastic glitter liner or not, but for me it's quite decent and performs well enough and as Collection is a budget drugstore brand, it's very affordable and totally worth the price.

I would recommend Glam Crystal to anyone looking for a nicely pigmented, very glittery gel liners that stays forever once they set. Would recommend Dancing Queen for those who has daring personalities and like to experiment with unusual colors for eyes.

Would not recommend this for those who hates glitter (OBVIOUSLY), wants a neat and opaque color with one swipe and not patient enough to wait a few minutes until it dries off.

I personally am not a fan of red eyeliners, so i hardly ever touch this eyeliner. I do love the silver one (and very sad that i didn't get my hands on the gold one!), but i am not crazy about other colors of glitter liners (or i'm just old haha).

Would i buy this with my own money? I would the silver and gold one, but definitely not for this particular shade.

Unfortunately Collection cosmetics is not available in Indonesia yet (dunno if they ever will :(...) but you can get them in other neighboring countries like Singapore or Malaysia, so maybe you can grab some on your oversea holiday!

Have you ever tried anything from Collection cosmetics? And are you a fan of glittery eyeliners?