ZA, Revlon, and L’Oreal’s blue eyeshadow palette

Christmas is coming, and glittery, shimmery eye makeup is perfect for the season. Add a dash of blue, smoke it, and we are ready to party the night away!

Here, I put 3 brands of (very affordable) blue eyeshadow to the test. They are from ZA, Revlon and L’Oreal.

The image that you see below are swatches of the eyeshadow colours from each palette. I applied the eyeshadow using my fingers.

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#1 – ZA Dramatic Eye Colour Palette

This palatte is extremely shimmery! Also, I loved that it is extremely pigmented. Application of this product was super easy as it glided on my skin.

There was also a pearly effect on my skin, and is easily my favourite amongst the three palettes.

However, this product has the ugliest packaging. There you go – don’t judge a book by its cover!

Price: $17.50 for 4 colours

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#2 – Revlon CustomEyes™ Shadow & Liner

This palette has very matte colours, not as much shimmer as the ZA dramatic eye colour. The dark colours are also extremely intense.

As the dark colours are really intense, more light coloured shadow need to be used to make the look ‘less black’.

It is the most pigmented amongst the three palettes, but it comes off more easily than the rest. In other words, the staying power is not as good as the other two.

The five colours are really complementary and I love the all colours on this palette.

Price: $18.90 for 5 colours

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#3 – L’Oreal Quad Pro

I don’t know if the product really works for me.

The white on this palette has high shimmer, and I love it. The shadows are also easy to blend, and glided on my skin effortlessly.

Although it is silky soft, the eyeshadows (especially the black one) is a little less pigmented than I expected it to be.

This might work for people who wants to create a soft smoky look, but I would rather my eyeshadow to be very pigmented so a little of the product can be used to create my smokey eye instead of using a lot of product to create the same look.

This product has the prettiest packaging, and this is good enough to entice me to make a purchase.

Price: $22.90 for 4 colours

 

Wrong eye makeup

I have a tendency to observe how girls do their eye makeup wrongly and I dare say that 9 out of 10 girls don’t do it right.

Makeup is subjective, but there are girls who don’t complete their looks.

These few days, I have been seeing many girls who don’t put on their makeup correctly. No one is expected to “paint” a flawless face like makeup counter girls. The kind of wrong makeup that I have in mind is the kind of makeup that will make strangers take a second look – in a negative way.

My makeup is not perfect, I admit.

If my friends are reading this blog, they probably will squint their eyes and say “Don’t bullshit me, lah. Your undereye forever patchy”. That, is absolutely true. But that is because I was born with a physical defect – eczema.

Unfortunately, my eczema does not only cause my skin to itch and flake at my back, arms, neck, back of my knees, inner thighs, back of my hand, fingers, it also causes my eyes to itch and flake. I have been seeing a skin doctor and my skin is under control now.

For someone with horrid eczema caused by stress and the bad weather in Singapore, my skin is extremely well controlled. Even my skin doctor said that my skin is well controlled and nobody would know that I have such a terrible physical defect. And trust me, it’s not a good thing to go through.

It’s a vicious cycle. I am always trying to get rid of the eczema, but the teasing and negative comments from people around me would cause me to be depressed and aggravate my skin condition, making it worse than ever. Some friends I have. If you are a friend who talked about my eczema before, and reading this entry, you better feel guilty!

So, as much as I try to conceal, moisturize and make my eyebags look better. It will still remain dark, wrinkly and sometimes patchy.

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Let’s get back to the point and I shall list the mistakes of wrong eye makeup:

#1. Eye makeup without concealer – No super eye makeup can look attractive if you don’t conceal dark eye circles.

#2. False eyelashes without curling real lashes – Why do you need a gap in between like a crocodile mouth? Totally ugly.

#3. Too much mascara – It doesn’t give you longer and thicker lashes. It gives you insect legs.

#4. Eyeshadow that’s not blended – Dark brown and light brown goes well together but eyeshadow should not be in swatches.

#5. Unmatching eyeshadow colours – Like red and green, or yellow and blue. It can be extremely gorgeous when blended properly. But most of the time it’s a nay, not a yay.

#6. Heavy eye makeup with heavy lipstick – No focus can be pretty confusing.

#7. Too much eyeshadow – Some people extend their eyeshadow way out to their temples and elongate their eyes, changing the entire proportion of the face. It might look good for a fashion or beauty shoot, but it’s definitely not great for outing with the girls.

#8. Eyeliner on the lower lash line without eyeshadow – For people who want to look as if they’re depressed and suicidal.

#9. Eye makeup without plucked eyebrow – Find girls like that in all the Polytechnics in Singapore. I don’t blame them. Every girl needs to go through that phase. But if you’re 30 and is a veteran in smoking your eyes, heading out with messy brows is embarrassing yourself.

#10. Uneven winged tip eyeliner – Inevitable, I know. Especially when you wake up with day with uneven eyelids. It’s just not pleasant to look at a longer winged-tip on one eye.

#11. Incorrect concealer colour – Even I sometimes have ash-coloured eyebags after using concealer. That is usually an indicator of your concealer being to light. If that happens, select a darker shade of concealer.

#12. False eyelashes without using eyeliner – Nope, we don’t like to see your glue.

#13. Eyeshadow colour that doesn’t match skin tone – Like a Chinese girl wearing only Yellow eyeshadow, and Indian girl wearing only Black eyeshadow.

#14. Mascara which smudges and ruin eye makeup – Like how I was damn disturbed by the guy (yes, a guy) at Sephora with smudged mascara above and under his eyes. Not a pretty sight.

#15. Overly plucked brows – This can be resolved. Just fill your brows with pencil.

Well, wasn’t that something! I think fifteen is a great number to stop at, else I would be repeating my points.

Remember, no makeup in this world is perfect, but there are many ways to ruin perfectly beautiful makeup. That’s why experimenting makeup and find out what we look best in is extremely important.

Makeup is subjective, but we want to make ourselves gorgeous, not ruin how we look.

Hope you are more mindful of your makeup and check the mirrors more often!

Hope you find this entry useful!

xoxo,
JJ.

Shimmer or matte?

Dilemma?

Really, when it comes to makeup, there are no rules as to whether we should go with shimmer or matte makeup. However, most people would agree that matte and shimmer eyeshadow works very well together.

Primarily, eyeshadow is supposed to enhance our eyes, and not just be seen. The term “eyeshadow” would already suggest that it is supposed to create a shadow around the eye area. Hence, eyeshadow is not used just because counters are selling them, or that you find that item in every girl’s makeup pouch.

Lots of colours!

Credit: fairendel.files.wordpress.com

I used to think that using a solid light coloured eyeshadow would brighten up my eye, but now I understand that light colour eyeshadow are really used for highlighting purposes.

Although there are no rules, there are guidelines to using matte and shimmer eyeshadow.

 

Matte colour on top rectangle, shimmer at the bottom rectangle.

 

To begin, we should understand that shimmer eyeshadow should not be used for day looks. Shimmer eyeshadow have this tedency to make wrinkles more visible. If you want a younger feel to your makeup, avoid shimmer eyeshadow on the entire eyelid. However, you may choose to use it under your brows and in the inner corner or your eyes to make it brighter.

Here’s to show the difference between matte and shimmer shadow:

 

 

 

I’m sure you can already see the difference between the shimmer eyeshadow (left) and the matte one (right).

We can see that the lines on my hand is significant with the shimmer one, and the lines not as obvious when the matte colour was used. So, you get my point. If we don’t want to look older than we actually are, we should avoid using too much shimmer.

 

Anne Hathaway in night makeup

Shimmer eyeshadow should be used more at night. The reflective particles would reflect light, making your eyes look more appealing than using the matte one. At night, we can play with extremely dark pigments and just have fun with the shimmer!

Most importantly, we all have different eye shapes and eyelids. We should play around with both matte and shimmer eyeshadow to create a look that will make us look gorgeous.

Have fun!

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To play with different looks, I would recommend the 78 colour palette:

78 Colour Palette.

In this palette, you get to play with sixty shimmer, mattes and satin eye colours, twelve lip colours, and six blushers. For SGD 26, that’s only 33 cents per colour!

To purchase, click on “MAKEUP SHOP” on the top right hand corner.

 

My smokey eye looks punched.

“My smokey eye looks punched!”

…Just how often do we exclaim in horror when we look into the mirror? I, for one, have said that a zillion times after countless of attempts to achieve the smokey eye effect.

My idea of a perfectly smudged asian smokey eye

Credits: asian-trends.tumblr

I remember my first attempt very vividly. That was after I watched a chick flick when I was still in secondary school. At that point of time, the girl in me wanted to transform from geeky school girl to a hot chick. Think Christina Aguilera, Olsen twins and Britney Spears (when she was skinny). But hey, don’t we all secretly love attention?

So, my attempt to look like a white chick flopped and I looked like a deranged psychotic asian girl who lives in a haunted mansion instead.

My next few attempts were no better. The looks I achieved were I-just-got-punched, Gothic princess, amateur teen with smudged eyeliner still in the midst of learning, and drunk party girl.

From there, I learnt a few lessons. To be able to create the smokey eye requires a hell load of techniques, and I will discuss a few of them here.

Bad smokey eye on Kelly Osbourne

Credits: webparkz

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Number #1 – “I am Asian, hence I don’t imitate Taylor Swift”

One of my biggest mistake is to copy the smokey eye effect on Caucasians. And that means an extra thick layer of eyeshadow that we don’t need. We should keep the smokey eye as natural as possible (Number #12 elaborates the details), and not as dramatic as the above picture unless our next destination is to a Halloween party.

Although I have double eyelids, my Asian eyes are not as deep set. Applying dark coloured shadow a few centimetres above my eye would immediately turn me into a gothic chick.

Unless you want to look punched, the over-exaggerated application of dark eyeshadow is a recipe for makeup disaster.

Taylor Swift’s smokey eye

Number #2 - Use a pigmented eyeshadow so the colour stays

Have you ever tried black eyeshadow from Daiso? For those of you who tried, you would probably agree with me that the quality is so bad that the black eyeshadow, when applied to the eyelids, looks grey mainly because the particles are too thick to stay on the eyelids.

After trying a couple of black eyeshadows, I would say that most brands work well. That includes Bobbi Brown, MAC, L’Oreal, Maybelline and 88 eyeshadow palette.

So, if you want a black eyeshadow to stay on, don’t try buying the product from Daiso.

88 Eyeshadow Palette

(To purchase, go to “Makeup shop” at top right hand corner)

Number #3 – Prevent eyeshadow from falling all over your face

Many times I used a brush to apply eyeshadow, and little particles will drop on my cheeks. When I swipe it away gently with facial tissue, I get a long streak of black. And this is a major bitch.

However, we can prevent it from happening. Using a piece of tissue on the cheek while applying the eyeshadow with a brush should do the trick.

Tissue!

Number #4 - Let the eyeshadow last all day

You might ask – How do we let the shadow last all day? Wouldn’t the pigment fall off automatically after 12 hours?

Well, thanks to the primer potion by Urban Decay, eyeshadow can now last for very, very, very long hours and make your eyes look more vibrant at the same time.

If you want a creaseless effect, this Holy Grail of eye primer is the product for you.

The holy grail of eye primer

Number #5 - You need a base colour to highlight

If you have dark eye rings like me, you probably need a highligher to cover the dullness. A white or light coloured eyeshadow serves as a great base before application of dark coloured eyeshadow because it creates a three dimensional effect as well as make the eyes look less tired.

From my lazy-days experience, I have tried using black eyeshadow without a highlighting base and it does not look as great. So my point is, the base colour works wonders, if you know what I mean.

White base

Number #6 - Get rid of dark eye circles

Smokey eyes with dark eye circles are for vampires, not a pretty girl.

Without concealing, smokey eyes will not look good. To begin with, dark eye circles do not look good! For the dark smokey effect to look red-carpet worthy, there should be a contrast. Dark eye circles or heavy eye bags will destroy the look.

That said, you need to conceal, conceal, conceal.

[Concealing is another tough part, so I will blog about the art of concealing in another entry.]

15 Concealer Palette

(To purchase, go to “Makeup shop” at top right hand corner)

Number #7 - Decide on whether you prefer liquid, gel, pencil or other types of eyeliner

They are not the same, although the purpose of eyeliner is to enhance our eyes and make them bigger.

Pencil and gel eyeliner are easier to control and slide on our eyelids. However, it is not easy to smudge it if we want to create a smokey eye effect. Hence, we can try applying eyeshadow before using eyeliner to define the shape of the eyes.

My method is to blend and smudge eyeshadow, before applying a thin line of liquid eyeliner for definition. Liquid liner will be more contrasted against the eyeshadow as compared to pencil eyeliner, but that is how I like it. For those without a steady hand, you might choose to use a pencil eyeliner instead.

(To purchase, go to “Makeup shop” at top right hand corner)

Number #8 - Decide on whether you prefer a shimmer or matte texture

Kawaii girl, or smoldering eyes that make men go weak?

For the kawaii look, I will use the new Chanel shimmer black eyeshadow for the top, and shimmer white eyeshadow on my lower lash line.

For the smoldering look, I will definitely go with my matte Bobbi Brown black eyeshadow.

Number #9 - Minimal application on our lower lash line

Applying minimal eyeshadow on our lower lash line is extremely important.

Being Chinese, it is not easy for me to carry off the dark lower lash line look. But I personally think that Indians can carry off that look beautifully.

What I do to my smokey eye is to line only the outer half of my eye. This would prevent me from looking like a panda, yet enlarge my eyes at the same time.

Number #10 - Decide on whether you want to use a brush, or fingers

For those without a sponge applicator, smudge applicator or an eye defining brush, you can too smudge your eyeshadow with your fingers.

In fact,  I believe that most people will agree with me that the effects of using fingers to smudge works way better than any sort of applicators.

Being lazy and tired of the many steps I have to take to get my smokey eye, I would usually apply my eyeshadow with a brush. With sufficient practice, the brush effect can too look good.

Number #11 – You need a few eyeshadow colour to create the smokey eye effect

To be able to make a nice, gradual, smokey effect, the trick is to blend the dark colour such that it fades out beautifully.

Have you ever seen smokey eye instructions at the back of little eyeshadow boxes, where the instructions tell you exactly where the dark and light colours should be?

Well, try it!  The different colours will make your eyes more three-dimensional and deep set, so your features will not appear flat.

It is not simple, but practice makes perfect!

Number #12 - Do not over apply

Over applying black eyeshadow is the highway to Ugly Avenue.

Black eyeshadow is supposed to enhance our eyes, not make us look as if we put on eyeshadow so people would know that we are wearing makeup.

We should always keep in mind where our eyebrows are, and how would the proportion of our eyes be like after application.

Unless you want to look like Kelly Osbourne (refer to Kelly’s image at the top), it’s best to be less dramatic.

Number #13 - You do not forget the brows, unless you have bangs

Smokey eyes work if eyebrows work. It is rather pointless to have a gorgeous, perfectly smoked eyes, only to have it ruined by messy eyebrows.

So, do yourself a favour and trim the brows as often as you can.

Number #14 – Take your time

Time is precious in Singapore, and every second counts. I know how is it to have only 10 minutes for makeup before rushing off for work.

But the last thing you want to do is to re-do your messed up smudged eyeshadow after spending 15 minutes on it.

Take your time, no one can rush perfection.

Number #15 - Don’t forget the lashes

Short lashes and beautiful eyes do not bode well, like how uncurled eye lashes could ruin pretty fake lashes.

If you have the intention to smoke your eyes, do also take some time to curl the lashes and apply mascara. This would open up the eyes, creating a doll-like effect.

Number #16 - Don’t forget the pupils

This is optional, but I prefer to enlarge my pupil by wearing big-eye lens.

Smokey eyes would also more captivating with light coloured lens.

Number #17 – Don’t try to use loose powder on your smokey eye

Common sense, right? Apparently, I have subconsciously applied loose powder to my eye area after application of black eyeshadow.

Dumbest. Thing. Ever.

What do I do after that? Well, remove makeup, and start from Step #1.

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Phew, that’s about the basics of applying smokey eye without looking punched. I have not entirely discussed how to exactly apply eyeshadow the right way, but I will do so in another post.

I came up with the above after years of experimenting and perfecting the smokey eye (though I don’t wear them out everyday), and I hope these little tips would help you in achieving the perfect smokey eye.

Till my next post, enjoy digesting this.