Rave: My Current Fave Eye Makeup & Cream Shadow Sticks
This is something I am excited to write (excited means I am always mentally composing such entries in my mind... and all the words and phrases to describe what I want to say keep coming into my mind.. hahah) and this is all about how I do my eye makeup lately. Of course.. there is nothing ground breaking in the method, nor the products.. but it is just a style that I am leaning towards lately.. and I am referring to cream shadow sticks! I have own many of these from various brands over the years. the thing is, I love the idea of them, as convenient eyeshadow options, but I hardly ever use them as eyeshadows. I just end up using my regular powder eyeshadows. The only 'creamy' eyeshadows I use are those in a pot.. like the GA ETKs.. or sometimes (okay, very rarely, the Maybelline pots) and those shadow sticks just end up forgotten, thrown away.
Fast forward to a few recent discoveries - starting with the Laura Mercier caviar sticks. Mine are the mini ones which come in a holiday set from last year. This is like a neutral palette in a stick form. They are creamy, easy to blend and seems to set quite well.
Then my girlfriends gifted me a really high-end one from By Terry - the ombre blackstar.. which I quickly pull out to use, to create a subtly sparkly smokey eyes just with this product alone (I have it in the shade Misty Rock - a taupey shade).
And fast fast forward to one day when I was shopping at Sephora with my babe Sarah - and we were looking at sparkly liners and shadow sticks.. and we were at the Marc Jacobs shelf, and we played with these Twinkle Pop sticks.. which felt cooling upon application (oh! The novelty!) and the sparkles on these sticks are just so pretty - just note.. only the paleer shades are sparklier... the otehrs are just very metallic. I immediately applied Honey Bunny (which I later bought when they re-stocked) - all over my lower lids. I have been using the paler shades from the Caviar Sticks under my eyes and found that I really love the effect of this 'swollen' shiny eyes look... and again, nothing very new with this. There is this trend - from K-beauty - Aegyo Sal - eyebags if you will.. which many girls like to create when they do their makeup. I don't have very obvious eyebags.. so I have to fake them with these sparkly shadow sticks!
I have been posting such Aegyo Sal inspired selfies on my IG.. so you might be quite familiar with that.
I even do it on days when I don't wear any other eye makeup! I am just into that phase now. Haha.
Here's a closer look at some of these shadow sticks - and they come in various price points..
The By Terry Ombre Blackstar costs S$60 each.
The Marc Jacobs twinkle pops costs S$39 each.
The LM Caviar sticks are prolly high $30s or $40 each.
The Innisfree one is only S$12 each.
And swatches -
As you can see, the paler ones are great for under the eyes... and the rest are like creamy eyelid colors. They are all very blendable.. and I usually use a MAC 217 to blend.
Here's how I very liberally slap on the Marc Jacobs Twinkle Pop (in the shade Honey Bunny) under my eyes. It is pretty long lasting and there is no fallout at all. I didn't have to set it with powder either. Super easy to use!
Hallo to my shiny pretty Aegyo Sal (eyebags!)
And usually I will draw a thick line on my eyelids.. and use a MAC 217 to blend out the shadow up to the crease. This By Terry stick blends out very nicely into a shadowy multi-dimensional shade. I also use a much darker shadow stick as a liner Although there is some creasing near the lashline (I didn't use any eyeshadow primer and I hadn't planned on doing this entry today.) I must say that this combo is very convenient. Sometimes I can just throw these shadow sticks into my makeup bag, and I don't need to bother with blending powder eyeshadows.
There's nothing on the lips - just super stained from all the epic lipstick swatching earlier this afternoon.
I can also just do my regular eyeshadow looks, and do this Aegyo Sal thingy too. I. Just. Love. It. for now...
Other stuff on my face:
base - Clarins UV plus, Ettusais Mineral BB cream (shade 20), set with NARS Soft Velvet Loose Powder
cheeks - Charlotte Tilbury filmstar bronze and glow, MAC Blonde MSF (very old)
eyes - as mentioned in this entry
brows - Innisfree eco brow gel, set with MAC pro longwear brow gel in brunette
lips - very stained
What is your current fave makeup look?
Thanks for reading!
