Fantasy Makers Glitter Eyeliner in Darkness

Am I the only one who is cheap enough to only buy Halloween Collection after Halloween?

Every fall, the cheap (but good) drugstore brand Wet n Wild takes on its alternate identity and became Fantasy Maker, I don't really see the point (beside that customer can't use those Wet n Wild discount on this "brand".) why they are doing it but since I do like many Wet n Wild stuff, I will just get one to play with.
Anyway, nobody wants to pay 3 dollars on a toy when you can get it at 1.50, right? Anyway, since most of those glitter eyeliners are in festive colors like red, green and gold, Wet n Wild might as well put them in the Holiday collection and call them "jingle bell" eyeliners...

This particular shade is called "Darkness" I was a bit confused why they call it a glitter liner because the "glitter are actually fine enough to be called Shimmer (you know, glitter are supposed to be chunky...). It just looks like a shimmering gold liner to me (that would look great paired with deep purple!).

Darkness swatched on the left, on the right, the color is amp-ed up by Too Faced Stalkerazzi (big black/gold glitter in a clear base)

It turns out that, the "Darkness" they are talking about is the black glitter within. While the black glitter does make it more interesting. I wish the liner is more dazzling than this. (I mean, if you pare it with light pastel eye makeup, this can almost be a very neutral eyeliner that gives the tiniest bit of color impact. ). Since the color is a bit boring, I decided to layer it and see what I would get.
On top of Stila Cobalt Smudge Pot...Starry Night anybody?

Cake Eyeliner: More than just flour and sugar

A while ago I did a post about my eyeliner brushes and I mentioned that lining my eyes with a brush is probably the only makeup skill I have somewhat gotten a grip of. While I can handle gel and liquid liner (and glitter!) , my favorite type of eyeliner is definitely the "cake" and if you have weird skin on which every gel/liquid cakes, pencil smudges. You might want to give these cake liner a go.

What is cake eyeliner?
Cake eyeliner is simply eyeliner in a pressed powder form, the color is usually brought out (activated) by adding a drop of water, glycerin, saline solution. Since I am a bit lazy and picky, my definition of cake eyeliner is anything in a pressed powder form that's fine textured, pigmented and silky enough to form a crisp and distinct line on the eyes and stays there. (And I want it silky enough to glide without any water.)

As you can see, most of my "cake liners" are actually eyeshadow that I use as a liner. I have tried several brands of eyeshadow, not many brands makes shadow with a liner quality. Certain Nars are extraordinarily good candidate so are many Stila shimmering dark shadow as they give smooth and fine line when used dry(Urban decay eyeshadow is know for their silkiness but when picked up with a very find brush, I get nothing but crumbles.)

Why cake eyeliner?
-A little goes a long way (My ex-favorite liner was Stila smudge pot but they became a pain to use after both shades dried out) and you don't need to take special care to avoid dry-out since they are already dry!
-They don't smudge like wax based pencils or smear like liquid liner.
-With a push liner brush, they are the best for tight line without tugging and pulling.
-(Again, with the right brush) You get very neat lines.
-More control over the intensity of the line with different brushes
-Since it can be applied very close to lashline, I can use colors like deep green/blue and still maintain the neutral look.
-Like powder shadow, they are usually very easy to remove
-Many of these are eyeshadow with beautiful shades.
(Stila Jade, Laural Geller Key Lime/Deep Green Apple and Nars eyeshadow single Fuji)

How I apply cake eyeliner
Most of the time people use a fine tip brush or a slanted one and damp the shadow with it then glide on the lid. I personally like the line to be very neat, I just dab the shadow with a flat/stiff/synthetic brush and dot the color back to my lash line session by session.

Usually synthetic brush performs better than animal hair ones because they don't hold on the color when you try to dispense it. Some of my favorite brushes are Stila #13, Tarte flat eyeliner brush. Sonia Kashuk has a flat brush that's soft enough to glide but it's quite expensive (1o bucks plus tax while my Stila was 13 bucks without tax during sale) and it has the typical drugstore quality control (or should I say, lack of such.).

Keep in mind that
-Sometime waterproof and long lasting doesn't come together. For example, a waterproof liquid liner can smudge with a tiniest bit of oil and while cake liner are usually long lasting (0n me), it probably wouldn't last you a Notebook sob fest...(No,I never watched that and never plan to, I don't watch/read chick flick)
-They are indeed powder so if you use them on your waterline, it will get wash off and you get (insert eyeshadow color here) eye-wax.
-It might get washed away if you use a water based glitter liner on top.
-Not all Nars eyeshadow are created equal (for example you clearly can't use Tokyo as a liner)
-Most deep shimmery eyeshadow are nice for eye-lining.
-A tiny dab of eyeshadow base would help it last loner.

Anyway, have you tried any cake liner? Do you like it? If you haven't, just dig your (high-end, sorry, none of my drugstore shadow actually made the cut) eyeshadow stash and you will sure to find something!

Unsung Hero: Stila palette blush

Things were always better back in the old days: The traffic, the gas price(not that I have a car to worry about it anyway), the weather...And Stila palette.
While I am not a big fan of Stila blush pan, I am quite fond of those old coordinated palette with eyeshadow and blush. Not only the colors work well together, the blush also happen to be really pretty (my favorite was a golden peach from the perfectly sage palette...Which I swap in exchange for a piece of rubbish...Ever wonder I don't swap anymore?) . I like the rectangular pan because I can swipe a fluffy blush across it and not needing to worry about the dusting problem I get from round pan...

I wish Stila brings it back...

NYX lip gloss in Smokey Look

Smokey Look is probably the most famous out of all NYX lip gloss. I actually bought it by mistake, thinking that it was on sale (when it wasn't) in ULTA...Anyway, I don't feel for it...like with most NYX products I have gotten.
The tube of gloss is pretty big and it contains 15ml of products (almost 3x that of a Revlon) the heavily scented (artificial fruit that gets on my nerve but not too bad) gloss has a jelly texture (hence it's best when it's in squeegee tube) and is dispensed with a large and slanted doe foot applicator. I need to re-dip for a few times because the texture isn't very runny.
The coverage is decent and the color isn't too yellow (no lip gloss can defeat my pigmented mouth so far) but I just don't like it...Maybe I just hate everything NYX.

Currently Loving: File Destroyer

A few months ago, I entered a so called American digital goddess (a radio host)'s website. I was trying to download some suggested anti spy-ware software from the so called "goddess" (Americans, can you guys just be a little humble?) Anyway, it turns out that I have download a so called security system that does nothing but coming up with fake scans and telling you that my system is in danger and there is no way to remove the thread unless I pay 50 bucks and get the "complete set".
I was smart/reasonable enough to uninstall the program right away hence the fake scan and warning is stopped...A month later, a pop-up started to going allover my computer telling me that the "trial period" is over and I need to register the copy to "take full advantage of it"...Apparently there is a source code (or whatever you call it, I snored through all of my computer science classes) that stayed in program file even after the uninstalling...Well, I could tolerate some popped up so I just deal with it (and close that damn thing 5 times a day for 5 months)

Recently, I decided that the few seconds a day could be spent on something more constructive (like trash talking NYX or Maybelline over here) so I went to Baidu (the search engine that beat the crap out of google in China)and search for some file crashers...Well, long story short. All the annoying pop-ups are gone and there is no string attached!

Moral of the story: Count on your own people not some random goddess...

Beside the file crasher I am also loving
-Drinking green tea by liters
-Peachy (not coral) blush
-Nars Powder Products
-Nars Peachy Blush :)
-Bling out glitter eyeliner
-Being completely bare faced
-Sunny Day (only weather that my camera likes...)
-Purple eyeliner (still looking for the one)

What about you guys?

Brand Spotlight: Kiss Me Heroine Mascara and Curler

While I am waiting for my lashes to grow back (I cut my lashes one more time, a week after the first cut, for a growth boost...Yes, I am psycho...)Since Japanese cosmetics companies are generally well known for their nifty tools, let's do some window shopping and see what else is in the Japanese market!Today's spotlight would be on Kiss Me (pronounced Ki-su Me?) Heroine, a drugstore brand that's quite famous for their mascara and the anime spoke model. (No clue who is she, I grew up watching Sailor Moon and Pokeymon...)

While Kiss Me is quite famous for the volumizing mascara, I am not going to talk about it as I am not the kind of person who pay over 10 bucks for drugstore mascara...Anyway, their pink padded lash curler seems pretty interesting.

While I can't tell how this would perform but they actually list some actual measurement. I am guessing it's for the curvature but recalling from my math class memory... The curvature is inversely proportional to the radius so the function should be 1/R, and the unit should be mm^-1...I have no clue why they use 19R 36mm...Unless they are talking about the molding?


Lol her lashes looks so fake...Anyway, this picture shows that the curler is relativly flat and has smooth edge to avoid pinching.


You can also open the curler more widely and according to conservation of angular momentum...You would need less force to achieve the same torque or "moment". Anyway, the curler does look interesting and theoretically it should work better than those American drugstore ones and possibly as well (or better) than Shiseido...

Each of these curler retails for 800 yens (which is 2 bucks cheaper than the retail price of Shu Uemura/Shiseido) I would like to ask my mom to get one of these for me but she usually refuses to deal with my bullshit...

Beside the curler, I found that they carry some very unique false lashes as well. I am liking 04/05 but I think I will just stick with those clearance lashes from Wet n Wild.