Lunasol Vivid Clear Eyes in Khaki Beige Collection

 When I got my first Vivid Clear Eyes (Pink Beige Collection), I intended to only have one from each collection (to make sure that the palette remains special and well-loved). Well, I couldn't resist so I ordered another one anyway. I have kept it stashed for most of the fall and winter and now I finally dug it out to give it a proper play. As the weather warms up, I on longer have that sallow-and-purple undertone that makes gold unnaturally yellow.

Lunasol Vivid Clear Eyes 04 Khaki Beige (despite the usual boring name) is a warmer palette that's by no means boring. As with other Vivid Clear, this has the upper right split pans. I get overwhelmed when there are to many colors but 5 is quite manageable and I do use all pans.

From left to right

1.Pearly white base/highlighter, infused with soft gold shimmer. I use it as a smoothing base most of the time.

2. Clear vanilla gold.  Mostly used as highlighter for inner parts of undereye.

3. Soft yellow gold. Unlike the pinkish taupe in the Pink Beige Collection (which I used as a defining shades on outter V), this one is lighter and brighter so I mainly reserve it for outter portion of undereyes. It's surprisingly wearable without heading to a direction of a Cinna (Hunger Game) or Monkey King.

The bottom row is mainly for shading and definition. (There are of course multi-colored shimmer but I got tired of tilting my arm).

The lid shade is a medium olive gold taupe beige (terrible description but it really is a bit of everything) the overall tone is warm and mildy metallic-pearl. It's pigmented while having a bit of translucency. The color is a bit weak just used by itself so the liner pan was an necessity.

Usually, the eyeliner pan in a palette gives me the most distress: I only use a tiny bit of it each time and I tend to be heavy-handed that a lot of time things get too smoked out and muddy (i assume it's something that people with small lid-space often face). 

The liner in Khaki Beige is lighter in color (that it can be used for shading the outter corner) and is semi-metallic (not a defacto matte with sparkle)! I find that shimmer particles makes it easier to melt into existing colors so it doesn't look all smoked out. Since I don't usually like very deep eyes, I just put it along lash line and diffuse it upward.

 
Khaki Beige in the usually vertical gradation and the split pan under eyes. I avoid primer (especially American ones that makes shadow more intense) to preserve the clarity.

 

The overall effect is defining and brightening. It's an made-up look that's still very suitable for daytime (I think I will be wearing it a lot for spring/summer). 

Anyway, 04 and 05 (Khaki and Pink Beige) have both been discontinued by Lunasol as of last fall. I can only assume it's because their color theme and layout overlap somewhat with the 2016 Sparkling Eyes. I only hope Lunasol will come up with something interesting this fall ( the summer collection is yawn-inducing). My lunch money are itching to be spent at the proper places(not fast food)...