It's remarkable how much Japanese drugstore brands have evolved the last four to five years (then again I still long for all the collections from 2006-2014 that I missed out due to unfavorable exchange rate/my hourly wage then). Nowadays, many drugstore palette around 1500yen have refined texture that's as good as high end, even the 500yen ones offer tasteful color scheme with texture that's not at all chalky.
Excel Skinny Rich shadow has been gaining a lot of buzz with their melty texture and OL-friendly shades (aka fifty shades of beige) and I suppose the products are so good that people forgive them for their craptastic packaging. This past spring two limited edition were released and I went hunting them down immediately because 1. I fall for most limited gimmick (I don't think I ever regret purchasing something at this price) 2. when I miss out something, it haunts me forever.
Luckily the Excel palettes were easy to find on eBay (meanwhile the Visee x Amuro Namie palettes are marked up by 100%) so I snatched both shades. Today, I will show you SR08 Aquatic Brown. The first pop of seafoam green in their sea of neutral browns.
On upper left there is this off white that's mostly a soft warm gold on the skin, the accent mint green with of gray undertone also emit a golden glow. The main lid shade is a nutty brown that leans a little on the cool khaki side. The liner is a bark brown with very fine sparkle.
When applied in the standard gradation way (layering from the lightest to darkest shade) all color blends seamlessly and the star of the palette, the seafoam actually doesn't show up at all. All it does is leaving a hint of green sheen that you really have to look for.
The only way to make the sea foam green semi visible is to pack it on, after applying the main shade and liner. I also skipped the off white so I don't dilute the green. The end result is weird and patchy (it was patchy mainly because I was sweating profusely when I took this picture) but I wouldn't call it unwearable.
As a boring brown palette, I do like the main lid shade (since most of the Skinny Rich palette are warmer rosy or peachy brown) enough to have some uses for it. And frankly I do like the barely visible hint of green. Right now my face is too much of a grease ball to wear any face makeup but as soon as the humidity drops I will be wearing it more. The color should go well with the cool breeze that...we don't have.
Verdict: Underwhelming but I like it.
The seafoam green is interesting. It's more muted than usual, then again it could be my computer screen...
ReplyDeleteWell it is really sheer to start with and I remember the orange in SR5 also doesn't look orange on the lids. I will try it when my tan fade a little...that would be early spring next year.
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