An Eyeliner Story: 5 black eye liners compared

Receiving the NYX eyeliner in my December Luxe Box made me wonder how it compared to the other black eyeliners I currently have.

From left to right you can see : NYX Pencil Eyeliner, Revlon ColorStay Liquid Eye Pen, Revlon ColorStay Liquid Liner, L'Oréal Lineur Intense Felt Tip Liquid Liner and MAC Fluidline Gel Liner.  Obviously, they're all black. 

Obviously, the NYX pencil is the easiest to use, it takes the least amount of practice to achieve the desired results because well, we all know how to draw.  You would think that the liquid eye pen from Revlon would be really easy to use as well... wrong.  It's such a mess.  There's either too much or too little product on the tip and it's just a mess to apply, you'll see from the swatches was I mean.

The two liquid liners do take some practice to apply but once you master it it's pretty easy. The L'Oréal one has a felt tip which makes it so much easier to master, so if you're looking into buying your first eyeliner I'd get this one, it does an okay job and it's pretty cheap.  I do find though that the Revlon liquid liner is the best liquid liner in the drugstore category.  The tip is kinda small though so it's a little harder to get straight long lines.  

Finally there's the MAC Fluidline that I've already reviewed here.  The highlight?  Amazing staying power, the best I've seen for a liner. 

Now onto the swatches...

From left to right in case you didn't remember : NYX Pencil Eyeliner, Revlon ColorStay Liquid Eye Pen, Revlon ColorStay Liquid Liner, L'Oréal Lineur Intense Felt Tip Liquid Liner and MAC Fluidline Gel Liner.

The NYX pencil is a deep matte black with a smudgeable consistency.  Great pigmentation there as you can see.

See what I told you about the Liquid Eye Pen from Revlon?  It looks brown - not black - very watery and it was hard to get an even color on my arm so you can imagine how bad it is on your lid? Do not buy, absolute waste of money.

The Revlon liquid liner is a lot more pigmented than you see on the picture.  The only issue with this liner is that the hardness of the tip makes it kind of a pain in the butt to layer.  The first swipe is ok, but then the hardness of the tip scratches the color from the first swipe and you need to do it over... so yeah definitely a product that you need to master.  But once that's done, you can get great results from it.

The fourth one, the L'Oréal Lineur Intense is very pigmented as well but it has shimmer in it, which I'm not too fond of for a liner.  But that aside, it's a great liner and very easy to use like I said before.

The MAC fluid line also has a matte finish and it's very easy to smudge as well.  It's my daily liner and has the most staying power out of all the liners I've tried.  

So that's about it!  What are your favorite brands of eyeliner?  I want to try the UD 24/7 ones and the Bobbi Brown gel liners because I've heard great things from them! 

Review: MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack

I purchased this not too long ago (see my MAC haul post) because I was searching for an alternative for my beloved Revlon ColorStay Liquid Liner.  I had good results with it, but the application was a pain, because the tip is so small.

Pictured: MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack (18 $CAD) and Sephora Angled Brush 22 (16 $CAD)

Because it's a gel eye liner it applies very easily.  Unlike a liquid eye liner which dries either almost instantly or has the chance to smudge on your lid before it dries, the gel liner really stays where you apply it.  Well, this brand anyway.

You do get an okay amount for the price, but it's much more about the quality of the product.

As you can see from my swatch, even though it's kinda blurry (sorry about that), it really is a deep black with a matte finish.  I really don't like shimmery eye liners, so this is perfect for a polished look.  I have pictures of it on me below, but be aware that these were taken 12 hours AFTER I've put on the liner.  So it really has amazing staying power. Again, sorry for my oily skin, it is the end of the day :3.  Also, you may notice that I'm not wearing any eyeshadow, so that means no primer as well, so again +1 for the long-lasting properties.

I feel I'm going to use this product A LOT and I'll go through my 18$ worth of product reaaaally quickly.  But really, I'm loving this.  I highly recommend and can't wait to try other colors.  It's perfect for a heavier hand or for tight lining.  Looove it. <3


xoxo, MiMu

Review: MAC Glitter and Ice Snowglobe Eye Shadow Palette in Sultry

When I went to the MAC Glitter and Ice launching event, I made a point to myself to have a list of what I was ''allowed to get''.  As I feel I already have enough eye shadows, and as I tend to wear the same ones everyday, I was pretty confident that eye shadows wouldn't even be on my radar.  

Obviously, things happened differently.  The MUA did a full face on me and she had to use eye shadows from the new collection.  So she used the Snowglobe eye shadow palette in sultry... and that's what I bought.

Of course the packaging is so pretty.  I've always been a silver girl rather than a gold girl, so I'm really drawn by this.  You can also move the palette and see the glitters move as if it were a snow globe (d'uh!).

It also comes with a mirror and a small 213 SE brush.

Pictured, from top to bottom, left to right: Lightfully, Fun!, Black Tied, Trax, Festive Delight and Shadowy Lady.

Here are some swatches on my pale NW15 skin.  The first picture is without a flash and the second one is with flash.  From left to right: Lightfully, Fun!, Black Tied, Trax, Festive Delight and Shadowy Lady.  Both swatches were made without a primer and show the eye shadows in their dry form.

It's almost impossible to see Lightfully on my NW15 skin.  I feel you have to layer it up A LOT and maybe wet it to get the color out of it.  For that reason, I think it's kind of a dud. I must've swiped the pan 7-8x for it to lightly show.

Fun! does shop up a little more, but I think this is the kind of color that you just must wear with a primer, otherwise it's gone within a few hours.  The color itself is very shimmery with very little fallout.  I'm impressed with this color and intend to use it a lot for a daily look.  It does remind me of a lighter less shimmery Half-Baked from UD.

Black Tied is a color that is perfect to put over eye liner for a smudged look.  It took about 2 swipes from the pan to reach a charcoal color, which is very good.  

The last three are definitely my favorite from the set.  They're the most pigmented and they're just gorgeous.  The MUA who did my makeup used them most and I must say the results were amazing.  I especially love how she used Festive Delight on the highest part of my crease (pictures below).  Shadowy Lady is the only matte one from the set and it is very pigmented, what you see up there is one swipe only.  

All in all, I'm very pleased about this purchase even though I felt I didn't need any more eye shadows at the moment.  The colors are just gorgeous and they make my blue eyes pop, which I love.  The palette is kind of pricey but it provides a whole array of looks and seems very versatile to me.  And with only one dud, it's definitely a great purchase.  I would recommend it most to ladies with blue or green eyes as Fun!, Trax and Festive Delight will show up beautifully.  

xoxo, MiMu

MAC Glitter and Ice Event and Haul

So today I had an appointment at my MAC store for the new collection Glitter and Ice launching event. I inevitably got a few things...

Pictured : MAC Fix+ (24 $CAD), MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack (18$ CAD), MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Give Me Sun! (33 $CAD) and MAC Snowglobe Eye Shadow Palette from the Glitter and Ice Collection (45.50 $CAD).

As you can see, these products are from the regular collection.  They have been on my wishlist for a while now so it was nice getting them.

The MAC Fix+ is definitely something I'm looking forward to these days.  As a lot of you might experience, my skin tends to get a lot drier when there's a change in season.  I know it's been autumn for a while, but right now the weather we've been having here in Quebec, has just started to drop down to 5°C or so, so it's getting a lot colder these days.  I know this product is supposed to set your makeup and make it last throughout the day, but even the MUA herself told me it was better for hydrating and softening the cakey look our skin can have during season transitions.  

As for the MAC gel eye liner, I've been wanting to try a good gel eye liner ever since I experimented with the one in my Sephora 40-something eye shadow palette.  Obviously, the one in that set wasn't very high quality, but a lot of people have been raving about this one.  The MUA did put some on me and I have to say it does look fabulous.  Plus, it's really matte, which I love about black eye liner as I hate the shimmery glitzy look with dark liner.

About the bronzer... I'm kinda feeling meh about it.  I'm actually probably going to return it tomorrow.  It was an impulse purchase and I feel it is definitely way too dark for my skin tone and way too orange based to be a good contouring powder.  For reference, I have NW15 skin.

I will review the Snowglobe eye shadow palette separately, as I feel it deserves it's own post.  Soooo pretty.

The event itself was really amazing.  They had a huge snow globe and skaters who would dance around either in the globe or around it.  When I arrived they were dancing/skating to great pop dance songs in ethereal kind-of dance moves.  But about forty-five minutes after being there, they just looked pretty bored.  I guess putting on a show for 9+ hours a day isn't all it's cracked up to be.  Their makeup was gorgeous though, very shimmery and futuristic with lots of silver and white.  

xoxo, MiMu