Green-Eyed Monster

I'm in the green eyeshadow phase now.

There. I've said it. I love all sorts of greens and with my Bourjois as well as RMK, I'm not easily satisfied.

With Bloom's flagship store opened, I've been making a lot of trips to the store. Blame it on the distance, or lack of. Blame it on the wonderful makeup artist (ask for Alice, she's the sweetest and warmest person ever!) and blame it on the very pretty, very fun and very affordable products.

And, when I saw what she did with her eyes, I immediately went, "I want that look!"

It's a very dramatic look that's not suitable for everyday use but I loved the way she played with the colours and how she built the effect up.

In the end, I bought a couple of items from her, came home and re-created the look.


Shadow liner in electric blue


Eyeshadow in Moss

My way.

I used the shadow liner in Electric Blue to line my eyes. Yes, it's the return of the dreaded electric blue eyeshadow! Trust me on this, it works! Then, I smudged the eyeshadow in Moss (which looks suspiciously like one of the colours I have on RMK, but upon closer inspection, they are completely different!) on the outer corner of the eyes. I blended the colours so that there's a thin line of aqua with a pop of green at the outer eye. Then, I took one of my least-used eyeshadows: Gold by The Face Shop which I got for RM10 or 15. I smudged that along the lash line to blend it with the rest of the liner and slightly into the green. I finish that off with my Dior Ready-to-beige as a highlighter on the brow bone. Brow pencil and mascara to follow as usual.

Pictures will have to come tomorrow because I'm completely swamped with work with the announcement of the new State and Federal budgets, fundings and the new organization structure.

NB: Shryh, how proud are you of me? I'm using eyeshadows from all different brands!

Eyelining for babies.

There isn't a single kohl pencil or gel liner in my entire makeup collection, and there hasn't been for years. My Cover Girl Line Exact dried out a couple of weeks ago, but even when it was still oozing ink, I hardly used it. I keep promising myself to get either a Bobbi Brown Long-Wear gel eyeliner or a Mac Fluidline, and I think this is the year that it may happen. But a little bit of liner goes a long way -- when applied correctly, it makes one's eyes look more awake and defined. Lacking proper liner, I use a liner brush and dark shadow to wedge in short strokes a thin line as close as possible to my lashes.

The effect is very subtle, but it's there. Behold, my lineless left eye (and forgive my scraggly brows, a trim is overdue):


A touch of neutral shimmer eyeshadow from my Bobbi Brown Stonewashed Nudes palette, and a teensy bit of black shadow liner from my Mac Smoke Signals palette, I'm ready to go stuff my face with the best Mexican food in town:

The entire lining process took about ten minutes which may seem like quite a lot, but I didn't want to clean up mistakes (more time wasted, increased blood pressure). Besides, I'd saved enough time by only applying one eyeshadow wash. I wet my eyeliner brush, dipped it in black eyeshadow, blotted it on a piece of tissue to minimize fallout, and drew a line in short strokes from the outer corner towards my tear duct. So, lining isn't all that difficult, and nobody has any reason to skip the liner with this technique. As for me, it's time to graduate to big girl liners.

Cover Girl LineExact liquid liner

I think Amy Winehouse has done more for the eyeliner than anyone else in the twenty-first century:

How I choose to remember her. Sigh.

I've frequently wondered about the brand and type of eyeliner this talented young chanteuse uses to create her iconic look. I believe it's created using liquid or gel liner, but definitely not kohl, but given how she's such a mess right now, I wouldn't be surprised if they were drawn on with a permanent marker. I don't see how she can get up every morning (or evening...) and draw those exaggerated but symmetrical wings on with a steady hand.

There is only one Amy Winehouse, however, so while I love and applaud her for standing out in a sea of bottle blond mermaid artistes, there are ways of wearing cat's eye-liner there are just as dramatic but less Bride of Frankenstein-y such as Pat McGrath's version for Louis Vuitton's Fall 2007 collection. The look was created with a liquid liner McGrath had developed for Cover Girl called LineExact, which actually resembles a felt-tip pen:

Sharpie, or eyeliner?

Maybe both.

As one would expect of a pen liner, the LineExact is simple to use - the ink is evenly distributed (remember to shake it first) which makes drawing a continuous line easier than usual, and the fine tip allows you to control the thickness of the line with greater precision. Mistakes are easily erased with a dampened Q-tip as the liner is not waterproof. If you like to blend and smudge your eyeliner, LineExact is not the liner for you as the smudgeproof formula dries within seconds of application.

My complaint is that the liner "feathers" a little upon application, although I have been unable to determine whether that is due to the formula or the texture of my eyelids. A single tube doesn't last for long either - I purchased mine last December and used it very sparingly, but when I tried it on the back of my hand this morning, it had dried out. Otherwise, this is an ideal product for a liquid liner novice to practise winging out her eyeliner and a safe, non-irritating option for drawing whiskers or zebra stripes on faces.

Cover Girl LineExact Liquid Liner comes in four shades - very black, smoke, brown and brown black - and retails for about US$6.50 in drug stores.