I love a lazy Sunday, especially when the sun is shining and the day seems endless! It seems like the perfect time to do a review I have been wanting to get done for a while. The Barbie Loves Stila Smudgepot collection. I wanted my first review to be about something I REALLY love - gel eyeliners! Pictured below are my Stila Smudgepots (L-R Little Black Dress/Pink Noir, Purple Pumps/Ultraviolet, Cobalt Clutch/Electric Blue and Kitten).
The first three are part of the Barbie Loves Stila collection from 2009, but if you scour the interwebs these colours are still available. After umming and ahhing over them for a while, I recently noticed them on StrawberryNet, two of each colour for AUD$15.50. Couldn't say no! I thought I would also do a review of Kitten, considering it is such a popular colour.
Little Black Dress, Purple Pumps and Cobalt Clutch are their Barbie names, but the ones without the Barbie winking eye packaging are known as Pink Noir, Ultraviolet and Electric Blue. Anyway, they're the same colours, different names.
I am going to be honest, I am not overwhelmed by these Smudgepots like I was expecting to be. The only one I really really love is Pink Noir. It's a gorgeous inky black, which is packed with fine purple glitter.
I use this colour as an eyeliner and also smudged in the crease on top of other shadows. I am very happy with it, and recommend it to anyone looking for a glittery gel liner. Even if you have MAC Blitz & Glitz Fluidline, you need this! It brings a completely different dynamic to your look.
Ultraviolet was a bit of a let down, as the colour pay-off is very sheer, and not really what I am used to from a Smudgepot. I used it as an eyeliner yesterday, and had to layer it in order to get the colour I wanted, so it was difficult to get a thin bold line with it. The plus side is that it is also packed with glitter and has a beautiful consistency, so if you can get it right, it'd be a very fun colour to wear. I think I might just use it as a shadow in the future, as it's not really what I am after in a gel liner.
Electric Blue is a bold blue that is packed with very fine light blue shimmer, which almost makes it look iridescent. It looks beautiful in the pot and I was very excited to be receiving it as blue liner seems to be making a comeback. However, this is probably the biggest disappointment of the collection. I had read on some blogs and seen YouTube reviews which describe this colour as being a lot drier and flakier than other pots, and I was hoping that there were just a couple of dud pots out there, but when I got mine, I was disappointed to see that the consistency of Electric Blue was indeed very dry. When I applied it, it seemed to flake off with every stroke, and as I tried to apply more to increase the intensity, it flaked even more. So whilst it is a great colour, I'll need to have a brainstorm to see what I can do to make it usable for me.
Finally on to Stila Kitten, what can I say apart from I Love You? You're the only pot I've ever paid full price for at Mecca. Eyeliner, Eyeshadow, Primer, Highlighter... you do it all. So here's to you, Kitten! May you never be discontinued.
The brushes I use for my gel liners are below...
The top brush is the Mecca eyeliner brush which is AUD$35 at Mecca. I like to use this brush for the lighter colours, as it is more difficult to do a thin line with it, and I am not overly fussy if my Kitten line is slightly thicker than I do my black lines.
Stila #13S is one fabulous brush and I use this whenever I do tightlining with my darker colours. It's really easy to do a thin line right on the lash line. You can get this for a steal on StrawberryNet.
The Manicare Artiste brush is very similar to the Mecca brush, except the brush is slightly narrower. However for AUD$13.95 it is an excellent dupe. You can get this at Target/Priceline etc.
After all my swatching, I want to give props to my Johnson's Baby Skincare Wipes Ultra Sensitive. They've done a darn good job in removing these liners from my hands and fingers!
Happy Sunday everyone!
