Barry M Bold Purple Waterproof Eyeliner Review and Swatches

A little while ago I told you about two shades of the Barry M Waterproof Eyeliners, Bold Gunmetal and Blue (click the link for my review), and now it's time to tell you about the purple one. I think this one is my favourite of the 3. It's a gorgeous purple with fine micro glitter, absolutely stunning.

In fact I've found that it's a nearly exact dupe of Mac Designer Purple Pearlglide eyeliner, which is one of my favourite purple eyeliners. The staying power of this one was slightly better than the other two as well. I didn't test whether it's waterproof, but it did stay on my lower lashline all day without smudging or fading, so that's good enough for me. Luckily the micro glitter doesn't irritate my eyes, in fact the pearlglides sometimes do, so in that respect I like this eyeliner better than Designer Purple.

These eyeliners cost £3.99 each and are similar size to the Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners, although it doesn't say anywhere on the product or the Barry M website. I'd estimate it to be between 1 and 1.2 g.

A lovely, soft, creamy, long lasting eyeliner at the fraction of the cost of other brand's very similar product. What's not to like?

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Maybelline Color Tattoo 24hr Eyeshadow 85 Light in Purple / Liquid Light Review and Swatches

Maybelline has released a few new shades of their very popular Color Tattoo eyeshadows and I picked up 85 Light in Purple (or according to the display in my local Boots, Liquid Light). It's a really interesting colour, a greyish purpley blue with a pink duochrome to it.

The formula is the same fantastic long lasting, non-creasing, easy to work with gel-cream formula that we know and love. I used it over my trusty Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer and it stayed put for over 12 hours. It would also make a nice base, but I haven't done that as with a colour this lovely, I prefer to use it alone.

The colour is very similar to Mac Industrial pearlglide, in fact that's the eyeliner I have used with it for a quick, but rather striking look. The pictures don't show the pink duochrome very well, but it's there and depending on which angle you're looking it's pretty strong, making the shadow look more purple than blue.

I really like this product and absolutely adore the shade. At £4.99 for 4 g (with a 3 for 2 offer in Boots currently) it's well worth buying.

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did with this eyeshadow after the jump!

Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eyeliners Review and Swatches

While on the subject of eyeliners, I thought I'd do a post on Stila's Smudge Stick Eyeliners as well (having already reviewed three of them with the palettes I've shown you recently). I'd been meaning to pick up a few more shades but there isn't a Stila counter near me and I really wanted to swatch them first, so when I eventually went to Westfield (Shepherds Bush) Shopping Center I managed to pick up these 4. For the shades I've already reviewed, check them out here: Tetra, Starfish and Damsel.

I got Peacock, Lionfish, Moray and Bluefin. Peacock is teal, Lionfish is warm brown, Moray is khaki green with gold flecks and Bluefin is blue with shimmer.They are all nice and creamy, but set pretty quickly and once they do, they're not going anywhere. They're fairly easy to remove with make up remover, but they really don't come off just by rubbing. I'm not 100% sure how waterproof they are as I haven't tested that, but they stay vibrant and in place on my waterline all day, so that's good enought for me.

I like all the colours I got, out of the 4 Peacock is my favourite as it's a reallly gorgeous teal shade. There's one thing I don't like about these eyeliners, and that is just how little you actually get. Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners and Mac Pearlglide liners are both 1.2 g, whereas Stila Smudge Sticks are a measly 0.28 g! That's not even a quarter of the size of the other two! So at £13 each they are actually very expensive per gram! On the other hand you don't need to sharpen these, so there's no wastage as you just twist the end to get more product out.

Stila products in the UK are available from Stila's own website, Boots, BeautyBay and Lookfantastic (or at least those are the ones I know about). 

Do you own these? Have you got a favourite shade? Let me know in the comments!  

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Mac Pearlglide Intense Eye Liners Review and Swatches

The Mac Vera collection also contains 7 shades of their popular Pearlglide Intense Eye Liners, so I thought I'd do a little review on them. I actually only purchased 2 shades this time around, becaue I already owned 5. The shades I bought are Lord It Up (bronze with pearl) and Black Line (black with gold pearl), the ones I owned already are Designer Purple (iridescent violet), Industrial (periwinkle grey), Undercurrent (teal with pearl), Black Swan (black with pearl) and Petrol Blue (deep navy with pearl).

These eyeliners are really lovely, they're creamy, long lasting, don't smudge, but still pretty easy to remove. I really like them, they're one of my favourite eyeliners. They all contain glitter, so they're best not used on the waterline, but I did check the Mac website and the outer packaging and there's no warning about that anywhere. However I do find that if I use them on my waterline, my eyes water, so I tend to keep them on the lashline.

These eyeliners are the same size (1.2 g) as the Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners which are also one of my favourites, and they cost £14 (£1 more expensive than the UD ones), but really I wouldn't compare them too much to the UD ones because of the glitter. Also I think the colours they come in are more unique than the UD ones, I especially love Industrial, an amazing light blue-grey, it's almost duo-chrome (it hasn't got as much glitter as some of the other ones either). If you like coloured eyeliners, then definitely check out Industrial, Designer Purple, Petrol Blue and Undercurrent, if you prefer blacks and neutrals, then go for the other 3 shades. Out of those my favourite is Black Swan, it's a gorgeous black with silver sparkles.

According to the UK Mac site these are limited edition, but in the US they are now permanent, however, they're all in stock so let's hope Mac has lots of them available. Have you tried any of these? Let me know in the comments!

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

FOTD: Mac Vera Crushed Metallic Pigments

Finally I've managed to do a look with my new Vera Crushed Metallic Pigments. I've mixed them up a bit, used two from Butterfly Party stack and two from Strawberry Patch. As expected (based on the swatches I did) Butterfly Party and Desert Cloud were pretty hard work to blend out, especially Desert Cloud. I did use them dry, so maybe trying them wet might work better. Desert Cloud creased on my left eye as well, so yeah, not that great. Also my eyes were watering quite a bit (because of Designer Purple Pearlglide I think), so in the end my eyes didn't look that great.

As you can see the colours didn't turn out great in the picture, Desert Cloud (in the crease) is much more purple in real life. Also, you can see how patchy it is. Oh well, if you don't look too close, it's still a very pretty look.

I also wore Quick Sizzle lipstick from Shop Mac and I was so impressed by it. I had to wipe it off after 2 hours because I had a dentist appointment, but it left a strong pink stain that lingered on until after lunch (another hour and a half later). Not at all drying and so comfortable to wear. I put Like Venus dazzleglass on it, but I also love the matte finish.

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Mac Crushed Metallic Pigment in Butterfly Party on middle of lid
Mac Crushed Metallic Pigment in Desert Cloud in crease
Mac Crushed Metallic Pigment in Rose Light in inner corner and above crease to blend out
Mac Crushed Metallic Pigment in Star Crystal on browbone to highlight
Mac Pearlglide in Designer Purple on lashline
Maybelline Lash Stiletto mascara
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Parure Aqua foundation in 02 Beige Clair
Mac Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Light Medium
Mac Powder Blush in Overdyed
Mac Perfect Topping Mineralize Skinfinish to highlight

Lips:
Mac Quick Sizzle lipstick
Mac Like Venus Dazzleglass

See more pictures after the jump!

My Mac Haul Part 2 - Vera Collection

So as promised here's my Mac haul post part 2. (Missed part 1? Check it out here!) The Vera collection was the one I was most excited about with its pretty powders and colourful pigment stacks. There's also a bunch of lovely Pearlglides and Plushglasses, plus some nail polishes in the collection, but I didn't get those because I already have most of the Pearlgides, I am okay for sheer lipglosses for the next decade or so and I don't like cream finish nail polishes.

I did get all 3 Crushed Metallic Pigment stacks and both Pearlmatte Face Powders though and they are all so pretty. I haven't actually used any of them, but I have swatched the pigments and I'm pretty impressed. Quality wise Aloha is the best, all 4 pigments are really smooth and the colours are gorgeous too. I also love the colour in Strawberry Patch and the pigments are quite smooth, not as smooth as the ones in Aloha, but still pretty nice. The worst quality of the 3 stacks is Butterfly Party, much chunkier and harder to blend, but the colours in it are so pretty, I can forgive it.

I have to admit, I have not even swatched the powders. I'm sorry, they are just too pretty. I will - eventually - but not just yet. Yeah I know...

Another thing I wasn't too impressed with was the price increase. The pigment stacks are now £25.50 and the powders are £21.50. Ouch! Did you get anything from this collection? Let me know in the comments!

Anyway, keep on reading to see lots more pictures including swatches of the pigment stacks!

My favourite eyeliner pencils

I have a lot of eyeliners. I love them. In fact, I can't be seen without one. Eyeliner and mascara are my two absolute essentials, because my eyes have no definition without them. My eyelashes are short, thin and sort of mousy colour, so without mascara and eyeliner they just don't look right. Also, eyeliners are lots of fun. As much as I like black eyeliners, there are so many gorgeous colours out there, I can always find one to match my mood and my eye make up.

My eyeliner pencils

As you can see, I have quite a collection of eyeliners. My absolute favourite ones are Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencils, they are just so smooth, but they don't smudge, stay on all day and come in every colour of the rainbow (except for red actually). I also like Mac Pearlglide Intense eyeliners and when it comes to cheaper brands, Gosh and L'Oreal are my other favourites. So it wasn't too easy to pick my absolute favourites for this post, but actually despite owning this many eyeliners I tend to reach for a very few of them most often, so I went for those.

See which eyeliners I choose after the jump!