Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Blue Ribbon - Review and Swatches

I have another shade of Stila Smudge Stick to show you called Blue Ribbon. The name is a bit misleading because, well, it's not really blue. I'd say it's probably more of a steel blue, but definitely what I was expecting. Regardless, it's a nice colour.

Otherwise it's basically the same product as the other Smudge Sticks I have reviewed before (click here for my review). It is one of the more shimmery shades, but it's not glittery as such.

It has the same lovely, soft, easy to apply formula and it's long lasting, although I've never tested whether it's actually waterproof. It comes in the same twist up pen as the other Smudge Sticks and you still only get 0.28 g for £13.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Periwinkle - Review and Swatches

I feel really bad now reviewing this eyeliner because I've just looked on the Stila website and it's sold out now, and I believe this was a limited edition. But I've taken the pictures, so I might as well write up the review, right?

This shade was part of the Stila spring collection, but it's basically the same product as the other Smudge Sticks I have reviewed before (click here for my review). The shade is called Periwinkle and that's exactly what it is, a periwinkle blue shade (it is more purple in real life, but my camera refuses to pick up purples properly). This one isn't shimmery/glittery like some of the other shades, so that may be a plus for those who don't like glittery eyeliners. I don't mind either way and it's a gorgeous colour, so I'm happy.

It has the same lovely, soft, easy to apply formula and it's long lasting, although I've never tested whether it's actually waterproof. It comes in the same twist up pen as the other Smudge Sticks and you still only get 0.28 g for £13.

As I said, this is a limited edition shade, but I have just checked an it's still in stock on the BeautyBay website and you may be able to find it from other retailers too. It's a lovely, springlike colour, so well worth picking up.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Stila Luxe Palette Review, Swatches and a FOTD

Before I show you this lovely palette, I just want to say that I'm really struggling with writing new posts at the moment. Firstly, I am currently very busy with school and children related activities. Secondly, due to the gloomy weather we've been having in the UK, I've found it incredibly difficult to take proper photos of products, which means if I can't take pictures of my new acquisitions, I then can't start using them, and obviously can't review them in detail. So for the time being I think you might be seeing a few more nail polish posts, I have a big backlog of NOTD pictures that were taken back in the autumn when we still knew what the sun looked like. Hopefully I'll be back with some proper product reviews soon.

For now, here's a lovely palette from Stila to drool over. This one is called Luxe palette and it contains 3 matte and 6 sparkly eyeshadows, plus a smudge stick waterproof eyeliner in Ladyfish (an exclusive shade). You also get a small booklet with ideas on looks to create with the palette. I bought it with my £5 off discount code StilaKiss which is valid for another 3 days on the Stila UK website (minimum spend £25).

I have to say, I'm a bit on the fence about this palette, I'm just not sure about the matte shades. I would've preferred either 3 more sparkly eyeshadows instead of the matte ones, or at least shades that go better with the rest of the palette. Quality-wise I can't really fault the palette, because the matte shades are really nice, the sparkle shades are gorgeous and the eyeliner is lovely too.

I have only worn the eyeshadows over a primer (Too Faced Shadow Insurance), but I didn't experience any creasing and there was only minimal fallout (usually during application). The smudge stick is really long lasting, even on the waterline.

The matte shades are a bit brown for my liking. Actually Bubble Bath is a pinky highlighter colour, it's pretty, but I prefer highlighting with more sparkly, satiny colours. I couldn't combine the two different finishes in the palette. I did do a look with the mattes, it was a nice, but rather boring look for my liking.

I also used the shadows in the middle row which resulted in a lovely pink/purple look. But my most favourite shade in the palette has to be ♥ Of The Ocean. At first it looks really dark and a bit dull in the palette, but on the skin it turns into an amazing teal/peacock green colour with loads of pearl. Absolutely gorgeous! I've included pictures of the look I did with it (actually not including any other eyeshadow from the palette, I used it with Sassy Marshmallow and Time Resist White L'Oreal Infallible as well as Stila Peacock smudge stick on the lower lashline). It was really lovely, probably even better in real life.

The palette costs £30, but you can get £5 off with StilaKiss on stila.co.uk. I'm too tired to work out how much value you get, but altogether there's 13.5 g eyeshadows and 0.28 g eyeliner, so you can be sure you're getting great value for your money. I also like it that you get a mirror in this one, definitely something that was missing form the other Stila palettes before.

See lots more pictures including swatches and a look I did after the jump!

Stila Seeing Stars Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner Set

First of all, apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of days, but I've been very busy with my children. On Wednesday we spent the day preparing for Halloween, carved 4 pumpkins, decorated the house and I even did my first ever face painting. Today's been more about shopping, food as well as make up, I went to the Boots Points Event and to the Mac counter to pick up some of the new products from the holiday collection. Incidentally, I'm really behind with taking pictures and swatching, so there may be a small gap in posting, but normal service should resume come Tuesday.

Anyway, I'm pretty tired now, so this is going to be a very quick look at one of Stila's holiday offerings. What we have here is a set of 5 full size Smudge Sticks.

I just love great value sets and this is definitely one of those. You get £65 worth of eyeliners for £25. What's not to like? Smudge Sticks are very good eyeliners,they are waterproof and smudge-proof, they last for hours even on my waterline.

In this set you get Stargazer (black with gold and silver pearl), Angelfish (metallic pewter), Tetra (deep shimmery purple), Moray (golden olive shimmer) and Oscar Fish (warm brown with gold pearl). I believe that out of the 4 only Oscar Fish is limited edition, I only owned Tetra and Moray, so even that way it was worth buying as individually they cost £13 each. I can only see Moray listed on the Stila website, my Tetra came with one of the palettes, so I don't actually know if you can buy Stargazer or Angekfish separately. Maybe in the US?

My only criticism of Smudge Sticks is that you get very little for your money. While Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners contain 1.2 g, these Stila ones only contain 0.28 g each! However, these come in a plastic pencil and instead of sharpening them, you just twist them up as and when you need to. So I gues you save quite a bit that you would lose with sharpening, but I still think these could contain more product.

Other than that, Stila Smudge Sticks are great eyeliners and this set is certainly worth getting if you like them and don't already own many of the shades.

See more pictures 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!

Stila In The Moment Eyeshadow Palette Review and Swatches

Another day, another Stila palette. This is practically the same as the In The Garden palette, only it's purple. Okay, it's not the same, but very similar, it has the same issues (no mirror, useless quote from someone I don't know or care about for that matter) and it also contains 10 eyeshadows, a smudge stick eyeliner and a booklet.

Let's just talk about the colours rather than repeating everything I said about the In The Garden palette, shall we? This time we only have one matte (Desire) which is the same disappear-on-my-skintone shade as Nectar in the other palette, perhaps a bit pinker. It's pretty, but not very interesting. I do love the other shades very much, love it that there's several purples in the palette as well as a few neutrals. Glance (middle one on the top row) is a beautiful midtone purple with a subtle sheen, probably my most favourite shade in the palette. I also love Catalyst (top row, far right) which is a blackened purple with purple shimmer (think Mac Young Punk mineralize eyeshadow) and looks beautiful as a liner. I'm sporting it on my top lashline as I type. Instinct is a nice, although rather frosty highlighter shade. My least favourite is probably Improvise, a satiny plum colour that hasn't got a very good colour payoff and looks rather dull blended out. Perhaps this one will work better wet. Otherwise I'm happy with this palette, for me it's the nicer of the two Stila spring palettes.

Once again you get a full size smudge stick as well, this time it's Tetra, a dark purple one with purple shimmer. It compliments the purple shades well, although not sure how it would work with the shades in the bottom row. A more plumy eyeliner would work better with those I think.

Just like the In The Garden palette this costs £25 and you get 14 g of eyeshadows and 0.28 g of eyeliner. Available from BeautyBay, although I bought mine on eBay because I wasn't sure whether we were getting this.

See lots of pictures including swatches after the jump!

Stila In The Garden Eyeshadow Palette Review and Swatches

One of the Stila spring palettes I've purchased is the In The Garden palette. It is a very similar style to the Naturaleyes palette that I reviewed a few months ago. You get 10 eyeshadows (out of which 2 are matte) and a full size smudge stick eyeliner for £25. You also get a booklet with some suggestions for looks you can create. 

The eyeshadows are nicely pigmented, some better than others, but it tends to be that the frostier shades are the most pigmented. The two matte shades are alright, not chalky at all. The darker of the two (Nectar) is pretty much the same as my skin colour and doesn't really who up on me. The darker shades are more satiny than frosty except for Moss which is a really lovely dirty brown colour with gold flecks. There aren't really any true highlighters in this palette (I don't like highlighting with matte eyeshadows), but other than that it's a nice palette. The smudge stick eyeliner you get is in the shade Starfish which is a mossy green colour with gold shimmer. It is supposed to be waterproof and it does stay on through the whole day, once it's set, it's very hard to remove (make up remover does remove it easily though).

I did a look with Breeze, Sage and Moss, plus Starfish smudge stick and it was very pretty, the shadows applied and blended easily and everything stayed in place all day (used them over my trusty Barbara Daly eyeshadow primer). 

The palette is still lacking a mirror in the lid and it has yet another quote from Sarah Lucero whoever she might be (I need to look her up!). Otherwise it's a nice palette, although not as bright and spring like as I would have expected. For £25 you get 14 g of eyeshadows and 0.28 g of smudge stick eyeliner.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Stila In The Light Naturaleyes Eyeshadow Palette Swatches and Review

It seems every brand is coming out of their version of Urban Decay's Naked Palette and today I have Stila's Naturaleyes (why one word?) palette to show you. I bought this online a couple of months ago for £22.50, but literally days later I noticed that it had gone up to £25. I'm glad I managed to snatch it up for less. :)

You get 10 eyeshadows, 4 matte and 6 shimmery ones. The colour selection is really good, you get a couple of highlighter shades, and as well as lots of neutrals, you also get grey and black, so you can create a nice smoky eye as well. All of them swatched nicely, and I'm sporting a look today I did with 3 of the matte eyeshadows and they applied and blended easily and their colour payoff is very good too. You also get a smudgestick included which I'm also wearing and it has stayed put on my waterline for hours now (6 hours and counting). It's a plumy colour, so less harsh than black, but still dark enough. You also have a small booklet with ideas for looks included which is a nice idea.

My only complaint about this palette is that you don't get a mirror in the lid, instead you have some quote from someone I don't know that I quite frankly could do without. I feel that at this price and considering that this palette is supposed to be a portable, contain all you need for your neutral looks, it really really should have a mirror.

Other than that I am really happy with it and I think it's a nice alternative to Urban Decay's Naked Palette. It's also quite a bit smaller, so should be easier to carry with you, if only it had a mirror too... The palette cost £25 and you get 14 g eyeshadows and 0.28 g eyeliner.

See lots more pictures including swatches after the jump!