Catrice: Coolibri Eye Shadow Pens Review

I didn't get these the first time I saw them in the store. The colours seemed too ra-ra for me.

A week later at another Kruidvat store, I decided to swatch the testers on my hand. Still ra-ra but it was a Hey, I-can-make-it-work! ra-ra. I was very taken by the swatches and bought all four shades:

L-R:
01 Precious Nectar - beige gold
02 Birds Flying High - turquoise blue
03 Virgin Forest - dark spring green
04 Exotica - orange with a hint of coral

The composition of these pens is similar to that of the Catrice Made To Stay Highlighter Pen. The pens also remind me of GOSH's Mineral Waterproof Eyeshadow (sticks), only cheaper.

Coolibri is the latest Limited Edition collection by Catrice. It was released in June in some countries and here in the Netherlands, the collection made its appearance only in July. It's a cheerful collection, with many vivid, eye-catching colours reminiscent of the flora and fauna of the Amazon/rainforest. The nail polishes sold well (most of them were gone by the time I got to the stores) but sales of the eyeshadow pens were slower, it seems.

Well, I think the Catrice Coolibri Eye Shadow Pens are awesome! In a nutshell, they:

• come in retractable pens.
• have a silky soft, creamy texture.
• glide on nicely on the eyelids.
• are very pigmented.
• don't dry too quickly, allowing time to fade out any hard edges with the fingers.
• are waterproof.

Catrice doesn't claim that the Eye Shadow Pens are waterproof, preferring to call them "extremely long-lasting" instead. In reality though, they are waterproof and are fairly crease-resistant. On me, I see the beginnings of a crease only after about seven hours. In fact, last weekend, I wore the turquoise blue one under a powder eyeshadow and when I came home around eight hours later, there was surprisingly no creasing. Very impressive.

Ingredients:
Cyclopentasiloxane, Mica, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Polyethylene, Lauroyl lysine, Ozokerite, Octyldodecanol, Synthetic beeswax, Lecithin, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl palmitate, Citric acid, Silica, Tin oxide.
May contain: CI 15850 (Red 6), CI 19140 (Yellow 5 Lake), CI 42090 (Blue 1 Lake), CI 77289 (Chromium Hydroxide Green), CI 77400 (Bronze powder), CI 77491, CI 77499 (Iron oxides), CI 77510 (Ferric ferrocyanide/Ferric ammonium ferrocyanide), CI 77891 (Titanium dioxide).


Now, back to the ra-ra colours. Great for colour-blocking but neh, that ain't for me.

Here are the Coolibri eyeshadow swatches:

L-R: Coolibri 01 Precious Nectar, 02 Birds Flying High, 03 Virgin Forest, 04 Exotica

Used On Its Own
Yes, the eyeshadow shades are bright and intense but the turqoise blue or the green one would work well if used alone. Just stay close to the lash line.

Products used:
Catrice Coolibri Eye Shadow Pen - 02 Birds Flying High
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Black Ink
Catrice Lashes to Kill Mascara - Black Green


Layering
Note: In the next three eye looks, I've used the following powder eyeshadows to supplement the Coolibri ones:

L-R: Catrice feMALE Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks (Boys Are Back);
No7 Stay Perfect Mini Trio Eyeshadow Palette (Cappuccino);
Stage Five-Shade Shadow Palette (Gossip)

Actually, I like the Coolibri pens even more when used as a sticky eyeshadow base. You've probably got a few poorly pigmented eyeshadows lurking somewhere in your drawer. You know, those that you wish you never bought. Well, if you have the Coolibri Eye Shadow Pens, this is the perfect time to get those lousy eyeshadows out.

However, this layering won't work so well with highly pigmented powder eyeshadows. They have such good coverage that they tend to overwhelm the Coolibri eyeshadows. The eye look below demonstrates just that.

Layered on top of the orangey Exotica is the mauve taupe shade of Boys Are Back, one of the Catrice feMALE Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks. The orange here is hardly discernible.

Products used:
Catrice Coolibri Eye Shadow Pen - 04 Exotica and 01 Precious Nectar
Catrice feMALE Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks - Boys Are Back
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Truly Brown and Black Ink
Catrice Lashes to Kill Mascara - Black Green


On the other hand, those eyeshadows with poor colour pay-off look so much better applied over these Coolibri shades. Experiment with different colour combinations. The Coolibri eyeshadows give the powder eyeshadows a lovely undertone and conversely, the powder eyeshadows give the Coolibri shades a different look.

Here, I applied a pale taupey brown powder eyeshadow on the green of Virgin Forest above the lid fold and left the green exposed close to the lash line.

Products used:
Catrice Coolibri Eye Shadow Pen - 03 Virgin Forest
No7 Stay Perfect Mini Trio Eyeshadow Palette - Cappuccino (middle shade)
Smashbox Jet Set Waterproof Eye Liner - Bronze
Catrice Lashes to Kill Mascara - Black Green


I call this final eye look a purple sunset. Over the orange Exotica, I applied a purple eyeshadow on the lid fold and then, let it 'radiate' orange.

Products used:
Catrice Coolibri Eye Shadow Pen - 04 Exotica and 01 Precious Nectar
Stage Five-Shade Shadow Palette - Gossip (purple shade)
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Black Ink
Catrice Lashes to Kill Mascara - Black Green


Great eyeshadow pens and affordable too! Price: €3.49 each (1.64g / 0.057oz). If you haven't got access to Catrice, you could try the eyeshadow sticks by GOSH.


Catrice website

Catrice: Revoltaire Smokey Eyes Palette Review

These are the Catrice Revoltaire Smokey Eyes Palettes that I mentioned in the Revoltaire Velvet Matt Lip Colour post.

Basically, each palette has one eye-popping colour, two 'supporting' neutral colours and, in the bottom right quarter, one dark-coloured eyeliner that is water-activated.

Ah, what can I say about the palette casings? Sleek, stylish, glossy, gunmetal, they are perhaps the coolest-looking palettes to have come from Catrice so far. Each has a no-nonsense mirror inside and the palette can be opened to a 180-degree angle. By the way, doesn't the emblem remind of you of Rococo and/or Rorschach's inkblot test?

As you will see in a moment, the eyeshadows don't disappoint, as far as pigmentation is concerned. They all have varying degrees of shimmer. I'm not too crazy about the cake eyeliner in the green palette as I find the shade a bit light for an eyeliner. The one in the pink palette is appropriately darker.

Using the accompanying sponge-tip applicators and my fingers, I did an eye look with each of the palettes and in both looks below, I used the following three products:

Etos Eyeshadow Underbase (eyeshadow primer)
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner in Truly Brown
ELLIS FAAS Mascara E401


Let's now take a closer look at each of the palettes.

C01 Toxic Combination

You can't miss that bright, toxic, acid green eyeshadow. The green is, to say the least, very 'out there', so unless you're going to be rockin' at some summer pop festival or if you're (fortunate enough to be still) a teen, I'd suggest going easy on it. Its more down-to-earth companions are a khaki green and an ashy taupe-grey. The cake eyeliner is a medium brown-grey.

C02 Explosive Combination

The coral pink looks innocent enough in the palette but in a heavy swatch, it looks coral red. The shade pretty much reflects the bright coral pink of the Revoltaire Velvet Matt Lip Colour called Colour Bomb. The supporting eyeshadows are a beige and a medium brown. The cake eyeliner is a dark-enough dark brown.

For this eye look, the eyelining was done with the GOSH eyeliner pencil. To get that hard edge on the outer corner, you could use the usual method of sticking a piece of tape to block off the area. I prefer to just apply the eyeshadows and then wipe off the excess with a cotton bud and eye makeup remover.

Price of the palettes: only €4.49 each


To view the collection:
Catrice website

Catrice: Revoltaire Velvet Matt Lip Colour Review

So, the Revoltaire Limited Edition Collection by Catrice has been making its rounds on websites here in Europe.

I was very drawn to the sleek, glossy gunmetal casings with the Revoltaire 'emblem' when I saw them for the first time on the Limited Edition Preview section of the Catrice website some time back. To be honest, though, I think they would look even better in matt.....but never mind. Many things go through my head when I see the ornate 'emblem': Rococo, Rorschach's inkblot test, not quite Rock & Republic and not quite Rouge Bunny Rouge. The design looks different on the casings for the eyeshadow palettes. I'll feature that later. If you haven't seen it, you can take a look on Catrice's website.

Although some may gag at the silly play of Voltaire's name, I actually quite like it. In a nutshell, with the Revoltaire collection, Catrice advocates having the courage to be yourself and all that you want to be, and breaking free of conventions.

Yes, okay.

This is what Catrice says of the Velvet Matt Lip Colour:

Matt, velvety lips revolutionize the spring season: full of contrasts, unexpected, exciting and new. The matt lipsticks in a unique gun metal case won’t dry out your lips thanks to their velvety, rich texture. Instead, they provide color with depth for sensual lips with a matt finish and a touch of coolness - from nude to coral pink to intensive red.

I paid €3.99 for each of these.

I gave the nude one - Nude Alarm - a miss. I just know it would never ever ever work on me. The coral pink one is called Colour Bomb and maaaan, it's one heck of a coral pink. A coral pink this bright is not something I'm used to and at first, I wasn't sure if it would be a hit or a miss but I've decided that it's quite all right on me.

L: Colour Bomb; R: Bloody Red

The vampy red one - Bloody Red - appears to be a brown-toned red on the lipstick but when swatched or applied on the lips, it actually looks slightly blue-toned.

The highly pigmented lipsticks have a seriously matt finish and an almost rubbery look which I love! Both applied smoothly, albeit seemingly dry. I applied them without my usual lipbalm base as the slight glossiness of the lipbalm may take away the matt effect and surprisingly, my lips were able to take these lip colours straight for many hours.

Colour Bomb

As they are on the 'dry' side, the colour doesn't transfer much when one takes a drink. After a meal though, one is left with the lip colour only on the outer edges of the lips. This unsophisticated outline cannot be simply/temporarily fixed by pursing the lips together to shift colour around because the Velvet Matt Lip Colour has little slip - it's 'dry'. A proper re-application is advised.

Bloody Red

The lip colours look 'dry' but they are not drying. I took a closer look at the list of ingredients and besides the usual microcrystalline wax, these lip colours also have safflower seed oil, corn oil and extracts of the papaya fruit and the early purple orchid. I'm wondering if this explains why my lips didn't dry and shrivel with just these lip colours on.

Thumbs up, Catrice!

Ingredients
Neopentyl glycol dicaprylate/dicaprate, Trimethylolpropane triisostearate, Dimethicone, Microcrytalline wax, Polyethylene, Polybutene, Dicalcium phosphate, Silica, Dimethicone crosspolymer, Mica, Safflower seed oil, Corn oil, Papaya fruit extract, Orchis Mascula flower extract, Pentaerythrityl tetra-di-t-butyl hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Tocopheryl acetate. May contain: CI 15850 (Red 6/Red 7 LAKE), CI 15985 (Yellow 6 Lake), CI 42090 (Blue 1 Lake), CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 (Iron oxides), CI 77891 (Titanium dioxide).

Catrice: Eye Liner Pen Review

The Catrice Eye Liner Pen has left an impression on me and I'll tell you why.

According to Catrice:
Three new Eye Liner Pens for the trends of the summer: night blue, dark green and mystical grey to complement the classic black. All with a professional felt-tip for an accurate line and magical cat-like eyes.

Ingredients
Aqua, Polyglyceryl-2 Caprate, Acrylates/Acrylamide Copolymer, PVP/ Dimethiconyl Acrylate/Polycarbamyl/Polyglycol Ester, Tric 12-13 Alkyl Citrate, Butylene Glycol, PVP VP/Eicosene Copolymer, Propylene Glycol, Tromethamine, Oleic Acid, Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Butylparaben, Propylparaben.
May contain: CI 16035 (Red 40 Lake), CI 42090 (Blue 1 Lake), CI 77266 (Black 2), CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide).


I like this pen. Really, I do.

It's a pen with a semi-flexible felt-tip. The eyeliner is not waterproof but if kept dry, the lining stays fairly intact the whole day. There is a bit of colour transfer to the upper parts of my lid but I won't hold that against Catrice. It's an inherent problem of my eyelids - notice how they fold.

The good points:

• With the nice sharp tip, it's easy enough to do wing-ed eyelining.

• It is reasonably priced, only €2.99 a piece.

• The shade that I have is 060 Black Green, a gorgeous, broody deep green, which you can see in this eye look here.

For this look, I used:

Catrice Made to Stay Long Lasting Eyeshadow - Lord Of The Blings
Catrice feMALE Dip Powder Pen - So Suit!
Catrice Eye Liner Pen - Black Green
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Black Ink (not shown - for tightlining)
Catrice Lashes to Kill Mascara - Black Green

Okay, now, the not-so-fantastic points:

• Again, it has a felt-tip, which can mean that the 'ink' may not transfer properly sometimes, especially if the eyelids are slightly oily. I use just a minimal amount of eye cream if I know I will be using this eyeliner that morning.

• It stains the eyelids! I've been using this eyeliner many times and it doesn't matter if it is applied on bare lids, on lids with a bit of eye cream or on lids prepped with primer, it always leaves a faint stain on the skin.

The Staining
First time: After removal with a normal eye makeup remover, I could still see a faint green line on my lids. I then attempted to wipe the stain off with a waterproof eye makeup remover but nope, that didn't help. After washing with my facial cleanser, I could still see a faint trace of the green eyelining. Vaseline may have helped but I didn't try it as I don't like having petroleum jelly on my eyes. So, I went to bed that night with that green stain (still with about 10% opacity) on my eyelids. Not funny.

Second time: The same thing happened again and it was then that I knew the first incident was no fluke and that my eye cream and eye makeup removers were not to be blamed.

Now: I don't even blink an eye. I know that by the time I wake up in the morning, most of the stain would be gone, probably due to the oils on my eyelids. I also know that the green stain would be completely washed off with another facial cleansing in the morning.


So, okay, I may like the pen and the shade but that staining thing.........very disappointing. I don't know if the same applies to the other shades and I don't intend to find out.

I'm not getting another one of these pens.


Catrice website

Catrice: Eye Look With feMALE Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks

I mentioned the other day that, of the three Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks from Catrice's feMALE collection, the set called Boys Are Back was my favourite. It's a neutral pair of shades - a mauve taupe and a black grey. It's the former that I especially like.

This is an eye look that I wore last week and literally the final time I used the Make Up For Ever Aqua Smoky Lash Mascara before I binned it.

I used:

Etos Eyeshadow Underbase (eyeshadow primer)
Catrice Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks - Boys Are Back
Teeez Bold Eyeliner Pencil - Sexy 12 (black)
Make Up For Ever Aqua Smoky Lash Mascara - Waterproof Extra Black

It's a smokey look, with the black grey concentrated close to the lash line and the mauve taupe above it. The lower lash line is left bare except for a thin coat of mascara.

My reviews:
feMALE Aquarelle Duo Chalks
Teeez Bold Eyeliner Pencils
Make Up For Ever Aqua Smoky Lash Mascara

Catrice website

Catrice: feMALE Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks Review

Move over 'eye shadows'. Make way for err, 'eye chalks'??

It's quite a name: Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks. A manageable mouthful with a certain arty zing.

The Limited Edition feMALE collection was released by Catrice in the Netherlands very recently (and much earlier in its home country, Germany). As always, there's a whole concept behind each collection and as always, I haven't paid much attention to it (well, okay, okay, the gist: feMALE plays on the contrasting masculine looks vs feminine elegance, think androgyny yadda yadda yadda). Frankly, I'm really just interested in the products themselves. The four nail polishes didn't exactly excite me, so I gave them a miss.

These Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks though were too different and cute to walk away from. Catrice calls them an innovation:

(excerpts)
".....the first chalk for your eyes!......the Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks are fascinating with their unique chalk-like appearance with intensive color pigments and high coverage."

The Duo Chalks come in three variants and they all have hints of shimmer. As you can see in the swatches below, the pigmentation is fantastic. All swatches are with an eyeshadow base.

01 Love Me Gender
medium brown + peachy orange

02 Tomboy
khaki green grey + cornflower blue

03 Boys Are Back
mauve taupe + black grey

The very fine specks of shimmers are quite hard to make out but that last mentioned shade - black grey - appears to have tiny specks of teal. The following photo was taken with flash photography.

I guess the really interesting bit about these Aquarelle Duo Chalks is that each of the 'chalks' come in the form of a cube, nestled in a plastic cubic container (almost 2cm x 2cm x 1.5cm). If you turned one upside down and shook it, the 'chalk' cube would eventually fall out. The duos are not attached, which can be a good thing if you have more than one set. You can move the cubes around to form a different set of two (or three or four) colours. Cute that may be but I don't find the packaging terribly convenient to handle. They are so small in the hand and the cubes seem so fragile.

The chunky cubes do have a chalk-like appearance (as Catrice says) but the texture is very velvety smooth. I didn't find them that chalky as in, they are not as dry or powdery to the touch as conventional chalk. In fact, I find them quite moist and even though the cubes are on the fragile and slightly crumbly side, there was very little fallout during application.

Catrice also brought out the Eye Aquarelle Applicators that are supposed to be used with the Eye Chalks. At first, I thought they were very special applicators but I wasn't really impressed when I saw the real thing in the store. They looked like normal sponge-tip applicators. Good quality, perhaps, but nothing more. I didn't buy these. I've been able to manage with my own sponge-tip applicators and applying with fingers would work too.

I've been having fun using these Eye Chalks everyday for the past eight days. This is just one of the eye looks that I wore last week. I used:

Etos Eyeshadow Underbase (primer)
Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks - Tomboy
Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks - Boys Are Back (only the mauve taupe)
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Purple Stain
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Black Ink
Make Up For Ever Aqua Smoky Lash Mascara - Waterproof Extra Black

What I did:
• mauve taupe of Boys Are Back in the inner V
• blue of Tomboy on moving lid
• khaki green grey of Tomboy in the outer V
• lined upper and lower lash line with Purple Stain eyeliner pencil
• tightlined with Black Ink eyeliner pencil
• applied two coats of mascara

Last Thoughts
If you have access to the feMALE collection, I'd recommend getting one or two of these Aquarelle Duo Chalks. Yes, they're cute and seem like a novelty, but you should get it because of its great pigmentation and if you happen to like the choice of shades. They are pretty much chunks of pressed eyeshadows with a fancy name, methinks.

I had wondered if any of the shades were similar to the eyeshadows in The Berlin Collection Palette from Catrice's Big City Life collection. Fortunately, there weren't any dupes (I'd rather not have doubles of the same shade). A couple seemed similar at first glance but the nuances could be noticed by comparing their swatches. For example, the taupes: one is more grey, another has more mauve and yet another is more brown. Anyway, my favourite of the three duos is Boys Are Back.

The price won't hurt your wallet much: only €2.99 per box/duo. The net weight of each cube: 0.12oz / 3.5g.


More information:
The list of ingredients for these Duo Chalks can be found here.
The feMALE collection on the Catrice website

Catrice: Hidden World Liquid Metal Gloss

Catrice says: "Brilliant lip gloss with intensely rich shine."

This Catrice Liquid Metal Gloss came in the Hidden World collection and yes, the gloss does have a glossy, metallic finish. The shade I bought for myself is called Rosy&Cosy, a lovely deep pink.

The gloss isn't terribly sticky and it has a scent that is a cross between fruity and makeup-y. The funny-looking applicator looks just like the one from the regular line of Catrice lipglosses, the Catrice Colour Show Lip Gloss.

I've decided to feature in this post the Catrice Hidden World leather-look mirror that also came in this collection. I think it looks stylish in white. It’s handy to have in the handbag but then again, because it’s pristine white, I wouldn’t throw it around in the bag too much.

I’ve been travelling these couple of weeks, which explains for the lack of posts lately. Normal programming will resume next week. I have lots to write about! So, this is one last reminder for my ongoing Catrice Hidden World Giveaway. Be sure to try your luck! The lipgloss and the mirror featured here are included in the prize packages.