Adorned Nails: Stage Extreme

I wrote about Stage Cosmetics back in May when I featured one of its eyeshadow palettes. I was on holiday last year and along with the eyeshadow palette, I also bought this bottle of nail polish. Of all the polishes on display in the store, I thought this was the only one which stood out. The rest seemed, well, ordinary.

Indoors

This bottle of Stage nail polish has been christened Extreme. I just checked the brand's website and it appears that all the polishes have been given single-worded names, adjectives eg: Delicate, Luscious, Fascinating, Majestic, Innocent.....you get the idea. So, really, compared to the rest, this polish I've got would be considered pretty "off the charts".

I've got two coats on here and I really like the formula. The polish applied very well.

I would describe Extreme as a very dark brown crème dense with fine brassy golden shimmer. I have to say, Extreme bears some resemblance to Catrice Welcome To The Jungle. It's almost a dupe. Extreme glows green-brassy-gold and while Welcome To The Jungle has a similar colour, its shimmers are somewhat subdued compared to those of Extreme. Essence Gold Old Buffy could also be Extreme's cousin but the former looks more rugged with bigger specks of shimmer/micro glitters.

If I recall correctly, I paid the equivalent of about €9 for this 11ml bottle of polish. You probably would have noticed - the bottle has a double-cap, like Chanel polishes.


More information:
My posts on Brand: Stage
Stage Cosmetics website

Stage: Purple and Grey Eye Look

Here's the eye look done using Gossip, Stage Cosmetic's Five-Shade Shadow Palette that I featured yesterday.

Yes, it's simple - I like simple.

Yes, it's safe - I usually stay within boundaries. It may be fun but face painting is not my thing.

These are the products that I used for this look:

L-R:
Stage Five-Shade Shadow Palette - Gossip
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Funky Violet
Stila Smudge Pots Gel Liner - Black
Majolica Majorca Lash Enamel Glamour Volume On - BK999


What I did:

1. Applied an eyeshadow primer (not shown) on the upper and lower lids.

Upper lid
2. Used a large dense eyeshadow brush to pack on the grey eyeshadow on the outer two-thirds of the lid.
3. Used a crease brush to apply the purple eyeshadow to 'create' a crease.

4. With a smaller eyeshadow brush, dabbed on some of the black eyeshadow on the outer corner.
5. Applied a thin layer of the white eyeshadow on the inner V and on the brow bone area (above the purple).
6. Used a blending brush to blend all the colours out.
7. Lined the lash line with the dark purple of Funky Violet from GOSH. Wing it slightly.
8. Tightlined with the gel liner of Stila Smudge Pots.

Lower lid
9. Coloured the lower lid with a hint of the purple eyeshadow, forming a big, vague outer V with the purple of the upper lid.
10. Lined lightly with Funky Violet

11.Curled lashes and applied mascara.

My reviews on three of the products used:
Stage Cosmetics - Five-Shade Shadow Palette (Gossip)
GOSH - Velvet Touch Eye Liner (Funky Violet)
Majolica Majorca - Lash Enamel Glamour Volume On Mascara (BK999)

Stage: Five-Shade Shadow Palette Review

I came across Stage Cosmetics while on holiday last year. It is a makeup brand positioned at around the level of say, MAC (but that's just the aspired brand perception, mind you). They have standalone stores with dark interiors that remind me of those of Make Up Store's but the set-up is more like backstage makeup studios, where one can get made up and/or made over. Stage prefers to call their stores 'retail studios'.

Stage Cosmetics is a Malaysian brand that was launched sometime in 2008. It was created as a premium cosmetics brand by a local company known as Alliance Cosmetics that was then mainly involved in the distributorship of several international (drugstore) personal care brands (Revlon being their biggest score) in several countries in Southeast Asia. It also has an in-house budget-friendly drugstore brand called SilkyGirl. So, you could say that Stage is a huge departure from the norm in Alliance's portfolio.

I bought three items from Stage, one of which was this Five-Shade Shadow Palette. There were altogether four palettes available and I chose the one with the most number of dark-ish shades (as I'm not terribly big on light shades). This one is called Gossip.

The retail price was about the equivalent of €30 but I paid a bit less as it was on promotion. I like the plastic casing only for its scarlet colour and the lovely scrollwork pattern. The accompanying dual-ended brush is, as is usually the case, of not much use.

Ingredients (please click to enlarge)

The five colours according to Stage: Black, Maroon, Dark Green, Cocoa and Beige.

I beg to differ.

The five colours according to Witoxicity: Black, Purple, Grey with silver shimmer, Dark Brown with gold shimmer and White

......and I think you'd be more inclined to believe me (photos are true to colour).

The pigmentation of these eyeshadows is average with the grey and the dark brown scoring the best. I thought the weakest in pigmentation were the black and the purple. Eyeshadow fallout wasn't too bad.

Overall, this is an overpriced palette of average quality. The sales staff did say that Stage products are made in Italy but that's not enough to get me all wide-eyed.

Nevertheless, I like the combination of colours in this palette, so I will be featuring a couple of eye looks with it. This one shown here is coming up soon.


More information:
Stage Cosmetics website