Palgantong: 3x3 Cube Colors Eye Shadow Palette Review

There were six variants of this eyeshadow palette. They looked promising and fun with three times three shades. The more the merrier, I thought.

With this one though, they could have had one less white eyeshadow and replaced it with something-other-than-white. White eyeshadows and I aren't exactly best buddies. They look like chalk on my lids.

This is Palgantong's 3x3 Cube Colors Eye Shadow palette and the variant that I have here is called Smoky & Violet. I know, I know, since I hate white eyeshadows so much, it defies logic that I bought the one palette with two whites but if you asked the demure sweet-young-thing Sasa sales assistant, she would gladly launch a discourse on how one is actually a pearlescent white and that the other is duller and a shade darker.

Yeah, whatever. White is white is white.

In the store, I agonised over which palette to buy (that same demure SYT thought I was up to no good standing near the Palgantong display shelf for ages). It basically came down to this one and another palette with earthy browns and greens. In the end, it was the purples, the dark blue and the golden brown in Smoky & Violet that got me, especially the golden brown in the top row. Oh, I don't know.....perhaps, on hindsight, I should have taken the browns and greens instead.

The palette is a handy size but it has neither a mirror nor an eyeshadow brush/applicator. It measures 7 x 7.5 cm and on the back of the outer packaging, Palgantong tells you in Japanese how to use the complementing eyeshadows. That's fine but really, there's nothing to stop you from using the eyeshadows however you want.

Here are the nine shades:

Top row - white, golden brown, dark blue
Middle row - pale pink, medium purple, dark purple
Bottom row - sandy white, silver, black

All swatches were heavily applied on a base of Too Faced Shadow Insurance. They all have a quiet, pearly lustre finish.

Below are two eye looks done using this palette. For both looks, I used Too Faced Shadow Insurance, GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner in Black Ink and Lash King mascara in BK999.

Eye Look 1

Eyeshadows: Pink, medium purple and dark purple from the middle row of the Palgantong 3x3 Cube plus silver and black from the bottom row
Eyeliner: GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliner - Funky Violet


Eye Look 2

Eyeshadows: White, golden brown and blue from the top row of the Palgantong 3x3 Cube
Eyeliner: GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliner - Sky High


The eyeshadows are quite crumbly but it's nothing too unusual.

The concept (3 by 3), the name (3x3 Cube) and the available colours are nice but there is a but.

The eyeshadows aren't that great. Palgantong is a Japanese brand and from a Japanese brand, I expect top quality products. These eyeshadows should be intense and pigmented. What I got instead were half-hearted, sometimes chalky colours - too much talc and not enough colour pigments. In the eye looks above, it was the eyeliners that made the look. The Palgantong eyeshadows just faded into the background.

I should have spotted this little line (but didn't) in the corner of this 3x3 Cube packaging while at Sasa: Made in P.R.O.C.. Seriously? I have nothing against China but when I see a Japanese makeup or skincare brand, I expect its products to be made in Japan. I mean, I can't imagine Shiseido or Kanebo products being made anywhere else! Can you?!

I paid the equivalent of about €15 for this palette. It's not worth it.

The Palgantong brand falls under a company called Dodo Japan and the brand is especially famous for its Palgantong Theatrical Powder, a loose face powder worshipped by some (no, not me). If you're curious about its products and the other variants of the 3x3 Cube Colors, check out the Palgantong website. It's in Japanese but it's fun to just look at the colours and its other offering.

Some of Palgantong's products can be purchased through Sasa.com, Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Topshop: Eyeshadow in Potion Review

Don't you just hate it when a product that you like is discontinued? Okay, it's not the end of the world but it sure is annoying.

There was the discontinuation of Fyrinnae's Lip Lustres back then but thank goodness, the folks at Fyrinnae brought them back after a long hiatus. Alleluia!

With this eyeshadow however, I think the chances of Topshop bringing it back are very slim. So, let me just bluntly spell it out. Potion is my one and only Topshop eyeshadow and it's been discontinued. Gee.

I thought I'd do a post on Potion anyway, just for posterity.

Topshop describes described Potion like this:

High-pigment, blendable, metallic finish eye shadow for intense colour. Smooth onto lids for even colour and coverage. Blend and contour for a variety of looks. Use alongside our matte colours.

I don't get the 'metallic' part. It's satin-ny, really. Potion is a curious dark brown cum plum cum burgundy. It's one of those colours that plays tricks on the eyes. It looks purplundy but look again and it's a broody brown. Applied, it does come out looking slightly more brown though. It's an intense-enough eyeshadow that is easy to work with and is great for smokey eyes.

It offers good coverage but of course, it's better to use an eyeshadow primer to bring out its best. The nicely pressed eyeshadow hardly crumbles in the pan. It's just good quality.

For this eye look, I used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Topshop Eyes - Potion
Catrice Made to Stay Long Lasting Eyeshadow - Lord of the Blings
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Black Ink
Majolica Majorca Lash King Mascara - BK999

Oh yes, I must show you a close-up shot of Potion in sunshine. Look carefully and you may be able to see bits of shimmer which twinkle in different colours. They're pretty but subtle, so don't expect them to show up much on the eyes. Anyway, that's not why I like Potion. It's really the brown-that's-not-quite-brown that I like.

I paid £6.50 for this 2.4g pan. We haven't got Topshop shops here (it came with some pomp last year but then went away very quietly!), so it's all via its website. I see that Topshop now has a couple of smokey eye palettes called Smokey Eyes Quad. Perhaps, just perhaps, there is something similar to Potion amongst these eyeshadows.


Topshop website

Essence: Ready For Boarding Eyeshadow Palette Review

I hadn't bought any eyeshadows from Essence for a pretty long time. My last eyeshadow purchase from the Trend Editions (i.e. limited editions) was the much sought-after Vampire's Love Eyeshadow Palette back in November last year. The pans may have been tiny but the eyeshadows were fab.

The Ready For Boarding trend edition collection has been in stores here for several weeks now (and not selling well, I must add). Against my better judgement, I bought the eyeshadow palette, called 01 Beauty On Tour. I'm not a huge fan of light/pastel eyeshadow shades but after swatching the testers in the store, I convinced myself that I needed some lighter eyeshadow colours to balance out the abundance of medium-dark ones in my drawer.

[slaps face]

I regret getting this palette. I really do. Okay, I didn't spend a fortune on this - only €3.49 - but it's still a waste of money. Cosnova (the company behind Essence and Catrice) knows how to make quality eyeshadows and selling them at very affordable prices but this palette is, ppffff, sub-standard.

The Ready For Boarding Eyeshadow Palette does look cute with its postcard/stamp-like design. It's small (approx. 3.5" x 2.5") and it shuts with a magnet. You get six mostly pastel shades for the price but to be honest, I thought the only respectable one of the lot was the brown eyeshadow on the far right. All the shades have a satin finish.

The swatches:

L-R: Light taupe grey, pale yellow, mint green, pale cornflower blue, pale beige, medium brown

They look quite all right in the swatches, don't they? Decent.

Well, the problem I have with the five light eyeshadows is that once I've blended them out, they all look pretty much the same. The grey and the blue end up looking ashy. Faded out, the mint green and the pale yellow would resemble the pale beige. I can hardly tell the difference! Ashy and beige become one!

The brown shade is the only one able to hold its own. It's not unique but at least, it's a lovely bronzy brown.

I've worn these eyeshadows numerous times but I won't bother to show you a couple of the eye looks. They were just, yes, ashy and/or beige.

However, the following eye looks were okay (not wow), I thought, but that's only because in one, I had used predominantly the brown shade and in the other, I used the orange Exotica (one of the Catrice Coolibri Eye Shadow Pens) as a base.

Note: For all the swatches and the first eye look, I've used the Etos Eyeshadow Underbase as my eyeshadow primer.

Products used:
Ready For Boarding Eyeshadow Palette - pale yellow and brown
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Metallic Brass
Catrice Lashes to Kill Mascara - Black Green

Products used:
Ready For Boarding Eyeshadow Palette - pale yellow, pale blue and brown
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Metallic Brass
Catrice Lashes to Kill Mascara - Black Green

For this second eye look, I applied the pale cornflower blue on the orange of Exotica.

"Where is the blue?" I hear you ask.

My point exactly! It just 'ashened' the orange.

Perhaps it's worth pointing out that this Essence palette was made in China. Many of the Essence/Catrice products that I've purchased were made in countries like Italy, Poland, France, Germany and Luxembourg, so seeing 'Made in China' here is unusual. Oh, I don't know.........

Enough said!


Essence website

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

ELLIS FAAS: Creamy Eyes E119

Here are the swatches for the new ELLIS FAAS Creamy Eyes E119 and an eye look using this yellow ochre.

To be honest, I'm not one who gravitates to yellow eyeshadows but then again, if I was game enough to try an acid green eyeshadow, I should at least give yellow a whirl.

Thankfully, E119 is a soft, earthy yellow.

ELLIS FAAS Creamy Eyes E119 swatches: Heavily applied (L); Lightly swatched (R)

For the eye look, I've used E119 as more of a base/background shade, combining it with a dark rust orange and a dark brown for a kind of vertical gradient. I used:

Creamy Eyes E119 - yellow ochre
Milky Eyes E207 - dark rust orange
Creamy Eyes E104 - dark brown
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Truly Brown (tightlining)
Mascara E401 - black
These are a mixture of pens provided by ELLIS FAAS and from my own purchase.

Basically, it's the yellow ochre high on the lid, the rust orange on the moving lid and the dark brown for wing-ed eyelining. For the bottom lid, I've applied a touch of yellow ochre and then did a mirrored wing eyelining with the dark brown to elongate the eyes.

The other new shades previously featured:
ELLIS FAAS Creamy Eyes E114
ELLIS FAAS Creamy Eyes E115

More information:
The New Creamy Eyes page on the ELLIS FAAS website
Don't forget to enter their International New Creamy Eyes Competition!

ELLIS FAAS: Creamy Eyes E115

Creamy Eyes E115 is another shade from the set of seven new ELLIS FAAS Creamy Eyes eyeshadows released last week.

E115 is a matt medium purple. It's old news that the Creamy Eyes liquid eyeshadows are cast-iron lasting but if you're new to this range, please refer to my detailed ELLIS FAAS Creamy Eyes review.

Creamy Eyes E115 swatches: Heavily applied (L) and lightly swatched (R)

For the eye look in this post, I used:

Milky Eyes E203 - dark blue
Creamy Eyes E106 - matte taupe
Creamy Eyes E115 - matte medium purple
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Black Ink (tightlining)
Mascara E401 - black

L-R: Milky Eyes E203, Creamy Eyes E106, Creamy Eyes E115

The very lightly applied taupe of E203 served as a base for the medium purple of E115 and I used the dark blue of E203 for eyelining.

Further reading:
A look at the burgundy Creamy Eyes E114
The New Creamy Eyes page on the ELLIS FAAS 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