I, like many women, love the look of a smoky eye with a nude lip. I have several kohl-like pencils, ranging from MAC to Urban Decay and Avon. But the first time I ever wore the smoky eye look, it was done by a girl in the same make-up artistry class I was in (who now works at one of the local Bobbi Brown counters - I need to stop in and see her). I was absolutely in love with the look from that moment on - I looked sultry and sexy. She used
Benefit BADGal and
BADGal Lash to achieve the look, but I never bought either of those products until a few weeks ago.
BADGal is a good pencil, but not great. I like the bright pink color of the pencil and I like that the kohl goes on black and doesn't look gray on my skin. It easily smudges, which is good on the one hand, but bad on the other because that means that you can't really wear it as a single swipe of black like I tried to do, because it wound up smearing up my eye and giving me the smudgy look even when I wasn't going for it. I really like
BADGal Lash. It's a very good mascara - my lashes look extremely dark and quite long and curly - awesome! The only problem is the wand - it's long and chunky, which makes it a bit unwieldy. Every now and then, while applying my mascara, I wind up with black smudges on the bridge of my nose because the wand is too long to allow you to get the tiny little inside lashes.
I got the
Sue Devitt Eye Intensifier Pencil in Bangalore (shimmering khaki green) and Zaire (shimmering plum). I guess I like them alright. The color of Bangalore is fabulous against my brown skin and eyes, but Zaire doesn't show up very well, so I was a bit disappointed - it actually looks more like an indiscriminate brown than plum. And, though these pencils are supposed to be easily smudgeable, they really aren't and that sponge-tip applicator on the end doesn't help, either - it's way too rough to use in the eye region. If you're looking for a similar pencil, I'd suggest you go with MAC Eye Kohls and just use your finger or a cotton swab to smudge.
I discovered Global Goddess in the King of Prussia Mall Sephora. I was drawn immediately to the look of this lipgloss set - the brocade embroidery of the box and the golden silky tassel called to the bellydancer in me. I have to say, though, the
Shangri Lights Shimmer Lips set hasn't impressed me. The colors are pretty, but not either as sheer or as soft as they could be. The gloss is a bit sticky. And they smell like peppermint. Essentially, they're just LORAC Lip Polish in a glitzed up, ethnic-looking tube. Wonk, wonk!
