Thursday 27 February 2014

Shiseido Eye Color Bar with L'Oreal Infaillible 24H Foundation

Sometime before last Christmas, the Shiseido Eye Color Bar finally landed at the Shiseido counter here in Geneva. I wasn't planning on purchasing it as the online swatches didn't seem that special. However, it looked more appealing in person, plus there was an attractive gift with purchase on offer to facilitate this piece of holiday retail therapy. It ended up sitting on my desk for the next two months as I didn't wear makeup regularly until I went back to work. Having a four month old son brings endless joys but it usually means very little time for myself, hence the erratic blog posts and even rarer product reviews. I've lost count of the number of times I had to stop to attend to him tonight while trying to write this but hey, I'm not complaining because I'd rather carry him for the umpteenth time around the house than, well, pretty much anything else!

Based on my previous experience with Shiseido's Luminizing Satin Eye Color Trios, I was expecting the shades to be of the sheer and luminous variety. I was pleasantly surprised by the good color payoff of Parfait Amour (purple) and Liquorice (black), which required very little layering to achieve the shades as seen in the pan. They have a soft satiny sheen and glide onto the skin with no loud frostiness or messy glitter.

For this look, I used Too Faced Shadow Insurance as the base and applied Parfait Amour from the lashline to the crease, Liquorice in the outer corner, Menthe (pale green) along the lower lashline and shaded into the crease, and Champagne (pearly golden white) over the browbone area and inner corners. I used Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen in Black Tulip along the upper lashline and Oyster Glow along the lower lashline.


Under brighter indoor lighting, the lovely glowy sparkles of Champagne and the full attraction of this Color Bar become more visible. Champagne and its pink-tinged cousin, Soda, are useful shades for layering over other eyeshadows to add some tonal complexity.

Having used only four out of the nine shades in the Color Eye Bar, this cannot be a definitive review but I'm delighted with the Eye Color Bar so far. After 8 hours of wear, there was no creasing or fading at all, which was impressive. It retailed for US$50 in the US, versus S$80 in Singapore, which is a reasonable price for the quality and the generous amount of product (9g, 0.31oz). The cardboard packaging (with magnetic closure) lacks the sleek chicness of the Luminizing Satin Eye Color Trios, but it's much more compact than Urban Decay's Naked palettes or Too Faced's palettes.

It is likely sold out in most locations by now although there were still a few pieces remaining at my local counter last week. On the off chance that you come across it, it is worth a look as it is office-friendly and yet versatile enough to offer a variety of creative looks, thanks to the genius talent of Shiseido Artistic Director Dick Page. Shiseido also rarely releases a large eyeshadow palette which makes this quite a collectible for fans of the brand.


Other products used for this look include L'Oreal's new Infaillible 24H foundation #130 True Beige and Tarte Lipsurgence Lip Tint in Moody, a lovely deep plum red. The Infaillible foundation is supposed to be a high coverage longwear foundation that hides the appearance of fatigue and blemishes, formulated with a Hydrating Hyaluron Complex. I didn't wear it for 24 hours but it held up pretty well for the 8 hours that I wore it, requiring only occasional blotting of the T-zone. It's more medium coverage rather than full coverage and does not feel heavy on the skin. The lightest shade available in Switzerland is #130 True Beige, which is a good match for me, but in the UK, there is a wider range of 8 shades that does not include True Beige.

You can read more reviews with swatches of the Eye Color Bar on Drivel about Frivol, Wondegondigo and Beauty Reflections.

1 comment:

Unpaletteable said...

Wow. You have totally re-ignited my lemming for this palette with that eye look. Gorgeous!