Review| Shiseido Eye Bar

After a brief bout of obsession, I thought I was over the fling with obsessive-swatch-searching for Shiseido's limited edition Eye Bar ($50 retail, I found online at Nordstrom). Nope. One swap later, it was in my hands. I was first afraid of committing to such a "colorful" palette. After all, it has plenty of vibrant looking colors that only the bold could wear on a daily basis.

On the contrary, I found it to be very subtle, sheer, and versatile. Not to mention small. It's a sleek cardboard package barely bigger than the palm of my hand and includes a decently sized mirror and magnetic closure. The gimmick with this is that you can use any of the colors alone, or add the "magic" shimmer shades on top for more depth and dimension. The colors are, in the words of Dick Page, supposed to represent ingredients a bartender would use to mix up drinks.

All shades are swatched sans primer, with two coats. Yup, two!

As you can already see, these shades aren't exactly ground-breaking or particularly striking, but follow the same formulation as Shiseido's singles or trios. They are buttery to the touch, yet sheer in pigment and don't translate to hooker eyes unless you have the time and dedication to pack it on. Also, that annoying plastic film used to identify color names causes things to happen, like that finger mark in the purple shade. Grr. Best to throw it out.

Another look at swatches.

For me, all of them performed well except for the two brown shades. How you can mess up browns, I do not know. The top brown is a matte and was rather powdery and patchy. The bottom is very, very sheer. Do not want.

I haven't tried layering them deliberately, but you can take a look at my makeup here and see for yourself what happens when you apply everything on your eye just to test out the colors.

For me, it's a great steal for nine Shiseido eyeshadows, but the individual colors don't impress me as much as the trios. I'm glad I skipped out on purchasing, but it's still a fun palette to own if you like color but don't want to look like you're attending the rave that is your office cubicle. It's a very classy palette, but only if you're already a fan of Shiseido eyeshadows. 

What's your Xmas looking like? I'm finally heading home for the holidays, after two years! And now that I'm legally allowed to imbue alcohol in public, it's time to hit up Santana Row for some klassy adult entertainment. 

XO, Be