Grey In And Grey Out

I (and the rest of the fashion world) have really been into grey right now. I mean, given my limited colour spectrum it would make sense that I was into grey, but it's become a huge part of my wardrobe.

Of course, it's become a large part of my makeup routine as well. And this little pot of wonders, a.k.a. Bobbi Brown's Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Graphite Shimmer Ink, has become one of my greatest loves ever.


Usually, I wear Urban Decay's 24/7 Eyeliner in Zero (and when I get around to my "basic face" post, I'll talk more about that). But I've realized that I can try out other colours without looking too wacky or out there...and that's opened up a whole new world of possibilities.


This liner in particular has been wonderful. It's not miraculously long-lasting, but with my trusty Urban Decay Primer Potion, it lasts a day without getting all over my eyelid. The colour is not as vibrant, but it's still there. The gel formula is so great to apply, especially with a bent eyeliner brush (more on this later). And the colour...though this may not show up as well when I use it as an eyeliner, it's a beautifully multitoned-shimmery grey. It's almost a light hematite colour. I think it's positively lovely, and is great for people who want a line on their eyes but want a change from black.

(in natural light)

(with flash)

Plus, it pairs beautifully with my NARS shadow in Kiki.


I bought this from Bobbi Brown's website a little while back when there was a discount running, so I got it for a small bit cheaper, but this eyeliner definitely does run on the expensive side at $21. If you're looking for a cheaper alternative, get Prestige's Waterproof Eyeliner in Granite. The one downside to the pencil is that it's harder to use it as an eyeshadow base. I didn't talk about this before but the fact that this colour is really multi-dimensional makes it great for either an eyeshadow base, or even a smokey eye-cream shadow type of deal.

My next stop? Conquering navy blue eyeliner.

Urban Decay/Outfitters

I made this amazing discovery recently that I wanted to share with you guys...the beauty section at Urban Outfitters! Well, at least, Urbanoutfitters.com. But still! Who knew that the indie crew that fosters Anthropologie and Free People would have a beauty section? Granted, it's pretty limited, but I found something that you might like.

A recent trend for those that love colour but don't want to go overboard is to use coloured eyeliner. A simple line of navy blue or teal can add instant spice to a look without going crazy. Plus, for those that are used to a line of black eyeliner, using navy blue or dark purple can often help to make your eye colour pop without looking that different from black.

A product I've recently heard a lot is Urban Decay's 24/7 eyeliner pencils. I've been wanting to try them out, but I haven't really gotten the chance to. So, imagine my surprise when the perfect opportunity to give these little pencils a spin popped up at Urban Outfitters! This set of 5 Urban Decay eye pencils is only $29, which is about $6 a pencil. Personally, I love anything that's travel-sized, especially if it's in a set like this, because I love to vary my beauty products and I inevitably will never use up a full-length eyeliner pencil. Not that I'm planning on using up a travel-sized one either, it's just that I don't feel as bad buying more beauty products when they're mini.


This set contains 5 colours, Lucky (dark copper), Zero (black), Covet (blue-green, or teal), Electric (light blue), and Lust (indigo-purple). Well, at least, I'm pretty sure those are the colours. What's unfortunate about this set is that 3/5 of it is really loud colours, which is good for those people that want to try something new or that like loud colours, but bad for me (aka the queen of neutral colours). If you're unsure about what the colours will look like, you can test them out at your nearest Sephora, or head over to KarlaSugar, which is the most wondrous blog for those who often harbor beauty lemmings. She's got swatches of most of the pencils, so you can get a sense of what the set offers (and what the other colour choices are).

My personal favourites, after looking at that swatch, are definitely Gunmetal (dark grey/silver), Baked (gold), Rockstar (dark purple), and Stash (dark green/antique gold). My love for Stash hasn't been helped by the fact that I saw it on Temptalia as well. Sigh...

Colour Fear

I've always admired people who could rock really bright and crazy eyeshadow combinations. Temptalia, an incredibly creative blogger, is one person who comes to mind. For some reason the idea of coloured eyeshadow has seemed, on paper, to be really tacky...but then I see people like her post these great looks and it all seems to come together. Part of the reason that I don't really experiment with eye colour that much is because of my skintone. I'm half Indian, half Filipino, which therefore means tan with dark hair. My eyebrows were out of control until I discovered the wonder that is tweezers, and I've always had these ridiculously large undereye bags. Until today, finding a concealer that doesn't look ashy is always hard. Because of my darker skintone, I've always found it hard to go for brightly coloured eyeshadow because it's hard to be subtle. If I had paler skin, I could do, say, a light lavender eye and have it be subtle and pretty without being over-the-top. But because I have darker skin, if I want to do a purple eye, it's got to be a darker, more vivid purple...which kind of freaks me out.

So, I was browsing Temptalia when I noticed her "Pink Eyes Challenge." Like I said, I've never been one to wear colour but I figured...it's summer, I have a lot of free time -- why not give it a shot? Of course, I wasn't about to do a crazy number and go out and purchase a ton of pink shadows. What I did instead was: grab the N.Y.C. lipstick that I purchased recently and my e.l.f. eyeliner brush, and line my bottom lash line with the fuschia shimmer lipstick. And, lo and behold, it didn't look half bad! Now I know this is nowhere near the daring looks that many beauty lovers out there wear, but for me, it's a start. This whole lining the bottom lashline thing doesn't seem quite so bad now! Maybe next time I'll try a shimmery purple, since purple is supposed to bring out brown eyes...


P.S. I apologize for the state of my brows, they aren't looking so hot these days...