Felt Eyeliner Pen: Maybelline Impact Express Smooth Felt Liner

Hello!

It has been a LONG time since my last post, partly due to laziness and partly because I've been trying to cut back on my expenditures. Not to say that I haven't bought ANY makeup since then, but I've definitely purchased a lot less in the way of experimental cosmetics, hence the lack of posts. But today I got a few things I was interested to try out.

This is the Maybelline Impact Express Smooth Felt Liner. It's a liquid eyeliner pen with a firm felt tip, like a marker. All the other eyeliner pens I've used have had brush tips, which kind of bend depending on how you press them to the eyelid. This felt liner has no give to it; it's completely stiff. Which in my case looks to be an advantage.

I tried it out, and it's possible to get a very fine line with this pen. I found the felt tip easier to use than a brush tip; the line turned out much smoother than usual. The color is a nice, solid black.

Out of curiosity, I also attempted a cat eye with the pen. The results are not super impressive since I'm pretty bad at doing cat eyes, but the liner itself performed really well. It was easy to get a smooth, clean line with no skipping, which I usually struggle with when using a brush pen. 

Overall, I'm very impressed with this product. I haven't worn it a full day, so I can't speak as to how well it stays put, but application was WAY easier than usual. Generally, I've had the most success using cream eyeliner and an eyeliner brush, but this may have been even easier than that, and I got a finer line. It seems to me that the best aspect of the felt liner is the amount of control it gives you. I would definitely recommend this one for folks who struggle with eyeliner.

UPDATE: It turns out that this eyeliner is not particularly waterproof. As in, if your eyes water a little bit, it will smear halfway across your face. Very disappointing. I wouldn't recommend this one unless you would be using it in a dry, cool area.

Orange vs. Orange

Orange is one of my favorite colors to wear, but it's not always that easy to find. There isn't typically a huge amount of orange clothing in most stores, and orange makeup is even less common. So, when I found out that I could buy such unconventional lipstick shades as blue, green, yellow and (gasp!) orange from Lime Crime, I was thrilled. Along with a few tubes of Carousel Gloss (which I will certainly end up talking about in the future), I bought "My Beautiful Rocket", a bright orange opaque lipstick.

Since last winter I've been occasionally wearing my orange Lime Crime lipstick, and I'm quite happy with it. It's fully opaque with only one coat, has a wonderful scent (I think it smells like marshmallows), and the color stays bright for quite a long time. It doesn't fade or rub off easily once you've applied it. On a few occasions I've eaten a meal while wearing it and found that my lips were still fairly orange afterward. I think that's mostly the case if you've applied it a good length of time before eating, so that it has some time to sink into your skin. Of course, some of the lipstick does come off when you eat, but a surprising amount of the color remains. And it was fairly uniform, too; it wasn't just the edges of my lips that stayed orange, it was the whole surface. Sometimes I find that if I eat or drink while wearing a bright color, most of the lipstick comes off and I end up looking like I'm just wearing lip liner.

Anyhow, just recently I discovered orange lipstick from Maybelline at the drug store. I was very surprised; most brands typically stick to more standard colors. There were maybe three shades of orange. I think they were something along the lines of "Peach Nude", "Apricot Nude", and "Orange Nude". I might be wrong about those names, though. So, out of curiosity I bought a tube of the Maybelline Water Shiny Milky in OR615 (Orange Nude). 

Since this is a color comparison, I figured that I'd better try to get some photos in better lighting than the usual yellow glare of my bathroom lights. I took these pictures in my bedroom, in afternoon sunlight. I'm not particularly knowledgeable about photography or lighting conditions, but I think the colors came out pretty true in these shots. For the sake of comparison, I'm wearing "My Beautiful Rocket" (Lime Crime) on my upper lip and "OR 615" (Maybelline) on my lower lip.

Unless you look very closely, the shades are quite similar. But it seems to me that the Lime Crime is a truer orange, whereas the Maybelline has a slightly more papaya-y color to it. It's just a tiny bit peach-tinted, though I'd still definitely call it orange.

Some other differences between the two lipsticks are texture and opacity. The Lime Crime lipstick is high pigment, so it's somewhat softer and has a creamy texture. The Maybelline lipstick has a fairly standard texture, and feels a little more glossy, if that makes sense. It goes on in thin, smooth coats. For opacity, the Lime Crime is definitely much more opaque and solid. I'm only wearing one coat on my upper lip in order to get that shade, and there are no thin spots. The Maybelline goes on somewhat sheer, so I put on maybe two or three coats to get it to the intensity I wanted. 

Other considerations: The Lime Crime lipstick is higher pigment and higher quality, and as a result, it is more expensive. One tube is $15.99, plus whatever you pay for shipping. I can't do a direct price comparison because I don't know exactly how much the Maybelline lipstick would cost in the U.S., but looking at the prices in Rite Aid's online store, it seems that it costs around $7 for one tube. I think the price in Japan was somewhat higher, but that's a different matter.

Durability is possibly another issue. Because high pigment lipstick is softer, it can melt more easily. I've been hesitant to carry the Lime Crime lipstick in my purse on hot days for fear it would be ruined, possibly staining my purse in the process. I don't know at exactly what temperature you should start worrying, so I've been erring on the side of caution. 

This has been a very wordy post, so for my conclusions I'll just boil it down to the basics.

Maybelline Water Shiny Milky in OR615 (Orange Nude)

Pro: Inexpensive, easy to control color intensity by layering, widely available, as durable as most lipsticks

Con: Less long-lasting, lower pigment/quality

Lime Crime "My Beautiful Rocket"

Pro: Very true orange, high pigment, great smell, extremely long lasting, fully opaque with one coat

Con: More expensive, less widely available (purchase online), higher risk of melting 

Personally, I'm very pleased with both lipsticks. I'll continue using each of them, though for slightly different purposes. The Lime Crime is perfect for when I want a major pop of color and don't feel like reapplying often, and the Maybelline is great when I want more control over the intensity of the color and need something sturdy enough to chuck in my purse and forget for a while.

Some Favorites

As sort of a baseline, I thought I'd list a few of my favorite products. These are the ones I use the most consistently. I'm not including pictures or much in the way of commentary, but for some of these products I intend to come back to them later and write up an actual review.

Eye shadows:
Business natural: Cover Girl Eye Enhancers #265, "Sheerly Nudes"
Shiny natural: Urban Decay "Midnight Cowboy Rides Again" or Sephora "carine no. 26" (they look really similar to me) and Sephora "californian blonde no. 10"
Silver: Sephora "engagement ring no. 01" (the only silver that doesn't look too dark on my skin)
Lavenders (one of my favorite eye shadow colors): Tarina Tarantino Eyedream Highlight Duo "Iris Plume" and "Moon Opal"

Eyes etc.:
Waterproof mascara: Maybelline the Hyper Curl Volum'Express Waterproof Mascara
Non-waterproof mascara: Maybelline Volum'Express Turbo Boost Mascara
Makeup remover: Maybelline Express Care
Under eye concealer: L'Oréal Bare Naturale gentle mineral concealer
Eye shadow primer: Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Brand of false eyelashes: D.U.P.
Eyelash glue: D.U.P. Eyelashes Glue Rubber Type #501
Cream eyeliner: Sephora Waterproof Smoky Cream Liner
Pencil eyeliner: Vivid & Smooth Liner by Eyestudio

Lipsticks:
Long-lasting lip gloss: Lime Crime Carousel Gloss "Cherry on Top" and "Candy Apple"
Bright lip gloss: Revlon Color Burst Lip Gloss #20 (papaya)
Pink lipstick: Maybelline Water Shiny Volumy #004
Purple-pink (mauve?) lipstick: Maybelline Water Shiny Volumy Pearl #107
Wine red lipstick: Maybelline Water Shiny Pure #209
Orange-red lipstick: Revlon Color Burst Lip Butter #35
Orange lipstick: Lime Crime "My Beautiful Rocket"

You can probably see that I favor Maybelline for most things. I don't have a very specific reason for this, other than that they seem to offer a lot of colors that I like. Also, I'm finding that it's one of the easier brands to get in Japan. Most all drug stores here carry Maybelline, but only a few stores I know of have Revlon or Cover Girl. For lipsticks, all I really care about is the color. I like bright colors, so any brand with really vivid shades is good with me.

Well, those are most of my absolute favorites. I intend to come back to the Lime Crime lip glosses because they are amazing and deserve a lot more commentary than what I'm providing here. Look forward to it!

Fun with false eyelashes: the butterfly wings

Recently I bought a set of ridiculously large false eyelashes. The brand is Kosé Cosmeport, and the style is Anmiel type 200: cute. I bought them in Japan, the home of psychotic false eyelashes. Well, maybe Japan doesn't have a monopoly on crazy eyelashes, but I'd say they've got a pretty damn good selection.

Due to the extreme length of the lashes at the outer corners, this set reminds me of butterfly wings. And I guess they'd be pretty good for butterfly kisses, since you wouldn't even have to get your face all that close. I measured them, and at the outer corner they're about 1.5 centimeters long. They come 2 sets to a package, but my photo only shows one set because the other pair is on my face.

Anmiel type 200: cute

I'm not an expert at putting on false eyelashes, so they may be a little wonky in the next few photos, but it should give a general idea of what these lashes look like on a face. I used D.U.P. Eyelashes Glue Rubber Type (#501), which is my favorite eyelash glue. I find it sticks well, but is easy to peel off afterward. Other makeup I am wearing: some old peach eye shadow,  Smashbox eye shadow in "Torch" (orange), Sephora Smoky cream liner in "Must Have" (black),  Maybelline Water Shiny Milky lipstick shade OR615 (Nude Orange, I think), and Maybelline Volum'Express Turbo Boost Mascara in Jet Black. Eye shadows and eyeliner purchased in the U.S., lipstick and mascara purchased in Japan.

Here's the overall look from a distance. I don't look too crazy, but let's just take a closer look...

Okay, looking a bit more dramatic now. Nice thing about wearing giant eyelashes is that you can wear brighter/more intense eye shadow and it doesn't look out of place. Keep zooming in...

GAH! Okay, that is pretty crazy. Let's see what they look like from the top:

Yeah, really freaking long. Still, I've had them on for an hour or two now, and I'm finding them just as comfortable as the more natural false lashes I've tried. Although they're freakishly long, they aren't particularly distracting in my peripheral vision, maybe because they have a bit of curl to them. I wear contact lenses, so when I first put the lashes on they kind of seemed to make my contacts move around a bit on my eye, and I was blinking more than normal. But now I've adjusted and I'm not having any trouble with them.

I can't really think of any situations where I would wear these, but I actually do rather like the effect. Very doll-like. I figure they're more appropriate for a particular Japanese style, and wouldn't really look that good with the sort of clothes I wear on a day to day basis. But I might consider wearing them out at night or to a club if I wanted to look especially doe-eyed. I think the packaging says something about making the eyes look more round (I can only read a little Japanese), and that's not really a concern with me. My eyes are pretty large and round, I'd say. But I'll be keeping these lashes around until I find a suitable opportunity to try them outside the house.

Side note about the incidental makeup: The orange lipstick I'm wearing was kind of a surprising find in that most major brands don't make that color. I'd previously bought some orange lipstick from Lime Crime ("My Beautiful Rocket"), and they're similar in color. The Lime Crime lipstick is much higher pigment and has a nicer smell (marshmallows!), and is slightly more orange-orange. The Maybelline stuff is a little more reddish, but still a fairly true orange. I think I prefer the Lime Crime lipstick, but the Maybelline is good to have on hand in that I'd be less afraid to carry it in my purse on a hot day. Apparently high pigment lipsticks are softer and more liable to melt, and I would hate to ruin my Lime Crime lipstick (and my purse) by exposing it to hot weather. Maybe later I'll do a direct comparison of the two lipsticks.