Since falling for and swatching Charlotte Tilbury's range of eyeshadow pencils, Colour Chameleons, I've now had a few weeks to familiarise myself with the two shades I bought -- Amethyst Aphrodisiac and Champagne Diamonds -- and my first impressions are absolutely confirmed. These are stellar products: pigmented, buttery-smooth and blendeable, loaded with light-catching sparkle that adheres well to the lid, and in wonderful complex shades. In short, I want MOAR.
New aspects which I discovered after working with and wearing these (rather than just swatching):
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New aspects which I discovered after working with and wearing these (rather than just swatching):
- Although tenacious [on my friend's very oily lids as well as my own super dry ones], even a heavy eye look does come off easily with my usual cleansing oil -- no scrubbing required as with my swatches earlier.
- You get about 15-20s of working time before they set, which is sufficient for a reasonable variety of looks, though with this kind of finish my preference is for messy haze rather than graphic precision...
- ...and in any case, these do layer well over already-set areas without becoming patchy or crumbly, so you can continue to tweak the shape.
- Not exactly revelatory, but these are so lusciously soft that they do wear down quite quickly, and as they're proper crayons rather than twist-up ones, sharpening entails a bit of waste :( Standard chubby-pencil diameter, fitting into my ancient Tony&Tina wide sharpener, so you needn't buy the CT branded sharpener especially for these.
Let's take a closer look at my duo, firstly, with one-swipe swatchescribbles straight from the unsharpened tip, mainly to illustrate how smoothly and evenly the copious sparkles are distributed:
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Amethyst Aphrodisiac, is a sultry plum with burgundy microshimmer throughout its base and larger copper, ruby, gold and cornflower sparkles, all of which is clearly visible even (as here) in low natural light. This isn't one of those darker shades that look disappointingly flat or black once on the skin, thank goodness, but still works as a goes-with-everything neutral, perfect for adding a bit of decadent twinkle to a miserable London autumn's day.
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Champagne Diamonds is another neutral with a kick -- an ever-versatile gold with warmer peach microshimmer and larger, cooler glitter flecks in cooler shades of white, white-gold, palest pink and icy lilac. Dark enough against my skin to work as a lid shade as well sparkly enough to highlight, never frosty because of its textural complexity.
Comparisons with other things wot I own and love:
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The Charlotte Tilbury is the warmest and its red tones really come out in comparison to my other red-purple complex sparkly creamy things. That said, there are definitely affinities between all of these (those sneaky blue and copper lights), and a look at the other three products will testify to my enduring love of this kind of thing, and specifically, pairing them with sparkly peachy-things, as in the looks below...
In the Champagne Diamonds genre: Rouge Bunny Rouge Angelic Cockatiels, CLIO Friday Glow Liquid Eyeshadow 2 Sheer Beige and Sonia Rykiel Mousse Eyeshadow 05.
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Champagne Diamonds is tonally closest to the RBR, though with a touch more amber warmth, but as the fuzzy swatch picture shows, it shares a sparkly complex finish with the Sonia Rykiel and CLIO shades. Both of which I'm going to finish shortly, so this came along just in time :)
Comparisons with other things wot I own and love:
Shu Uemura x Karl Lagerfeld Prestigious Bordeaux plum, Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen Black Tulip, Sonia Rykiel Mousse Eyeshadow 04.
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| angled, fuzz |
In the Champagne Diamonds genre: Rouge Bunny Rouge Angelic Cockatiels, CLIO Friday Glow Liquid Eyeshadow 2 Sheer Beige and Sonia Rykiel Mousse Eyeshadow 05.
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| angled, fuzz |
Three looks, with both pencils, and forced rhymes:
1. The Flick
Amethyst Aphrodisiasc on a Chikuhodo Artist 6-1 to line upper lashline, thickening up from the inner third out and flicked out slightly, with outer third of wing edged in Champagne Diamonds applied with Hakuhodo 5512. Another dab of CD at inner corner of lower lashline. Socket softly shaded with RBR Sweet Dust Seriema.
Cheeks: Kjaer Weis Lovely | Lips: Addiction Last Scene mixed with Malin&Goetz lipbalm | Face: Copious quantity of RBR Sea of Clouds highlighter to match the pretty, dewy lip.
2. My Current Kick
A simple smudgy shape, following the natural lines of my eye, without liner [example]. Because of the placement of the darker colour at the outer edges, this has the effect of widening my slightly close-set eyes, while taking essentially as much (i.e. little) time and effort as a one-colour wash. Both pencils applied directly to eye, blended out with the Suqqu M brush.
Lip: a stronger red with Guerlain Rouge G Gala, a cool-toned cherry red in a classic cream finish
Cheeks: RBR Gracilis, a dustier pink-neutral blush
3. Chaotic/Dramatic Gimmick?
I always feel like the emergency-day-to-evening thing is such a typical beauty blogger gimmick, and disliking to see a wagon go by without jumping aboard wanting to demonstrate the layerability of these products, here's the second look, over drawn with MOAR Amethyst Aphrodisiac smudged into socket and lower lashline, and Champagne Diamonds layered more heavily over itself, both applied straight from the pencil. (I wanted to keep things editorially bruisey, hence no extra blending -- it's not like pencils this blunt are going to produce harsh lines in any case.)
Lip: tonally richer but informally soft-edged red by scribbling THREE Lip Crayon Ruby over the worn-down stain of Gala. | Cheek: stronger but more neutral toned, with Delicata layered over Gracilis. | Face: minimal amount of RBR Sea of Clouds to contrast with the matte saturated lip.
All three looks:
Koh Gen Do Maifanshi Moisture Foundation 001, Burberry Sheer Concealer 01 under eyes, Shu Uemura Seal Brown H9 pencil and Suqqu 02 Brown pen through brows, L'Oreal False Lash Extension WP mascara.