Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner

Hello there!

Wow, so it's been quite a few days since my last little blog adventure.

Well anyway, I'm back now, and I'm doing a sort of on-the-fly review of the Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner that I received in my February Birchbox.

As some of you will already know, my greatest makeup love is eye makeup, but more than anything, I am a FIEND for a good eyeliner. That goes double for liquid eyeliner, so as you can imagine, I was pretty excited to see this little treasure in my Birchbox. 

Historically, I've not been an enormous fan of liquid eyeliners with a sort of felt-pen nib. I often find them too chunky, and the product itself too inconsistent and streaky. BUT I always maintain that it's worth trying everything once, because you'll never know what might turn out to be a keeper!

I've been using the pen to line my eyes for work for the last couple of days, with no primer/setting spray, or indeed, any other makeup. I have to say, it holds up pretty well. It's not as waterproof/smudgeproof as my beloved Urban Decay 24/7 liquid eyeliner, but actually, because of that, it gives a less stark overall look, softening up what might otherwise be quite a harsh cat-eye/winged liner. Also, due to having a pen-like nib, rather than a brush, it's much easier to apply quickly, while I'm on the move, which I LOVE. 

The staying power is obviously much better on the top lashline than it is on the bottom, as my eyes are on par with Niagara Falls in terms of general wateriness, but at the end of the working day, there's always a hint of a smokey line under my lashes, so all is not lost. The liquid liner itself isn't totally opaque, and does apply a tiny bit unevenly, but I feel that you wouldn't notice this unless you were standing inches from my face, and specifically scrutinising my eyeliner! Also, bonus points for the fact that the nib isn't chunky and awkward, and applies a smooth, precise line.

I think if I had to score it, I'd rate the Eyeko Skinner Liquid Eyeliner at around 8/10, if only for the convenience of the product!

I would LOVE to show you photos of this in action, but unfortunately, my eyebrows look a hot mess right now as I'm trying to grow them back a bit thicker. I am not willing to subject you to the horror of an up-close and personal shot of my general eye area just yet!

I hope you enjoyed my little review! If you're interested in my non-makeup life, I am currently participating in a head-to-head challenge with my friend Scott on my other blog, the progress of which can be followed on our Facebook page! The current challenge (as surprisingly chosen by Scott) is candle-making! I'd love to build up some more support for Team Charley, so I will love you forever if you'd pledge your allegiance over on Facebook!

Have yourself a beautiful day, Lovelies :)

Charley xx

Makeup Confession: Foundation

Okay. Here it is, confession time...

*deep breath*

I hate wearing foundation.

I hate choosing foundation. I hate putting on foundation. In Winter, I hate being afraid to blow my nose BECAUSE I'm wearing foundation. In Summer I hate being afraid that it's going to melt off my face.

I do not like it at all.

On top of this, I'm like a chameleon- the colour and pigmentation of my skin appears to be in a constant state of flux. If it's a sunny day, I could be outside for 10 minutes and I'll go back inside a different colour than I went out. If I'm feeling a bit run down, my skin goes all ghostly and anaemic looking. When I DO buy foundations, I ALWAYS swatch them on my skin, but they NEVER seem to look the same at home.

I currently own three different foundations, two are Urban Decay Naked Skin liquid foundation in 4.0 (approximately my average colouring) and 6.0 (for Summer) and the other is a Body Shop Extra Virgin Minerals loose powder foundation in '208 Golden Vanilla'.

It's not that they're BAD foundations, or even that they look bad, I just hate looking in the mirror and knowing that what I can see isn't my skin, because it makes me feel like I'm wearing a mask, which is absolutely NOT the reason I love makeup.

I only tend to choose to wear these if my skin is doing its ghost thing, or I've been unwell and my colouring's all blotchy. Sometimes I'll wear foundation because I've done a really dramatic eye makeup for an event, and the rest of my face just needs to fall more in line with that, but I still resent feeling like I need to. *sigh*

There are girls on YouTube with complexions that seem beautiful and airbrushed before their foundation even touches their skin. I would love to have that. What I do have are three foundations that I resent owning, and two product-specific foundation brushes whose price tags made my eyes well up as I handed over the cash. 

UD Good Karma Optical Blurring Brush & The Body Shop Extra
Virgin Minerals Powder Foundation Brush

Don't get me wrong, they're good brushes. I especially LOVE the Body Shop brush for the powder foundation, but I wear the product so rarely that it seems cruel to have such a lovely brush and not use it. A male friend of mine recently blogged about owning too many shoes, and said he wondered if it was like in Toy Story, where all the neglected ones feel unloved. I feel this way about my makeup brushes. Do they peep out of my makeup bag, wondering if I will ever love them, being rewarded only by the briefest contact, when I begrudgingly sweep product I wish I didn't want onto my face with brushes I'm angry for owning?

I think I might be overthinking this.

Anyway, I hope that this confession/review/mental breakdown has been relatively informative. If you DO enjoy owning and wearing foundations, I thoroughly recommend that you try the ones I've mentioned, so that you can perhaps give them a better home than I have! Like I said, they're great products that totally serve their purpose, but my favourite everyday complexion-baby will always be my UD Naked Skin Beauty Balm!

What's your secret makeup shame? Please share in the comments below! I'm hoping I'm not the only beauty heretic!