Sparkled Beauty

You can bet with all your money that after a serious hunt to find these gems, I'd be wearing the hell out of them.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, they are the latest Smoothie Eyeshadow pencils from Annabelle, which are exclusive to Shoppers, and only available at selected stores.

When I found a display at the last Shoppers I went, I bought all 5 shades, from top to bottom: Grapefull, BluBomb, Absinthe-Minded, Melonade and MokaMirage.

These retail for CAD8.99 a piece, weigh at 1.6gr/ 0.05oz. For comparison purpose, NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow pencils are 5gr/ 0.18oz.

Claimed to be extreme longwear and hypo-allergenic, they sure need to be tested out, don't they? And tested they are.

The amount of products you see at the top is when the pencils are at brand new condition, which isn't much. After a few uses, I had to sharpen the pencils already. I hate losing products as a result of that. And a good sharpener makes such a difference too. How about a twisting option to save us all the troubles?

Main ingredients: Osododecane Cyclopentasiloxane, PEG/PPG-19/19, Dimethicone, Synthetic Wax, Hydrogenated Polydicyclopentadiene, Nylon-12, C20-40 Alcohols, Perfluorononyl Dimethicone, Polycryceryl-4, etc.

Swatches, with flash, in the backward order from botton to top, no primer or base :)

Right off the bat, I love how creamy the pencils are. They don't pull or scratch, are pigmented and opaque in a swipe or two.

Also fell in love with the colour options right away, which was why I ended up with all 5 - couldn't leave any behind. Well, for review purpose first, but there was a crazy fan in me that talk myself into it. Glad I did!

Check out below for close-up swatches, first with flash and then with natural light.

To my eyes, the fist 2 colours on the left (Grapefull and BluBomb) are matte and the other 3 (Absinthe-Minded, Melonade and MokaMirage) are shimmery. Not to the extreme matte or extreme shimmery finish though, very wearable. There isn't any glitters, as you can see, if you are worried about that. But if you do want glitters, these pencils are a perfect base for them.

The colours don't look that much different between the 2 lighting options. Melonade does look a bit more peach in the flash, but that was it.

If you were having all 5 shades, which ones would you choose to wear first? Tough decision, isn't it? Found a favorite yet?

Me? I picked Absinthe-Minded as all over lid colour, leaving the inner corners for Melonade, to play it safe for work.

Now the wear, you ask? Check this out.

This picture was taken right after I got home from the gym, a bit after 8pm. I put my makeup on at 6:30 in the morning, and there was no touch up, at all! More than 12 hours of wear, no creasing and very little fading. I kept checking the time to see when the colours started creasing and gave up in the afternoon. For the record, if I were wearing NYX Jumbo pencil, it would crease after about 3-4 hours. Enough said?

A note, Melonade almost matches my skin tone so it isn't very visible. It would work best as a base to bring out colours of other eyeshadows you put on top of it. But boy oh boy isn't Absinthe-Minded ever gorgeous?

EDIT TO ADD: I did use a base underneath my makeup, as always, but the same base witnessed NYX creasing on my lids, so I don't think the base was what made a difference. Also forgot to mention that these pencils make perfect eyeliner. I used them on the lower lash line (hope you can see them underneath my lashes there) and they lasted as long as they did on the lids.

Anyway, to summarize: GO. GET. THEM, while you still can! That's all, folks.