Colourpop Lippie Pencil: Ellarie, Lumière, Tootsi

Ellarie: Deep cool-toned berry

Ellarie

Lumière: Nudey-Rose

Lumiere

Tootsi: Cool-toned greyish pinky beige

Tootsi

Just for comparison, top: Lumiere bottom: Tootsi

PIGMENTATION: Excellent! One swipe provides full coverage.

PRODUCT: Creamy, but not waxy. I broke the tip of Lumière by pressing too hard! Lumière and Ellarie left a slight stain behind. 

PACKAGING: The product is housed in white plastic. I used my Nars sharpener on Lumiere and didn't have any issues.

PRICE: $5 for 1 oz (each!!!)

All in all, I am digging the Colourpop Lippie Pencils. They glide on SO easily! 

As always, you don't have to take my word for it. Colourpop Lippie Pencils are available now at colourpop.com.

Smashbox x Donald Robertson: Photo Angle Pure Pigment Gel Liner in Plum

During the spring Sephora VIB sale, I picked up something new since I am a sucker for purple eyeliner. This is my first gel eyeliner since I started to seriously get into makeup, so I was excited to try something different.

Plum is a cool-toned deep purple. It definitely reads "purple" on the eye, which I think is hard to come by with deep or "blackened" shades of purple.

PIGMENTATION: Good-- in one swipe you get a relatively opaque line.

PRODUCT: Eh... I'm not sure if it's because I'm not used to gel liner or if this is a special case. This liner is very dry so it was difficult to produce a clean line on my eye (yes, my swatch line is clean, but it was on the inside of my forearm, which is a flat surface). During application to my eye, it was a bit crumbly. I could also feel it on my eye throughout the day whenever I blinked or did normal eye things, which only ever happens if my eyes are irritated (they definitely weren't that day).  The packaging boasts a claim of "36-hour wear" but the liner was a very uncomfortable wear for the 5 hours it was on my eye, so I can't imagine wearing it for an insanely long period.

PACKAGING: As for the outer packaging, I think that the Donald Robertson part is limited edition, but it's only a sleeve that goes on the outside of the regular box the liner comes in. As for the packaging of the liner itself I really like the screw top cap. My guess is that it might keep the liner from drying out. The applicator is less great. It's a flexible foam tip that dispenses the liner through a slit at the top. It was really difficult to get a thin line with this, so I ended up with a giant wonky cat-eye.  As one who has aced the crisp cat-eye, this is a travesty in my book.

Sorry for the semi-blurry picture. Hopefully you get the gist.

PRICE: $24 for .03 oz

All-in-all, I'm not a fan of the Photo Angle liner. I really want to love it since it's SUCH  a gorgeous color with great color payoff, but the formula is so, so dry.

As always, you don't have to take my word for it! The Smashbox x Donald Robertson Photo Angle Pure Pigment Gel Liner is available now (in several colors!) at Sephora.

Kat Von D Monarch Palette

Kat von D's Monarch palette is a collection of 12 warm neutral leaning colors housed in a slim cardboard case.

Top: Entomology, Bottom (L-R) Wrath, Papilio, Summerfly

Entomology: Matte cream with yellow undertone
Wrath: Rust with faint copper sparkle. Cleopatra is similar, but matte
Papilio: Medium brown with soft copper shimmer
Summerfly: Rich 24k gold with gold glitter. One of my favorites!

L-R Entomology, Wrath, Papilio, Summerfly

Top: Telepathy, Bottom (L-R) Killing Jar, Delaney, Vanish

Killing Jar: Metallic rose gold

Delaney: Metallic taupe

Vanish: Matte tan. This was soooo buttery!

Telepathy: Metallic champagne with soft pink undertone

L-R Killing Jar, Delaney, Vanish, Telepathy

Top: Tiny Death, Bottom (L-R) Disintegration, Shadow Box, Dead Head

Tiny Death: Pale butterscotch with iridescent glitter. The glitter in this shade had a bit of fallout.
Disintegration: Antique shimmery bronze
Shadow Box: Rich matte chocolate brown
Dead Head: Officially the butteriest, most pigmented matte black I own.

L-R Tiny Death, Disintegration, Shadow Box, Dead Head

PIGMENTATION: No issues with any of the shades. All were densely pigmented.

PRODUCT: Other than the aforementioned fallout issue with Tiny Death, the only other problem was some shadows were a bit powdery. Because I tap off excess before I apply my eyeshadow, I didn't notice any fallout due to the softer texture of some of the shades.

Top row (L-R) Entomology, Telepathy, Tiny Death
Bottom Row (L-R) Wrath, Papilio, Summerfly, Killing Jar, Delaney, Vanish, Disintegration, Shadow Box, Dead Head

PACKAGING: As I mentioned in my Esperanza review, I am not a fan of the cardboard packaging of this year's palettes. However, this does have a decently-sized mirror and isn't too large for my bag.

PRICE: $46 

All in all, if you're a fan of neutral shades, but want some good quality mattes in your palette, check out the Monarch palette.

Of course you don't have to take my word for it. Kat von D's Monarch palette is available now at Sephora.