Loose Powder

There are a lot of reviews out there about Urban Decay’s Primer Potion in Original, and I would have to agree with all those reviews. This is one of the best eye shadow primers I have ever used. Just a sweep of this primer and your eye shadow will stay vibrant and last the whole day without any worry about creasing.

The primer comes in a really cute silvered capped purple “potion” bottle. The applicator is an angled brush that can be a bit awkward to use at first, but once you figure out the best angle to apply it, application becomes a breeze. However, I have read someone where the change to the angle brush came from the problem that a lot of the primer product was left in the bottle due to its shape back when the original brush was only a straight brush. So apparently angled brush is more efficient in getting more product out of the bottle.

I use eye pencils as eyeliner for years, and it never occurred to me that sharpeners made a difference because aren’t eye pencils are just pencils with softer tips? With this mentality, I’ve been using a cheap Wet ‘n’ Wild sharpener I got for $0.99. Generally, the sharpener worked… to an extent. But at the time, I was using cheap eyeliner pencils that cost no more than a dollar or two. So if the tips kept breaking and the sharpeners chewed the pencils like a wood chuck, I didn’t really care. But now that I am actually investing money and purchasing better eyeliners, such as, Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide-on eye pencils, I did not want to have half of my eye pencil eaten up by a faulty sharpener, especially at $17 an eye pencil.

This review is for three sharpeners that I have in my makeup bag, and does price really make a difference in sharpeners?

Wet ‘n’ Wild

I got this sharpener a long time ago. I think the sharpeners that Wet ‘n’ Wild puts out now are silver in color, and I don’t know if they have improved their product or not, but after using this one. I’m not tempted to try even if it is only a couple bucks. However, this is a dual sharpener and has a sharpener for the jumbo eye pencil as well.

This sharpener did its job. It sharpened my eye pencils, but it sharpened the pencils like a regular No. 2 pencil. We’ve all experience the sharpened pencil where one side is the lead and the other is side a wood point, and just when you thought you had about half a centimeter of lead left, you find that you can’t write normally anymore and you have to start writing at a ridiculously odd angle because the sharpener does not sharpen evenly around the pencil.

Now this is a problem for eye pencils because when you’re lining your eyes and reach near the end of the tip, the wood strip at the end can scratch your eyelids, and I’ve done this a bunch of times when I didn’t pay attention to the bluntness of my eye pencils. Believe me, it hurts!

In addition to getting scratched eyelids, this sharpener has a tendency to break the tips while sharpening, and this happened quite often. So often that I would give up and only half sharpen the pencil enough to give me enough of a point to line my eyes, but that problem still led to my eyelids getting scratched. I can’t win!

Maybe Wet ‘n’ Wild has changed the blade in their silver sharpeners, but I won’t be trying it anytime soon unless I get it for free, then maybe I’ll give it a go.

ELF Sharpener

I actually forgot I had this sharpener. I received this sharpener through the ELF “Get the Look” set and just tossed it into my makeup bag and never looked back until now. In fact, I have three of these sharpeners.

Since ELF sells these sharpeners at about $1.00, I assumed they were as bad as the Wet ‘n’ Wild one I have, but since I had them, I thought I’d try them out. These ELF sharpeners are a hit or miss. The first sharpener I grabbed was bad. It did not sharpen at all. I stuck the pencil into the sharpener and twisted and twisted and nothing happened. I even tried pressing the pencil closer to the blade thinking if it “caught” it would start sharpening. No luck. Just as I was about to write off these sharpeners, I remembered I had another one in my bag and tried that one out.

This sharpener looked exactly like the one I just tried, but instead it sharpened my eye pencil like a breeze. It didn’t get stuck, didn’t break the tip, or make a big mess. In fact, I was able to sharpen my eye pencil to a pretty sharp point without any breakage. Also it didn’t sharpen the pencil like a No. 2 pencil, so no scratchy eyelids.

I also tried the third sharpener I had, and that one worked fine as well. So if you want a cheap sharpener, the ELF sharpener is good… if you get one that works. 2 out of 3, I guess those odds are too bad. Another downside is that this sharpener only has one size, so if you have a jumbo eye pencil you’re going to need another sharpener. However, ELF does have a Dual pencil sharpener for sale that comes with two sharpeners for $1.00, which is a great deal. Apparently the ones I have were the “bonus” sharpeners.

Urban Decay: Grind House

After a couple weeks of watching my Urban Decay eye pencils get mutilated, I bit the bullet and bought Grind House. I figured that Urban Decay must make a sharpener that is made for their eye pencils, and they did.

I have never been happier with a sharpener than with Grind House. With just a few twists, my blunt eye pencils were sharp again without any breakage or wooden points to scratch my eyelids. Grind House is basically a sharpener with a built in container to hold the pencil shavings so you don’t have to be standing over a trash can to sharpen your eye pencils. But be warned that the cap is not very tight and can come off if it is being tossed around in your makeup bag or purse, so I recommend emptying the container of shavings before putting it away to prevent shavings littering your bag.

I also like that Grind House comes with two sizes, so my regular eye pencils are covered and so are my jumbo pencils. But I have noticed that for the jumbo pencil side of the sharpener, the plastic point stopper prevents my jumbo pencil from getting too sharp. I would like my jumbo pencils a bit sharper, but this is not a huge problem for me.

At $9 a pop, Grind House is expensive, but it is worth it. Also it has a very interesting design on the cap that includes a butterfly, a heart, a flower, a worm or caterpillar, a skull, and a gun. A perfect design that goes with the Urban Decay brand.

So basically, there are cheap sharpeners that work as well as expensive sharpeners, but just beware “you get what you give”.

I don’t think Urban Decay still sells the “Super Stash” set for their 24/7 Glide-on eye pencils anymore, but you can still find them on ebay for $40-$50, though I don’t think this set is worth those prices on ebay.

I have always preferred using pencil liners over liquid liners because the few times I have tried to used liquid liner, it always ended up a disaster, but I recently discovered the beauty of gel liners, but that’s for another review. I like using pencil liners because I feel that I have better control, and if I make a mistake, it isn’t as catastrophic as with a liquid liner. The problem with most cheap liners is that they either crease or don’t last the whole day and end up giving me raccoon eyes.

A couple friends had told me about how Urban Decay has the best eye pencils, but being on a budget, I wasn’t sure about spending $17 on an eye pencil. After probably wasting that amount or more by trying out various cheaper brands, I finally broke down and decided give Urban Decay a try. Now I had another dilemma. What color should I try? All the colors in Urban Decay are bold and colorful, and I wanted to try a lot of them if not all. Since I could not decide on which colors, I decided to get the Super Stash which had nine different colors and mini sized. So if I didn’t like a color, I wouldn’t have a lot of it left over, but if I loved the color, I was going to have to spring for the regular sized pencil.

The Super Stash comes with nine colors. Colors from left to right: Zero, Oil Slick (black and glitter), Corrupt (brown and glitter), Eldorado, Graffiti, Binge, Ransom, Rockstar, and Stash.

I tend to stick to boring colors like black, brown and the occasional dark purple, but after getting this set, my favorite colors have been Binge (Navy) and Ransom (Iridescent purple). I did not think I would care for the green (Graffiti) and gold (Eldorado), but the colors are so bold and pretty that I have tried them out and love them. Every color in this set is great for any occasion.

Now the colors are fantastic, but how do they wear? Urban Decay’s 24/7 glide-on eye pencil goes on very smoothly and bold. You don’t need many strokes to get a nice good bold lining. With primer the eyeliner will last all day. Without primer the eyeliner will still last all day, but there will be minor creasing. Also this liner would survive my toughest workouts where I feel like am showering in sweat.

Another example of its water resistance was when I was cleaning the swatches off my arm, I had just put my arm under the faucet and the water just ran right over the colors without any smears or smudges. The liners with sparkles did lose a couple flakes, but that’s expected. I actually had to use a waterproof makeup remover to successfully clean the patches from my arm. So the eyeliner is definitely water resistant as advertised.

Colors from left to right: Zero, Oil Slick (black and glitter), Corrupt (brown and glitter), Eldorado, Graffiti, Binge, Ransom, Rockstar, and Stash.

For the swatches, I went over them twice with the pencils, since just having one layer was not enough for the camera to capture the colors. All the colors have a little shimmer to them. Corrupt has glitter, but they aren’t showing up in the picture. Also Zero (black) is darker than in the picture. My favorite color in this set is Ransom. At the time I only thought it was a regular purple color, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was an iridescent purple with a hint of blue. This was a combination of two colors I love! Needless to say, I’ve been using this one a lot.

Now I did mention that these pencils are “mini” sized, and when I say “mini” I mean mini. I knew they were small when I bought them, but I had underestimated the smallness when I received these in the mail. These pencils are 0.02 oz or 0.5g. When it is just numbers, it is hard to imagine the size. So I decided to measure the pencil with a ruler, and they measure only about 2.75 inches. Basically they can, literally, fit in the palm of your hand. Because of the smallness of each pencil, this set is a bit on the expensive side, but it is a good set to try if you want to play with the different colors.

After purchasing this set, I was wondering if I spent too much for eyeliner, but after using these liners for about a month. I have no regrets, and I’ve even purchase a couple more sets with some new colors that aren’t “mini” sized.

Fyrinnae (pronounced “fyeer-ih-nay”) is a company I am fairly new to, but I am loving their unique and vibrant eyeshadows and blush, both of which I’ll talk about in future posts. In this article I am reviewing their fabulous product, Pixie Epoxy.

Fyrinnae does not claim to be a mineral makeup company, but all their products are vegan: they don’t contain silk, carmine, pearl, or beeswax. Some of their ingredients are man-made or lab treated and thus aren’t technically “natural,” but they’re pretty much the same things you find in “mineral” make-up: mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxides, etc. Category and product pages will list all the ingredients in an item.

As stated on the site, Pixie Epoxy is not an eye primer or a base.  It’s a unique “glue,” that is “designed to hold the sparkliest, most shimmery eye shadows in place, minimize ‘fallout’, and also to easily create a foiled look without foiling.”

Ingredients: Glycerin (vegetable derived), Purified Water (Aqua), Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Silica, Acrylamide/Ammonium acrylate copolymer, Polyisobutene, Polysorbate 20, Propylene Glycol, Carbomer, Polyaminopropyl Biguanide, Potassium Sorbate.

Personally, I use it without an eye primer because I’m usually too lazy. When I use it with a primer, though, I don’t notice any performance difference.

Prior to discovering Pixie Epoxy, I used e.l.f.’s Mineral Eye Primer. For me, it worked about as well as Urban Decay’s Primer Potion. Eyeshadow went on all right, a little bolder than without a primer but by the end of the day, it was noticeably faded. However, Pixie Epoxy sticks eyeshadow to your lids! I can go 8+ hours and my eye makeup will look almost exactly like it did before I left the house. I say almost because sometimes eyeliner or mascara will run/smudge, but that’s not Pixie Epoxy’s fault.

Now on to the demo swatches! I used several brands of eye makeup as well as both loose and pressed types. The first image below is what the Pixie Epoxy looks like when applied: it’s a bit shiny. You don’t need nearly as much as you think you do! A little dab spread over your lid is plenty and if you use too much you might get some creasing.

In the swatches below, the upper row has Pixie Epoxy, the middle is bare skin, and the lower row is with Urban Decay Primer Potion.

From left to right: Urban Decay Uzi, Urban Decay Flipside, Hard Candy Backstage Pass (gold & aqua), Orglamix Lagoon, Everyday Minerals Starry Eyed, Aromaleigh Palmetto (matte), Aromaleigh Wonderland (gothic lolita), Fyrinnae Cupcake Sprinkles, Fyrinnae We’re All Mad Here, e.l.f. e/s duo Berry Mix (mauve & plum)

As you can see from the swatches, there’s a huge difference in the shadows that were applied over Pixie Epoxy versus just bare skin. There’s also quite a difference between Pixie Epoxy and UDPP except for a couple of the colors.

Here are a couple more photos of the swatches that are a bit more in focus:

Even though Pixie Epoxy is a bit tacky (which is really helpful for glitter shadows like UD’s Uzi), I don’t find there’s any difficulty blending my colors. As I said above, I’ve been using this on my lids instead of a regular eye primer for the last couple months and haven’t had any skin problems.

At less than half the cost of UDPP, do yourself a favor and get the 10ml tube of Pixie Epoxy. While you’re there, be sure to check out their awesome eyeshadow shades!