Laura Mercier Sateen Eye Color in St. Germain

Whenever I go to makeup counters, and they offer to re-do my look with a smokey eye, I RUN for the door. In my experience, the makeup counter artist usually gets SO excited when they see my lids and they begin to pile on shadow after shadow to get the 'smokey' look. 

End result: I walk away with what looks like tranny panda prostitute eyes, lids densely packed with grays and purples which highlight the dark circles under my eyes. 

I do like the heightened look of the smokey eye, but to achieve a fast and special makeup look, I will usually choose to line my eyes with a fun color and pack on the mascara. 

I like Laura Mercier's Sateen Eye Color in St. Germain, $22. Well, I like it with reservation. I mean, it's good. OK. 

As a liner, which is when I put it on over my traditional black eyeliner, I like it a lot. It is a deep aqua teal green with just the smallest hint of shimmer in it. It makes my brown eyes more fun and definitely adds a little sumpthin' sumpthin' to my makeup wardrobe. Dip in a flat brush and line it right over your lash line, and if you're brave, under your eyes too. 

The tricky part about using dry shadows as liners is to load up the brush with enough pigment, and avoid having that fleck your cheeks. Especially with green. Can you imagine (or maybe you have experienced) the horror of wiping away green shadow flecks to find out you have smeared green powder under your eyes. More than once darlings, more than once. And always when I am in a hurry. The trick (well not 100%, but helpful): Blow on the brush to get rid of the really excess powder. What remains is enough to give you a satisfying amount of color in one go. 

 As a shadow itself (and not as a liner), the formula in the Laura Mercier Sateen shadow is subject to creek and leak. Therefore, this is the type of shadow I HAVE to prep with a primer (Please believe me when I say the Urban Decay primer is AWESOME!). I usually don't like products which require more than one step. The color is great, but try and use it as a shadow alone, and you oily-lidded ladies are going to see the traditional migration to the creases by the color. 

I use quite a few shadows as liners, and I have to say this is one of the most volatile formulas. A few years ago, I had a fantastic greener green by Giorgio Armani from his Maestro series in #21 Satin finish, $28. It was so beautiful, I liked it even more than the Laura Mercier-- but alas, my cloven hoof-like hands dropped the container, and the mess shattered everywhere. I couldn't stand to spend close to thirty dollars to replace it... so I had to let it go. That shadow was so beautiful, I miss it so much. I think I bought the St. Germain as a substitute... and it's been filling the gap, with considerably less aplomb. 

Anyway, if you are looking for a fun new color try out any type of dark, richly pigmented and darker colored shadow.  They're totally multi functional (liners and shadows)-- and you can explore with different brands. I find that MAC works well, and they have such a great selection of colors. 

 I am just sort of 2 stars about the the Laura Mercier shadow. It does have that gorgeous rich color, and a decently finely milled powder. I have never been OhmyGoshit'ssowonderfulyouhavetohavetotry it about it --- but it may just be a place to start. But be adventurous, try something new with color. 

Love 'n Kisses,

S.