Review: Bobbi Brown and Too Faced

Hello!

This is a two-in-one review of both Bobbi Brown's Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner (in Black Ink) and the Too Faced Fun in the Dark palette. Here's the freshly-applied pic:

First up, the eyeliner. I was super excited to try this eyeliner. I had been looking for a long-wear eyeliner suitable for the waterline for ages and had finally gotten my hands on this one. I found it tricky to work with at first, but it was OK once I got used to it- practise makes perfect! 

Here it is, after 10 hours of wear.

Here's the breakdown:

Positives:

• Colour- very black, very strongly pigmented.
• Longevity on eyelids- great; stays in place for over 8 hours.
• Longevity on waterline- not as great as on the eyelid itself, but pretty good. It started to wear off in some patches ~4 hours after application and smudged at the edges of the eye and a bit underneath at the 6-8 hour mark.

Negatives:

• You will need a lot of practice for mess-free application. Especially if, like me, you're prone to smudging your gel eyeliner and accidentally transferring it onto your cheeks and your nose. Why? This stuff dries quickly and does not come off without a fight. This should go without saying, but do your eye makeup first, because if you've done your foundation and accidentally get a smudge of this on it, prepare for re-application.
• Again to do with removal- this stuff is hard to remove! Even with waterproof makeup remover, it just doesn't come off completely. This is a pro if you like to wake up with already done lower-eyelid eyeliner in the morning, but a con if you prefer to start completely afresh.
• A bit disappointed that it wore off in bits and that it got a bit smudgy at the edges (see pic above). I wouldn't say it's the "holy grail" I was looking for, but it is the best one I've found so far...
• Cost- this is expensive. In Australia, it retails for $45. I found it online for ~$20-25 (sorry, don't remember how much exactly) so that's less, but it's still not cheap.

Final verdict on the eyeliner: A-/B+ (not impressed with the smudging)

Now, the eyeshadow.

OK, the Fun in the Dark palette is so cute! It has little lights around the mirror which light up when you open the palette. It houses 4 eyeshadows, 2 lipglosses, a blush and bronzer.

Eyeshadows:

Pin-Up: soft white, very shimmery
Peep Show: cool, light/medium pink with gold shimmer (my least favourite- it looks awful on me)

Full Frontal: reddish chocolate brown 

Lucky Charms: forest green with gold shimmer

Blush:

Papa Don't Peach: peachy pink blush with some gold shimmer; lovely. Lighter and with less shimmer than Nars Orgasm.

Bronzer:

Sun Bunny bronzer: mix of light and dark shimmery bronzer, not orange at all; lovely.

Lipglosses:

Tropical pink: clear pink-tinged gloss, gold sparkle.

Free Love: medium-pink with gold shimmer.

The look  with the Bobbi Bown gel eyeliner (first pic posted above) was done using "Lucky Charms" and a few other shadows over the Urban Decay Primer Potion (UDPP) in Greed. You can see (above) that it creased significantly after 10 hours of wear. 

Seeing as I did mix it with other shadows there, I gave it the benefit of the doubt (maybe it was the other shadows making it crease?) and gave it a second go, using shadows just from the Fun in the Dark palette. Full Frontal, Lucky Charms and Pin-Up were used over the UDPP in Greed in this look:

Positives:

• The eyeshadows are finely milled, pigmented and easy to blend. 
• The colours are lovely, the above picture really doesn't do them justice.

Negatives:

• The eyeshadows fade and the Lucky Charms and Full Frontal blended into one colour after 8 hours. A pretty brownish-green, but nevertheless not how I had applied them and not what I wanted. Very disappointed with this. 
• The eyeshadows crease after 8 hours even with the UD primer potion.

 I forgot to take an "after" pic- you'll just have to take my word for it; sorry!

Final verdict on the eyeshadows: C+ (B- at best, if I'm in a forgiving mood)

For the sake of completeness, the lipglosses are OK- there's really no colour to Tropical Pink and the Free Love was nice but not my cup of tea; the Papa Don't Peach blush is amazing, easily one of my favourites, as is the SunBunny bronzer- glowy, not orange or brown, applies easily (not streaky at all).
All that considered, the final verdict on the Fun in the Dark palette is: B.

Have any of you tried these? What's your "holy grail" long-wear eyeliner?

xo

Anna