MAC Espresso eyeshadow (used to use it for filling in brows), NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Primer (prefer Smashbox’s 24HR now), Tarina Tarantino Spark of Envy (discontinued)
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Maybelline Color Tattoos (specifically the shades Nude Pink and Just Beige), Rimmel Scandaleyes eyeliner (much prefer the Pixi Silky Endless Eye Pen or a milani pencil now), and ULTA brand shadows which I somehow managed to get a lot of only to be underwhelmed when finding much better options.
MAC Brun eyeshadow for brows and smoky liner with a pencil brush, Clinique Kissy Fit lipgloss, and also Clinique Raspberry Glace lipstick. I would still use Brun for eyeliner but it’s much too dark for my brows now. The lipgloss is a no go bc it was unscented, so it always had that lovely plastic smell. I’m pretty sure I have a tube of Raspberry Glace in my stash still. I wore it in my high school senior pics so I’m sentimentally attached lol.
Lorac Unzipped Gold palette, Benefit They’re Real mascara, and white pencil eyeliner
1.) Brow pencil (I believe I may need to revisit that one…hmm).
2.) Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencils, I really used to love them, but they are an extra step.
3.) A veritable TONNAGE of Nyx Single eyeshadows. Once I got rolling with those larger eyeshadow palettes and began putting together MAC Pro Pan quads, I just began to overlook them? Except for several shades.
I used to use Benefit Lemon Aid and Ooh La Lift all the time, but I haven’t used them in ages, and I don’t know why! They are great. Years ago, I would use Neutrogena SkinClearing Blemish Concealer and then just dust some powder on top, because I hated the way foundation felt. But I’ve since gotten used to foundations…maybe their formulas have gotten lighter or better-feeling, because they don’t bother me nearly as much.
I would love to know your thoughts on the smashbox shadow primer. I currently use the nars one, and love it, but it’s expensive for such a small amount. I am almost out of the nars and want to try something different. Why do you find the smashbox one better over nars.
Essence Plump No Clump mascara – my former holy grail mascara. I went through 6 (!) tubes of it. and then they discontinued it! 🙁
MAC Wedge – I went through TWO full pans of this, back when I was just learning how to do eye shadow and such. But now I reach for different matte browns. Kinda sad about it!!
Physicians formula 2 in 1 liquid eye liner – around two years ago, I wore winged liner every. single. day. Then I realized how horrid it looked with no matte shades to lessen my hood, and how just the liner made my hooded eyes look so awful and puffy!!
I have hooded eyes and one of them is more hooded than the other ( I have facial paralysis), winged liner always looks bad on me. With the shape of my eyes I have to do two completely different shapes of liner to get it to look okay, and one side ends up much lower than the other. I just gave up with the winged liner. It doesn’t work for me.
I totally relate! My right eye is more hooded than my left! So I have to do two different wing shapes as well.
I also have facial Paralyisis, but it’s in my bottom lip and chin!!! So applying lipstick is now a struggle LOL.
Eyeshadow primer in general, gel/cream eyeliner in a pot in general, Urban Decay Naked palette.
I still keep them around though but rarely use them!
-MAC Potted Eyehadow in Phoof! (Used to use it as a brow bone highlight or an all over lid colour- Went through LOADS of these)
-MAC Turquoise liquid eye liner
-Benefit Bad Gal Khol Eyeliner (the big jumbo one- Used this on my water line & smudged to give a smoky effect on the lash line back in my early twenties)
MAC Orb eyeshadow (which I would love to finish up and B2M it) and Desert Rose blush (my first MAC blush and for years, pretty much the only blush I used) as well as a Laura Mercier lipstick in “Healthy Lips” which I used to use all the time. That’s interesting, Christine, about the Smashbox primer; I’ve found that the new MAC one has sort of eclipsed all my previous faves.
Oops! I just reread the question and I see it says “eye products”. So, I guess it’s MAC Orb and Quarry eyeshadows and Lise Watier Eyeshine pencil liners.
MAC paint pot in soft ochre. Like it still but have been using others. Right now it’s the primer from the Disney Cinderella collection from Walgreens. After that I have a bunch of samples to use up. My teenage daughter ran off with it anyway !
MAC fluidline eyeliners. I just don’t reach for gel pot liners anymore. I have a ton from mac. I see them from other brands and they just don’t interest me anymore. Now I use retractable or pencil liners
MAC Shroom eyeshadow. I gave it such a good dent and hit pan but for awhile now it just sits there and I reach for other shadows like MAC Naked Lunch or the ABH Modern Renaissance Palette.
When I first got into makeup, the only two palettes I had were the UD original Naked palette and a set of Lorac chocolate bar-themed quads from a Christmas collection. I also wore a brown Stila Smudge Stick eyeliner almost every day! I still have my UD Naked and use it occasionally, but I ditched the other two long ago. I would pick up the Stila eyeliners again if I had fewer to choose from in my current collection.
MAC Charcoal Brown and Wedge. Maybelline Great Lash.
Ooh I hope I never move past MAC Charcoal Brown. It is my favorite workhorse product!
I used to wear Nars orgasm blush pretty often, now I’m aging and it’s way too shimmering
1. Shadows 12 years ago, all my shadows were pretty much NARS. Now I’m more ABH, MUFE, Natasha Denona (learning how to make them work because I like the colours and textures)
2. Gel Liner: I had a whole cache of coloured gel liners from BBrown and MAC, now I prefer pencil; have exactly one black gel liner for doing little wings
3. Eye Primer: I have violaceous discoloration around my eyes so I prefer to use KVD concealer at this point. MAC paint pot too drying. Many primers make lid texture worse. MAC 217 with KVD followed by flesh toned powder to set. Bought a Smashbox mini of photo finish lid primer (coloured) recently. I hate it… back to KVD
MAC Paint pots as a base (I use UD Primer Potion now). Revlon Colorstay Cream eyeshadows. And I rarely line my eyes with bright pencils anymore.
To clarify, the old Colorstay Creams. They were in quads.
Mally City Chick Smokey Eye palette in Plum Chelsea – really should go back to this. Her purples are so good! I recommend her eyeshadows. The colors are great: what you see on the pan is what goes on – never chalky.
L’Oreal Double Extend mascara (two wands, red & white tube) – amazing mascara, wears so well: highly recommend if you have issues with other mascaras smudging/flaking! But now I’m dealing with aging (sadly me, not the mascara) and a tubing mascara like this results in loss of an eyelash (or 3! or 5!) when removed with warm water as directed. I switched to Too Cool For School’s Escalator Mascara: lengthens a bit more & is crazy black-black-black (love it!!); I remove it with a cleansing/melting balm, then it smears down to nothing & comes off easily.
3. Stila Smudgestick in Lionfish. Good product, pretty color with a metallic effect. I think I recall that when I went longtime between use the pencil would dry out a bit, which I didn’t like. I mostly stopped using this because Kat Von D has converted me to being a liquid liner gal.
L’oreal voluminous mascara (I should revisit that one, if it doesn’t flake I remember loving the wand)
Smashbox liners (expensive for the amount of product, but I did love the formula)
The Body Shop cube eyeshadow shimmers. Man I went through the entire cube of the taupe color. That’s an insane amount of eyeshadow when I think about it now!
I also love those smash box liners
>Blue eyeliner (MAC discontinued one I’d used for years, and after I couldn’t find a good replacement I sort off drifted off blue eyeliners)
>MAC soft brown because I found other warm neutrals that work better on me
>Almay lengthening non-waterproof mascara, because it was discontinued; I’ve found others that work better now anyway
1-NARS smudgeproof eyeshadow base: no longer reach for because eyeshadow wearing has ceased to exist lately. basically just lazy…womp. LOL.
2-KAT VON D tattoo liner: to go along with the lack to eyeshadow looks, I have also eased up on the black liner & no longer need the intense wing but I do miss it some days.
3-Anastasia Brow Gel: Found cheaper alternatives to use that last pretty well.
There are for sure cheaper alternatives but ABH is the only one that matches my brown eyebrows. I want to fill in not change their color. Most other brands, high end or less expensive seem to think if you are brunette, you need dark or darker brows. Even most taupe run too dark on me and blonde is too brassy. ABH just gets it right for me 🙂
I gave up on eyeshadow palettes in general, mostly because I only use mattes to contour, transition and highlight. I’ve also given up on any product that is drying. That includes anything and everything: mattes, satins, creams, primers, liners, brows, etc. And, absolutely no glitter. I have no desire to rock my former disco ball days. I also don’t like dramatic looking liners on me anymore. I try to keep everything much softer looking. I don’t and won’t wear false lashes, but I sure like a great mascara. That’s another story in itself.
White bath and body works eyeliner which I would push dark blue/green/purple eyeshadow into, and white lipgloss ?
Almay Intense i-Color in Raisin Quartz was the best burgundy mascara for green eyes, but they discontinued it. I’d use it on my brows, too, when my hair was auburn.
CoverGirl and Maybelline eyeshadow quads. I moved on to better quality brands.
Wet n Wild eyeliners. Again, I moved on to better quality such as Urban Decay.
When I was in high school, revlon made this mascara (can’t remember what it was called)made my lashes very long, but it came in the color “Onyx”, which was a shimmery blacked red. It was so beautiful. But they discontinued it. I kept the tube forever even after it dried out because I loved the color so much. Indoors it looked almost black, but outdoors, especially when the sun was shinning, you could see the burgundy/ blackened red color and the metallic finish really pop! It was so beautiful and really made my brown eyes stand out.
That sounds gorgeous! I’m allergic to their mascaras, so I don’t remember that one.
I used to only use Lancome eyeshadow because I knew someone who used to work for the brand and would give me freebies. When I started wearing more makeup, I explored more brands and found new favorites.
I also used to love Neutrogena Lash Tint!
Too faced eye shadow primer. A face brightening powder that you mixed with facial cream-can’t remember by who, Better than Sex mascara.
Benefit They’re Real Mascara. I liked it fine but a curved brush seems better at getting at the corners.
Standard eyelash curlers. The heated ones do a much better job for me generally. The Japonesque and Sephora ones didn’t last too long. Now I buy a Panasonic one off Amazon.
My eyelids are horribly crepey now so other than a little bit of sparkle at the inner corners, I use only matte shadows now. These are mainly in brown and peach, although I have been using the red color from the Chanel Candeur et Experience quad all winter. But no more purple or green or anything with sparkle, pearl, sheen, etc. I also switched from black to brown eyeliner.
The big thing I no longer do is to get Restylane filler under my eyes to fill in the hollows.
Standard eyelash curlers. The heated ones do a much better job for me generally. The Japonesque and Sephora ones didn’t last too long. Now I buy a Panasonic one off Amazon.
My eyelids are horribly crepey now so other than a little bit of sparkle at the inner corners, I use only matte shadows now. These are mainly in brown and peach, although I have been using the red color from the Chanel Candeur et Experience quad all winter. But no more purple or green or anything with sparkle, pearl, sheen, etc. I also switched from black to brown eyeliner.
The big thing I no longer do is to get Restylane filler under my eyes to fill in the hollows.
1.) Stila pencil eyeliners. Honestly, they are my absolute favorite but once I realized that there is next to nothing in terms of the amount of product you get, I stopped buying them. I still have two of the Peacock (my favorite) ones in my stash, because I do truly love the formula and staying power (they last on my waterline like no other), but I only break them out for special occasions
2.) Benefit products. I had a short lived love affair with Benefit blushes. I came to realize that no matter what I did, they just didn’t have lasting power on my skin. I’m not a girl who touches up my makeup during the day (except for lipstick). At the end of my work day, my face looked like I had never applied blush that morning so the blushes now sit around in a drawer. It’s a pity, because CoraLista is one of my favorite shades
3.). Potted gel eyeliners. I have several from different brands. I just found that I really prefer pencils for lining my eyes.
Lucky you, I can’t use the Stila smudge sticks in my waterline. The only time I wore them my contacts clouded up so bad I couldn’t see.
I’m right there with you on pencils for lining my eyes. I bought several of the potted gel liners and quickly went back to UD pencils. ?
I love those stila pencils, just bought some last week when ulta had them on sale. they are one of my favorite formulas of any liner I’ve ever used.
I rarely reach for my MAC paint pots now a days.
I also forgot about My MAC natural skinfinish. I never reach for it anymore 🙁
Clinique Touch Base as a primer (though the packaging always made it dry out before you hit pan). Dumped it when UD came out with their primer in Sin.
Glitter eyeliner on the outer corners (UD)
Benefit Eye Bright. I don’t think I need it now with better quality concealers.
Oh that Clinique Touch Base! I totally forgot about that. I wore the taupey-ish shade for most of my high school/ college years (late 80s early 90s) I think they still are making it. I loved it, but you are right… drying out was a major issue.
You loved your Spark of Envy eyeliner, Christine!
Revlon eye shadows – I used to use them a lot in the past, but for quite awhile now I have seen them for what they are – cheap and nasty. I will never use their products again.
Cream eye shadows – they crease horribly on me
Generally eye shadow singles, apart from my YSL one in green slate – which is still lovely. I much prefer my quads, quints and palettes.
Eyeliner – poor vision, motor control, eye irritation, mistakes hard to correct, so I just skip it now.
Cream-gel eyeshadows — they dry out in the pot.
MAC eyeshadows Shroom, Nylon and Ricepaper – used as brow highlight shades. I could probably still use them, I just don’t think about them, even though they are in a palette rotation.
too faced eye shadow primer – switched to nars…but it’s pricey and an awkward format, so i wonder if there is something else out there. i haven’t tried the smash box one yet, but i think i have a sample kicking about…
mac stubborn brown powerpoint eye pencil
mac play on plums mineralize eye shadow duo
the pencil and the eyeshadow i use to basically use every single day! nowadays i change it up often, and mostly use black kohl liner. i should break them out for old times sake…
Smashbox eyeshadow trios (used to be obsessed with them)
The Balm Balmsai Palette
And, unpopular opinion: Urban Decay eyeshadow primer
Mary Kay Ultimate Mascara, Almay One Coat Mascara, and black eyeliner. My Holy Grail mascara is Maybelline Full ‘N Soft, but out of nostalgia I did order a tube of MK Ultimate Mascara from a consultant I met at work a few days ago. I ordered a few eyeshadows that I had loved in the past, along with some lipgloss. As far as eyeliner, I prefer brown over black these days.
Urban Decay Naked Basics palette
Bareminerals The Truth Quad
Mac fluidline
Bare Minerals eye shadows (they crease and fade), ABH eyebrow powder (moved to pencil) and Benefits Bad Gal Lash.
I can’t think of anything I’ve really used and discarded. I have tried samples I didn’t love but I don’t recall specific names now
I can’t think of anything I’ve really used and discarded. I have tried samples I didn’t love but I don’t recall specific names now
1) La Mer Eye Cream: gave me bumps
2) Voluminous Mascara: One of the the offshoots I used to use was discontinued. It was the best drugstore mascara for me, I’ll always be upset about that one.
3. L’Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow: I found them hard to blend but really stayed on well. I just don’t have time for them right now in my routine.