Of all the things that most people want in a good eyeliner, I'd say that longevity and smoothness of application are probably what we want the most. Liquid liners are one thing, but when it comes to some of my first pencil eyeliners, I thought tugging at my eyelid was normal or that having the colour be gone by the end of the day was just something to expect. The beauty industry really has come a long way in developing formulations that do what we want without feeling like we are applying industrial strength chemicals.
While some brands are flashy, bright and full of glitter and unicorns (not that I hate unicorns or anything), I've always found Shu Uemura to be this silent, but steady brand with consistently good, solid products. Everyone has heard of Shu, knows how cute their packaging is and is aware of their luxury quality, but the brand doesn't seem to have the same Instagrammable shareability of more millenial-targeted brands. If anything, I hope Shu never goes in that direction, but we are going to try something different in addition to the standard review for today. If you have seen the atelier makeup done by Shu makeup artists, it always embodies the innocence of Asian style makeup with the appeal of something daring you'd see on the runway. There is also no fear of colour whether it'd be on the eyes or eyebrows so in addition to reviews, I will do my best to attempt some more avant garde looks that may turn out to be complete fails so tips will be appreciated!
With 4 shades of black and 1 brown, the Shu Uemura Lasting Soft Gel Pencils* ($36.00 CDN) are waterproof, smudgeproof, pigmented and promise 12 hours of wear. The precision tip rivals a fine- tipped gel pen with a 1.5mm lead to clearly and easily define the eyes. Though I know that any ethnicity can use Shu products, there is some sense of relief in knowing that these products have been tried and tested on an Asian eye. When it comes to makeup, I have been conditioned to believe that the Asian eye is somewhat handicapped with the lack of eyelid space, monolids and sparse lashes. Eye makeup is THAT much more of a challenge for an Asian eye so if it looks good on an Asian eye, it'll look great on ANY eye.
The tip of the pencil is flat which is totally fine for lining the upper lash line, but when I tried to line my waterline, a pointed tip would have been nicer. The gel was indeed very smooth and applied well not just on bare skin, but with eyeshadow underneath as well. The formula sets almost instantly so if you are looking to smudge the liner it's not the easiest. My attempt at a cut crease (coming later this week) involved smudging this liner and holy moly was it hard to do! On the other hand, this made me a believer in the longevity of the formula!
I love these shades! Generally, I do use black or brown most days for work, but there are tons of times when I want to shake it up a bit so having shades that are still in the black family, but with a hint of colour are perfect. I don't know how many times I have used a purple or blue shadow and wanted an eyeliner that wasn't necessarily bright and in your face.
Final verdict: I wore these liners for a full work day which from application to removal is around 11.5 hours and no it wasn't as crisp as when I first applied at 8am, BUT I didn't have inadvertent smoky eyes. I needed a cotton swab with oil-based eye makeup remover to fully remove this eyeliner so I would say that all in all, this is a liner I can trust for close to the waterline and for general drawing on the face since this is waterproof. My cut crease didn't budge for hours and like I mentioned didn't want to move even when I tried!
The Shu Uemura Lasting Soft Gel Pencils are available online and at all Shu counters.
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