Stila's Stay All Day Waterproof Eyeliner

My eyelids are probably one of the most frustrating things to work with as far as makeup. They are oily like French fries and no liner or technique has ever worked for me.

There was a multitude of drugstore pencil eyeliners that couldn't stand up to my greasy lids, so I attempted to try something high end and different formulas. I've tried Mac's Blacktrack fluidline which resulted in me looking like I had attempted the smoky look when I hadn't. Even setting it with powder didn't stop the migration. Urban Decay makes some infamous eyeliners...Perhaps you've heard of them, the 24/7 glide on pencils? Yeah, those didn't work for me either. No amount of eye priming, "waterproof"-ing or setting with eye shadow would make any liner stick to my lids. Once I even tried fluidline set with powder set with 24/7 and set with powder again, and that didn't work either. Maybe that was doomed from the start. <(_-_)> I was all ready to give up on ever lining my eyes, until one day I came across this product.

My mom has oily lids too so she is always on the hunt for a budge-proof liner. We passed by a Stila counter and saw they had two new eyeliners out: the Smudge Stick Waterproof eyeliner ($20) and the Stay All Day (also $20). Mom picked up the smudge stick for herself and the stay all day for my sister, who likes liquid eyeliners and doesn't seem to have an eyeliner migration issue. (curse her...)

I tried out both, but didn't like the smudge stick. It was very soft and applied smoothly, which was great, but the end of it was so fat there was no way I would ever get a nice thin line along my lash line. I don't think that lasted of my lids either but it works for my mom, so kudos for her.
Then there was Stay All Day...and the rest was history. The tip is very fine and a bit long. I thought it was unwieldy at first, but it just takes some getting used to. I wasn't used to using a liquid pen either and every little nick of the pen resulted in strange markings all over my lashline. The color is a rich and true black, and it dries quickly and with a bit of a glossy finish. I applied it today with no eye primer and it lasted from 9am when I put on my makeup to 4pm when I took it off with just a little smudging on my right eye. Maybe that would disqualify it from being an HG product for a bunch of people, but that's pretty impressive for me.

Overall, I really love this product and will continue to buy it as long as they make it. If you have oily lids and are looking for a good eyeliner, give this one a try. :)

Image is a screen cap taken by me (from the Sephora website) and edited using MS Paint

Product Hate: ELF's All Over Color Stick

Hopefully you're actually reading this and haven't just looked at the title and passed by this post. Perhaps I shouldn't put my feelings about products in the title...Hmm...

Anyways, don't get me wrong, I love ELF products - they do some really great stuff. Their studio line is beyond amazing and they are churning out new stuff all the time. However, this product isn't from their studio line, it's from their infamous $1 line and while some of those products are really amazing, other products make you realize you sometimes get what you pay for.

I am not really a fan of cream blushes since I have oily skin and have heard horror stories of oily-skinned ladies like myself trying cream blushes and breaking out something fierce, then chucking that creamy culprit into the garbage to be picked up on the curbside by the man in the jumpsuit. (That was a really long sentence ._.). But there are also stories of women putting on cream blush under powder blush which helps it stay on longer, and I am all about getting my makeup to last. So $1 is not too much to sacrifice for an experiment, right?

I couldn't have been more wrong. This product is the antithesis of "cream blush." I know it says "All Over Color Stick," but this won't apply just anywhere. The shade I purchased is Golden Peach and it is very beautiful in the tube and in the swatch, but it is so so dry. Literally when I tried to apply this straight from the stick to my face I could see and feel the skin around my eyes being dragged down as this tried to deposit product. The obvious next step is to use my finger to warm up the product, and this helps...to get it on my finger. Once it's on there it doesn't really transfer well to my face and I'm left with a peachy-pink finger and some highlight on my face.

I'm sure this experience with a cream product is probably a fluke and I'll just have to try something a little more high-end, but I'm still disappointed in the quality. So a repurchase is definitely a no.

<3