Not so long ago, my sister in law Shirim, who is quick with a compliment and loyal as the day is long—but also always, unfailingly, frank—doled out a bit of tough love. “Your eyeshadow is so dark it looks weird,” she said. “You’ve got to do something about it.” This was not something I wanted to hear. I have considered the (relatively recent) addition of eyeshadow to my beauty regimen to be thrilling and transformative and the best thing to happen to my face since bronzer. But when I got home and looked in the mirror, there was no denying she had a point: there is a smokey eye, and then there is little Jenny Humphrey from Gossip Girl after she went rogue, and at some point along the way, I seem to have crossed the line. I had no option but to scale back. And happily, a couple of nights later, my dear friend and former co-worker Meredith Rollins, who’s now an editor at Redbook, brought me a big old bag of booty from their beauty closet. Among the haul: this Amazonian Clay eyeliner from Tarte. It goes on smoothly and precisely, but with a thick, satisfying smudginess too. Just dark enough to make its presence known, but not so much that it scares the children.
Thanks for passing along this recommendation. I’m somehow feeling less content with my Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencil these days, so I’m looking for something new to try.
can’t say enough good stuff about Le Metier de Beaute ‘sharpie’ liner. it’s not too black, easy to use thick or thin and will not budge.
In all my many years of using eye make up, I have never been able to use the kind of eye pencil that actually requires sharpening. Even after getting a new sharpener, I find that the newly sharpened tip of my eye pencil breaks off in the sharpener, and I have to scrape it out and try again. Plus, it is hard to find a sharpener that will sharpen the pencil tip into the right shape. Too often I end up with an elongated cone. I think I missed a fundamental lesson in make up maintenance.
I’ve got that and love it. I find that a smokey eye just makes me look more tired than I already am. NOT a good look for me. But I can do the eyeliner and smudge it out. And waterproof is essential.