Visee Glam Nude Eyes

Happy December!

More Visee palettes today, the Glam Nude Eyes! Visee is a nice brand with affordable prices and decent quality, though I have also been trying my best to stay away because of the cream base/color that seems to be a requisite of all Visee eye palettes. And then Visee x Mercury Duo Brilliance Forming Eyes came around and I took the plunge into the brand, and even then I hated these at first. It finally took a friendly nudge for me to realize I have been using those cream colors incorrectly, and I now have the confidence (and an excuse) to go back for more ^.^

I have been eyeing these Glam Nude Eyes for the longest time! To be honest they look very "OL" (the Japanese "office lady" type) and are all earthy neutral colors, but at the same time they're so pretty and are not intimidating at all, at least for the chickenshit me. So after playing around with them for a while at my local drugstore, I picked up N-2 Pink Beige, N-4 Khaki Beige, and N-5 Smoky Beige.

N-2 Pink Beige. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

N-4 Khaki Beige

N-5 Smoky Beige

These palettes are quintets with 1 cream base and 4 powder colors, and I'm in a love-hate relationship with them -.-' First, the cream base. I like it, sort of. It is a "true" base and is actually meant to be worn on the upper lid, and as such it is on the dry side and is not greasy at all. Actually, I think it has an interesting texture that seems to require finger application. It feels like a very densely packed mousse, soft but caky and clay-like, if that makes any sense. I got rough with it once while applying with a brush, and it "cracked", and when I used the same brush to pat over the crack, all was good. And during finger application, if I apply enough pressure I will leave a print but at the same time it doesn't get all mushed up, nor does it spring back to its original shape. Despite the cream base having a nude skin color, it will only leave a thin, super sheer layer with a satiny sheen that does provide some brightening effect and therefore can also be used to highlight the inner corners of the eyes. It does bring out the colors of the other eyeshadows, and its dryness somewhat helps keep them from creasing.

The rest of my love-hate relationship with these Glam Nude Eyes has to do with the powder shadows' inconsistency. I love their smooth texture, but I hate that they crease. Here is where my "sort of" above comes in - even with the cream base, the whole thing will only last for about 3 hours max on me. After that, everything gets melty. Yep, these powder eyeshadows crease on me, even with the base that's supposed to help keep them! I do have very oily lids, but I also wear sunscreen and that keeps the oil in check, which is why I don't have any problem with most powder shadows. I guess these fall in the small percentage that will crease on me no matter what :( 

- N-2 Pink Beige: I should not have picked up this combination. It may look like a pink beige palette as the name suggests, but it's actually more like a pink brown that's way too warm for me in a very unflattering way. Throw in the gray and ashy sky these days and the resulting effect, at least in the last several applications, is that my entire eye area just looked red, which in turn made me look super tired and sleepy (though perhaps I was...). 

- Top right: cream base, luminous satin, very sheer. Has a translucent fleshy powder color, or in other words, it doesn't really have any color ^.^
- Top left: highlighter, shimmer, very sheer. A pretty fleshy pink.
- Lower left: medium crease shade, shimmer, low intensity. A pinky cappuccino.
- Lower middle: liner shade, shimmer, medium intensity. A pink chocolate. Despite the pigmentation, this color just isn't opaque enough to look good on me, even as a liner. Its translucency turns my eyes really red as if I had just yawned or cried or something T.T
- Lower right: sparkly finishing wash, shimmer, very sheer. A cute powder pink.

Swatches are all done according to the placement of the shadows in the pan:

- Upper left: highlighter 

- Upper right: cream base

- Lower left: medium crease shade

- Lower middle: liner shade

- Lower right: sparkly finishing wash

Doesn't that pink chocolate liner color just look really red on me? Throw in that pink cappuccino and I look like I haven't slept for a few days!

- N-4 Khaki Beige: oddly, opposite with the N2 Pink Beige above, instead of making me look red and tired this combination washes me out. And funny enough, this washed out effect doesn't make me look dead but rather dirty and muddy. What's up with these funky colors?!? Should I laugh or cry?

- Top right: cream base, luminous satin, very sheer. Again it doesn't really have any color.
- Top left: highlighter, shimmer, very sheer. An ashy khaki gold.
- Lower left: medium crease shade, shimmer, medium intensity. A burnish camel. This color is more pigmented than the pink cappuccino above.
- Lower middle: liner shade, shimmer, low intensity. A golden olive khaki that's unfortunately nowhere as pigmented as it needs to be for a liner shade. I layered a few times for the swatch, but it's pretty much a wuss of a liner. If this liner were more pigmented, this combo might not have washed me out so much.
- Lower right: sparkly finishing wash, shimmer, very sheer. A golden beige that turns ashy and gray on me, though this color is not the sole culprit that makes me look scruffy. It's more like the whole combination of all these colors that somehow got me to look like a sun-kissed bum -.-" I so wanted these colors to work and they look so pretty on their own!!!

Just look at how that sparkly finishing wash turning all ashy gray on me!

- N-5 Smoky Beige: thank goodness this combination picks up the slacks for the other 2 ^.^ This is a gorgeous taupe beige combination that gives me a polished professional look. And it's decently pigmented too, probably the most pigmented out of the 3 palettes I own actually! This is my no brainer favorite palette.

- Top right: cream base, luminous satin, very sheer. Again, no color.
- Top left: highlighter, shimmer, very sheer. A beige with some gold thrown in.
- Lower left: medium crease shade, shimmer, medium intensity. Now this is a really pretty pinky taupe that shows hints of purple on me.
- Lower middle: liner shade, shimmer, medium intensity. A taupy slate, also with some purple. This is a nice liner as it not too dark but not too light either. Just right! I didn't have to layer for the swatch!
- Lower right: sparkly finishing wash, shimmer, very sheer. A pretty champagne with just a touch of pink.