Lunasol Feathery Smoky Eyes Swatches

I suppose it's been 2 months since I swatched the Isetan Exclusives Lunasol Feathery Smoky Eyes (EX01, and Full Glamour Lips EX08, will review both later). So two weeks ago when a reader asked if I'd gone back to see the regular lineup again, I was ready to give the collection a second chance.

Did I change my mind about this collection? Sadly, NO :(

***Screencaps from Lunasol JP.

Color-wise, palettes 01 and 02 are bland and yawn-worthy, with 03 and 04 slightly more interesting. Upon a closer look, the "feathery" nuance trio pan (bottom right) actually had a satiny finish and wasn't matte. Though this was in direct indoor lighting, so they could still appear a soft matte in natural light. Either way I'm not so thrilled--the satin finish turned the eyeshadows ashy on the back of my hand.

Texture-wise, it goes from hardest to softest clockwise starting at top left. This means the sparkling top wash is the hardest, then the base/highlighter (top right), then the feathery nuance (bottom right), with the deepest trio shades being the softest. This takes me aback, because Lunasol has done some exceptionally soft and pigmented sparkles, like Geminate Eyes for example.

Other than the deepest trio pan that's well pigmented (swatched once), the other three pans were painfully, embarrassingly sheer (swatched very heavily and layered multiple times).

- 01 Smoky Beige: a champagne and beige palette. Even after some serious digging with my fingertips, I could barely get the sparkling top wash and the feathery nuance shades to show up at all.

- 02 Smoky Monotone: off white and gray palette. Again, the sparkling top wash and the feather nuance trio are the least pigmented pans.




- 03 Smoky Charcoal: a pinky taupe palette that I thought was pretty, but other than the deepest trio, the other 3 pans were the least pigmented in the entire lineup! It was so bad even the base/highlighter (top right) wouldn't show! Urgh.




- 04 Smoky Violet: I think most people are excited about this grayish purple palette, myself included. I also struggled just to swatch them on the back of my hand. It wasn't as bad as 03 above, but I still left severely disappointed.

In conclusion, I'm so, so, so happy I got the Isetan Exclusives because they're gorgeous and with excellent pigmentation, but I'm sorry say the regular lineup is a total dud for me.