T'estimo Grande Shine Eyes

After hubby and I settled down in Yokohama, I finally dug through my makeup (yes, I lugged them with me across the big pond) and -gasp- found a few brand new T'estimo palettes I bought ages ago but totally forgot about and haven't touched since! Oh T'estimo, darling, would you ever forgive me?

One of these forgotten palettes is T'estimo Grande Shine Eyes, belonging to the later collections T'estimo unveiled Summer 2007 before the brand folded. Then I open up the palette and remember why I chose to put it away for a while when I first got it (and ended up forgetting about it for, like, 3 years...): it had a cream liner. Yeah, I wasn't too thrilled about the cream liner then, and I'm still not too thrilled about it now. For someone who likes her makeup sheer, it's a bit too dramatic and too much work. Then again, I've forgotten it for so long that if I don't give it a try now, I might as well throw it out. Poor thing. I decided what the hell, I'd give it a try. Let's hope it hadn't gone bad and is still usable.

The palette is is pretty silvery rectangular compact with nice details on the sides. Inside there is a mirror and 2 applicators, one with a brush tip to use as eye liner. The palette itself has 4 colors, 3 powders and a cream liner. This is Grande Shine Eyes #01 - Pink Brown.

It's still usable ^.^ In fact, since October I've been wearing these colors to work. The #01 - Pink Brown has subtle colors, nothing too outlandish to go to the office with and still keep me looking fresh and awake (I need that...). As expected, the powder eye shadow feels a bit dry and chalky, especially the pink color. Perhaps it was always this dry and chalky, but given that the lighter base color is still exceptionally smooth and the brown color is much more blendable, I blame the fact that it has been sitting there and might have been much silkier when it was still fresh. The cream liner, on the other hand, works perfectly fine. I expected it to be all dried up and gooey, but it's not. It still feels creamy and the color shows up super pigmented. Damn. I can't believe I forgot about these palettes!

Anyway, here's the color line up for Grande Shine Eyes #01 - Pink Brown, from left to right:

- Warm sand: luminous satin, low intensity. This is the base and highlighter color that has very fine shimmers that don't really show up so it has this glowy satiny texture. Very pretty. I use it all over my lids as a base and on the inner corners of my eyes as a highlighter. It matches the skin around my eye area perfectly, so after I put this on, I look like...I'm not wearing any eye makeup :P It makes me look very perky and awake and it brightens my entire eye area.

- Carnation pink: metallic, very sheer. At first glance I thought this color would be way too poppy for me, but I was wrong. It is very sheer, and so it blends right into my skin, giving me just a hint of pink, which is why it makes a really good work color combo because it's subtle. I apply this all over my lids too, on top of the base color.

- Chocolate brown: shimmer, medium intensity. This looks very warm, like a milk chocolate, in the picture but actually swatches a cooler dark chocolate. The problem I think a lot of people will have with this color is that it's too dark to use as a crease color but not dark enough as a liner. However, this is precisely why I only wear this color combo to work, because I use the brown to line my eyes anyway, and since it's not dark enough to make a stark line, it actually gives my eyes a very natural look.

- Dark chocolate cream liner: as you can see, it swatched really well using the brush applicator that came with the palette. Yes, even after sitting untouched for 3 years, pretty incredible I'd say! I used it once I think and haven't tried it again. It was waaaaaay too dramatic for me, especially when the pink is too sheer to off set the liner's pigmentation and the brown is too dark to tell it apart.