Visee x Smacky Glam Glam Glow Eyes

When these gorgeous Visee x Smacky Glam Glam Glow Eyes were released around the middle of last October, I was preoccupied with school and whatnot. About a month or so later, I finally stopped by a drugstore I don't frequent and spotted these, but by then they were already sold out at this location, leaving only the testers for me play with while kicking myself for not paying attention sooner.  

I put up a good chase for these palettes, of course, but it was exhausting having to go to (and get disappointed with) several stores. Finally, it took a trip in the opposite direction of my train line, which I don't usually take because it's so out of the way, for me to get a hold of them. I then begrudgingly paid the full price of 1,680yen each, because I wasn't about to go bargain hunting after spending all that time just merely searching. And then just when I breathed a breath of relief, on a random trip up to Shibuya with hubby a few days later for a friend's birthday bash, we happened to walk by a drugstore across the street from the JR Shibuya Station with a bunch of these on display for - guess how much - 1,090yen each! Yep, was I pissed, or as the folks here like to scream, むかつく!!! Better yet, #$%^*&%#!!! Grr...

Visee x Smacky Glam Glam Glow Eyes in PK-6 Sweet Pink (left) and BR-7 Bitter Brown (right). All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

Sigh. Anyway, I wasn't all that interested in the regular line up of these Glam Glow Eyes before. I did play around with the testers a few times, and the color palettes didn't really catch my attention. The cream shade at the bottom left turned me off too. Sure, they're nice for the lower lash line (yep, read the instructions this time), but I don't need a whole pan of it in the same size as the other powder shadows that I'd actually use a whole lot more of, you know what I mean? And I would rather have a powder shadow just to have the option of being able to use it all over my [oily] lids. Then these Smacky Glam limited edition palettes came along with their neon pink and orange compacts and retro flowers print packaging, and they swept me off my feet so fast I didn't even notice I was sold on them. Until I went on a mad hunt for them, that is.

These turn out to be really quite interesting. First off, the cream shade at the bottom left is rather dry for a cream eye shadow. In fact, it's so dry that the lip brush I normally use to pick up cream shadows, like the cream shade in Visee x Mercury Duo Brilliance Forming Eyes and Canmake Jewel Star Eyes, could barely pick up any. In the end, I had to switch to a different brush, the wider but still firm Stila #26 Perfecting Concealer Brush, to apply it well. 

And funny enough, while the cream shade is on the dry side, the powder shades are on the damp side, almost like a cream! I literally thought my brush was wet the first time I dipped into these powder shades, because it felt just like applying a powder shadow with a damp brush! I could have sworn they were powders when I played with the testers, and I even swatched them again right then and there with my fingertip to make sure I wasn't making shit up. Nope, they are powder alright, and they're really smooth and silky, and blend really well. But when I tried to pick them up with a brush again, using a different brush no less, they still felt damp. Even when I lined my eyes with the darkest shade using the Sephora Smudge Brush, it too felt damp. It was then that I was finally convinced that it wasn't me or my brushes, but rather the texture of these powder eye shadows that were totally out of whack. Don't get me wrong, these are nice stuff and I'm really loving them, but their texture totally had me going for a loop there.

Aside from the different texture, these eye shadows have softer shimmery luminous finishes instead of being edgier with metallics. They are pretty much nude palettes with decent pigmentation level, so if bolder colors is your thing, you probably won't like either of these. On me, they last for a decent amount of time before creasing, probably around 4-5 hours. 

- PK-6 Sweet Pink: a feminine soft pink palette for a feminine pinky nude look. I thought I would like this palette more because I really love that pink base and highlighter and the blackish purple liner. However, as it turns out I prefer the BR-7 Bitter Brown over this, probably because that blushing nude medium crease shade turns just a tad red my skin, though not enough to ruin the whole palette for me. I still like it a lot, but I reach for the BR-7 Bitter more often.

- Lower left: cream liner, high shimmer, very sheer. Pale pink pearl with pink iridescent sheen in the pan, it goes on with sparkling pink iridescent shimmers. 

- Upper left: base/highlighter, shimmer, low intensity. Appears a warm petal pink in pan but swatched a cooler shell pink.

- Upper right: medium crease shade, luminous satin, medium intensity. A blushing nude with a unique wet sheen that I don't see often in powder shadows. Out of all the times I've spent playing with eye shadows I've only found two others like this, the first is the Etude House Orgel Light Eyes in 04 Peach Brown and the second is a couple of shades in the Coffret D'Or Trance Deep Eyes, the dusty rose in palette 01 Rose Variation and the grayish taupe in palette 05 Beige Variation.

- Lower right: liner shade, shimmer, high intensity. Looks like a deep blackish purple with some taupe in the pan but goes on me more brownish.

- BR-7 Bitter Brown: I guess the "bitter" in its name is to pair up with the "sweet" in the palette PK-6 Sweet Pink, because there's nothing bitter about this palette. In fact, it's pretty sweet to me :P This is a warm but not too warm peach beige palette for a natural nude look. I didn't expect to like this palette as much as I do, but this one actually surprised me a bit. 

- Lower left: cream liner, high shimmer, very sheer. Appears a white pearl with a pinkish iridescent sheen but goes on with sparkling ivory shimmers instead.

- Upper left: base and highlighter, semi metallic, medium intensity. A gorgeous golden peach that goes on me more pinky but I love it nonetheless.

- Upper right: medium crease shade, semi metallic, medium intensity. A beautiful golden beige in the pan but goes on me with a pinky undertone. This is actually a very nice medium crease shade because it looks very natural on me.

- Lower right: liner shade, shimmer, high intensity. A deep neutral brown with some taupe in the pan but goes on me without any taupe and just brown ^.^