Paul & Joe Face & Eye Color CS

These Paul & Joe Face & Eye Color CS are longer overdue for a review - I bought them the winter of 2012 while I was still in Taipei :( Actually, I didn't even get around to take pictures of them until last fall when I reviewed the Lipstick and Lipstick CS! Since then though I have been wearing these eye colors occasionally and I do like them a lot! They are from the Manhattan Collection released Fall 2011. Yup, super old.

Face & Eye Color CS 073 42nd Street, 074 Empire State, and 075 Brooklyn Bridge. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

As you can guess from their name, these are multi-purpose pressed powder colors that can be used on the eyes as well as the cheeks, although honestly this really applies only to 075 Brooklyn Bridge because, well, just look at the colors. The pressed powder colors themselves are unscented, and very soft and smooth. Their texture pleasantly surprised me, because I expected them to be a bit drier given their age. Entirely my fault for not getting to them quick enough, but it's my luck that these are well made and retain their quality well over time. They perform well too, quite pigmented still!

There are two things I do have trouble with though, one is the difficulty in picking up the colors. Sure, the check pattern is pretty to look at but not exactly practical. It's a round pan, which means there are parts of the pan I just can't get to, like the itty bitty triangles in the four corners. Also, the pans are housed in adorable paper cartons with very pretty prints. But these cartons don't really close tightly at all and they slip on and off a bit too easily for my comfort. The pans can be removed though, which is a good thing. I guess I can pop them out of their cartons via the hole beneath and store else where if the cartons' flimsiness bothers me enough.

- 073 42nd Street: pink and blue combo. I was slightly disappointed upon swatching that neither of these colors are metallic, or even semi-metallic, or even have any kind of a "special" finish. However, they're not flat and boring either in that they have a softly shimmery base with extra sparkly bits that are scattered evenly. Think a shimmery eye shadow sprinkled with a sparkly top wash, only there's no sparkly top wash involved.

- Lid shade: shimmer, medium intensity. A cool dragon fruit pink, as in pink tinged with violet, with a lighter pink sparkly bits. You don't see this violet tinge much in the pan, but you will see it in the swatch. A very pretty lid shade!

- Liner/crease: shimmer, medium intensity. An almost-navy, and it would be navy if it weren't for the scattered sparkly bits in a lighter blue, therefore giving the color a lighter appearance. It would have been navy without these sparkly bits. As pretty as the color is, it's a bit awkward for me to use. It's too dark for a crease shade but too light for a liner. So I ended up lining with a pencil first then go over with this blue. The result is a cool and sparkly blue liner with Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen 2-Black Blue, or a gorgeous bluish purple liner with Stila Smudge Stick Purple Tang, or go even more sparkly purple with Stila Smudge Stick Tetra. 

- 074 Empire State: in theory these colors should work, and they look good in pictures, but turns out I only like the lighter half and dislike the darker half.
- Highlighter/lid: semi-metallic pearl, medium intensity. A gorgeous antique golden champagne with an interesting semi-metallic pearl finish, think a brushed and faded antique gold with a pearly sheen. I reach for this color as a wash all over the lids many times!
- Liner: matte based satin, medium intensity. A nice deep forest blue green unfortunately made meh with a matte base and satiny finish that just disappears right into that matte black hole. To the overall finish is bland and even a bit "dirty." I use it exclusively as a liner shade, and even I don't like it that much.

- 075 Brooklyn Bridge: a pink raspberry combo that I use exclusively as a blush. To pick up the colors, instead of swirling with the tip of a round blush brush I use a flat one (Stila #24A Blush Brush), pressing down lightly each side and wiggles just a tiny little bit. This means I will end up with a blurry imprint of the check pattern on each side of the brush, which in turns transfers to my cheeks until blended away thoroughly. The result isn't as clownish as it sound at all and I get lovely glowing pink cheeks. Why applying these to my eyes when they're so pretty on my cheeks??

- Highlighter: pearl, medium intensity. A pale pink with a pearly pink sheen.

- Crease: luminous satin, medium intensity. A pretty raspberry with a slight pink iridescent sheen. This color is so awesome on my cheek but would probably turn disastrously red on my eyes, which is another reason why I didn't bother with this combo as eye shadows. 

073 42nd Street (left column), 074 Empire State (middle), and 075 Brooklyn Bridge (right).