Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner Part II

Since my first post on Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner last fall, I've had plenty of opportunities to wear them out and about and I did! And my opinion of them has taken a 180-degree turn to an OMG-must-hoard verdict ^.^

Below are 4 colors I'm reviewing in this post: Purple Tang, Stingray, Koi, and Silver Dollar. As with the previous 5 colors, these apply soft and smooth, particularly Koi and Silver Dollar which are buttery like their sibling Kajal Eye Liners. All pictures are taken in natural light without flash.

- Purple Tang: a deep bluish purple, versus the violet that makes Tetra more of an eggplant purple, and a deeper version of Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Shadow Pencil Delinquent, only with gorgeous sparkling purple shimmers. It's also these purple shimmers that differentiate Purple Tang from Pixi Beauty Endless Silky Eye Pen 3-Black Tulip (will review soon), otherwise both are identically breathtaking deep purples. See the comparison swatches for yourself!

Pixi Beauty Endless Silky Eye Pen 3-Black Tulip versus Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner Purple Tang. Can't really see the difference, right? However, any source of light will set Purple Tang ablaze! Love both. Okay fine, love Purple Tang a little more than Black Tulip :P

In my last Smudge Stick post I explained my troubles with eye liners, chiefly that they don't get along with the Japanese sunscreens I wear on my lid area to help with oil control (in addition to the sun protection, of course!), because I have super oily lids. My Japanese sunscreens will melt all eye pencils except for kohls! T.T The biggest irony here is that the ones that didn't budge on my naked oily lids will melt when applied over sunscreen-protected lids. I never ever leave the house without sunscreens, and without the sunscreen I can just forget about any eye shadow - see my dilemma here? And when I say melt, I mean they really melt, seeping into my eyes, stain and ruining my contact lenses, and rendering me temporary blind.

However, I'm super happy to have made some major breakthrough with these Smudge Sticks! After thorough experimenting I found that if I set them with eye shadows, as in lining first with the Smudge Stick, then go over once or twice with an eye shadow in a similar color, my Japanese sunscreen will leave them alone, and they will not budge for the rest of the day until I take them off! Interesting how things work, huh? Setting these liners with eye shadows not only get them to stay put, but will also soften their harsh lines too, just how I like it! *happy dance* ^.^

- Stingray: a smooth matte jet black. My first Stingray was a part of this Stila Dream in Full Color Palette, which I've been using for the past couple of years but never got around to swatch and review. I mean, look how many freakin' colors there are! May be one of these days, just don't quote me ^.^ I had an extra Stingray that came in the winter 2013 Sephora Favorites Draw the Line Set (will review soon too!), which I passed on to my friend A., and the first time she tried them she literally gasped how soft it was!

There was the one incident that completely turned around my opinion regarding these Stila Smudge Sticks. After my set-liner-with-shadow discovery, I took a chance with Moray, a gorgeous deep olive with gold shimmers, and wore it out to a movie with hubby a fine Sunday afternoon. I was still pretty iffy, not just because I'm risking yet another perfectly fine pair of contacts, but also the chance of becoming temporary blind before we even get to the theater! Thankfully, the set-liner-with-shadow trick proved reliable and I didn't become temporary blind. However, the movie was an unexpected tearjerker, and throughout the 2.5 hours of sniffling, dabbing, and blowing noses, I thought, ah crap, raccoon eyes here I come! Afterwards, I sheepishly stopped by the ladies' room to see if I could scare someone else to tears. Instead, one look into the mirror and my jaws dropped: my eye shadows were pretty much gone - I'd been wiping away at my eyes after all, but the liner was in pristine shape and fresh-looking as if I'd just applied it. Holy crap...how did...what?!?

Yup, the mad hunt for more Smudge Sticks started as soon as I got home that night. I know Stila came out with a rainbow of new colors, but most of them are matte and I want shimmery or metallic. And I humbly prostrate myself to apologize and take back whatever sh*t I said about these Smudge Sticks not lasting as long as the Kajal and the UD 24/7 pencils. Screw Kajal and UD 24/7! Sure, these Smudge Sticks may rub off of the back of my hands with a tissue, but they survived a weep-fest long movie when my eye shadows didn't. And they don't melt after setting with eye shadow while Kajal and UD 24/7 still blinded me - of course I tried the newfound trick on all my pencil liners!

Koi and Silver Dollar were sold in a set during one of Stila's warehouse sales. I actually haven't figured out how to wear these because they are so intensely metallic, but I'm super glad to have them nonetheless. Out of all my Smudge Sticks, these 2 are the softest, so soft they're buttery, like the Kajal liners, probably due to the micro shimmers that give them the metallic finish.

- Koi: an intensely metallic gold. It appears more antique in the swatch due to lighting but it's more of a vibrant 18K in real life.

- Silver Dollar: an intensely metallic true silver. See the swatches. Enough said.

From left to right: Stingray, Koi, and Silver Dollar.

Conclusion for these Smudge Sticks: love and worship. You will definitely see more colors, and that's a promise. On another interesting note, I found a second eye pencil that works with the set-liner-with-shadow trick: the Pixi Beauty Endless Silky Eye Pens (as compared with Purple Tang above). Will definitely review these soon!

See my previous Stila Seeing Stars Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner Set post.