Three Mesmerizing Performance Eyeliner Pencil Limited Edition Color Swatches

Went out to Ginza Mitsukoshi last Friday to check out the three limited edition releases of Three Mesmerizing Performance Eyeliner Pencil, the new incarnation of the just-discontinued Flash Performance Eyeliner Pencils.   

The LE colors are 01 MJ:We Love You, 02 AW:Sense of Selfie, and 03 JMB:Samo.

***Screencap from Three Cosmetics JP. All other pictures taken in indoor lighting without flash. Click to zoom. 

The first thing you might have noticed is that the rubber smudge-tip has been replaced with a brush-tip. When I was swatching these, I didn't test-drive the brush-tip which I should have. But instead I was in a hurry to leave because the counter lady thought I was tourist with a deep pocket (touristy yes, but deep pocket no...) and was trying to sell me all sorts of stuff (skincare, etc.). So I had to get the hell out of there.

But my honest first impression of these three LE Mesmerizing colors was an unfortunate meh. Yes, I can always use a brown eyeliner, and yes, that jade green is a rather unique color, but upon closer look all three just pale in comparison to the complex shimmers and the metallic finish of the Flash pencils.

And don't get me started with the names. What the hell do those abbreviations supposed to mean? Are they some kind of inside jokes or shout-outs us outsiders aren't supposed to get? I much prefer the Flash pencils' names myself. They were actually cool names!

- 01 MJ:We Love You: a semi metallic rose. Pretty, but could have been much better with more complex shimmers. 

- 02 AW:Sense of Selfie: a chocolate brown. They could have differentiate this color somehow, but nope, it's a brown I've seen a million times before. Totally boring. 

- 03 JMB:Samo: okay, now this jade green is cool. But again I feel they could've totally hit this one out of the park but for some inexplicable reason chose not to and left it a standard shimmery green.

Direct and slightly angled shots.

Blurry shot to show blah shimmers.

So I'm going to pass on these LE's in favor of the full line-up coming in early September. The permanent range for these Mesmerizing Performance Pencils has seven colors similar to the Flash pencils, only without the matte black (08 Eye On). Don't quote me though, I only saw the colors in a pamphlet and not in real life, so they may very well turn out different than in print.

In the meantime, I'm willing to gamble with the taupe (02 Eye Believe, will become the new color 06), the burgundy (03 Eye Sense, will become new color 08), and the purplish blue (04 Eye Belong, will become new color 09). And by gamble I mean wait and see what they've done with those three colors. They might turn out better and even more interesting, they might not. But I'm not willing to risk losing 05 Eye Rock (the blackened olive), 06 Eye Kon (antique gold), or 07 Eye Doll (molten titanium)--especially 07 Eye Doll--so I got myself backups of these.