Brown

Is there a beauty blog that didn't mention Bobbi Brown's chocolate palette lately? I almost missed my chance of getting one, because I was taking my time deciding that I really need some new brown eyeshadows, while these slick things were selling out like crazy.

There's something weird about a new line for fall that is becoming sold out by mid-July, and I wonder what was the beauty blogs' contribution to the Bobbi Rush (or for the Azuree oil craze, for that matter). Are we the ones creating the hype? Bobbi Brown's chocolate cherry nail polish is no longer to be found. It disappeared even faster than the palette. But I've already seen some great alternatives elsewhere. One of the magazines had Christy Turlingtom wearing something similar by Maybelline. I might check it eventually, but right now I'm actually on a light color kick. It's still summer, after all.

But back to the brown shadow issue. We all have them in the depths of our makeup drawers. I have a cognac color from Elizabeth Arden, an earthy brown from Clinique, a Chanel bronze and probably another one or two. None of them were part of a full palette, as brown seems to have gone out of favor in the last few seasons. I preferred shimmery golds and sexy khakis. So, all of a sudden brown looked fresh and new.

I started playing with a sample of Max Factor's MAXeye shadows in Connoisseur. The highlighter part of it, like just about any cream, beige or light mocha shadow I've ever tried, did nothing for me. It just looked dusty. The two darker browns were nice, though. The darkest isn't dark enough to also double as a liner on me, but the colors are blendable and the result was pretty. However, the shadow's quality leaves a lot to be desired. They don't stay put for very long, and depending on the amount of color I applied, they creased and/or faded within a few hours. They don't come with an applicator, which is fine with me. I prefer to use brushes, and the shadows did yield nicely to my brushes and went on well both dry and wet. But, as I said, they fall apart way too quickly.

While this experiment's results were decidedly underwhelming, it did make me decide that I need to invest in a good brown palette. Thanks to Annie from Blogdorf Goodman I learned that Nordstrom.com still had them (though my local store was out of the Bobbis, as were all the other department stores in Paramus) and I managed to score one. Once it arrived, I was really happy that I did.

Again, the lightest color, bone, is completely useless to me. This is the only color from the palette that can be purchased separately. So, if you are somewhat olive-skinned, you don't need to bother with this one. It's invisible. What does work as a nice highlighter is the lightest shimmery shadow. It's very light and has more shimmer than pigment (not in an over-the-top way), but it doesn't need to be more than that, especially for daytime. The darker colors are all very pretty, can be blended and layered to your heart's desire, and the darkest one is just perfect as a daytime liner.

I'm not crazy about the double-ended brush that comes with the shadows. It's too thin for my liking, so I'm not using it.

It's amazing how beautiful this look can be. I seem to have forgotten how well these colors work for me, especially with black liner (I've been working my Artliner ever since I started using this palette) and darker lips (see my new Holy Grail). By the time fall is actually here there'll have to be some new sensation, because I'm already wearing this look every day.