The product: Annabelle Smoothie Eyeshadow Pencils in Melonade, Mokamirage, Cocoaloco, and Licoriche.

The shades: Annabelle’s definitely outdone themselves on this colour range, if you ask me! It’s great to see such a variation of shades from a drugstore company, and to be honest, I wouldn’t expect any less from my favourite Canadian drugstore brand ;) There are eight shades available right now, four neutrals and four brights, and while that isn’t a ton, what’s really great about it is that all eight shades are different.

So,  yeah. If you give the formula a try and you really, really love it… well. You’re going to need all eight of ’em.

Melonade is a distinctive peachy, melony shade. Mokamirage (my favourite) is a lovely taupey-champagne. Cocoaloco is a medium-light brown, sort of a slightly bronzed chocolate. Licoriche is a smooth, matte black.

I’d love to see an inner corner shade added to the line (Melonade’s rather too orange to use as such, at least for me), but aside from that, I can’t really think of any “essentials” that they missed.

Swatched L-R: Melonade, Mokamirage, Cocoaloco, Licoriche

Swatched L-R, blended: Melonade, Mokamirage, Cocoaloco, Licoriche

The formula: as I pointed out in our review of Licoriche, these feature the exact same formula (and really similar packaging, to be honest) as Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils ($24) – so at under $9 CAD, Annabelle Smoothies are definitely a great buy. Both lines have a great colour range, in terms of brights and neutrals, but I don’t know if there are any spot-on dupes.

I find these pencils a bit difficult to work with; they glide on really smoothy, but don’t blend out very well – I have to pull at my lids in order to move the colour, and they tend to go a bit patchy if sheered out.

The wear: The first time I tried these, I tried a really sheer layer… and, predictably, was a mess within the hour. The wear is a lot better if they’re applied thickly, but I still feel like the colour sort of “slides” down my lids, ending up thicker around my lashline and sparse on the edges. I don’t end up with a thin, crinkly line of eyeshadow, like I do with a lot of other products, but the colour migrates downwards if I’ve blended it out too much.

Unfortunately, I also found that I can’t wear the shimmery shades on my waterline – I was really impressed by Licoriche (which is matte) when I tried it there, but the other three itch and slide off within a quarter of an hour. Not for the sensitive of eye, I suppose! :P

The verdict?

Okay, so I’m right on the fence with these. They’re a fantastic drugstore dupe if you’re into Urban Decay’s 24/7 shadows, and I know a ton of bloggers who love them, but they just don’t work on my lids. Which, I mean, kind of sucks, because they have some pretty awesome shades, but – well. Nothing you can do, right?

(Except quench your sadness in ice cream and pie, of course.)

(What? Don’t look at me like that. Creasing eyeshadow is totally a good reason to sad!eat ice cream.)

Try them if…

• You’re going for a graphic shape: if you can refrain from buffing them out (I can’t), they honestly do not budge.
• You like the UD pencils, or you wanted to try them,
• Your lids aren’t as finicky as mine – if TFSI or UDPP work for you, I think these would, too!
• You usually like eyeshadow pencils – though I didn’t love these, they’re the best eyeshadow pencils I’ve tried thus far.

P.S. Check out Licoriche in superhero form!

The ingredients:

Isododecane, Cyclopentasiloxane, PEG/PPG-19/19 Dimethicone, Synthetic Wax, Hydrogenated Polydicyclopentadiene, Nylon-12, C20-40 Alcohols, Perfluorononyl Dimethicone, Polyglyceryl-4 Diisostearate/Polyhyroxystearate/Sebacate, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Polyethylene, Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Silica, Isoceteth-10, Tocopherol, Iron Oxide.

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Bleh, I’m sorry, I feel like this was a very unsatisfactory review. And not because this is an unsatisfactory product! I’m just really exhausted; my midterms just ended and I’ve been ill since forever.

Forever.

(Okay, probably more like “for two weeks,” but whatever. It totally counts as forever.)

Hope you’re all doing a little better than I! xxx