The product: karl lagerfeld for shu uemura Painting Liner in Blackish Satin Purple
The shade: As expected, Blackish Satin Purple is… a blackish satin purple. (Don’t you just love the Shu colour names?) It feels a little less “purple” than the rest of my purples; I’d be more apt to call it a mulberry, or a plum, even — it’s colourful without being all that vibrant, making the colour easy to wear during both day and night.
I love a good, bright violet, but shades like this one are definitely easier to wear: soft and with finely-milled shimmer, the effect is like wearing a gorgeous grey or taupe, softer than black but still dense enough in colour to really create a fixation point in the eye area. This red-violet has enough blue in it to keep you from looking tired, and the faceted blue/red/gold shimmer certainly doesn’t hurt, either.
The wear: I don’t get perfect wear out of this (I don’t get perfect wear out of anything), but it’s not half bad. The Painting Liner formula is gorgeous, smooth and almost fluffy, and it applies like a dream, sharp and pigmented.
While I do get creasing after four or five hours (most liners make it two on me, tops; my lids are crazy), the formula is so good that it wears just as well without primer as it does with it — I tested this first with NARS Smudge Proof & silica powder, but it made no difference when I wore it on my bare lids. When it does start to move around, it fades pretty evenly, with no flaking or smudging.
The verdict?
I’m really not crazy about the Painting Liner price tag ($25 USD / $29 CAD for 2.9g/0.098oz), but I think gel liner fans are definitely going to want to check this one out. The shade is soft, versatile, and chic, and the lightweight-but-pigmented product doesn’t disappoint in wear or application.
For a drugstore dupe (in Canada, at least), Blackish Satin Purple really reminded me of Marcelle’s Waterproof Eyeliner Pencil in Mulberry, a similarly wearable purple. (See a swatch at the end of this post.) It’s not as much of a wow! product as the Shu Uemura liner, but at a third of the price, it’s a really good alternative if you can’t fit the Shu in your budget.
shu uemura x karl lagerfeld painting liner eye liner in blackish satin purple
The ingredients
Trimethylsiloxysilicate, cyclopentasiloxane, isododecane, cyclohexasiloxane, ceresin, caprylyl methicone, synthetic fluorphlogopite, silica silylate, distardimonium hectorite, propylene carbonate, triethoxycaprylylsilane, tin oxide [ +/- mica, CI 77891, CI 77499, CI 77077, CI 77491, CI 75470].
shu uemura blackish satin purple painting gel eyeliner swatches
shu uemura x karl lagerfeld painting liner 2.8 g / 0.098 oz
