Experimenting with Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleon Eyeshadow Pencils
Eyeshadow pencils were hitherto a relatively undiscovered makeup “category” in my repertoire… I never quite knew what to do with them… too fat to line, too obtuse to offer precise application…these were beyond my noob level skills. But when I spied swatches of Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleon Eyeshadow Pencils on drivel about frivol and Shameless Fripperies, I knew I had to get me some!
“Cheat your way to intense, bedazzling eye colour in the stroke of a pencil! Bring out your eyes’ natural gemstone sparkle with my Colour Chameleon eye shadow pencils, infused with synthetic sapphire. Enhance your natural eye colour with clever lighting tricks I’ve learnt over 20 years in the industry: using the laws of contrasting colours and light flex technology you can literally transform and enhance your natural eye colour.” — Charlotte Tilbury
These jumbo eyeshadow pencils are categorized by eye colour, which is intended to help us pick the best shade to complement our eye colour. Unfortunately, there’s nothing for Asian black/brown eyes *rolling eyes*. In any case, all the colours are downright gorgeous, I don’t see the need to worry unduly. But I limited myself to just 2 for a start… and after a loonnggg bout of indecision, settled on Amethyst Aphrodisiac and Smoky Emerald.
Charlotte Tilbury’s Colour Chameleon Eyeshadow Pencils are some of the most pigmented and beautifully complex jumbo pencils I have ever seen!
Smokey Emerald is a deep, warm-toned, forest green with some sparse golden micro-shimmer. It is incredibly pigmented, baby soft and smooth, so much so it is best applied with a light hand to prevent the tip from crumbling. It dries down to a satin finish within 15 seconds and then remains smudge- and water-proof.
Amethyst Aphrodisiac is a medium purple with the most amazing of shimmers – gold, light pink, and blue! It is well pigmented, but slightly less so than Smokey Emerald. It takes slightly longer to dry down (20 seconds max), which lends this shade more appropriate for blending.
There has been a lot of talk about how well these eyeshadow pencils stay on the lids. So, I swatched these on my arm, left them to set for 15-20 seconds, then rubbed away. I even ran it under water for a long while, and then rubbed again. And true enough, there was no getting these off! However, on my heavily-hooded, oily lids, that was a whole different story. Both Amethyst Aphrodisiac and Smokey Emerald went on vibrantly with all their resplendent shimmers. I even left them alone to set for as long as I could manage without blinking or moving my lids. But once I started exercising my lids again, they started to fade and fell into my crease *sad*. Crushed goes my dreams of some out-of-this-world cateye looks!
Really loved this crazy cat-eyed winged look! Too bad it doesn’t last on me!
Chucked aside and unloved for a season, I recently picked them up again for some other experiments. First, I tried blending them together… only to find the super short drying time made these really difficult to blend properly.
This is an illustration of how challenging it is to blend 2 of these eyeshadow pencils together… it is really not flattering at all in my mind.
The narrow window of opportunity aside, fluffy brushes will not move even a shimmer. The only thing that worked for me was the flattest, stiffest brush I owned… and of course, my finger. The warmth of my finger combined with natural oils on my skin rendered these pigments most pliable. However, I found my finger tended to overblend, leaving barely a hint of color, which was real sacrilege. So, what I ended up doing, was drawing a fat line across the lower half of my lid along the lash line, smudge it upwards with my finger as soon as I can, and then feather out a bit more with a flat brush. And if I feel like being a bit cheeky, I would dust another powdered eyeshadow colour above it.
Worn this way, Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleon Eyeshadow Pencils stay on my lids all day in all their gorgeous shimmeriness. They provide a wonderfully complex base that looks as if I spent an hour blending away with some magical concoction of shades, when I reality it only takes 15 seconds! It has taken me far too long to experiment to figure out how to werk these, but it was well worth my time! At GBP19, these are not easy on the pocket. But if you are lemming some sexy pencils, these are available on Selfridges.com .
xoxo
For more Charlotte Tilbury goodies, check these out:
- Dolce Vita Luxury Eyeshadow Palette
- Bar of Gold Skin Gilding Highlighter
- Cheek to Chic Swish & Pop Blusher in Love is the Drug
What I hate most about eye shadow pencils is sharpening them – I feel like I waste so much product when I sharpen these and of course, you need a jumbo sharpener.
I always have the biggest problem with eye shadow pencils creasing on my lids, too. Did you use a primer with these ones at all? I guess they didn’t fade/crease on you after you blended it and topped it with a powder shadow.
YES!!! I hate sharpening of any sorts, because somehow i can never get them as sharp as brand new, and the tip breaks off!!! Urgh
Anyway, these CT ones barely crease once they set, but like i said, i had problems with them just going off after awhile cos of my folded, hooded lids. But the very last method i used them, smudged out and then blended off with some powder shadow, they last that way throughout! 😉
My eyes are the same, too. Do you find that powder eyeshadow also crease and fade? I haven’t found a primer (and I’ve tried LOTS) that will keep my powder eyeshadows in place without fading yet.
Oh… have you had any luck with NARS? That worked wonders for me until I found Tom Ford. The shadows themselves play a part too… some are simply dastardly like that, but most of the brands that I’ve featured on my blog I hadn’t had much trouble with them fading and creasing after using either NARS / TF primers.
I have tried NARS, and a lot of the other brands available at Sephora. I have never tried Tom Ford anything though, I don’t even know where to start looking for that brand here haha. I think the next on my list to try is Dior, they just released a new primer!
Oh yes Dior is the next I was going to recommend! You can order TF from saks.com and get it sent to wherever you are.
Have you tried the Dior eyeshadow primer yourself?
i’ve only used it on my arm when swatching the Trianon collection but not on my lids…. but it felt creamier than the TF primer, although very similar in color and texture. Some ladies I know felt the TF primer too dry and hard, so the Dior one looked promising! Would love to hear your reviews on it!
Hey Silverkis, I agree that eyeshadow pencils take some getting used to, but once you find some you love, you’ll use them all the time! I haven’t tried these at all, but I use my LM ones nonstop! You should try those next. They are easy to blend out as well 🙂
Hi Sunny! I have a few LM ones, I use them entirely as bases because they sheer out way too much on me! 😛
The third method looks absolutely gorgeous and hooray for making them stay on your lid longer!!!! Really beautiful, the last two looks! 🙂
I know pencils are made to look like the easier version of powders cos theyre some sort of slap-and-go product, but I have a harder time working with them! :-{ Lol. Thank you for the tips youve imparted, though. Will try that.
You’re right, Shari!!! I thought pencils were supposed to be easier, more intuitive, etc…. but they’re HARD!!! LOL!! Thank you for always reading my nonsense… luv ya lots!!!
totally regret not getting! Should have listened to you.. hahaha
LOL!! There’s always next time! 😉
Wow if it stays for that long, I might give it a try! Love the charcoal shade on your lid! Looks gorgeous!
you should def give CT a whirl babe! Yeah, it’s green actually…. love it!
Mmm, that’s one hot eye look! Glad you finally made it work for you.. And you are totally making me want to get these two exact shades! hehe
I am yet to figure out how best to wear my LM eye pencils.. been having trouble getting the colour to show.. they just blend into nothingness 🙁 Must experiment during the weekend >.<
Hey bubs thanks, it’s nice to hear from proper beauty bloggers!
I know.. I decided the same.. kinda sad, cos the two colours I picked up looked so lovely in the packaging… :-/ Sucks
I love to blend out my pencil shadows. Though it sounds like you had some trouble blending with these particular pencils. Have you noticed and creasing? I hate that!
These pencils dry and set right away dear… Which is what makes them different
thank you, this has been a super useful read for me, since I tend to have similar problems with eye makeup. 🙂 the colors look so gorgeous on you.
glad it was useful for you. The colors are lovely, I hope you get to try some Charlotte Tilbury too!