An introduction to THREE & #11 Sister Midnight

I have only recently delved into the world of Japanese cosmetics proper, by which I mean, those out of the well-trodden Western path. THREE is one such hip Japanese brand that I’ve only gotten to admire from afar via Instagram, and when I was in Bangkok recently, I made it a point to visit the counter to experience the products for myself. And boy was I impressed!

THREE cosmetics breaks from the stereotypical Japanese mould of pastel / muted neutrals and frilly packaging, with bold pigmented colors and minimalistic industrial packaging. I find the brand’s attitude to be really refreshing, even its website is a sensory journey, and something that I’ve yet to encounter (although admittedly my makeup knowledge is still quite limited) anywhere else.

For my first foray into THREE, I picked up two of its 4D Eye Palettes from the FW2013 collection. Today, I shall introduce you to #11 Sister Midnight.

Each THREE 4D Eye Palettes consists of 4 different eyeshadow shades in varying textures. Here is a close-up on the pan:

Clockwise from top left of pan:

• Light shimmery beige-brown. This has a creamy texture and is well pigmented despite being a very light shade overall. It is somewhat warm-toned despite the metallic shimmer.
• Dark purple with pink and blue micro-glitters. It looks almost black-indigo in the pan but applies out on my lids as a warm purple. This is one of THREE’s reputed “cream” shadows, which is supposedly more emollient. The thing to note here is that it doesn’t actually dry down and set like some other cream shadows, and I had difficulty wearing this shade along the lash line without it creasing and smudging (despite wearing a primer beneath). Regardless, it works very well as a base shade (which is the way THREE recommends it), and is very very pigmented.
• Light glittery blue. The blue here is a complex “dirty” blue, not the typical pastel sky blue that Japanese brands are wont to display. The color is somewhat sheer, but it does build up to a decent wash. This has the boldest pink sparkles and works well as a pop of color on the inside corners of the eye or all over. I didn’t experience much fall-out from this when worn solely on the upper lid, but did have some trouble when I tried to line my lower lash line with it.
• Medium olive moss with a satin finish. This is the creamiest to the touch of the entire bunch, and is very well pigmented. It is the warmest shade in the palette.

The swatches, left to right, correspond to the descriptions above from top (i.e. clockwise from top left of pan):

Obviously, there are numerous ways to wear these gorgeous shades. The way THREE recommends it, is to first build a base using the dark purple, concentrating on the outer “V”. Then go over with the medium olive shade, concentrating on the inner half of the lid. Highlight the inner corners of the eye using the glittery blue, and finally highlight the crease using the beige-brown shade. If it sounds confusing, just think of a figure “X” starting from the top right corner of the palette.

And here is the resultant EOTD following the THREE methodology:

It’s uncanny how purple + green = slate blue! I actually took about a million photos and then stared and restared at myself in the mirror close-up just to be sure. I think if you wanted to go more purple, you would have to be extra heavy handed on that and go extremely light on the green or skip it entirely. Likewise with any other colors in the pan, because I tried mixing the beige & green, and they turned out very close to the blue shade…go figure!

I am absolutely in love with THREE 4D Eye Palette #11 Sister Midnight! It is completely unexpected, the shades are all individually complex and interesting, and the textures are amazing! There isn’t a shade in this palette that I can find fault with (having tested out palette #9, I found the purple cream shade in this palette to kick up quite a bit although it doesn’t bother me)! And as an unexpected bonus, the brushes contained in this palette are well made and decent enough that I actually created the EOTD above using nothing but just them!! Together with the slim packaging, THREE palettes are truly made to go with you wherever your journey takes you!

xoxo