L'Oreal Colour Riche Le Smoky: A Brown Eyeliner Convert's Review

If you'd have told me a year ago that I'd have even dared to consider buying a brown eyeliner instead of a black, the response would have been a little like this.

'Pffffffffffffffffffttttttt - what, me?! PAHAHAAAHAHAHA'

Well ladies, (and gents) I, Holly, am eating my words. 

Right now from this very screen.

Just picking them off, and munching them all up.

I.LOVE.BROWN.EYELINER.

There, I said it.

Non-direct sunlight

Direct sunlight - in hindsight should have added a smudged out picture - doh!

I might as well also tell you the main reason why I like it.

Be prepared, because this too a year ago would have had me keeling over and dying on the spot.

I like it, because...it looks more, NATURAL.

:|

:O

:O

^^^

Just check out the stages of my own shocked face registering this massive and rather juicy piece of info right there.

(yes, the sideways-ness of the faces resemble me exactly, of course - I'm writing this laid down.)

Me, the biggest lover of smoky and doll-like eyes in the world, likes something for your eyes that even slightly registers as 'natural'.

Don't get me wrong mind, my eyes are still the focal point of my make-up.

My eyelashes border on the ridiculous, and I wear more eye-shadow than most drag queens on their quiet days, (although possibly in more muted colours than my drag friends)

But yes, the sweet subtlety of the brown is appealing to me.

Here are a variety of pictures taken on a variety of days, all of which are ermm...not meant for this blog post as such, so when I next post them as part of the things they're actually reviewing, I'd appreciate it if you pretend to be shocked and act like you haven't seen them, yeah?

Call it a sneak preview ;)

I'm fairly sure my eyeliner isn't obviously brown in these pictures - given that my mascara is still black, however it feels like it looks different to me haha...

The water line in the first picture is probably a good one to go by :)

Might as well get onto the product...

I chose the L'Oreal Colour Riche Le Smoky eyeliner pencil, because, despite being a massive pain in the you-know-what to remember the name of; I have the black version and it's pretty much the best eyeliner I can imagine out there.

It's soft, blendable, (it comes with a handy smudger for this very purpose - although I mostly use my finger) and boy is it pigmented! The black version is what you might call 'blackest black', and this one is probably 'brownest brown'. It's an extremely dark brown but can be blended out lighter, and is buildable. It manages to contrast and add another dimension to my copious amounts of brown shadow, despite in theory, being the same colour. Whichever shade of brown I choose that day, (and there are many!) the liner just manages to look slightly less harsh for the daytime than black does - so I'm sticking to it!

I've forever been the girl who's make-up looks identical from day to night, so I'm thinking despite it being only a small change, it will at least be something.

Suddenly I feel all excited at the prospect of getting a bit of black on these eyes! 

Means I'd be going somewhere hmm...

If anything, it's almost too soft; it needs sharpening almost daily to avoid that nasty 'oh my god I can feel wood in my eye arghh' feeling, (you know the one!) and so is already a good inch shorter than it was when I purchased it just a couple of weeks ago...

I kind of don't mind this though, because aside from feeling the wood part of the pencil scratching your eye, nothing is worse than a liner that is so hard, you have to practically stab your eye to get any colour pay off at all...

Yes Rimmel, 'Soft Kohl' I'm looking at you.

Pssssht, the irony of being called 'soft' PSSSSHT!!

Back to L'Oreal, and the best fact of all; it's cheap. 

My ever empty bank account was relieved of only £4.99 for this beauty, and given that it works so fantastically well, that's not half bad! 

So there I am, another year older, and potentially wiser in my make-up wearing ways.

If I'm converted to the truly terrifying prospect of brown eyeliner this year - who knows what I'll be wearing next year?!

Please though, if ever you see me attempting to pull off bright pink eye-shadow, I permit you to unfollow.

Seriously though, warn me first that I've gone mental, so I can rectify things before it's too late and I attempt yellow mascara, or something...

Before I go I'd like to direct you to my Bloglovin link, because the ever so thoughtful people of good old Google are getting rid of Google Reader, and quite possibly Friend Connect with it or soon after, (?) and as D-day is nearing rapidly, I'd really love it if you followed me on there instead :)

Can I also pretty please get a high five for remembering the unnecessarily long name of this product without even going to check it in my make-up bag haha!

BOOOOYA!!

Indeed, I like a good 'booya' for good measure.

Feels goooooooooood.

*Runs to check it actually is right before publishing*

 Ahem.