ELF Jumbo Eyeshadow Sticks

I have seen the hype around lip crayons grow immensely over the past few months.  This hype could only mean one thing in the beauty world.  The rise of the question "How can we use the lip crayon idea to enhance other products on the market?"

Enter the eyeshadow stick.  It's not an eyeliner.  It's not just a cream shadow.  It's definitely not your typical eyeshadow.  It's the new evolution of eyeshadow!  Well... kind of.

I have no doubt we will soon see eyeshadow sticks taking over the shelves with new formulations, colors, and thicknesses, from every brand imaginable in the next few months.  Heck, they are already everywhere, and I feel like this time around they are really going to be a force to be reckoned with.  But like any product on the market there are hit and misses.  For me, the ELF Jumbo Eyeshadow Sticks are a miss.  

I wanted to love these.  I really did.  I love ELF products.  I have had a few bad experiences in the past, but like I said, few.  Overall I love their brand.  Their eyeshadows are a daily staple.  As are their bronzers, blushes, setting powders, brushes, and concealers.  I use at least two products from them daily, as well as almost all my brushes being from the company.  But these were sadly just underwhelming.

  

Left: Turkish Coffee        Right: Rock Out

These started out promising enough.  They were easy enough to apply.  While they did tug at first, when the outer layer was worn off a little they just glided over my eyelids.  I liked the colors too.  Turkish Coffee is a really pretty brown color that was on the warm side.  It has shimmer to it, which I am a fan of, and it was one of the colors you can get away with rubbing all over your eyelid and it still looks good.  The color Rock Out is a more green/gray toned color.  It looked like the kind of color I like to swipe on in the winter when I'm looking for a "messy" no effort makeup look.  

Thats where the love affair ended.  I should have known when they applied so smoothly that we were going to have some problems.  Now, when I say problems, I mean I looked like the kind of person you see walking down the street the morning after a really good party.  The eyeshadow had smudged, my eyeliner had been swallowed up and rubbed away by the shadow, and it creased like nothing I had ever seen before.  Mind you, all of this happened after a primer had been put on my eyelids, and even with somewhat oily lids I have never had a creasing problem like this.  I was not impressed.  Even after applying my eyeliner three times it still got eaten up all the same.  The worst part being the creasing though.  It was like all the smudged off liner and shadow ended up in the crease of my eyelid and dried to run away to the sides of my face all at the same time.  Not a good look.

Being a stubborn Leo I will keep on trying these eyeshadow sticks until I find a way to make them work, but for now I sit here disappointed and sad that my first foray into eyeshadow sticks has not gone well.  Fear not! There are hundreds of makeup brands out there, and I will find a shadow stick to suit my needs on those "messy" makeup days.  

 Anyone have suggestions on a brand of eyeshadow sticks that work for them?