Sunday 3 February 2013

An ode to Teal

I firmly believe, that before I got interested in makeup, I had no idea of the existence of teal. Of course there was that odd pine needle colour that was sort of green, but blue, and both but neither in particular, but never had I ever considered "teal" a real option when selecting colours for my computer desktop wallpaper. Same can be said about the mysterious colour taupe, by the way, but that's a whole different story.

Back to the point - teal is a wonderful and versatile colour (and this is coming from someone who doesn't like blue and is not particularly keep on green either) and I am glad I have discovered it. One makeup product is fuelling my love for teal more that ever, and it is the Make Up For Ever Aqua Shadow with a fetching name 8E.




MUFE Aqua Shadows are cream eyeshadows in jumbo pencil form, which also make excellent eyeliners, depending on the shade.  The product is soft, does not drag on the lid at all and is easily blended, although you have to be quick, as this will set as stone (I usually do one eye at a time).

It is not a twist up pencil, so you will need a specially-trained jumbo sharpener to do the job, my fine attempts at which are depicted below.




As the rest of MUFE's Aqua line, these are waterproof, and My God are they waterproof! I ran the swatch below under hot tap water for an experimental demonstration. In fact, these shadows are everything-proof, as it wouldn't come of even after vigorous rubbing. What's reassuring though is that is comes right off with your regular makeup remover (I use Bioderma, of course. Who does't?)




The colour of 8E is deep, rich, and vibrant. It's described by MUFE as Matte Green, but I beg to differ - as much as it is green, it is also blue, and both, but neither in particular. I pair it wish a dusty matte olive colour from the NARS High Society palette in the crease and MAC Blanc Type over the lid.




If you find that lining your eyes with anything but blacks gives a sort of wishy-washy look and does not define the eyes as well, try applying the coloured liner reasonably thickly, and then run a tiny fine line of black as close to the lashline as you can (I like using a liquid for this, as you can really trace it over the roots of the lashes themselves). That way it doesn't take away from the colour, but pulls everything together somehow.




And if you usually shy away from such colours on your face for the fear of looking 80's, check out the Aqua Shadow pencils nonetheless; there are other more conventional colours to consider. 

But as typical of any colour infatuation, it has crept into other areas of my collection, and anyway - I find teal a perfect colour for these mid-inbetween-season months like February. By now, everyone has had their fill of wintery darks and purples, but it's not quite appropriate to whip out the neons just yet. So he is called Electric Teal, and I have fallen in and out of love with this polish repeatedly throughout the years, but it is currently in my 'shortcut' pile of polishes, and it is wonderful. The formula is magical, as are so many of the Nails Inc polish formulas (formulae?). The shade was a colab with the InStyle magazine, but there are plenty of these hanging about on eBay, at friendly eBay prices.



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