Etude House Play 101 Blending Pencil Swatches: All 25 Shades!

Etude House's Play 101 Blending Pencils were launched some weeks back, and I've finally gotten around to swatching them for you! For those who are familiar with Etude House, you'll remember that two years ago the brand had launched their Play 101 Pencils, which I had reviewed at the time. The Play 101 Blending Pencils are a different product, and an extension to the Play 101 line.

Etude House Play 101 Blending Pencils: A new addition to the Play 101 line

Like the original Play 101 Pencils, the Play 101 Blending Pencils are also little pencil-form sticks of makeup that are multi-purpose - you can use them on your eyes, lips, or cheeks. But the difference is that the Play 101 Blending Pencils are thicker and chubbier than the Play 101 Pencils, and are more like lip/cheek pencils in size, than eyeliner pencils (which is what the Play 101 Pencils looked like). Also, the formula and texture of the Play 101 Blending Pencils on the whole seems to be more emollient, making them much more blendable, and more suitable for lip and cheek use.

I've finally gotten around to swatching all 25 shades above, so without further ado, let's get started!

MAC Flamingo Park Swatches and First Impression

The MAC Flamingo Park Collection is the brand's first Spring 2016 makeup launch, and it was recently launched here. I happened to be at the store during the launch, and I managed to get swatches of the products for you! It was quite an ordeal swatching the products, because it was very crowded in the store, with people buzzing around and swarming around the collection testers, so I'm happy to have swatched everything I could!

MAC Flamingo Park Collection

But before we move on to the swatches proper, I'd like to mention that the lighting in the swatches might be a bit lacking due to the fact that these were all swatched in-store.

Also, as you can see from the above photo of the Flamingo Park setup, it seems like for some reason the collection differs slightly here in Singapore. Not all the "official USA" shades were displayed in the Flamingo Park Collection display, and some permanent shades were put in the display as part of the Flamingo Park Collection although they didn't appear in the US version of the shade lineup. I'm not too sure why this is the case, but in any case, I've just done my best to swatch everything that was on display, so any incongruency with what was launched in the US is just due to whatever was in the display in the store.

Etude House Snowy Dessert Swatches and Quick Reviews: Pudding Tint, Ginger Cookie Blusher, Contour, Play 101 Pencils, Scented Tablets

Etude House's Snowy Dessert Holiday 2015 Collection certainly seems to be a hit this year. Between the food-themed items, the absolutely adorable packaging, the attractive products, and the affordable prices, I think Etude House has basically ticked all the boxes for a winning Christmas collection! I've taken some swatches of the colour makeup, namely the Pudding Tint, the Ginger Cookie Blusher and Contour, and the new Play 101 Pencils, so without further ado, let's check out the swatches!

Etude House Snowy Dessert Collection

First up, though, I have to apologize for the swatches. I had some items from the collection but not all, so I tried to get the full range of swatches by going into the store to swatch the shades I didn't have, but I think the lighting in the store was less than optimal. Still though, I think the swatches are good enough to give you ad indication of the colour!

Jane Iredale PlayOn Lip Crayons Swatches, Review and Ingredients Analysis

Jane Iredale's PlayOn Lip Crayons are new for Fall 2015, just in time to catch in on the jumbo lip crayon trend (these things are still trendy, right? I don't know about you, I'm still loving them!). And they come in 7 shades to boot, so there's something for everyone.

Jane Iredale PlayOn Lip Crayons: New for Fall 2015

These are advertised by Jane Iredale as having a "creamy formula [that] glides on and stays on", although these are not retractable so you'll need a jumbo pencil sharpener to sharpen the pencils. Jane Iredale has their own Jumbo Pencil Sharpener, but in my humble opinion any appropriately-sized one will work too.


Jane Iredale PlayOn Lip Crayons: 7 shades, from light nudes to berries
I'm pretty excited about these PlayOn Lip Crayons, so let's get started with the ingredient analysing and the swatching, and the reviewing! Without further ado, let's look at the ingredients list first!

Ettusais Heart Cheek Color and Creamy Lip Crayon Valentine's Day 2015 Swatches

Ettusais has launched two shades of blusher and two lip pencils for Valentine's Day, and as might be expected, both are limited edition.This consists of two blushes, the Heart Cheek Color, as well as two shades of Creamy Lip Crayon, both in shades of pink and orange.

Ettusais Heart Cheek Color and Creamy Lip Crayon

Let's go on to the swatches and my quick thoughts on them!

Etude House Play 101 Pencil Review and Swatches

Etude House has recently launched its Play 101 Pencils, which are basically little sticks of colour pencils that you can use to colour your eyes, lips, cheeks, face - basically anywhere! The concept is indeed novel, as far as Korean drugstore brands are concerned. Basically you get a multipurpose pencil that you can use anywhere you want!

Etude House Play 101 Pencils: Nifty little multi-purpose pencils that could potentially really simplify your makeup bag!

The idea behind these pencils, I have to say, is super nifty. After all, these are pencils that can be used anywhere on your face, and imagine if you can use only pencils everywhere! Your makeup bag would be so simplified as far as colour cosmetics go! It sounded pretty darn awesome, so I was pretty excited to get a hold of these to play with. Each of these have different textures, including creamy (creamy finish with no shimmer but not matte), glitter (has specks of glitter), shimmering (has some fine shimmer but no visible glitter specks), glossy (like a lip gloss crayon), and matt (plain ol' matte finish).


Etude House Play 101 Pencils: Different finishes (creamy, glitter, shimmering, glossy and matt) and many different shades

Elizabeth Arden Summer 2014 Swatches: Summer Escape Bronzers, Gloss Stick, Highlighters, Cream Eyeshadows

I have lots of swatches from Elizabeth Arden's Summer 2014 Summer Escape Collection for you guys! This includes the Pure Finish Summer Escape Bronzing Powders, Pure Finish Cool Radiance Highlighter, Pure Finish Cream Eye Shadows, and Beautiful Color Gloss Sticks! I was at a bloggers' event, and we were supposed to give ourselves a makeover using the Summer 2014 products. And I did that, but I was also busy swatching, because that's what bloggers do, right?

Elizabeth Arden Summer 2014's Summer Escape has a wide range of products to offer.

As you can tell, I pretty much swatched everything I could get my hands on! So yes, there is a lot for us to get started on, so without further ado, let's start! The swatches are in indoors warm lighting, and I've tried to correct them as much as I could, but if they aren't perfect (and they aren't), please forgive the lighting!

Canmake Lip Concealer Swatches

So these swatches are a little old, but hey, better late than never right? One of Canmake's items sold (not sure if it's still current stock, but I'm sure you can find it online via eBay and such) are their Lip Concealers. The idea is that if you want an all-out nude lip, or need to blank out your lip for artistic makeup, then you can use these Lip Concealers.

Canmake Lip Concealer Swatches

There are only two shades, so this is a short post.

01 White Pink is a pale beige that has some pink in it. A pale, cool-toned beige. A concealer shade, really.
02 Nude Beige is a tan beige, also with pink. Also a concealer shade.

As far as I can tell, the main benefit of using a specialized Lip Concealer over a typical concealer meant for face is the taste. These don't have any taste, whereas using a real concealer would taste really nasty. Although these are lip concealers, I'm sure there will be those who are game enough to use them as actual lip colours.

Laqa & Co Fat Lip Pencil in Wolfman Review and Swatch

Laqa and Co is a very specialist beauty brand - its only products right now are the lip pencil, as well as nail polish pens! It's definitely one of the most niche brands I've seen, and fortunately they do pretty nice products. I've written briefly about both the Laqa & Co Fat Lip Pencils and Nail Polish Pens before, and they were pretty good when I tried them out in store. So, now I'm FINALLY getting around to actually reviewing the Fat Lip Pencil I have in my stash - Wolfman.

Sleek Mossberry Kohl Pencil as a Lip Pencil: Yes It Works!

Remember the last time I blogged about the Sleek Makeup Berry Collection? And remember how I said I didn't really like the Mossberry Kohl Pencil as an eye liner (it made my eyes look a little bit gross), and said it would work better as a lip pencil instead?

Well, here's proof. I finally tried it out as a lip pencil, and I have to say - this is so much better as a lip pencil than as an eyeliner. I know it may or may not be lip safe, but I really like it as a lip pencil. The texture isn't too bad. It drags on the lips somewhat, as you might expect, but once it's on, it stays on unless you eat or drink. And the colour is also pretty darn gorgeous - it's a deep purple-leaning berry that's really beautiful on.

Here's a swatch of it for you. Not too bad, right?

Would you wear the Mossberry Lip Pencil as a lip liner? I totally would!

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Barry M Shimmering Lip and Eye Crayon Swatches

Barry M's Shimmering Lip and Eye Crayons are supposed to be highlighters for the eyes and lips, although looking at the colour range that is available at my local Superdrug, you'd probably end up using them more on the eyes than on the lips (unless you wanted an unusual lip colour). The colour palette for this is very pastel with some shimmer.



Gold 1 is a light pastel gold with shimmer.

Turquoise 4 is a light pastel blue with shimmer. It looks a little more blue than Turquoise to me, but it could just be the pastel-ness of the colour.

Marshmallow 5 is a shimmery light pink.

Violet 6 is a cool-toned pastel violet shade. I quite like this one, it's a colour that's right up my alley.

Bronze 7 is one of the colours that pops a little bit more, being less pastel. This one is a very gold-orange bronze with shimmer.

Green 8 is also one of the less pastel colours that stands out a bit more. This one is a muted pastel-ized forest green with shimmer.

The only thing I have to mention is that while I was swatching, these don't seem to "set" on their own very well, and are a little bit smudgy. They would probaby work best as an underlay or overlay for other eyeshadow colours. If you wanted a sheer wash of colour these are perfectly fine worn alone too.

Barry M Lip Lacquer Crayons Swatches and Review

Barry M has launched a new line of lip crayons, called the Lip Lacquer Crayons, and they are 4.95GBP each. These come in 5 colours, most of them variations of red, with the exception of one pale, pastel pink.

I don't know about you, but I was so excited when these were launched - although I don't actually own any, I'm a huge sucker for lip crayons. I just don't have any because I haven't found any I liked. Stila had the best texture and colour payoff, but all their colours had too much glitter, and Bobbi Brown's lip crayons were nice, but had a very dry texture and tasted like wood mixed with mint. Eeeww.

And Barry M? Well, these had a really good texture, and had above-average decent colour payoff (particularly for the darker colours), but unfortunately, they were full of huge bits of glitter. Now this won't deter some people, but it's definitely a no-no for me. I do like the formula on these though, I hope they release some in a creme or gloss finish soon.

Here are swatches:



L - R: No 1 Scarlet Red, No 2 Cherry Red, No 3 Mandarin, No 4 Party Pink, No 5 Ballet Pink

OK. So my camera didn't capture the glitter, but I swear it's there. And I'm sorry the swatches for No 4 Party Pink and No 5 Ballet Pink are so small - the Superdrug girl told me I was "using too much" of her testers.

No 1 Scarlet Red is like China Glaze's Ruby Pumps nail polish, but in a lip crayon form. It's got bright big bits of red glitter in a red base. This is one kickass colour, it's a true fire engine red that I really quite like (sans glitter). This one was also the most pigmented of the lot.

No 2 Cherry Red is a pretty colour, a pinky-red leaning to the cool side. This one also has glitter in it, and the gliter is actually visible by just looking at the pencil itself. You can see bits of glitter in the pencil.

No 3 Mandarin is a corally orange colour that also has orange glitter bits that you can see even in the pencil.

No 4 Party Pink is a bright lilac pink, with matching colour glitter. Still, glitter-averse girls might want to avoid this.

No 5 Ballet Pink is a pale, pastel pink that's not glittery, but quite frosty. This one required some building up to acheive the colour intensity you see. It's not that pigmented.

So all in all, I can't say I'm a huge fan of these, mainly because of the glitter. I really liked the formula on these though, they were smooth and well-pigmented, with the exception of Ballet Pink. If you don't mind the glitter, this is a good place to look for a daring red colour.