Xmas 2008: Kanebo Kate Gel Eyeshadow & Lavshuca Stick Eyeshadow

Kanebo didn't really excite me this year with their Xmas releases. They just added a range of Gel Eyeshadows to the Kate range and Lavshuca just got 2 coffrets (pretty though and worth checking out!) and a lineup of Stick Eyeshadows. I am still debating getting one of the Coffret D'or palettes but the Lunasol Xmas kit looks boring and repetitive so I am skipping it.

I ordered 2 Gel Eyeshadows from Kate and 3 Stick Eyeshadows from Lavshuca because they were cheap and looked cute.
I should have known that I won't really like either of the products as I am generally sticking with powder shadows and am not a big fan of gels/creams except cream-to-powder type shadows (liquid ones like Beaute de Kose Eye Fantasists or the ones in pots like from Shiseido).

-Kate Gel Eyeshadows:


These come in 8 colors, all of them in the light/pastel range. The only color that stood out somewhat was GY-1 but I ended up ordering BR-1, too.
The little pots are made of sturdy thick glass and look quite edgy (typical Kate style anyway).
The texture of these is like a bouncy cool gel. Feels refreshing upon application and the staying power of these is fantastic. Once applied and blended (be quick, these dry down super fast) these stay in place.


The problem I have is that both colors come out rather dull on my eyes. BR-1 looks like a matte-ish light copper with annoying big bits of silver glitter whereas GY-1 (which looks so pretty when swatched on my hand) turns into a taupe with scattered glitters. I like GY-1 but it's not outstanding to me. These are rather sheer so about 2-3 layers would be needed to get decent color. However don't attempt to do more than 2 layers as these will clump up and look uneven otherwise.


If there wasn't any glitter and the colors would impart more luminosity these would be wonderful. But BR-1 just looks blah on my eyes and GY-1 is nothing that special either.


I paid US$12.50/each from Ichibankao (Adambeauty lists them now, too). Their retail price is 1050 Yen (about US$10) but there is usually a 25-30% discount in the Japanese drugstores.

-Lavshuca Stick Eyeshadow:


The Stick Eyeshadows look like little crayons but are actually just cream shadow sticks in twist-up tubes (no sharpening required!).
They look very cute and come in pretty colors and I really like the 3 colors I picked up.
However these smudge, fade and crease like mad on me. I really HATE this.


I wore the black BK-1 as thick liner and it looked like a dull gray after about 30 minutes. And in addition some of it transferred to my eye socket and smudged under my eyes. Ugh! This NEVER happens to me!


The next day I wore the beautiful PU-1 (which is a cool bright purple) as liner all around my eyes and on inner rims . The result was very pretty (I just used couple of beige shadows to do a light neutral eye underneath) and I was very happy with the result. Unfortunately the bright purple transformed into a dull gray after an hour of wear or so. By evening I could hardly detect the liner at all. What a disappointment! If you don't mind touching up a few times during the day it might be a nice purchase though.

The stick in BE-1 is a pretty light champagne that works nicely below my brows and on the inner corners of my eyes. There it can't crease or smudge at least (and it's a light color so wouldn't be noticable). I am pretty sure if I use this all over my lids it would crease quickly as these sticks feel quite greasy to me.


If you want better Eyeshadow sticks get the ones from Integrate! These are way better!
Adambeauty sells all 8 colors for US$11/each incl. shipping. Most colors are on the lighter end of the color spectrum.

All in all I don't feel any love for any of the items above. I might as well have skipped them instead.