Makeup

A few of my early efforts with blue eye shadow left me gun shy for years. There was a time when blue eye looks terrified me worse than MJ’s Thriller video scared me as a kid. Nature’s rarest color isn’t always easy to work with, and even the simplest of blue eye looks can quickly devolve into hot blue messes if you don’t know which products to use and where to put them.

Enter Mally Beauty’s Nolita Navy smokey eye kit (pictured up top), a palette of blue and peach shadows with a handy black pencil liner.

It eases the process of creating simple blue eye shadow looks done with very little blending or effort. Created by celebrity makeup artist Mally Roncal (she’s Filipino like me, haaay!), you may have seen the kit sold alongside Mally’s makeup line on QVC.

Each $39.50 kit comes with one cream eye shadow base, three powder eye shadows and one black pencil liner. The pans are about the same size as MAC’s eye shadow pans, and the pencil closely resembled MAC’s Technakohl liner. Value-wise, the cost breaks down to $8 for each of the five products in the kit. If you were to purchase comparable products separately from MAC, you’d pay almost twice as much.

What you get

Peach cream-to-powder eye shadow base – This peachy beige base instantly brightened my lids. It glides on and gives the shadows a surface to adhere to for all-day staying power.

Peach matte eye shadow – This peach complements the cream-to-powder base well. Wearing it along with the base creates a perfect canvas for the blue shadows and black liner. For a fresh and casual “no-makeup” look, I wear peach eye shadow over the base, line the upper and lower water lines with the black pencil and add two coats of mascara.

Royal blue shimmer eye shadow – This shimmery, mid-tone blue looks great when applied wet or dry. I wear it on the lid or as a liner.

Navy shimmer eye shadow – A very dark, highly pigmented blue with lots of fine shimmer. I like wearing it as a liner. You can also wear it in the crease, but I wouldn’t advise it if you’re a total beginner because the shade applies very dark. Used incorrectly, it can leave you looking like you just tussled with the local street toughs.

The texture of these shadows reminds me of Tarte and Lola shadows — not as fine or as buttery as Shu Uemura or Lancome, but a definite step up from most drugstore brands.

From left to right: base, peach shadow, royal blue shadow, navy shadow

Black pencil liner – The liner has medium staying power when used on the lashes and water line. I would have preferred it to be a bit more emollient than it is. For me it wasn’t easy to blend shadows on top of it, but it’s not a bad pencil liner at all.

Black pencil liner swatch

Each kit also comes with a clear snakeskin pouch and detailed illustrations on different looks.

A few eyes

I get more value out of this palette when I stick to very simple looks that don’t require a lot of blending. The few times I attempted bold, blue smokey eyes with it, my success rate dropped. I’m sure more practice would help, but I had a hard time creating dramatic blue looks with this kit.

But the kit makes simple blue looks a breeze.

Simple day or evening smokey blue eye

Get the look: Smooth cream base on the lids with fingertips. To cover entire eye lid, use a flat shader brush like the MAC 252 to apply the peach matte shade. Use the same brush to apply the royal blue shade onto the lid and then blend out any stark edges with a blending blush like the MAC 217. Use a flat, angled brush like Sonia Kashuk’s angled eyeshadow brush to apply the navy shade to the upper and lower lash lines. Line the upper water line with the black pencil liner.
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