I previewed the Burberry Autumn/Winter 2013 collection HERE, with some pictures and quick swatches. I've had a bit of time to play with everything, so now it's time for some reviews!! First up…the Effortless Kohl's...
***Edited: Swatches of Burberry Lip Glow in Trench Kiss and Lip Cover in Oxblood HERE.
***All items purchased by me. Affiliate links included.***
Effortless Kohl Multi-Use Pencil in No. 01 Poppy Black, No. 02 Oxblood & No. 03 Stone (somehow I missed putting the third in this picture??) - $30/.07oz @ Saks, Nordstrom, Burberry.com
The Effortless Kohls come in the traditional Burberry outer packaging (far left in the pic), so hope you don't mind that I used the same picture from the Sneak Peek post!!
These are some slick little pencils, though I would've liked to see the check pattern on the lid or even the pencil itself. Each pencil does come with its own sharpener (not shown). And without reading a description of these pencils I was really excited to try them!! Even more enticing was the description from the Burberry site:
Discover Effortless Kohl, the versatile, highly pigmented crayon with exceptional colour release and intensity.
With a smooth texture and glide-on application, Effortless Kohl draws with precision, holds its structure and can be blended for multiple effects.
Use to define the eyes along the inner and outer lash lines; smudge onto eyelids for a smokey look or use on the face for effortless colour.
These look really nice, right??!!! Looks can be deceiving. So can swatching in store.
These were the original swatches I did while at the Flagship store. Kohl swatches are in the middle.
As a general rule I don't swatch or try things on my face, there are exceptions but I'm kinda germaphobic that way. So when I tried these Effortless Kohls out on my hand, they seemed nice enough…not to mention how giddy I was just to be looking at the new collection LOL!!
On my hand the Stone color seemed smooth and almost creamy. Poppy Black wasn't as smooth, but it seemed ok enough. Oxblood was the least smooth of them all, but I really wanted the color to use on my lips.
And now??
Stone is definitely the smoothest and most easy to apply of the bunch!! It glides on very easily and is verging on creamy, though not so much that it seems like it would slide off. I tried this as a highlight under my brows, and inner corner of my eyes and wasn't thrilled because I felt it was a bit too stiff for this purpose and didn't blend out so well. Maybe it's my skin tone, but I also felt it was too flat for my tastes and not that flattering for this specific purpose.
On my waterline, it actually lasted a good 6 hours or so before I started to see any wear. However, I thought the color was too stark and almost looked white? But I think this bit is more me than the color of the pencil…I'm not used to wearing anything on my waterline. I don't even know if 6 hours is good?
I also tried this as a lip liner and the texture felt really nice and smooth for that. However, the color was all wrong and it ended up making my lip colors lighter…but not in a good way. You could see the lipstick color but it looked more sheer and you could see the Stone color popping through. A really bad look if using it all over your lips, and funky looking for just a liner look.
Outdoor sunlight.
The pencil was as smooth in application as it is in the swatches. It also is as pigmented in 1 swipe as it is with multiple swipes.
Outdoor shade.
Indoor window light.
Out of the 3, I think Stone shows the most promise, but overall I still wasn't happy with it.
Up front, I'll tell you that I didn't like Poppy Black or Oxblood at all. I don't know if I got a bad batch or what, but they weren't even remotely what I thought they would be, nor are they anything near to how they swatched on my hand.
Poppy Black was the next smoothest, though I wouldn't actually classify it as smooth at all. Simply out of the 3 it was the second smoothest. However, that didn't translate to the application - I could feel it tugging at my lids. Warming it up first did not seem to help. Even holding my lid taut I could feel it pulling and was uncomfortable. Pigmentation?? The swatch pigmentation didn't transfer to my lids either…with one pass it looks like a mix of charcoal grey and black. With multiple swipes it doesn't look much better. Forget about smudging it out…the texture made it very difficult to smudge. In all it was way too much work to get this to look remotely nice. I did not try this on my lips LOL!
This might be good as a layering bit to make other eye colors more vibrant. But on its own I thought it was a flop.
***Edit: Appu over @ Makeup, Beauty and More says she really likes this on her waterline and it doesn't smudge - see her comment below the post!!! I didn't even try it on my waterline because I generally don't like to wear anything there (always feel like I have something in my eye when I do) - was only interested in the Stone for the waterline to see if it would work for brightening :-) But would be another option to make Poppy Black work!!!
Outdoor sunlight.
I'm guessing this performs better on my hand because you can be a LOT more rough on your hand than on your eye…plus your hand is a much more solid surface than your eye!!
Outdoor shade.
Indoor window light.
Oxblood Effortless Kohl was an utter disappointment. The texture was just terrible. Not even remotely smooth or effortless. Pigmentation?? Hmmm…maybe with 59484747 swipes and at the point the formula starts to catch on itself and look really patchy.
On my eyes I didn't like the color, though that's not the pencil's fault at all. But this was everything I said about the Poppy Black, only a bit worse. On my lips…eeesh…worst lip liner/pencil ever. As a liner, it was tough to get a clean line because it's so chubby, and this was after warming it up first. This wouldn't be such a problem if the texture was more smooth and creamy like the Stone color, but it's not. I suppose you could keep it really sharp, but that would be slightly annoying, and as I said before the formula tends to catch on itself and look patchy.
As an allover lip color - forget it. Once you get to a couple of swipes it looks uneven and unflattering, not to mention it felt very dry. During application, pieces of the pencil also tended to fall off and add to the unevenness. I was really looking forward to wearing this underneath gloss but the patchiness made it impossible. Oxblood was a big fail for me.
Outdoor sunlight.
Outdoor shade.
Indoor window light.
Super disappointed by this product. I was expecting a lot from Burberry and the $30 price tag, but it did not deliver. If anything, Stone shows the most promise. Regardless, I highly recommend trying these before you buy, or make sure to purchase from someplace that accepts returns. I'm hoping I unluckily got a bad batch and others will have better experiences with them.