Night & Day - Lancome's Colour Focus Exceptional Wear Eyecolour
Written: Jul 03 '02 (Updated Feb 26 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Variety, consistency, control, blendability, long lasting wear
Cons: Pricey, funky applicator
The Bottom Line: I highly recommend Colour Focus to anyone who loves versatile, long lasting color and doesn't mind spending extra time or money for optimum results.
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| jaxmom28's Full Review: Lancôme COLOUR FOCUS Exceptional Wear EyeColo... |
I am an actress by training and avocation. Hmm? No, you probably haven't seen me in anything. I’ve done two films: I was an extra only I can see in a major commercial bomb, and a lead in a truly awful C-grade flick that ran out of funding and never made it out of the can, thankfully. I was going to have to change my name. I did audition for Robert Altman once – he even gave me a call-back, but that’s as close to the national spotlight as I’ve come. I tend to stick with local theatre.
Pardon me? What has this to do with eye shadow? Why, everything, of course! As an actress, albeit a completely obscure one, I am addicted to eye color. Perhaps this has more to do with simply being female than with being a sometime glory hound, but I prefer to blame it on the Leo in me. I have a large fishing tackle box (no, I am not kidding), filled to the brim with all kinds of color; I have appropriated the bathroom drawers in their entirety. My husband mutters vaguely about “me or the makeup,” but he’s never yet made that ultimatum public. This is a good thing; it could be a tough decision.
Nevertheless, I had managed to control my shadow-hoarding habit until about a year ago. The day I first saw Lancôme’s new Colour Focus Exceptional Wear Eyecolour line, I knew my heretofore stunning self-control was at an end, and I willingly threw myself into sweet eye color decadence.
The Way You Look Tonight
otherwise known as: How do I love thee? / Let me count the ways…
Variety: First, Lancôme bills the line as “shadow with a makeup artist’s eye for colour,” and they do not disappoint! My last count found 38 shades available in everything from light-n-innocent to high-impact vamp shades in matte and pearl finishes, with lots of items in-between. Lancôme groups their offerings into 6 collections (Beige-Brown, Red-Orange-Yellow, Pink-Rose-Violet, Green-Blue-Gray, Accents, and Other), and colors are purchase in .08 oz singles, and I much prefer buying this way as it keeps color contamination at a minimum.
Consistency: The color is luxurious. Thick enough to brush on without getting stray flecks all over your face, even the lighter shades glide on smoothly and with a depth that can be difficult to find outside of professional makeup. I’ve always found it easy to load any of my makeup brushes with just the amount of powder I want – once, of course, I figure out just how much that is. After using the line for over a year, I’ve never had any of my compacts crust or turn difficult. The entire line (or at least the 19 colors I’ve tried) has a creamy sort of consistency (yes, even the pearl shades!), but still manages to wear lightly on the eyes when applied dry. The end result is an extremely wearable, long lasting color that even those who hate eyeshadow should be able to tolerate.
Control: “Patented Jetfine® technology” also means you get an incredibly finely milled powder that allows you to control the intensity of your look. Called “buildable color,” this feature gives you a wide range of finish choices out of a single color line. If you’re looking for sheer, one quick swipe should suffice; dramatic looks (or stage makeup) are achieved through heavier application. While there are products that allow more easily achievable drama, and products more formulated for everyday sort of wear, I’ve never before found versatility of this order in a commercially produced line.
Blendability: This could go under “Control,” but the colors are so easy to blend, I thought that feature deserved its own mention. For regular, everyday wear, I generally choose a basic light color like Daylight or Positive and lightly brush on a brown like Click in the crease of my eye. We went out to dinner last night, though, and I was thrilled with the results of using the applicator for Daylight under the brow and Positive on the lid, while brushing a little Sunset over the center of the lid and brush-lining the crease with Scene, while finishing the corner and lining around the eye with Click. Yes, that’s 5 colors. Any other line, and they’d all either bleed together into this oogy brownish glop, or they’d be so overpowering that you couldn’t see my eyes for all the color. Colour Focus, however, not only handled the overlap, it did so without overpowering my face. Blendability is probably the single best feature of this product.
I Won’t Dance, Don’t Ask Me.
otherwise known as: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
Well, not really rotten, and I don’t live in Denmark, but nonetheless, the cons:
Applicator: Lancôme calls the provided applicator “finger-fitting for precise application.” If, however, your fingers are any larger than Barbie’s you may have a little trouble with this tiny little sponge. Its wicked scimitar curve can make both loading the sponge and applying color to anything other than your pinky knuckle a challenge, and that’s one reason I almost exclusively use brushes with this line. The applicator is great for lining or doing fine work, once you get the hang of the tool, but broader and/or lighter strokes need the touch of a good brush.
Price: At $16.50 per compact, this color isn’t cheap. Consistency, control, and long lasting wear, however, make up for that, by allowing you to stretch your reserves much longer than the average color. Whereas I find I’ve got to replenish every couple of months with lesser lines, Colour Focus compacts will last me, usually, about three times as long. So, you pay more up front, but you don’t have to restock as often – six of one, half dozen of the other.
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
otherwise known as: the boring stuff
Ingredients: Talc, triisostearin, phenyl trimethicone, dimethicone, cetyl dimethicone, zinc stearate, nylon-12, synthetic fluorphlogopite, alumina, timethylsilozysilicate, phenozyethanol, isobutylparaben, methylparaben, propylparaben, ethylparaben, butyleparaben. Not known to contain the famous rat “Ben,” but may contain other ingredients that vary by color.
Lancôme claims the makeup is “safe for contact lens wearers. Ophthalmologist-Tested. Fragrance-Free. Dermatologist-Tested For Safety.”
They also state that the product is good for wet or dry applications. This is true to a point. While I’m terribly pleased with dry application results, wet application is tricky, at best, and very unreliable. It’s difficult to gauge the correct amount of liquid on your applicator, and that silly curve really gets in the way here. Further, using the shadow wet will eventually put a crust on it, causing you trouble later on if you opt to switch back to dry application. Color results are often uneven, varying from day to day, and even from eye to eye on the same day. This is a great dry shadow, but if you’re looking for something in a wet application, you're probably better off going with either a cream – or a powder meant only for wet work.
Some shades are being discontinued; visit the website at www.lancome.com for details.
A Fine Romance
otherwise known as the finale
Though the product can get a little expensive and comes with an applicator only Thumbelina could love, the variety, consistency, control, and blendability offered more than make up for the deficit. I highly recommend Lancôme’s Colour Focus Exceptional Wear Eyecolour to anyone who loves versatile, long lasting color and doesn’t mind spending the extra time or money required to achieve optimum results.
Credits
Night and Day is a song title from the 1934 Fred & Ginger film, The Gay Divorcee.
Headers in bold are also song titles taken from a couple of other Fred & Ginger musicals (Swing Time, Roberta, Roberta, and Swing Time, respectively).
Subheaders in italics are from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem How do I Love Thee (Sonnets From the Portuguese 43), and Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. The latter two are my own deficient creation, and proffered because I could think of no appropriate literary quote. If you know of one that fits, please leave me a comment so I can get those wholly inadequate things out of there.
Looking for more Lancôme?
♦ Bienfait Total Moisturizer
♦ Juicy Rouge LipColour
♦ Rouge Sensation Lipstick
♦ www.Lancome.com
Recommended:
Yes
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jaxmom28
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Location: Somewhere in the south
Reviews written: 78
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Whatever you are, be a good one.
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