The Bomb

In addition to Laura Mercier's Kohl eyeliner in Black Violet (prize to anybody who will count how many times I mention it here), I'm also obsessed with trying on TheBalm's ShadyLady Eye Shadow in Mysterious Marissa (a "luxurious champagne gold") whenever I'm in Sephora. I don't know what it is about this color that intrigues me and that I feel in my gut is The Perfect Eye Shadow for me. If my friend A ever gets around to reading this, she can attest to it. I've always been convinced that it is the perfect version of Stila's Kitten eye shadow for me. Which, as I've mentioned before, makes me look like a futuristic ghost. So do most shadows in the color family, with the recent and major exception of Smashbox's shimmer eye shadow in Shell (reviewed here).

Like Shell, Mysterious Marissa (she must really be a futuristic ghost) is somewhat of an icey shade but much, much warmer and closer to a cool copper or peachy beige, almost like a bronzer actually. Again, it has that perfect lustre/pearl/shimmer, but extremely fine-milled (no sparkles or metallics) finish that I crave and love in an eye shadow because it makes it so much more blendable, layer-able, and overall, wearable. For some reason though, although Marissa is a much warmer shade than Shell, it can look just as pasty on my lid, but less so on the brow bone. So like Shell, this falls under the excellent highlighter category.

Because it's a warm shade, I tried it on my cheeks too and it actually gave a very nice shimmery glow. I think I'll use this shadow as a multi-purpose highligter/bronzer/magic marker of a product that I can just dot anywhere or under/over something else to make it pop a bit. I just like it too much to give it up and am going to force it to work. Luckily, TheBalm's products are meant to be "multiuse" to allow "beauty in five minutes," so perhaps I'm right in doing so. TheBalm has this cute, retro (think '40s and '50s pin-up ladies) packaging and whimsical naming like ShadyLady - definitely the bomb. $15.00 @ Sephora