Plum time.

I'm baaaack! Sorry for not posting last week, mah peeps. It's not that I went anywhere or something, but it's more of a short term hiatus. I was so uninspired and unmotivated last week to write anything here or instead of publishing half-assed posts, I decided to just step back, relax, restart, and come back prepared and inspired. I'm really trying to channel my inner Alexander Hamilton (guess who's obsessed with the musical?) and work non-stop (wink wink) but sometimes I can't help but feel burned out. Why is it so hard to be as consistently creative, passionate, and driven as A. Ham and Lin-Manuel Miranda?? /cries

ANYWAY, I'm back with a product review! So this past weekend, I decided to try out a new product. It was a freebie I got when I purchased a magazine in Singapore months ago. Seriously though, it's so nice to buy magazines in SG. SO. FULL. OF. FREEBIES. OMG.

The Clio Gelpresso Waterproof Pencil Gel Liner in No. 17 Black Plum was my magazine freebie. Can't remember when I got this but I'm assuming probably sometime last year? I know, I'm so bad for not using it until now. (You should see my unopened polish pile tho lol) This gel liner comes in a twist-type pencil and tbh, I was pretty excited for this. Gel liner in pencil form? Uhh, yes please! I'm team gel when it comes to liner so to see it in a stick form was pretty exciting. As you can see, the pencil has two features at the bottom: the twister and the sharpener. Whoever said there's no need to sharpen twist-up pencils is a fool. FOOL. You tell me that when your liner game is still on point even when your pencil has a blunt end. Cause girl, you ain't fooling anyone. :P

Black Plum is such a nice color, not gonna lie. It's an eggplant purple that looks dark and black but when light hits it, the color just pops. Seriously, it's so pretty! I was really surprised at how it looked. I thought the purple would really look silly on me but heeey, I just love it. It also has tiny glitters here and there. Not really a full-on glittery pencil but it has some scattered in the product. It's a different route to the usual black and/or black liner and it's bomb. It doesn't look too fun and bright on the lids, definitely a must try when you're bored af with your neutral, everyday look. This color + blue-based pink lippie? I diiiiieeeee.

Now lemme talk about my main beef with this liner: I dunno why but the product is quite...dry? I don't know why it's not creamy. Maybe because it's beginning to dry up already? All I know is that it takes a few swipes and some pressure to get to the opacity I want. It softens up quiiite a little when I sharpen it, though. Because of this, I decided to experiment and find out how I can somehow soften the product for better application.

Ah, one of the oldest tricks in the books: melting liner through fire. I did that here and the swatches above are the aftermath. As you can see, the melted part looks more intense and opaque. Unfortunately, it dries out the product quicker than you can say "FIRE!". Dried out product is worse than hardened product, just saying. Although I have to admit, a little bit of melting helped a whole lot with lining but I still had to touch up patchiness here and there.

So aside from hard product, second issue is: it's prone to crumbling. While other liners smudge, this one just crumbles, man. You can literally feel it particles of it when you run your fingers on your liner. Remember in those anime shows where a character literally crumbles away? This feels just like that.

Next beef with it: it feels quite heavy when worn. With this one, you can't forget you have liner on because you can just feel it when you blink. It's like...cement. Ish. Also, next prob? It clings to the lashes like no other. Chances of it building up on the lashes are high and lemme tell you, it's not fun removing it. Seriously I feel like if I curl my lashes with this on, I will either have curled lashes that will last all day or snipped ones. Don't wanna do it, don't wanna know.

And my last and final problem with it: for something that's quite hard and stubborn, it gets so blunt easily. I just lined half my eye and I need to sharpen it already? Whuuut? I feel like I waste a lot of product just by sharpening it alone. Maybe this one's a personal one because I like my pencils sharp every time. Maybe I was just irked that I need to sharpen so often with this haha! #problemsofalongtimegeluser

Okay, thanks for reading those problems I have above. Here's what it looks on my eye! (Note: I quickly passed the liner through the flame to make it softer and easier to use.)

I wore this for almost 8 hours yesterday without primer underneath just to see how it'll hold up. I didn't touch it and didn't reapply it. I also went out yesterday, did a lot of walking in the mall and another round of walking in a supermarket.

Here's how it looked after 8 hours:

(Sorry with the weird color cast, I needed to use my lamp for these pics since it was a rainy and gloomy afternoon.) Look at that sweaty face tho haha! Anyway, not so bad, right? It's obviously not so stark as before color-wise, but I think it's still okay for another hour. There are some patches already but not too obvious, nothing a quick touch-up can't fix. Longevity's pretty awesome but please prevent yourself from touching it too much or it will crumble mumble apple crumble on you.

Example of actual crumbling:

In summary: 

YAY

-color

-longevity

-waterproof-ish (had a hard time scrubbing it out of my eyes and lashes.)

-built-in sharpener

NAY

-dry and hard and not at all creamy

-flakes easily

-feels heavy

-needs to be sharpened pronto

-clings to the lashes
-consistency's on the thick side

The nays outweigh the yays but I just can't let it go because I just love how it looks. I love the color a lot. The only time I'll let go of this is when I find a dupe for this. Until then, I just have to deal with the pencil's stubbornness and flakiness.

Also, while I was looking for reviews on this pencil, most of the reviews are positive. Except, the reviews were about the other colors and back in 2013. Black plum and the Black line was released either last year or the year before that, so it's relatively new. So it's either Clio reformulated or mine's just drying up. Am I going to repurchase it? No. On mark down? Maybe.

The other colors are gorgeous though! Really like Black Cherry, Bloody Devil(!!!), and Golden Khaki. The Gelpresso line also has shimmery ones that can be used as highlight and matte ones for those who want straightforward liners. They are all so friggin pretty, I can't.


UPDATE: Accidentally broke about an inch or less of product. Had to resharpen the pencil and lo an behold, the product's not too hard anymore! Although it feels thicker than usual. So happy with this new development! Well, less see if this is still the case in the next few days...