KATE (a Kanebo brand) is one of the old schooler’s of Japanese drugstore cosmetics. I used to place the brand head to head with Lavshuca and there was a phase when both of the brands would release killer ranges every season but Lavshuca has been majorly disappointing of late, as has KATE.
Nevertheless I picked up 3 products from their newest Spring 2012 releases.
I got their dual ended eyeliner pencil which has a black liquid liner on one side and a sponge tipped dark brown loose powder shadow on the other. You can use the liquid liner on your top lid then put the powder on top to add more depth and also under your eyes.
The eyeshadow palette is called Real Create Eyes – they’ve releases such wishy washy rubbish colours lately so I went for what I thought was the most interesting (Green).
There are 4 powder shades in a cream, deep taupe and light taupe then a reflective light green. The other section is an eye gloss:
Whilst this isn’t particularly unpigmented it’s still very wishy washy like a lot of Japanese eyeshadows can be. This is really why I have lost interest in Japanese palettes and moved on to Korean ones which are more funky.
The gloss in the palette is awful – it’s a very wet glossy texture and previously, KATE put a hard cream in it’s palettes so it could be used as a base. This cream when used under OR over eyeshadows just makes it crease like a mother – awful!
The dual ended eyeliner is also a disappointment. I wanted something I could grab in the mornings and would fulfil all my eyelining needs! Instead the black liner is not as pigmented as I wanted and also it doesn’t last. The powder I was hoping would be a rich brown, something a bit softer that could be blended around the corner of the eyes.
Unfortunately, the dark brown is SO dark that it just looks heavy. Boo!
Swatches:
The Cream Cheek product is the one products I really was looking forward to trying. It comes in a pot like a gel liner size. The cream cheek blusher has q medium hard texture, not quite a cream, not quite a gel, but also not very waxy. It’s pigmented, creamy, and pretty too.
My only complaint is that the pot is small so it’s kind of tricky getting your finger in there to get some product out. Something a bit bigger like a Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge would work better.
Of the 3 products I tried from KATE’s spring collection the only one I would recommend is the Cream Cheeks the other two are just meh.
*Have you tried anything from KATE lately?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I was wondering about the cream cheeks – how do you find the lasting power? I have all these canmake cream blushes but the collector in me is reaching her grubby hands for Kate’s product
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I’ve always been hooked with cream blushes, it gives me the definition I wanted and stays longer than other types of blush. I haven’t tried this product on but I want to grab on this.
Like the swatches =)
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