Review: Laura Mercier Caviar Stick in Rose Gold, Orchid and Grey Pearl

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I feel like I’ve probably said this before, but I freakin’ love Laura Mercier products. The brand has become one of my staples, especially for the basics. The Artist Palettes from the last two holiday seasons are my go-to palettes for travel, I feel naked if I don’t use my Tightline Cake Liner, and all the blushes I have from the brand are incredibly pretty and natural-looking. This winter I was lucky enough to receive a few of the Caviar Stick eyeshadow pencils as gifts from friends, and naturally I was ecstatic. The ones I got were Rose Gold, Orchid and Grey Pearl.

Packaging

These come in a retractable pencil format, inside a sturdy plastic casing. The caps snap on securely and the twist mechanism is smooth without being too loose. I’m a big fan of retractable pencils instead of wooden ones since you don’t lose products to sharpening. The only real disadvantage to this is you end up with a very rounded tip on your pencils. That’s totally fine for applying over larger areas (which is typically how I use them), but if you want to use one as eyeliner it’s best to pick up the product on a brush in order to get a more precise line. I find I also need to be a bit careful around my lashline to avoid getting the shadow on my eyelashes. Another nice thing about these pencils is they have a little color-coded bottom cap that matches the product inside. If you keep your shadow pencils in a cup that may not be so helpful (unless you store them upside-down, I guess), but since I lay mine flat in a drawer it’s a great time-saver to quickly grab whichever color I want. The pencils are a bit thicker than your standard eyeliner pencil, but not exceptionally long. Each ones comes with .05oz/1.4g of product.

Colors

Left to right: Rose Gold, Orchid, Grey Pearl

The Caviar Stick lineup comes in a pretty impressive range of colors – 18 shades in all. As far as I can tell from swatching and online photos, they all have at least some amount of shimmer, though it’s more obvious in some than others. I’d love to see some matte version of these, even if the lack of shimmer meant a small sacrifice in the complexity of the colors. It pains me a little bit that I only have three of them to show you.

• Rose Gold – a light gold shimmer with a very slightly pink undertone
• Orchid – a medium lavender shimmer. If you’re wondering, the base color is fairly similar to Laura Mercier African Violet, but overall it pulls cooler since the shimmers are silver instead of gold. This one has the most apparent shimmer particles of the colors I own.
• Grey Pearl – taupey grey with a slight sheen. Out of the ones I have, this one is the least shimmery.

Application, texture & wear

The thing I love most about these is that they’re so easy to use. They glide onto the skin without needing to press down too hard, and they don’t set so quickly that they’re difficult to blend out. If I’m in a rush, my hand just grabs these automatically – a few swipes across the lid (being careful not to color on my eyelashes, of course), a few swipes along the edges with a fluffy blending brush (I use the Hakuhodo J5523 or MUFE 242), and done.  Once they set, they’re there to stay. I actually don’t even need to wear primer under these, which is highly unusual for me. Most shadows crease on my lids after just a couple hours without primer, but these last all day – and by that, I mean 10 hours or more with no creasing and minimal fading. It probably goes without saying, but my eyelids appreciate an oil-based makeup remover for taking these off.

In Short: I’m incredibly happy with these and I’ve already got my eye on a couple more shades. The only other thing I would wish for is a little more variety in the finishes.

Wearing Rose Gold on the lid/inner corner and Grey Pearl in the crease/outer corner/lower lash line

Laura Mercier Caviar Sticks ($26) are available at sephora.com (limited color range) and nordstrom.com