I'm a demanding customer - I hate high prices, but at the same time I can't tolerate lousy quality cosmetics. Thus, I always find myself trying out various cheap-as-chips brands to see if they fulfill my desire for something cheap but good.
My latest experimentation with cheap makeup comes from Insiti. Insiti is a drugstore cosmetics brand hailing from Asia - although to be honest, I don't exactly know which part of Asia it's from. My guess would be Taiwan or Hong Kong, because their Facebook page is in Traditional Chinese. I got mine from KKcenterHK, the Hong Kong-based online purveyor of cheap Asian cosmetics and other related products (false lashes are one of their specialties). The website may look a little dodgy compared to other more sleekly-dressed online counterparts, but my dealings with them have been trouble-free and pleasant.
The Insiti Eyeshadow Pencil itself is a simple dual-ended eyeshadow pencil with a plastic cap at each end. I got shade no. 12, which consists of a simple light pastel pink and a medium-toned purple.
Here are some close-ups of the two ends of the pencil. As you can see, the pastel pink is actually pretty frosty-looking in the tube, and the purple looks like it might have this interesting blue sheen.
Here are swatches. The pastel pink shade is indeed quite frosty when swatched, but the blue sheen is only very slight, which isn't bad, but is a bit of a pity.
I did an eye look with the pencil, just to test it out. I'm afraid working with the eyeshadow pencil was slightly tricky for me, and the eye look wasn't the best. But I hope it's demonstrative of how the product might look like on the eye.
One of the things I found about this product was that it's very emollient. It does slide around the eye and feel a little greasy on, which means, yes, it does crease, and would fade and shift if you didn't use a base under it. In fact, I'd suggest using a base under this, and then perhaps setting the eye look with some transparent setting powder for better lasting power.
Colour-wise, the pencil was decently pigmented, but I had to build up the colour a bit to get the colour intensity that you see in the photo. Building up successive layers of colour can be a bit tricky, though, since the product does tend to move and shift around the skin a little.
Would I recommend this? I guess it's cheap, and if you were willing to use a base and a setting powder on top, it could be worth it. But if you're lazy like me and don't have the patience to fiddle with a base or setting powder, then this may be a bit more trouble than it's worth.
(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)
