KATE Wide Edge Eyes swatches

Kanebo KATE makes some of my favourite drugstore eye products. Their gel and liquid liners have been my staples for years, and their eyebrow products regularly win awards in Japan too.

Most Asian drugstore eyeshadows are on the sheer, glittery and girly side, so KATE was always a breath of fresh air, with its buttery, pigmented sheen and bolder colour options. The sleek black packaging and adverts with girls sporting louise-brooks bobs and clean lines are also more to my taste than acres of ruffles, ringlets and baby pink duck-pouts...

Lately, KATE releases have been more hit and miss. The Reflect Mirror trios (Spring 2011) and Crystallise Quartz quads (Autumn 2010) were all rather sheer and gritty but they pulled out all the stops with the fabulous Dual Blend eyes (Spring 2010).

My favourite KATE palettes were the discontinued Deep Trap Eyes quints so I was excited to see the release this autumn of a new series of five-pan eyeshadows: Wide Edge Eyes (HK$115 for 2.7g).

Swatches are all one-swipe onto bare arm, artificial light, no flash, in this order:
E (demi-matte powder primer/base)
A, B (both shimmers)
C and D (both metallics).

PU-1 (my favourite! The most unusual combo of shades in this line-up and a less complex/pigmented but cheaper version of the Lunasol 3D 03 quad I picked up last week)

PK-1

BU-1

BR-1

GR-1 (interesting murky greens -- I'm tempted by this one)

As you can hopefully see, these are all nicely pigmented. The textures are not up to the best KATE standards, but still pretty good (especially D, C and E). Yuki's Lazy Channel has swatches on a medium skintone and product pics here.