Quick & Easy: Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadows in Busy Signal & Carte Blanche

Update (Correction): Sorry, it's "Towne Car" not "Taxi Cab". Correction made below.

I may be vain as sin, but by god I'm also lazy. And now I find I'm too lazy to use eye primer - but I still want my eyeshadow to last all day.

Yes I want my cake and to eat it too. And with Benefit's Creaseless Cream Eyeshadow/Liner (what a mouthful!) I can. In all its delicious shimmery-brown glory.

Carte Blanche and Busy Signal - better together than apart

(L-R) Carte Blanche & Busy Signal

I've had both shades for ages, but until I learnt to use them together, they weren't quite perfect. They look similar in the pot, but when swatched are very different.

I bought Carte Blanche, described as a golden shimmer, at the Benefit Warehouse sale for RM25. Until Busy Signal came along, it seemed like such a disappointment. Beautiful in the pot, when applied on the eyes it was just bleh. Not shimmery enough, a neutral tan medium-brown - it utterly failed as a liner, and as a shadow it didn't make my eyes pop.

Busy Signal, which I bought online for US$19 is closer to what I wanted Carte Blanche to be. It's dark and rich enough and shimmery enough. But this beautiful brown has copper-red undertones which always makes me look diseased. Argh!

How to make them work
I apply Busy Signal in the crease and undereye. At this point I look like I have a bad flu. So I pat CB over it and immediately the neutral gold tones turn it into the perfect brown.

Then using a flat synthetic brush, I pat Carte Blanche above the lid on the outer corners and blend out for a more cat-eyed look.

A dust of shimmery highlighter on the inner corners, blending out to the middle and up above the smoked out wing, and voila! My perfect everyday eye.

The look can easily be amped up with some powder shadows for more drama at night, as I did here.

Oh, and I quick tip! To intensify colours, layer it on letting it dry between layers, this will let it stay smooth and last for ages. Too thick a layer will crease and fade.

Conclusion
Two other shades I have are Towne Car (sheer matte black) and Skinny Jeans (taupe shimmery pewter) and I love both of these for a dramatic smokey eyed look that will last all night long. I'm still working on using Skinny Jeans for day as I prefer a brown-based rather than a grey-based look for day at the moment.

I also have RSVP, a sheer shimmery pink which I pretty but I don't really use it as it only makes a half-way decent primer, and doesn't really make my eyes pop. I prefer using a powder shadow as a shimmer that also helps set the darker cream shadows.

I'm currently eyeing Strut and Stiletto. And despite my rant about not wanting the lighter shades, the incredibly intense gold of Sippin' and Dippin' really grabs me! Especially since it doubles up as a liner.

Do you girls have a favourite cream shadow?