Clinique Chubby Stick Shadow Tint for Eyes
First picture, from left to right: Clinique Chubby Stick Shadow Tint for Eyes in 03 Fuller Fudge, 04 Ample Amber, 05 Whopping Willow, 07 Pink & Plenty, 09 Lavish Lilac, 10 Big Blue, 12 Massive Midnight
Second picture, from left to right: Swatches of 03 Fuller Fudge, 04 Ample Amber, 05 Whopping Willow, 07 Pink & Plenty, 09 Lavish Lilac, 10 Big Blue, 12 Massive Midnight
According to Clinique, the Chubby Stick Shadow Tint is a “sheer wash of lightweight, creamy colour” that is “layerable and long-wearing” and “appropriate for sensitive eyes.” The packaging is like a crayon, but you don’t have to sharpen it; the product moves up if you twist up the silver bottom. The colors are described as follows: 03 Fuller Fudge is a “bronze brown”; 04 Ample Amber is a “bronze pink”; 05 Whopping Willow is a “golden sage green”; 07 Pink & Plenty is a “pink with golden sheen”; 09 Lavish Lilac is a “medium lilac”; 10 Big Blue is a “grayish blue”; and 12 Massive Midnight is a “midnight blue.”
First and foremost, it’s important to note that for the most part, I didn’t find any of these shades to be “sheer,” as Clinique claims; instead, these are mostly opaque, delivering a serious amount of color with each swipe. If you use a really light hand, you’ll get a lighter amount of product, obviously, but I’m not sure any of these could honestly be totally “sheer.” Otherwise, though, a lot of these shades performed well—they apply and blend easily and also set well, lasting about 10 hours. Although the product isn’t necessarily creamy—they don’t feel soft or melty, but are a little firmer than that—it’s not too dry, nor does it pull on the eyelid.
Well, all those positive apply to 03 Fuller Fudge, 04 Ample Amber, 05 Whopping Willow, 09 Lavish Lilac, and 12 Massive Midnight; the shades 07 Pink & Plenty and 10 Big Blue are a different story. As in, they’re really not so good. 07 Pink & Plenty is especially disappointing: It took numerous passes to get any color to show up from the stick at all, and has a dry, grainy texture that clumped on the eyelid and looked incredibly uneven, no matter how much I tried to blend. Ultimately, it’s a very inconsistent, frustrating-to-use shade. Similarly disappointing was 10 Big Blue, which again was dry, clumpy, and uneven. It was, like 07 Pink & Plenty, almost painful to apply on the eyelid because of its texture and how often I had to reapply to see genuine color. You can see the disparity in the shades in the swatch photo here; each shade has been applied to my arm three times, but the swatches for 07 Pink & Plenty and 10 Big Blue are distinctly less opaque and less creamy than the others.
For the most part, the Clinique Chubby Stick Shadow Tint is a good product, if not perfect. The good shades work well, but they’re not really “sheer,” as Clinique claims, which knocks them down from a solid A rating into A- territory. And the not-so-good shades are really not so good, and practically unusable because of their extremely dry texture and uneven pigmentation on the lid.
VERDICT: The performance of the product really varies by shade, so the verdict varies, too. A- for 03 Fuller Fudge, 04 Ample Amber, 05 Whopping Willow, 09 Lavish Lilac, and 12 Massive Midnight; C- for 07 Pink & Plenty and 10 Big Blue. There is a serious discrepancy there, so be aware of that when considering which shades to purchase.
AVAILABILITY: $16 each at Clinique counters and Clinique.com, as well as Sephora stores and Sephora.com.
EDITORIAL NOTE: The products featured in this post were provided to Chesapeake Family’s About Face blog by the manufacturer or their public relations company for review. Chesapeake Family’s About Face blog posts are inspired by personal experience and opinion, and are not paid for or influenced by the manufacturer, PR company, or any other organization unless mentioned.
Photos by Roxana Hadadi.
In middle school, Roxana Hadadi was a cosmetics-scorning tomboy; in high school, a glitter eye shadow- and black nail polish-loving trend kid; in college, obsessively committed to dying her hair unruly colors that upset her mom. Now a bit older and a bit more mature, she’s trying to figure out what hair, body and cosmetics products will work for her, you and your family in About Face, Chesapeake Family’s new beauty blog — and she’ll leave the sparkle makeup and neon highlights in the past. Roxana also writes movie reviews for Chesapeake Family’s Popcorn Parents blog.
