It was sheer coincidence when I decided to finally take By Terry's Waterproof Crayon Khol Terrybly in Holy Black out for a spin this weekend. Holy Black was a small treasure I picked up during the Christmas Holiday break in Singapore -- I fell in love with the colour immediately, but never registered the name.

Swatches of Holy Black blended (left) and untouched (right)

Immediately I had visions of smouldering eyes and sparkle tinged cat eye flicks, but truth be told I'm as skilled as a Kindergartener wielding plastic scissors and rainbow hued construction paper. My fine motor skills are lacking -- one would think I left the same imaginary Kindergartener to their own devices by letting them paint my face.

Recently I learned a valuable lesson from Karen, your liner doesn't have to be perfect, because you can blend the heck out of it. So, blend I did.

Wearing Holy Black on the outer corners of my eyes

To get this look, simply follow these steps:

Start with an eye primer.
Grab a matte taupe or tan eyeshadow and apply all over the eye lid and stop just at the crease. Be sure to blend out any harsh lines.
Next grab your liner and apply a fairly chunky line from the outer corner of your eye. The line only needs to cover a third of the lash line.
It's now time to smudge and blend your liner. If you don't have a smudge brush, your pinkie finger or even a puffed up Q-tip will do.
I then lightly patted and blended on Inglot's Pure Pigment Eyeshadow in shade 85, a cocoa brown with glints of teal. Clean up any fallout, because the teal flecks will emphasise blue under eye circles.
Blend again.
Highlight your brow area.
Finish with mascara.

While I don't know if I'll ever use By Terry's Holy Black in a traditional manner, I was pleased the tip of the liner wasn't nearly as malleable as Opaline Flash.

Fine lines (not the wrinkle kind) and smudginess await.

The Bagful breakdown:

Total amount for By Terry's Crayon Khol Terrybly Eye Pencil:

$48.00 AUS / $34.00 USD

Value for money spent (performance and quality):

7 out of 10 bags — Ermagherd! This pencil is wicked expensive!! Rimmel has a more than adequate dupe.

Would another purchase be on the horizon?:

Kinda sorta of on a spending freeze. But I wouldn't mind getting another Ombre Blackstar Cream Eyeshadow :)

On my quest to find the perfect shade of turquoise eyeliner, I narrowed the field down to two opponents.

Swatches of Savvy by DB (left) and Essence (right)

Both pencils present with similar qualities:

Retractable pencil - no sharpening required

"Long lasting"

Similar in style to far more expensive brands, e.g. Stila, Chanel and Lancome

Appeared to be waterproof in the absence of such claims

Subtle fallout

Turquoise

Essence's Tu-Tu-Turquoise is the cheaper of the two (retails for $2.95 AUS) and in an ocean of blue, Tu-Tu-Turqoise hovers at the top. Application was easy -- the colour appeared almost immediately with a glimmer of sparkle. This formula stays as promised, however, fallout occurs during application; be prepared to clean up a few flecks of colour before walking out the door.

Savvy by DB (retails for $6.99 AUS) is a deeper and darker turquoise shade, it's more like the deep end of the ocean. Application was just as simple, yet took a little longer. The pencil needed to be warmed in order to get the colour party started. As with Tu-Tu-Turquoise, Savvy by DB's Turquoise also requires clean up. Don't worry about a dance party in your crease either, once applied Turquoise falls in line.

Which turquoise pencil came out swinging?

Points go to Essence for affordability and availability; it's also my personal favourite. For a more sophisticated turquoise eye, Savvy by DB is the pencil for you; Australian ladies can find this shade at their local Priceline. For the International set, Stila's Peacock appears to be a close, albeit more expensive, dupe.