Sleek Ink Pot Gel Eyeliner // Review

I had been on the lookout for a new gel eyeliner for a while, I've only tried what I believe is more of a cream eyeliner by BYS which did not make me think much of gel eyeliners except they smudged easily and didn't last long, until I came to the realization that I needed to set it with a shadow.

Here are the gel liners that were contending for my attention:

• Essence gel eyeliner in Midnight in Paris; with no Essence near me and it never being available on the Priceline website, not to mention they are apparently being discontinued was a bit of a challenge for me.
• Rimmel Scandaleyes Waterproof Gel Eyeliner; I had heard it took a while to set which I aint got no time for that.... except maybe if I had only used it as a waterline eyeliner...
• Coastal Scents/ Makeup Geek eyeliner (Immortal); looks extremely pigmented but I had tried another gel eyeliner before like this that had dried out really fast.
• Maybelline & L'oreal: I have heard a lot of good things about these.... but I do not want to pay the exuberant taxed-up prices and didn't feel like buying them online because I was going to buy from Sleek anyway.

So here are my thoughts on the Sleek Gel liner!

 The shade is called Dominatrix and it is a really nice, pigmented jet black liner. The swatch below was done with one swipe using the little brush that it came with, which is, of course useless as most mini-sized brushes are. It is creamy and sets fairly quickly, so if you wish to smudge it out, do one eye at a time so it doesn't set completely before you have a chance to.

As this sets so well, I find this waterproof and long lasting on the lash line, but it is not the same for the waterline. Setting it with a black eyeshadow prolongs the wear for a bit longer, and although I may not have much left at the end of the night the remnants are still hard to remove as it smudges into the lower lash line. I can remove most of it with a makeup wipe but I also need to use Extra Virgin Olive Oil to get the rest of it, which can go into the eye & sting. I then cleanse & lightly go over my eyes to take the oil off.

Comparison to BYS
 As this is the only other "gel" eyeliner I have tried, I will compare it to the BYS Black Magic Eyeliner, which definitely needs to be set to avoid smudging/ fading almost instantly.

 The picture on the left is applied and smudged not long after, the right picture is after going over with a makeup wipe. This is where the EVOO comes in handy. Although the BYS one has left a stain it is nowhere near like Sleek, and it also doesn't last as long on the eye on it's own.

I have worn the Sleek Gel eyeliner for about 5 hours here, and although you can see some wear, and the wing wasn't applied heavily so it looks faded to begin with, but the majority of it is still there. This is without setting it.
I have also tried tight-lining only, letting it set, wiping the waterline to remove any oils & moisture & applying a nude eyeliner. It stayed clear for a little bit but then I noticed some transfer from the top waterline so I wouldn't tightline only with this.

Overall I do like the Sleek Ink Pot gel eyeliner for it's long lasting (*on the lash line) & fast setting qualities. I'm still in search of the perfect waterline eyeliner, though! I would rate this 8/10 because of that.

What's your favourite gel eyeliner?
xx

COMEX stock drawdown: single most important metric to watch

To understand what is going on with COMEX stocks, don't look at the stock level - it will lead you astray. You need the metric I presented at the Gold Standard Institute's 2009 seminar; one which Professor Fekete thought was the single most important metric to determine stress in the market. The second thing you need to do is put recent market action in historical context.

Firstly, lets review some historical stock levels for gold and silver for some key years - the 1980 peak, the 2001 bottom, 2012 and now. There is only one place I know that has that data going back that far, and it is www.sharelyxn.com. It is a lot easier to follow by looking at the charts of the stock levels, which are available for gold and silver if you have a subscription. If not, then just sign up for a free trial, it will be worth it just to see the charts I'm talking about.

The table below shows the average total (registered + eligible) COMEX stock in millions of ounces for each of those years.

Year	Gold	Silver
1980	3.5	80
2001	1.0	100
2012	11.0	140
Now	8.0	166

First thing to notice is that even after the big gold drop being talked about, the total gold stock is still massively up on the 2001 bottom and the 1980 bull market. Not surprisingly, given the behaviour of SLV's holdings, COMEX silver hasn't dropped.

However, the stock figure by itself doesn't tell us much, as how can we compare the 1980s with today when we have a much larger economy. The important metric is to compare stocks in relation to open interest. If stocks decline but open interest declines as well, then the stock drop is to be expected.

Thankfully Nick at Sharelynx calculates this for us - what he calls Owners per Ounce, or Stocks Cover and you can find the charts here. It is just open interest in ounces divided by stock in ounces. I like to invert it, which gives you a percentage indicating how much of the open interest is backed by stock, a sort of fractional reserves figure. The table below has those approximate figures I've eyeballed from Nick's charts.

Year	Gold	Silver
1980	13%	10%
2001	9%	28%
2012	26%	22%
Now	19%	21%

So even after that COMEX stock drop in gold, we still have a coverage ratio that is way above that which applied in the 1980 bull and which is not down much on 2012. The current coverage of around 20% also needs to be kept in context of the percentage of open interest which stands for delivery, which for gold and silver over the past five years averages between 2% to 4%. So it looks like COMEX has plenty of stock on a historical basis. It is when that percentage coverage gets a lot closer to the average standing for delivery rate that we can consider COMEX under stress and at risk of cash settlement. We aren't close, no matter how the much the pumper sites like to hype the recent stock declines.

And for those who will say what about if everyone stands for delivery, well consider that while most of the shorts don't have the metal, most of the longs don't have the cash. We know this because of all the talk about margin calls causing people to have to sell. Think about that - if they couldn't meet the margin calls, then it means they didn't have the money to stand for delivery.

Rebel With A Cause

 I hope everybody had a lovely ANZACS day yesterday, well to those who celebrated. It has started to feel like summer again, which I will appreciate before winter comes! Ugh some "bad" news, I have started to develop a sty underneath my eye, I'm going to avoid makeup in that area but hope it goes away soon!

So I've had MAC's Rebel for a while now and I've used it a couple of times but nothing that I've really felt the urge to post. It's also a colour I've found hard to use, thanks for accidental over lip lining. I've found one way that I really like to wear it, as a stain, and I would really like to start wearing it more frequently in the cooler months.

Stained

~Products
Face: Rimmel Wake Me Up & Bourjois Healthy Mix
Nars Laguna Bronzer, MAC CCB Pearl MAC Lightscapade
Milani Baked Blush in Dolce Pink
Eyes: MAC Painterly
All eyeshadow by Inglot unless otherwise noted:
P 420- Lid
UD Buck- Crease
DS 460-Outer V
P 439 - Lower Lash Line
BYS Cream Eyeliner
Lips: MAC Rebel

 I really like Rebel as a stain and I think it makes it look like a complete different product. It is also way more low maintenance and I don't have to worry about getting it on my teeth/ face haha.

Heavier

~Products
Face: The same foundation/ contour & highlight combo as above
MAC Blush in Her Blooming Cheek
Eyes: MAC Painterly
All shadows by Stila in the light: Kitten- lid
Bliss- Crease
Sandstone-Outer V
Maybelline Master Precise Eyeliner
Lips:  MAC Rebel

I think I do need to outline just outside my lips as they make them look too small in proportion to my face... but it is so easy to over do it! As you can see in the example below.
Also I really like this blush/ lip combo for something more dramatic... I think they are both in the same colour family so they compliment each other without being OTT. Also, I think it sort of matches my hair!

To line or not to line?

Face: Same bronzer & highlighter as before, blush is Bourjois blush pot in #16 (I think, I can't quite remember! Ahh)
Eyes: MAC Painterly paint pot
Mary Kate & Ashley xall over shimmer in honey-light sandy colour, first inner of lid
Inglot 460 D.S- rest of lid
" "      465 D.S- Dark Brown, outer half of lid & crease
Bourjois Eyeliner
Lips: Nyx Lip Liner in Bloom, Guess the lip colour :P -
 Ignore the bad lip-lining! Now my lips look waay too big & fake, dontcha think? I need to find the fine line between too little & too much!

Do you have this colour? How would you wear it?
xx

Chill out dudes

OK, it is all getting a bit silly out there on the gold interwebs, particularly in respect of the supposed physical-paper price disconnect. I have been trying to kill this meme ever since it first appeared in 2008 but it seems the idea of production capacity shortages seems too difficult for many to get.

The "real" price of gold isn't what you pay for a 1oz coin on eBay. As Mish says "Premiums on small denomination coins is not the same a general premium on physical gold itself." But don't take his or my word for it, here's what Jim Sinclair says:

"For many retail investors around the world they are dialed into the paper market in various exchanges. The second market is a small one, but popular among retail investors, and that’s your corner or even major coin dealers. But neither of those are in fact the real gold market, which is the cash market for gold. This is the cash market for 400 ounce deliverable fine gold bars. That represents the true price of the market on any given day. ... for the physical market, not the coin dealers, but the real market, the 400 ounce deliverable market and Asian type settlement ..."

So what is going on in this real market? Well, don't look to Jim Willie who thinks that "those who purchase metals in bulk are having to pay $2000 or more an ounce for gold in the Asian markets". I work for the Perth Mint and we sell tonnes and tonnes of gold kilo bars into Asia every week and we'd be lucky to get a few dollars of premium above the so-called fake paper spot price. That tells me there isn't any stress in the wholesale markets. So COMEX and LBMA aren't going to be failing any time soon.

Then we have the ABN Amro story with John Embry claiming that "the Dutch Bank ABN AMRO came out and literally said that if you have allocated gold with us, you can’t have it. That, to me, is a default". Sorry, not true, thanks to About.Ag who found this link to the English translation of the conditions of those accounts and on page 6, section 4.3, it says:

"1. You have no right to the physical precious metals which you invest. However, under certain conditions, you can physically obtain the precious metals. ... 3. You cannot always physically receive the precious metal. ... In that case, you therefore have no rights or receivables vis -à-vis DBN or the bank."

Sounds like a classic bank unallocated account, which unlike the Perth Mint's, is not necessarily backed by physical. So it is not a case of default.

Final example is Bill Downey's claim that "the London physical platform that buys and sells physical gold gets locked up. The system freezes". When I told Dan at The Fundamental View that there was no "the" London platform, he followed it up and discovered that:

"The screen shot in the article is not of a "physical" market but just a trading platform from a bank (one of many, each BB has their own platforms) for trading spot unallocated XAU/USD FX pair. The post made it seem (to the unaware) that this was "the" London platform. – Mr. Downey acknowledged this error in his email to me. ... His articles made it seem as though the system “shut down and locked people out from placing orders”. To his credit, Mr. Downey admitted to me that this could not be proven and that this was simply speculation on his part. He did admit that orders could still be phoned in."

Simply speculation on his part. This price drop seems to have resulted in a lot of that. Look, it is great news that retail investors have gotten a bit smarter and are buying on price drops rather than chasing the price up like they have in the past, but it does not portend the end of the (paper gold) world, yet.

If you want to be a little smarter, consider what I said to Ed Steer today, "buyers really need to go for the cheapest physical they can and be a bit more flexible on who makes it...or go from coins to bars. Paying high premiums just because you want a certain brand or bar size, just means your money buys less ounces, which takes less ounces off the market."

I note that Sprott's gold trust is trading pretty much at spot. So if you are a suspicious goldbug, which is why you want physical, then doesn't it make a lot more sense to buy the trustworthy PHYS at spot and then when this rush dies down, to sell your PHYS and buy physical coins/bars at more reasonable premiums? Funny how none of the physical pumpers mention this. That's because they can't make money off exorbitant fabrication premiums if you buy PHYS rather than their coins.

Like the post title says, Chill Out, and think a bit deeper about the memes being pushed on you. To help with that, suggest reading this speculation that Andrew Maguire is a US Federal Reserve double agent. That site is a joke by the way, for those without a sense of humour, although the question of why Andrew hasn't produced a CV to stick in Jeff Christian's face is valid and something that puzzles me and some on this Kitco forum thread.

Lip Inventory 4: Nudes

This post has been the longest time coming! But here we are for the 4th installment of my lipstick collection, nude lipsticks. As this has been a while in the making I may have bought a few new ones since I've put together these pictures. I think my lip colour will be forever growing so it would be impossible to keep this properly updated.

Here are all my current nude lipsticks. Most of them look very similar and some are varying shades of nude that probably push the boundaries, but what the hey.

L-R. MAC Hue, MAC Myth, Nyx Black Label Lipstick in Nude, Revlon Lip Butter in Creamsicle, Revlon Matte Lipstick in Smoked Peach, Revlon Matte Lipstick in Nude Attitude, MUG Shy, BYS Champagne Rain, Nyx Round Lipstick Summer Rain, Nyx Round Lipstick Iris

Hue is a pink based nude, very creamy and can go on quite sheer if you prefer that look.

A light beige colour that is also extremely creamy, can you see the digs on the side of the bullet? It happens a lot to heaps of my lipsticks it is so frustrating. I find it sits on top of my lips so I have to use my fingers otherwise it settles in the lines but sits on top elsewhere, does that make sense? I also need to use a slightly darker blended lip liner otherwise it makes my lips look too stark or something.

This lipstick is so similar to Myth, however it is probably a bit more peachy, but it could still be a dupe. Still very creamy & opaque, but I find it doesn't last too long.

 A sheer & moisturizing formula, this is a milky-pink nude.

 This is not a typical nude but it is a matte formula and as the name suggests is peach toned & perfect for smoky eyes. I haven't noticed this being extremely drying.

 A matte true nude lip colour that is extremely opaque & perfect if you're after a muted lip colour.

 A MLBB with mauve undertones, nice with a light pink lipgloss over the top.

 This is the first nude lip colour I have ever bought (that is the end of the bullet right there) and I even bought a backup ages ago but took that out and lost it (typically it had to be the new one -.-). But I always thought this was similar to Hue, it is a pinky nude that is so creamy so I should swatch them side by side to have a closer look.

 Summer love is brown toned which in turn makes me look a little bit corpsy, similar to MAC's Honeylove which is another post. So not a fave, will probably swap away.

Iris is a frosty light peachy-nude colour that I am not a fan of on it's own but it is pretty over the top of a matte nude colour such as Nude Attitude.

My favourites out of all of these nude colours would probably be Revlon Lip Butter in Creamsicle, MAC Hue & Revlon Matte Nude Attitude for the perfect nude lips. However I don't think I have found my HG nude lipstick yet.

Stay tuned for my Berry/ Purple inventory coming up which will still probably be far away yet as I have to force myself to do lip swatch after lip swatch.
See Previous: Lip Inventory 3: Oranges & Coral
Thanks for looking!

What are your holy grail nude lip colours?

x

Euro Conversion

Bringing forward demand

The most interesting thing about this price drop is the reaction of retail clients, who have gone crazy like its 2008. The Perth Mint's bullion website has been having traffic problems and we've had lines at our Perth retail outlet. Depository buying is relatively more subdued, but still the volumes are up.

It is an encouraging sign as usually retail business is only strong when there is a clear upward trend in the gold price. Maybe they have learnt something fom our Asian and Indian friends, who are much more canny buyers.

I was talking to one of our coin dealers a few days ago and he said about a 3rd of business was newbies. At this time my question is whether the price drop has just brought forward

1. New investors who were thinking about buying
2. Existing holders who were looking to top up

But both had not previously acted as the price was going sideways. If we are just sucking demand from the future then this demand will fade. I think this is probable as there has been no change in the underlying fundamentals, no event that would freak people out to buy gold suddenly (Crypus and Boston I don't think would have that effect).

We will need to keep an eye on retail demand to see if it continues. If it does then we should get a repeat of 2008 when coin distributors started to look further afield to overseas mints for coins. Given the Perth Mint's distance and higher quality/higher fabrication price, we should be the last to start to run out of production capacity. If we report these sort of problems then you know the retail demand is serious.

If they didn't warn, then don't listen

So every gold commentator has an opinion on gold's drop. My question is if they didn't warn you beforehand about the risk of a big drop, why pay attention to what they have to say about it after the fact? That is my response to Gordon's comment.

I find it particularly amusing that those who purport to have inside information on the physical market or contact with deeply embedded kingpins did not warn their readers that the market setup was weak, that central banks would not be buying aggressively on the dips and in increasing size at $x price. Yet their followers still think they are gurus.

I could say that they either knew and traded against you, or that their contacts are no good, or that their contacts knew but fed them wrong information (ie they are being played) because their contact knows they have a wide audience and wanted to trade against the guru's followers, or that they are just frauds and don't have any contacts and just make up those stories as it sounds a lot sexier than just saying "my opinion is". I think the most likely answer is just that the gold market is an opaque over-the-counter market where participants only have a view of (their) part of the market.

From my part of the market weeks before the crash the Perth Mint was getting a strong bid from bullion banks for our refining output as kilo bars into Asia. I only really watch those premiums as they are for tonnes at a time and we are about 10% of new mine production. So if you asked me I would have said the physical market was looking good.

So the drop was leveraged paper longs head-to-head against paper shorts. Yes the shorts don't have the gold, but obviously the longs don't have the cash either, otherwise they wouldn't have had any problem meeting margin calls and being ready to stand for delivery.

This is a case of the tide receding and finding out who is swimming naked. That is, we now know that when gold was $1900 it was composed of $1300 of strong hands and $600 of speculative weak money. That is the lesson to remember for next time gold has a run - ask yourself how much of the price is strong and how much speculative.

But why listen to me? I didn't warn you beforehand.

In The Light & Morange // FOTD // Double Post

Orange lips with light neutral eyes was a favourite look of mine a few weeks ago, sometimes I would even incorporate blue eyeliner into the look as well. I haven't been using my Stila In The Light palette too much lately but at this time I was getting good use out of it.

Look 1

~Products
Face: Bourjois Healthy Mix & Rimmel Wake Me Up Fdtn, Model's Prefer Illuminator, NARS Laguna, MAC Lightscapade, Nyx Stick Blush in Orchid, Bourjois Blush #16.
Eyes: MAC Painterly Paintpot, Stila In The Light: Champagne [Lid], Bliss [Blending], Sandstone [Outer V, Lower Lash Line]. Maybelline Master Precise Eyeliner, Maybelline One By One mascara + Max Factor False Lash Effect.
Lips: Bourjois Levres Lip Liner #11, BYS Neon Orange eyeliner [Used as lip liner, cannot remember name!], MAC Morange Lipstick.

Look 2
I muted the orange lip down by mixing 2 lipsticks together & made the cheeks a little bit bolder, and added a pop of blue into the inner waterline. I've also done a very similar recent look with the Urban Decay Naked 1 Palette. For this look I used pretty much the same shades as in the first look but they looked really intensified here.

~Products
Face: Same foundation/ bronzer/ highlighter mix as above. Jordana blush in Redwood.
Eyes: MAC Painterly Paintpot. Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in Cottage Cheese. Stila In the Light: Champagne [lid], Kitten [inner corner over top of Champagne], Bliss [blending], Sandstone [crease] Gilded Gold [lower lashline]. Make Up Store eyeliner pencil in Crazy Lazy [Bright blue, waterline & inner lashline. Maybelline Master Precise. Unsure of mascara combo.
Lips: MAC Morange mixed with Maybelline Coral Crush

Here is my very similar eyelook using Urban Decay Naked 1: Half Baked, Darkhorse, Buck, Smog, Virgin. On the lower lashline I used Sugarpill's pigment in Darling. Both extremely similar but slightly different makeup looks.

As per usual thank you for looking, what are your favourite eye and lip combo's at the moment, or your favourite makeup palette?
xx

Sleek Pout Paints // Review & Swatches

Lipsticks used to be the most popular form of lip colour , but now there are many other types available such as stains and paints, the latter in the likes of OCC {Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics}, Sleek & Australis & probably many more, with OCC being the most well known. I have only tried the Sleek Pout Paints as of late, and wish I had tried some earlier!
Lip paints are becoming quite popular as it has an advantage of easily mixing any colour combinations to create any colour that you desire. Obviously most people wouldn't wear colours such as white or blue alone, but they are good for changing the tone & brightness so you can basically have whatever you want!

L-R: Pinkini, Peachy Keen, Cloud 9, Peek-a-bloo

Packing: "Sleek" clear tubes with black lids and a tiny opening for product control.

Texture: Very oily, as you can see with the white & blue that if they have not been shaken thoroughly first the oil sits on top. They glide on the lips when applied and then sort of set so they don't slip around, depending on how much is applied. Not sticky unlike lip gloss.

Finish: Glossy, high shine.

Pigmentation: Very opaque although I've found the lighter shades need to be slowly built up, and can become patchy if too much is applied without blending.

Application: Apply with a lip brush for precision or fingers and to make sure to pat in so it wont slide off. As mentioned, always shake very well first. Only a tiny drop is needed, and when mixing I would start with the base colour & add the mixture in so it is easier to control.

Longevity: Lasts through light eating & drinking. If you don't touch it, it could last all day. I would say it probably lasts about 4 hours at it's best.

Colour range: 11 different shades including mixture shades. Not actually that many shades on their own but a lot of different combos can be made.

Price: $6.49 on the Sleek online website, with affordable shipping depending on how much you buy.

Pros of Sleek Pout Paints
Able to mix colours to create different effects
Non sticky, high glossy look
Colours ranging from neutral to bright to dark.

Cons
Need to use a lip brush to apply, can use fingers but is messy
Need to be shaken well each time otherwise oil will ruin mixing

Swatches

 Please note I have seen plenty of swatches where Cloud 9 & Peachykeen looksmuch more opaque. I couldn't get them to work with me on this day!

Other mixes

As I had applied Pinkini while Peek-A-Bloo was already on my lips instead of on the back of my hand I wasted more product than what I would have needed and all of that extra product is a disaster waiting to happen. I left this on my lips for a few hours at home and when I looked in the mirror I had some on my teeth & smudges on my face haha.

The same two colours mixed on my hand.

A very light ombre/ gradient look with Pinkini all over & Peachy Keen in the middle.

A more obvious ombre look with Pinkini, Peachy Keen, Cloud 9. Still unable to mix the oil back into the product with Cloud 9 -.-

And now, because Pinkini is the only colour that I have similar lip products in, I've made a few swatches.

L-R: Sleek Pinkini, Milani Rosehip, Nyx Addis Ababa, BYS Flirty Fuchsia

All are very similar but they do look different on the lips... I'm finding it hard to see a difference here! Although each colour has a different formula. What do you think?

Overall I'd recommend the Sleek Pout Paints to get you started with this type of product... I'd love to branch out with the OCC Lip Tars as they have a much wider colour range and try mixing them together! What do you think?

Thank you for reading, I hope this post is helpful!
xx