The “SHELLGOLD” Beauty Look features a new calligraphic, deep black liquid eyeliner paired with the most flattering golden rose eye shadow (an und Gretel product duo for 3 BEAUTYCALYPSE subscribers to win).
Autumn Signature Beauty Look
SHELLGOLD
I’ve been in a melancholy mood lately. Maybe it’s the season (which I love), or maybe the cracks (those for the light to get in) become more the more you learn?
Anyway, I have been enjoying my forgotten, quieter hobbies, like calligraphy. The art of calligraphy also inspired this beauty look that I have named SHELLGOLD after “shell gold”, a gold pigment artists use. The name itself comes from the days long gone where this drop of gold, a precious artist’s supply, used to be carried around in actual sea shells: a beautiful packaging made entirely by Nature.
While my beauty looks like ‘Life on Mars’, ‘Beauty Mark’ and ‘Flamboyant’ were making a real statement in terms of colour or detail, SHELLGOLD is very delicate – a flattering look that marries my love for genuinely green cosmetics and my fascination for the art of calligraphy using a beautiful, neutral-warm colour palette of complex rose shades and deepest ink-black:

My skincare routine at this point is minimalistic but versatile: I use a slew of skin-soothing, hydrating products (you know them: Dr. Alkaitis, Santaverde Aloe Vera Gel, Farfalla cucumber seed oil and aloe gel, Lovely Day Skin Rescue Oil, Ilia Beauty Cucumber Stick – all that jazz) and am cleansing my face religiously using Double Happiness cleansing oil or Kahina Giving Beauty make-up remover and a Konjac sponge for finer-looking skin texture.

I knew for a while that UND GRETEL, the makers of one of my all-time favourite mascara, were about to launch a deep black, perfectly clean organic liquid eyeliner aptly named TINCTE. Originating from the Latin verb tingere – to tint, to taint, to dip, to saturate – “tincte” is Middle High German for “ink”.

I bought my TINCTE in the only colour available, ‘Deepest Black’, at Weadon’s in Berlin. Guided by the shop founder’s intuition, I also purchased what ended up the favourite colour cosmetics purchase of this year, the eye shadow IMBE in ‘Seashell’ – a neutral, rich, shimmery and ultra flattering shade of darker pink that you can wear on your lids as much as on your cheeks.
While TINCTE ‘Deepest Black’ is quickly and accurately described with “actually, deepest black”, ‘Seashell’ is complex and defies categories. Is it a gold-laced rosewood? A rose-drenched bronze? I don’t know. It has a delicate pink and gold and tan shimmer and is not easy to photograph. Behold:
The look is actually easy: it’s about an even complexion with a tiny bit of a healthy glow (Hiro Multistick in ‘Eve by Day’ rocks hard) as a base. IMBE in ‘Seashell’ is gently dusted across the cheekbones where it meets the highlighter, and in a circular motion all over the upper lids, from the roots of the lashes up to the brows – although you want to feather it out towards the brows to avoid a “heavy” appearance of the lids. Then you apply liquid eyeliner (TINCTE in ‘Deepest Black’), tightline the upper lashline (I use und Gretel black khol pencil) and apply black mascara (again, I wear und Gretel), quite light-handedly. For the lips, I have blended und Gretel’s lip gloss KNUTZEN in ‘Matte Nude’ with ‘Seashell’ and a tiny bit of a darker coral pigment from INIKA.
But before we get to the part where you can win products, let’s have a closer look at the shooting star: TINCTE.
The richly pigmented liquid has a manageably thick texture (it’s fluid but not runny). Make sure you make best use of the clever bottle neck and the fine, pleasantly sturdy brush to pick a perfect amount of eyeliner to avoid stingy black tears.
What I love about TINCTE in particular is that the black pigment is a perfectly safe iron oxide (compare the Codecheck rating) – BDIH is my “favourite” green beauty label anyway.
In the swatch I drew, you can see how you can achieve a pretty even – and evenly pigmented! – line of any desired thickness. Do you want the finest line, barely visible, or do you plan to emulate the bold iconic Winehouse flick? Anything is possible! To simulate the texture of skin (and to make the job harder for myself, obviously), I drew the ‘Deepest Black’ lines on a mini canvas, without smoke and mirrors. Here you can also have a closer look at the finely shaped brush:
Impressed and want to call TINCTE your own?
It can be yours now for just 34€ – available from und Gretel online shop.
Also, three lucky BEAUTYCALYPSE subscribers now get the chance to win the super flattering power combination of TINCTE ‘Deepest Black’ and IMBE ‘Seashell’:
GIVEAWAY ELIGIBILITY
Because giveaways at BEAUTYCALYPSE are an opportunity for us to say THANK YOU to dear and loyal readers as well as an opportunity to introduce real people to real green products, to be eligible for this giveaway, you need to have been a subscriber for at least six months (counting back from the start date of this giveaway, October 15th 2017). This is to ensure that we, indeed, can say “THANK YOU FOR BEING A GREEN GANG HERO! GO YOU!”
However, to make the new rule kinder on our newer subscribers, those who already are subscribers (but for a shorter period than 6 months) will enter the pool and one person randomly chosen from the new subscribers pool will then be eligible for the giveaway as well.
GIVEAWAY RULES | *CLOSED*
HOW TO PLAY:
If you’re already a subscriber, fill in the form below to enter!
GET AN ADDITIONAL ENTRY:
Are we friends over on Instagram? Don’t forget to enter the your Instagram handle!
DEADLINE?
The giveaway is open internationally and ends on 30th of October 2017 12:00 Central European Time.
The three winners are chosen via random.org, announced (in an anonymised manner) on the blog and via email.
[…] Nadin E. Didn’t win? Try your luck with this amazing giveaway and enter now for a chance to win 1 of 3 UND GRETEL sets comprising their new Liquid Eyeliner […]