Retractable eyeliners with a built-in sharpener and smudge tool. As of March 2011, one can find six colors in the “core” line. There are other liner shades released in this and that kit, though - if you don’t want to buy the entire kit just to get the shade in question, you can probably purchase one on Ebay. Just don’t be so quick to pay much more than retail cost for an eyeliner shade, though, even if it’s one that you REALLY REALLY WANT…because Bare Escentuals has a track record of releasing a new lipstick, eyeshadow, or Buxom in some kit or other, and then eventually putting that “exclusive” item on wider distribution a year or two later. Waiting a little bit may save you some hassles.

This collection contained:

• Black Coffee — brown-black
• Black Gold — black with gold shimmer
• Bronze — medium gold-brown
• Charbronze — medium-dark gold-brown
• Charcoal — medium-dark grey
• Chocolate — medium-dark neutral brown
• Cork — medium-dark mossy brown
• Espresso — dark brown
• Ink — dark blue
• Intense Black — dark solid black
• Midnight — dark navy
• Oz — emerald green
• Plum — muted dark amethyst
• Sage — dark olive green
• Stone — slate grey

Getting these as part of a kit is definitely your best deal (provided you wanted the other items in the kit, of course.)

The sharpener is of dubious value, in my opinion, since it doesn't give really good results; and the smudge tool...well, it isn't horrid, but there's no easy way to clean the thing without the sponge eventually drying out and crumbling, so it'll either crumble away or go uncleaned and will act as a bacteria magnet. Another thing to consider is that these eyeliners are, according to BE's site copy, preservative-free. I would be exceedingly careful about using these on your waterline, and would personally recommend regularly slice off the very tips to give yourself a clean, germ-free eyeliner. Monitor them for texture, scent, and consistency as well, and throw them out if you think that they may be going bad. I'm going to guess that the shelf life for these is one year - but I haven't found anything conclusive on BE's web site. (They're almost as bad as some of the indie companies, not listing their ingredients on the site and not listing actual product quantities! This information is on all of their packaging; but for someone trying to buy just from their website, it's all guesswork. Head over to the websites for either Sephora or Ulta, where they actually -=do=- list quantities and ingredients.)

When these first were released, people often reported problems with liners that were too hard and tugged, that produced "skipped" lines, or that crumbled fairly easily. Since that point to the first time I tried one in late 2010, the eyeliners appear to have improved. The ones I tried didn't skip or tug, and I had no problems with crumbling. I did have one problem with a liner that was broken in its tube - but that's happened once before with a lipstick that I purchased from BE, and they exchanged it without a fuss. I'd imagine that the breakage does still happen occasionally, but not as frequently as it did in those first batches.

EDIT: as of July 2012, this line has vanished from the webstore and most channel partners. Now BE is pushing its Round the Clock line of eyeliner pencils. So okay, that was fast. (Glad I got mine while I could!! I prefer these to the RtC liners.)

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or look at other entries tagged with Brand: Bare Escentuals BareMinerals, collection, cruelty free, discontinued, released: 2009

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