Last Friday (or rather the day before), I took a rare detour to the town region for dinner after work. I used this chance to check out the beauty spaces I had not seen for a long while, such as: mid-revamp TANGS, new shops in ION, etc.

Since I was in town, I decided to also try my luck at the Giorgio Armani counter but of course, to no avail. Or perhaps not much avail.

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As we know, Giorgio Armani's Maestro Foundation launches 1st October, which would be the coming Monday, and I was trying my luck to see if I could sneak a peak at it beforehand. After all, I was all the way in Orchard – a place I rarely got to frequent.

Hey, a girl can dream try, right?

Though sadly the stocks were not in yet but I did manage to get a feel of the foundation from this 1 tester they had out (of the lightest shade) and was instantly sold. I am definitely definitely going back for the foundation.

While I did not manage to pick Maestro up, I did get swayed by the Beauty Assistant's recommendation and swatched what seems to be one of the creamiest and blackest liners I have gotten my hands on. Naturally, that came home with me.

Initially I was on the look out for the Black Eyes to Kill Liner, after chancing upon a positive review on Temptalia, but apparently that isn't stated for release till the holiday collection (which comes out in October in the US?) so I ended up with this Smooth Silk Eye Pencil.

This, like Black Eyes to Kill, is a dual-ended pencil with a liner on one end and a firm sponge smudger on the other.

From my brief encounter with this, the name of the product is the perfect way to describe this pencil eyeliner.

It glides on the skin in a silky smooth manner and at the same time is intensely rich in pigment (for #1 Black at least). It does remain creamy for a little while, allowing you to smudge it out if you wish, before drying down to a swatch that seems to hold its place on the skin.

I doubt I would be adopting the smoking or blending out technique much with this since I rarely do that and the intensity of this alone is enough that rimming my eyes and smoking it further would be reserved for function looks, which I rarely do these days.

Though I could try it out for the fun of when I get the chance!

I don't have many black pencil liners to compare it to since I am hardly adventurous with the pencils but here it is swatched alongside what I could find in my stash.

The MAC Powerpoint Liner in Engraved that I love so much definitely seems to be the least intense of the bunch. While Burberry's Eye Definer seems equal in pigmentation, it felt a little drier in formula compared to Giorgio Armani's Smooth Silk which literally slides across the skin.

While a hand swatch is no true judge of an eye liner's prowress (or smudge resistance), I thought why not snap a shot of this and post it anyway. Here's what my hand looks like after attempting to wipe the liners off.

I have not given this pencil liner a go yet, seeing as I had just picked this up, but the intensity that it delivers really excites me and I can't wait to see how this would look and feel on.

I did some googling around once home and found out that some did face smudging or disappearing issues with this but I am hoping that since I set my liner with powder (and since all our lids / eye areas are different), this may perform better on me.

Fingers crossed!

Have you tried this? Any thoughts on it if you have?

Thanks for reading!