When you hear the reason celebrity makeup artist Fiona Stiles fell in love with Rituel de Fille — so much that she just had to do a collaboration with the natural makeup brand — you might be surprised that the end result was a taupe eyeshadow. But Half Light is not your average taupe, and not your average eyeshadow.
After using Rituel de Fille's brightly pigmented products — including a blackish red-blood lipstick and a deep-moss green eye color — on her clients time and time again, Stiles decided to start selling them on her e-store Reed Clarke. She was so obsessed with its bright pigments, and an edgy feel she hadn't often seen with natural brands, that she just had to add them to her site, where she collects her all-time favorite beauty products and unique travel finds (like fur lashes from Japan). “Even though their products are 99% natural, they do not sacrifice pigment, color, or enthusiasm,” she says. “They see the world through heavily pigmented-colored glasses!”
But when it came to a collaboration with her go-to brand, Stiles was more concerned about texture than vivid color. She was particularly smitten with Rituel's Eye Soot shadow and wanted to create one exclusively for Reed Clarke. “When I touched the Ash & Ember Eye Soot for the first time, I was really excited by the texture,” she says. “It's a cream shadow that almost feels like a powder; it's very dry and blends beautifully. You can use it as a wash, do multiple layers to build up the color, or use it with an angled brush as an eyeliner. It's versatile and gorgeous.”
Stiles also wanted to choose a versatile color. “I find taupe to be so easy and foolproof,” she says. “You can dress it up or play it down, which is ideal. If you pair it with black liner and scandalous amounts of mascara, you have a great, sexy look... Or you can smudge it on, curl your lashes, and run out the door.”
This shimmery taupe offers a lot of dimension, but never looks overdone. “I love that you get a little mystery without feeling like you're wearing a ton of product; that's my kind of makeup," says Stiles. "We landed on a gorgeous neutral taupe that looks like a shadow. Like a shadow on the ground, which is what I was going for. That perfect halo of depth that never feels too dark or too heavy, but defines the eye beautifully.”
Stiles likes to apply it with her finger and smudge it into place. If you want to use a brush, she recommends a dome-shaped eyeshadow brush to swirl the color around, which will ensure softly blended and blurred edges. If she uses it as a liner, she grabs an angled liner brush for precision. The possibilities are endless!
Rituel de Fille Ash & Ember Eye Soot Exclusive Color, $24, available at Reed Clarke.
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