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2010

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Chanel Taupe-Délicat & Misty-Soft Ombres Contraste Duos & Gris Stylo Yeux

August 3, 2010
Chanel has released a new collection of Eyeshadow Duos called Ombres Contraste Duo ($42) along with a new mascara called Inimitable Intense. Also in the collection are a few repromoted Stylo Yeux Waterproof Eyeliners ($28). I picked up Taupe-Délicat & Misty-Soft Duos and the new Gris Eyeliner. The eyeshadow duos are all on the neutral side and very basic for a neutral eye. Each duo has one side that is darker with a satin finish (not quite matte, not quite shimmer), and then one other side that is paler more shimmery. Taupe-Délicat is your basic soft neutral brown and a shimmery pale champagne with a slight pinkish sheen. Misty-Soft is has purple tones on me. One side is a brown with plum, the other is a soft light mauve-purple.

I’ve already reviewed my Stylo Yeux Eyeliners a few days ago here. Gris is their newest addition which is a light-medium cool grey. At the counter at Nordstrom, it looked like a full matte. However at home in different light, it looks like it has a subtle sheen.

Taupe-Délicat 20, Misty-Soft 40 and Gris 35



Gris Stylo Yeux 35

Swatches of Taupe-Delicat, Misty-Soft and Gris compared to my other grey eyeliners, Chanel Black Shimmer, MAC Wolf, MAC Earthline, MAC Dig It!, Laura Mercier Stormy Grey, Bobbi Brown Graphite, Bobbi Brown Gunmetal


I definitely love the Gris eyeliner. It makes Black Shimmer look black (when it’s actually more greyish compared to a true black, like here). It goes perfectly with NARS Tzarine Eyeshadow Duo. The eyeshadow duos are lovely, but I don’t think they are worth the high price tag. At $42, I personally would rather have another Burberry Blush. Just my two cents. If I didn’t have a gift card, I probably wouldn’t have purchased both. Granted, I know I will definitely get a lot of use out of both in the upcoming weeks (currently interviewing). They are perfect neutrals for everyday wear. Subtle but sophisticated to give a pretty soft eye-look.


For other swatches of the other shades, check out Yuki’s Lazy Channel here. She has amazing photos and swatches. Unfortunately, in the U.S. we didn’t get the new mascara or eyelash curler that Asia did.

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Something Old, Something New: NARS Oasis & Oasis

August 2, 2010
This past weekend, I checked out the new NARS Lipglosses ($24) released at Nordstrom (Luxor) and Sephora (Super Orgasm, Oasis, Luster, Angelika, Albatross), all inspired by various blushes and multiples by NARS. I thought I would need one of each since I love all the corresponding cheek shades (except for Albatross), but I only came home with Oasis, a beautiful pink with golden sparkles.

Here is the Lip Gloss compared to the Blush, not exactly 100% alike, but similar:




The Lip Gloss is a pretty blush pink. I found it similar in color family to Risky Business and Stella. The difference for me:

  • Oasis: most pink, has a cream pink base with golden sparkles
  • Risky Business: more frosty all the way through, shimmer is multi-colored with a silvery sheen
  • Stella: more reddish, shimmer is complex with reds & pinks
Note that the blush swatch is not exactly reflective of how this goes on the cheeks. It looks muddy-brown here, on the cheeks it’s a rose pink with brown. The lighting last night was playing tricks on me, so here it is in different lighting to give you a better idea and show you the difference. Depending on which light you look at the glosses in, sometimes the 3 glosses look exactly the same. On the lips – Oasis and Stella look extremely similar on me.



My personal thoughts on the other shades: I passed on the other glosses. Lovely, but I’m still a bit undecided. At Sephora, I was drawn to Super Orgasm and Luster but the glitter/shimmer chunks seemed a bit too big for what I’m used to. Albatross was pretty, but sheer. I’m not a fan of the Albatross Highlighter, but the gloss was pretty. Angelika was too cool for my skin, although I adore the blush. At Nordstrom, Luxor was too pale and cool toned for my taste. It looks like something that would work well over other lipsticks.
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Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof Long-Lasting Eyeliner

July 30, 2010

I’m normally a gel-liner type of girl because I find it easier to get an even line along my upper lashes with a fine-tipped brush (Bobbi Brown’s Gel Liner brush is my favorite). However I also love the twist-up pencils that don’t require any sharpening. Chanel has one called Stylo Yeux Waterproof ($28) in a variety of shades. These replaced a formula called Aqua Crayon (can’t remember the exact year these were discontinued). I believe all the shades from the previous formula were discontinued except for the black and brown. The Chanel eyeliners (twist-up style) I own include:

Black Shimmer – dark cool grey (not really black)
Cassis – plum black-brown
Vert Bronze – complex, hard to describe, it has olive, bronze, gold tones
Marine – shimmering navy
Ébène – matte black
Tweed (Aqua Crayon formula) – warm golden taupe

The color strip on the end of the packaging gives you an accurate idea of what you will get on your eyes.



Swatched on bare skin in 3 different light settings. What I love about these is that they really stay put. I only line along the upper lash line though. I can’t do waterline or underneath the eyes. I am like Rachel Green from Friends: extremely challenged when trying to put anything near the eyeball (eye drops included). So I can’t say how well it lasts when applied those ways.

Note that Marine goes on the eyes a bit more subtle than when swatched on the arm. At least on me. If you want a brighter blue, check out Bobbi Brown’s Denim Ink (new from her Denim & Rose collection).

No flash, natural light:


I normally am able to simply line and go. Occasionally I will take a small smudge brush (Laura Mercier’s is my favorite) and smoke it out a bit and re-apply. They normally don’t require blending/smoothing but those who don’t have a super steady hand will find a brush will do the trick.

Although I don’t own all the shades, I have tried every single color. The bright teal green color included. One of the national artists applied it on me and it was so gorgeous. But knowing myself all too well, knew I would never be brave enough to use it on my own.

I’m waiting for a pretty brown shimmer color to be released or a black gold. Their Black Shimmer isn’t really black at all, it’s really more grey.

I cannot swatch compare these to other brands as it is extremely time consuming and tedious. I have already done an extensive smokey eye series that I highly recommend you check out if you want more eyeliner options other than your basic black or brown. There is a black/grey post that will show you how many different variations of black eyeliners there are. Click on the Smokey label on the side bar for those posts. I do ask that you please do not republish those photos even though they haven’t been watermarked. It can be extremely frustrating to put time and effort into something that gets stolen and put on other blogs and websites. All my work is copyrighted.

*Update* if you like these colors but want a gel formula instead I recommend checking out these options:

Black Shimmer – Bobbi Brown Granite or Graphite Shimmer Inks
Cassis – Bobbi Brown Black Plum
Vert Bronze – no dupe!
Marine – Bobbi Brown Denim Ink
Ébène – Bobbi Brown Caviar Ink
Tweed no dupe!
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Loving Right Now

July 28, 2010


A lot of repeats this month from recent features. Right now I’m loving …

NARS Eyeshadow Duos – here are a few of my favorites that haven’t been depotted yet (which I don’t recommend, but did for the compacts that got too sticky, now stored in my Trish McEvoy planner pages)

Top: India Song, Cordura, Brumes
Middle: Rajasthan, Alhambra, Brousse
Bottom: Silk Road, Tzarine, Bohemian Gold

NARS Nourishing Eye Cream (previously reviewed here)


Urban Decay Naked Palette (previously featured here)

Chanel Teint Innocence Foundation and Natural Finish Loose Powder – No matter how many other foundations I try, I keep coming back to the Teint Innocence. Just recently tried their loose setting powder and love it as well. I use Shell in the foundation and Naturel in the powder.


Chanel Rouge Coco in Chintz & Rose Dentelle – A little bit more delicate than most of my other Chanel lipsticks. These came a bit dinged on the sides but everything else was in tact. They are really close in color, Chintz is more peach, while Rose Dentelle is more pink.


Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof Eyeliners – Rich pigment and longlasting plus no sharpening required! Wish they would re-release that old shade Tweed (a lovely golden taupe).

Black Shimmer & Ebene swatched here
Cassis swatched here
Marine swatched here and here

Edward Bess All Over Seduction Cream Highlighters – Perfectly glowy (previously reviewed and swatched here)

Paul & Joe Lip Lacquers – Great pigment and shine. I had to get almost all of the colors. I’ll get to lip swatches eventually.

Burberry Lipglosses are great . . . but I’m loving everything I purchased (click on the Burberry tag)


Quilted accessories, purses, makeup planners – dreaming of a quilted flap bag


Out of all the Trish planners I have, the quilted ones are my favorite.


Last but not least, my kitty, small but mighty fierce. This is the only photo I could get of him that makes him look non-evil. (I love my puppies too but they won’t sit still for a picture – way too excited about my brother in-law visiting this week after having been gone to the east coast for several months)


What are you loving this month?

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Nails of the Day: Dolce & Gabbana Nude and Chanel Golden Sand

July 27, 2010

Nails of the day are Dolce & Gabbana Nude Nail Polish ($20) on fingers and Chanel Golden Sand Nail Polish ($23) on the toes. Nice neutrals for summer for a subtle polished look without drawing too much attention. Sandals photographed are from J.Crew (currently on sale).


Dolce & Gabbana Nude is a nice neutral nude with slight peach tones. Probably easily dupeable in other lines – however I have a hard time finding a good nude for my skin. Most “nudes” turn pink or very greyish on my skin. I’ve previously featured and swatched it here. Chanel Golden Sand is a metallic warm gold. I believe it’s been discontinued and I don’t own any dupes but the color seems similar to various OPI and China Glaze shades I’ve seen swatched on other blogs.







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Burberry Light Glow Natural Blush Peony

July 26, 2010

When I saw the Burberry Beauty line at Nordstrom I was most surprised by the blushes, mainly because they were nothing like what I expected. Based on the online photos, I was expecting softer more nude and brown based colors. The actual product is very different – darker than I had anticipated, but the colors are still very pretty. The blushes are called Light Glow – Natural Blush $42, I find appropriately named, because they really give a glow. All the colors I looked at had a slight shimmer to medium shimmer. I tried on Cameo a lovely pink, but it went on too dark for my taste. The artist suggested Peony which looked extremely pale and powdery looking but I was pleasantly surprised.

Peony is a soft natural pink. The blushes are all very pigmented but the texture is soft making them easy to blend and layer for that natural blush finish.


No flash:


Compared to a few other pinks, they look strikingly similar to Edward Bess’s Soft Orchid and Chanel Narcisse. The difference is noticeable once on the skin. EB Soft Orchid is cooler toned and I also find this one softer/sheerer in finish. Chanel Narcisse has a more powdery-looking finish because of the shimmer in it. I would say that Burberry’s Blush finish seems similar to that of Chanel Narcisse (the US version). Out of all my Chanel blushes, for some reason I find Narcisse the softest. All are swatched over a mixture of MAC Prep & Prime, Armani Lasting Silk 5.5+6.5.





How I swatch my blushes on my arm:

I also had my eye on Russet and Blossom. They were sold out of Russet and I decided to wait on Blossom. Diane from Orange To LA has an amazing photo of Blossom which has me drooling with slight regret that I didn’t buy it too.

At $42 these are fairly pricey. I’m not sure how I feel about the price. At this time, it’s cheaper than Armani ($43) and D&G ($44) the same as Chanel ($42). More than Dior ($40) which I’m not a huge fan of because they are so sheer. Prices keep going up which I’m not really happy about. I guess it’s something we all have to deal with. In my mind, I think ideally a blush should be $35-ish maximum.

In my mind I still feel like skincare, foundation, brushes and powder should be the only items that exceed $45. Still doesn’t stop me. Personally I would love to have less fancy packaging with no brush in the compact for a lower price. I never end up using those brushes anyways. One reason I love Bobbi Brown individual blushes and eyeshadows, along with NARS.

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NARS Tzarine Eyeshadow Duo (Grey Side) vs. MAC Smoke & Diamonds Eyeshadow

July 25, 2010
For Estelle: How does NARS Tzarine Eyeshadow Duo compare to MAC Smoke & Diamonds Starflash Eyeshadow?

My take: It’s very different and unique for a greyish eyeshadow. I don’t have any shade that compares to NARS Tzarine – it’s difficult to describe because it’s a very complex cool grey with steel blue tones and gold flecks which reflect a golden-ish sheen depending on how the light hits. For me there is no comparison – at least among all the greys I have. Most other greys are either very black, taupe or silvery. The only two in my collection that I find similar in undertone are Urban Decay Gunmetal which isn’t nearly as pretty, is more of your basic silvery grey frost with silver sparkles (see swatch here), also NARS Notorious is in the same family which is significantly lighter and a more powdery dove grey (see here for dove grey eyeshadow pics). Scroll down for more comparisons.

Therefore my answer is: It doesn’t really compare. I normally can’t do cool blueish greys but NARS Tzarine is just so gorgeous. Photos don’t do it justice. The gold flecks give it that extra special finish that can’t be duped (in my opinion). I hope this helps!

Close up where you can see the tiny gold flecks in the NARS duo (grey side):

Swatched on bare skin:

Swatched in natural light, no flash:

Swatched with high flash:

*Updated per request* Compared to Urban Decay Gunmetal & NARS Notorious (note that UD Gunmetal pulls really blueish on my skin as with most greys, it may not be as blue on you):


The original photos from my NARS Fall 2010 Picks (from here):


Karen at Makeup and Beauty Blog also has amazing swatches of NARS fall (her article is linked for your convenience). I highly recommend you check it out as well.
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