October 2011

Chanel Blazing Gold & Beige Lamé Soft Touch Eyeshadows

October 10, 2011

Chanel Blazing Gold & Beige Lamé Soft Touch Eyeshadows are the singles for the holiday collection. They are listed as limited edition. This will be a brief review. I played with these over the weekend and both have a stiff harder texture, almost like a matte base loaded with micro sparkles. Blazing Gold is a bright warm sunny gold with gold shimmers. Beige Lamé is a neutral tan beige loaded with multi-colored flecks of glitter. These seem to be best when applied over a very creamy emollient eyeshadow base and are best when patted and softly blended, rather than just blending like a normal lighter shadow. Patting on helps the color and shimmer show up better and helps it to adhere to the eyes. These aren’t quite as bad as the paler NARS Night Series shadows in terms of fall out or sheerness, but almost. I would say these are slightly better in texture and finish than MAC Honesty (which I did not think to compare earlier but will do so later). Initial testing proves that Beige Lame is definitely a must have because of the complexity of the sparkles although the texture requires a different application than I’m used to for most Chanel shadows (which are buttery soft, finely milled shimmer and easy to just brush on flawlessly). I could have lived without Blazing Gold. Swatches and comparisons below.

Sorry to be so brief but I’m short on time today. I will try to answer your questions later this evening. FYI Chanel holiday is now up on Chanel.com 🙂 Happy Shopping!

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Lumière Sculptée de Chanel Highlighting Powder

October 9, 2011

Lumière Sculptée de Chanel Highlighting Powder ($72 for 13g/0.46 oz) is the star product of the Chanel Holiday 2011 collection and in my mind the star highlighter of the season. This highlighter comes in a large black compact with an angled brush. The embossed pattern is a beautiful work of art and is simply to die for. In the compact I initially saw a luminous beige soft gold but depending on how the light hits the palette, you can see soft flashes of pearly pink. Do note that the beautiful sparkle that you see in the first photos is only a sheer layer overspray. Had the beautiful shimmer been consistent throughout I would have deemed this back-up worthy. Underneath (what the real product is) is still luminous and glowy but much more subtle and subdued. Swatches, comparisons, and descriptions below. First a few shots of the palette. As you can see when the light hits the sparkle the palette seems to just glow from within.

Once the overspray is removed this is what you see:

Still even with the overspray removed, you can get a beautiful pearly shimmer (this is applied heavily):

Comparisons to some other highlighters with multiple comparison shots so you can see the difference in shimmer. The Lumière Sculptée de Chanel Highlighting Powder has the most finely milled luminescence. The others either have more frost or a bit more sparkle. I love the complexity of the Chanel because it’s not a pure champagne, gold, beige or pink but rather a mix of all the colors. Still it manages to be soft and refined.

Overall thoughts: I wish the overspray wasn’t an overspray but I still really love this. On my face the palette looks chalky on first swipe but blending gives a beautiful subtle glow. This one blows Guerlain’s Holiday 2011 highlighter out of the water but I still prefer the ones I have in my current stash. I prefer the Pearl Glow over the Lumière Sculptée de Chanel Highlighting Powder but I still really like the new one for holiday. I highly recommend you try this in person before deciding to pass. On my skin the Lumière Sculptée de Chanel Highlighting Powder is very sheer simply because of my skintone. I suspect on darker skins there will be more of a contrast and show up better. On fairer skins I think it will be beautiful as well. I actually prefer this one on the eyes as an eyeshadow because it shows up better for me.

For holiday I’m not even going to look at Cle de Peau’s (the price point is pure insanity) but I am curious to see what the MAC Glitter and Ice Shimmer Powders will look like. Guerlain’s pressed highlighter is nice but not a must-have due to the sheerness. Bottom line I think Chanel’s is the best so far for this season.

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Chanel Le Vernis Rouge Carat 587

October 8, 2011

Chanel Holiday has slowly been trickling in and has finally arrived on the West Coast in Southern California at Neiman Marcus. My local counter did not have any testers or display yet but I suspect all counters will have the full collection soon. First up is the newest Le Vernis shade in Rouge Carat 587 ($25) a rich ruby red infused with the most beautiful fuschia iridescence. It has “holiday” written all over it. Karla Sugar gave us a sneak peek at full line up earlier this year. According to her charts, the color appears to be Limited Edition for holiday.

As another reference, I loved Fruity Lashes review and swatches. She has excellent descriptions and I too see Rouge Carat as a red shade even though it flashes pink and looks quite complex in the bottle. To me, the texture seems thicker than most Chanel polishes I’ve tried. It applies beautifully with just one coat and on the nails the pink fuschia shimmer barely shows up. I find that it helps balance out the warmness of the red color making this a neutral red, but it still pulls warm on me. I’ll show a few different angles in an attempt to show the shimmer and complexity.

Here it is swatched with two coats although a single coat was sufficient:

My comparisons show that Chanel Rouge Carat is very similar to Shanghai Red. The difference is that the shimmer and base in Shanghai Red is more pink. More pink and red comparisons below to Rococo Nail Apparel in Trash, Chanel Dragon, Chanel Shanghai Red, Chanel Cherry and Chanel Pulsion.

Bottom line is LOVE. The complexity of the shimmers in Chanel Rouge Carat make it stand out among other red shimmers but it’s still a beautiful classic red. I suspect it can be easily duped by other shades from OPI (who also does an amazing job at creating killer red shimmers) but I feel Chanel usually does it best. I would have liked the shimmer to be a bit more flashy or show up more but the rich pigment and color is beautiful as is and absolutely perfect for the holiday season. That being said, I’m still enamored with the Spring and Fall colors that were released this year so it might be a while before I wear this one as a full mani or pedi.

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Coming Soon . . . Dior & Chanel Holiday 2011

October 8, 2011

On the West Coast in Southern California, Dior spotted at Nordstrom & Neimans (just not the quint yet) and Chanel Holiday spotted at Neimans but without testers. First a sneak peek at the nails for holiday. Left to right: Dior Or Divin 221, Exquis 611, Apparat 871, Merveille 651 & Chanel Rouge Carat 587.

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Tom Ford Lip Color: Sable Smoke 14

October 6, 2011

Tom Ford Sable Smoke #14 ($48) is a creamy caramel honey nude. It’s officially now my perfect honey nude for my pigmented lips and medium-toned skin. Full smooth coverage with a non-drying formula and beautiful finish. Has a wonderful delicious vanilla scent. Doesn’t wash me out. Lasting power better than the average lipstick. Luxurious feel on the lips. Need I say more?

A few comparisons below. When swatched next to other peaches or nudes you can see how Sable Smoke is more of a caramel honey color. L to R: Tom Ford Sable Smoke, Edward Bess Pure Impulse, Burberry Romantic Rose, Chanel Cashmere Rouge Coco and D&G Almond.

Here is one more set of swatch comparisons (actual lipsticks aren’t shown, only swatches). Below, L to R is MAC Viva Glam Gaga, MAC Freckletone, MAC Gel, MAC Creme de Nude, YSL Rouge Volupte #2.

Bottom line: LOVE. I’m slowly working my way with reviews/swatches of all the new Tom Ford Lipsticks I purchased. To date, my favorite is Spanish Pink and Pink Dusk. You can see the full lineup here. The ones I purchased swatched here.

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Guerlain Holiday Parure de Nuit Pressed Powder & Blush and Rouge Automatique in Flirt d’un Jour

October 4, 2011

Guerlain seems to be the earliest with holiday releases this year. I was only planning on the Meteorites Powder, but instead caved on the Parure de Nuit Pressed Powder & Blush and Rouge Automatique in Flirt d’un Jour #169. I am still relatively new to Guerlain products but have discovered quite a bit this past year from the line. I’ve fallen in love with the Lingerie de Peau and new eyeshadow quads that were released for fall. My interest is slowly growing. For those interested, I spotted the collection at Neimans last week. It should be arriving at your Guerlain counters very soon.

After my fall highlighter post, several have asked for my thoughts on the ones for holiday. To date, I’ve only seen Guerlain’s. The Parure de Nuit Pressed Powder & Blush ($67) design was too pretty to pass up on and from a distance I thought the red circles were ladybugs, although they are in fact in the pattern of peacock feathers. This comes in a double tiered compact with a compartment for a turquoise/teal goat-hair brush. The brush feels very nice on the skin but I am not sure it’s the best for this highlighter/blush. The Parure de Nuit is a very soft and sheer pearly shimmer powder. There is a gorgeous overspray of an iridescent opal pink and I was sad to find that it disappeared after the initial application/swipe. What lies beneath is a soft pinkish pearl – even after swirling your brush in all the colors over the red circles, all that you really see is a luminous pearl. It gives a beautiful soft glow but I wish there was more pigment or more visible shimmer. I could not get a decent arm swatch to photograph. On the face it gives the slightest hint of glimmer when applied with a stiffer denser blush brush. I would not use this as an all over the face powder, although some might.

I took my fingers and swiped them back and forth three times all over the powder for this swatch. Below it’s been swatched heavily on fingers so you can see the pearly finish, but on the face it is barely detectable.

Rouge Automatique in Flirt d’un Jour #169 ($35) is a beautiful soft pink. The texture is very smooth and feels moisturizing on the lips. It has a natural sheen but gives decent coverage to cover the entire lip. The finish is the slightest bit transparent so your natural lip shows through a little bit. I’m not the biggest fan of gold packaging but the push nob in the front almost makes this lipstick feel like a toy.

Overall I love the lipstick and semi-like the highlighter/blush. I realize the highlighter was designed to give a subtle glow, but as Messy Wands wrote, I do agree that I think darker skins will find it will not show up. I’m not dark or tan, but with my medium skin, it barely shows up. It does give a nice soft luster to the cheeks but I personally prefer something that is more visibly glowy or pearly (without the frost). If Guerlain had kicked up the pigment/intensity by 1.5 notches this would have been a winner for me. The darker berry lipstick looked divine but I’m still scared of dark berries. Perhaps I will be brave enough to try it the next time I’m at the Guerlain counter.

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