Although my blog focuses on beauty items, I’m still an avid reader of fashion blogs. I’m honored to be featured this week on the Feather Factor’s interview series! She is one of my favorite daily reads and if you haven’t already check out Katherine’s blog, I highly recommend you click over to browse through. You can read more about her here. She’s a mix master – always coordinating a unique set of items to create some of the most chic outfits I’ve seen. Her style is inspirational and her blog a joy to read. I adore her purse and shoe collection (to die for)! She was kind enough to ask me to participate in a 2 part interview. Here is Part 1. I hope you enjoy!
Chanel Éclosion Quadra Eyeshadow ($57 for 6.8 g/0.24 oz) is the a beautiful warm-neutral palette for spring. The shades have a beautiful refined shimmer – each color has a slightly different variation of sparkle. The colors are on the warmer side but not overly so. From the top left clockwise you have:
Soft satiny glowy pale peach
Sheer sparkly gold with slightly larger shimmer flecks
Rich shimmery reddish plum brown
Sandy gold-beige with a slightly multidimensional iridescent glow
I applied this on the eyes from darkest to lightest in a layering method and it created a soft but defined glowy eye look. The overall effect was very warm with the plummy brown shade. It has gorgeous reddish tones without being too red. It works perfectly with the Blush Horizon de Chanel. Here are a few more shots and swatches, first without flash:
There is something familiar about Éclosion but I couldn’t find a dupe. Perhaps it’s just that I find each shade resembles something similar to other separate quads. Here it is compared to Shimmering Dunes and Spices:
Swatch comparisons below. A side note: for some reasons my swatches look more shimmery/frosty in the photos than these quads look in real life.
Bottom line worth every penny. It’s classic, flawless and stunning.
The new Blush Horizon de Chanel ($58) is the star product of the Harmonie de Printemps Collection for Spring 2012. The new Glowing Blush Harmony is a stunning palette of soft luminous pinks, white, plum, peachy-pink and gold. I believe this will be a universally flattering pink. It has a good mixture of cool and warm tones with the alternating stripes. There are several variations of pink to suit everyone’s taste. This powder I took a soft blush brush and swirled the colors together before applying. On the face this is a very soft glowing pink, not overly frosty, but a hint of shimmer is visible on the face. Each stripe appears to have a different degree of shimmer which I find lovely. On my medium-toned olive skin (Chanel Perfection Lumiere B30) it gives a soft medium pink glow. On darker skins I think this will be more of a lighter highlighting pink, still visible, and absolutely gorgeous. Be sure to check out Makeup Magpie and Best Things in Beauty if you haven’t seen their photos yet.
Here at an angle you can see the glow better and the variations in the colors between each stripe (I believe the gold goes all the way through to the bottom of the pan):
Swatched & swirled (the heavy blended swatch looks frosty because of the high flash, but on the face it is not quite as frosty, I recommend you check out Best Things in Beauty’s swatches):
While striped blushes aren’t new, Chanel has created a beautiful fresh new variation with the Blush Horizon de Chanel. In the past few weeks, Amy from Café Makeup and I pondered how the new Chanel compared to compared to Guerlain’s Série Noire Blush G from last spring. On my skin, the Guerlain looks brighter and more peachy. The Blush Horizon de Chanel is more subtle & pink. I feel it’s a combination between Brompton Road and Narcisse without the chalkiness.
I haven’t seen any other spring collections in person yet, but I can already tell you this is a must-have for the season.
A reminder to everyone that bidding for the Beautybloggers.org Auction ends at 5 pm CST on Monday, December 12. There are some amazing items that have been donated by various brands and bloggers. My favorites:
And lastly, there is a Chanel Le Vernis Duo that contains Riva and Khaki Vert that I’ve donated this year as well
Don’t forget to get your bids in soon! Winning bids will be donated directly to Doctors Without Borders. Bidders anywhere in the world are welcome, and shipping is “free.” That is, the full amount of your winning bid will go to charity — the bloggers have agreed to donate the cost of shipping, in addition to the items themselves. Visit Beautybloggers.org for more information.
Chanel Spring has started to trickle into stores in the US. Nordstrom should be receiving their items any day now and Neimans already has the product instore at counters (most of the items have arrived). Chanel.com just launched the spring items online. Of course I could not resist the three new Le Vernis Nail Colours in April, May and June – all cream non-shimmer shades with smooth rich coverage. Although these shades do not appear to be special or unique, I find that Chanel once again has mixed the perfect amount of color to create shades that are amazingly beautiful. Lined up together they remind me of a sunset.
April is a cream mauve plum. In the bottle it looks like almost reddish but it swatches with a hint of purple.
May is a baby soft pink. It’s a neutral-cool, similar to Melrose, but April is slightly warmer in undertone.
June is a soft pastel apricot cream. It’s a lighter brighter version of Miami Peach/Orange Fizz.
Comparisons to other Chanels and 1 RBL, L to R: Rescue Beauty Lounge Bruised, Chanel April, Chanel Fantastic, Chanel Rouge Fatal, Chanel Rose Confidentiel, Chanel May, Chanel Melrose, Chanel Morning Rose, Chanel Riviera, Chanel June, Chanel Peche Nacree, Chanel Miami Peach and Chanel Orange Fizz.
Bottom line: I don’t know what else to say but “love”. *UPDATE* Check out The Purse Forum: Chanel on your nails #2 thread page 408 for awesome comparisons from Elisaq (I think you have to login to see images).
Tom Ford Violet Blonde is my first experience with Tom Ford fragrances. It turned out to be an unexpected love. I was lucky to be gifted a bottle right before the official release, but to my dismay it was not love at first spritz. I have to admit (in all fairness) I made the mistake of not testing this on myself, but rather on a small piece of paper. Back into the violet box this went and it sat on our shelf for a month until my husband noticed it and asked, “ooh, is that for me?” He can never resist a new fragrance, especially when it comes in a beautifully packaged bottle. He has a knack for finding things that smell good – our house is forever filled with some kind of smell-good scent. (I have to hide my Jo Malone tea fragrances because he loves them so much he runs around our house to “freshen” it with Assam & Grapefruit.) Once again, he decided to use a fragrance to fill one of our rooms with scent. He spritzed Violet Blonde in our bathroom and as soon as I walked in, I fell in love.
Violet Blonde is a new addition to Tom Ford’s Signature Line and comes in three different sizes 1 oz ($65), 1.7 oz ($100 and 3.4 oz ($145). It’s a soft elegant floral with a hint of a powdery finish. In the past few months I’ve started to explore a few more Tom Ford mini vials and am amazed at how his fragrances transform once they dry down on the skin. Violet Blonde is no exception. When first spritzed, there is a fruity floral with a hint of green (what I think is the violet). It dries down to a softer floral and warms up with a slight powdery woody feel. I don’t typically like strong floral or green scents, but I’m enamored with Tom Ford’s Violet Blonde. It’s a departure from what I’m typically drawn to yet I adore it.
I’m sure by now many of you have already tested out Violet Blonde. I love the reviews by The Non-Blonde, Fruity Lashes, The Candy Perfume Boy and Temptalia. What more can I add? Not much. I’m still learning how to review fragrances. I highly recommend you read their reviews to get a better sense of how Violet Blonde behaves on the skin. Their descriptions and reviews are amazing. I agree with Gaia that while this is marketed as a perfume for women, men also seem to love it. My husband adores it. Bottom line: dreamy, feminine, elegant and classic.
All photos taken by me. More details shown below for the inspiration, top notes, middle notes and base notes.
