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2011

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Are You On Twitter?

August 8, 2011
Good morning readers!  After a few recent e-mails from readers discussing something that was soon to be released, I realized not all of my readers are social media users. I had assumed one of my readers had seen news of upcoming releases because the info had been tweeted by others. After a few discussions, I then realized not everyone is on Twitter. Oops! So I want to ask my readers, are you on Twitter? I am and my twitter account is @BeautyLookBook which you can see below (my most recent Tweet is actually a re-tweet of Paul & Joe Beaute’s picture of their new Autumn Collection at Bergdorfs).

For the longest time, I had an inactive Twitter account because I did not know how to use it. I had to ask Josie and Karla for Tweet help because I didn’t know what all these acronyms stood for. I had resisted for a long time for a slew of reasons: I don’t have time, I can’t figure out what Tweets are, how will I manage all this noise?

It’s all still a learning process. As many have noted, the biggest challenge is how to scan for the relevant information. I’m more of a passive follower than active Tweeter. I check my blog reads and Twitter feed via my iPhone every few hours while at work during the week and given my schedule I just can’t always manage it during the day during a busy work week. Here are some of the reasons why you should join Twitter!
  • You discover new things: I’ve discovered new blogs and vlogs. People I follow will often re-tweet content they find interesting to spread the word. I find these extremely helpful (most of the time). I’ve also discovered new blogs from people following me and tweeting interesting news.
  • You can keep track of what’s up and coming: I’ve learned new things from various store or brand Tweets such as upcoming releases, events and apperances.
  • Meet new people: There are brand managers, editors, artists, designers, company founders on Twitter. It’s interesting to read what they are loving right now!
  • Track the brands you love: If you are a Sprinkles Cupcakes fan like me, you can find out where their SprinklesMobile is headed next by following them on Twitter @sprinklesmobile!
  • Get advice fast: Several months ago, my dog ate my NARS Angelika Multiple and I freaked (after all, a NARS multiple is like the equivalent of maybe 4 full sized lipsticks?). I called the vet who assured me it was ok as long as she didn’t eat any of the plastic. Still in major panic mode while on the phone, I tweeted this to see if anyone else had a dog who ate their makeup. Sure enough people tweeted me back to reassure me I had no need to worry. 
A few favorite recent tweets (and people you should follow!):

@NathanBranch of Nathan Branch gives us the latest news on the luxury markets & is my go-to source on fragrance news alerts
5 Aug – Luxury & Fashion Biz News: http://bit.ly/oPX1Vt – Luxury is back in the black, Annick Goutal changes hands, and the emergence of the DIY.

@PerilouslyPale of Perilously Pale has the funniest tweets
30 July – Well it’s official. Hubby now knows I have a blog.

@the_non_blonde of The Non-Blonde has tweets just as wonderful as her blog posts (yes for me on this!)
4 Aug – All the naps I resisted and fought as a little girl? I’ll take them now, please and thank you.

@CafeMakeup of Cafe Makeup’s tweeted what she’s loving/wearing right now (love her updates)
3 Aug – Loving Chanel Quartz for Fall–a metallic fawn–very complex and pretty

@KarlaSugar Karla Sugar tweets new beauty news and shows pics (love her extra tidbits of news)
2 Aug – AND is coming out w/ a slew of nail polishes at as holiday stockingstuffers. Hope Chrome Passion is one of them!

@naturalNchicmak snapped a photo of Armani Fall 2011 at the counters (instant gratification for me while I wait for it to arrive in Southern California)
6 Aug – Armani fall collection:

@BTiBeauty lets us know as soon as the newest items arrive instore!
3 Aug – Actually, all of the Aquarelles de Chanel Collection collection arrived Tysons Galleria today. Located all of it in shipment.

Also courtesy of Nathan Branch, here’s an interesting article on Twitter and Brands (see it here).

If you want to share why or why not or other thoughts, please do so in the comments, thanks!

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Guerlain Les Fumés 06 Écrin 4 Couleurs

August 7, 2011

Guerlain Les Fumés 06 is a neutral palette suited for light-to-medium toned skin women like to contour the eyes with variations of flesh-toned natural colors. This one appears to be the least shimmery out of the three I bought. It has more of a satiny-finish on all shades with the exception of the silver on the far right. The colors clockwise from left are a satiny grey with plum (very soft shimmer), dusty rose pink matte, silvery cool toned grey with a tinge of mauve, dark dusty bark-like brown.

At first glance, I was initially worried these might look muddy on the skin. The nude-mauves and nude-browns while gorgeous had me concerned that these might look ashy on the eyes. Upon application this morning, I was pleased to find out the colors are not muddy at all – but you do need to use a moist base to help pick up the colors. The darkest brown shade at the bottom is slightly ashy though, I recommend trying to apply directly over a gel eyeliner or with a slightly damp brush (emphasis on slightly so you don’t ruin the powder). This is a fairly neutral palette on my skintone. I’m not sure how this will translate on tan/darker skintones. It might be too nude to show up.

Although neutrals often seem very unoriginal, I couldn’t find anything quite similar. After swatching this on my arm, I thought the dusty-pink and silver looked remarkably similar to NARS Grand Palais (Fall 2011). I highly recommend you see Amy’s review at Café Makeup (she has a few links to some looks of this on the eyes). I do not own this duo as I passed on the fall collection from NARS entirely. I did swatch it at counter and based on my recollection, the rose was too warm for my taste. Guerlain’s Les Fumés works better on me. The dusty pink is slightly darker than my skin so for me, I wouldn’t apply it with a heavy hand.

Today, I applied this quad as follows:
Step 1: Apply Laura Mercier’s Gold Metallic Creme shadow as a base
Step 2: Apply the dusty pink on lids, heavier near lash line, lighter closer to brow
Step 3: Apply the silver frost on top of pink and blend like crazy
Step 4: Apply the taupe-mauve (left shade) on outer corners inwards to mid-point of eye
Step 5: Take the pink shade one more time and apply from inner eye (close to nose) and blend outwards
Step 6: Take the darkest brown shade with a slightly damp brush and trace along lashline for definition

I’ll need more practice, but so far, I love it. They layer together wonderfully. Here are comparisons to the closest shadows I could find – no dupes, but I hope these help you! I suspect there are closer dupes that I’ve missed, this palette looks extremely familiar, perhaps it’s close to one of the 6 Couleurs from last year?


Bottom Line: I’ve ignored Guerlain for some time for a number of reasons such as high price points, bulky packaging, lack of interest in the color options, inconsistent eyeshadow pigmentation, heavily fragranced products. The products have always been of high quality but I’ve normally been more drawn to brands like Dior and Chanel. However reviews on other blogs have helped tremendously. In addition, since falling in love with their Lingerie de Peau foundation, innovative blushes and bronzer and now with the release of these quads, Guerlain has caught my eye. These quads are truly amazing – there is a wide selection of colors and finishes. The mattes are divine and shimmery colors finely milled and well designed that everyone is bound to find one to suit their preferences.
I don’t need any more eyeshadows, but I can’t wait for these to arrive at counters near me so I can play with the other colors.
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Guerlain Les Gris 05 Écrin 4 Couleurs

August 7, 2011

Guerlain Les Gris 05 seems to be ideal for a dramatic smokey eye with a cool-toned finish. The palette seems to have a good mix of matte with shimmer. The texture is smooth and pigment is nice. Initially I was torn between Les Gris 05 (see it on Best Things in Beauty) and Les Noirs 09 (see it on Makeup and Beauty Blog). I decided to opt for the blue-grey palette because it seemed more unique to me. The descriptions of the colors from left clockwise: a sheer neutral-cool matte grey, a soft silvery shimmer with a very slight mauve tinge, a brilliant silver metallic, an intense dark navy-teal with finely milled shimmer.

I pulled a few classic smokey eye palettes from Dior and Edward Bess. To date, Edward Bess Soft Smoke is my holy grail smokey eye palette (most others are too ashy or harsh for my skin). For all three, I would say the Dior is the most silvery-blue, Edward Bess is the classic, Guerlain’s Les Gris is a blue-grey version of the classic smokey eye.

Update: Thanks to the keen eye of my readers, some pointed out that Les Gris appears similar to NARS Dogon. (Great eyes!) I pulled this out to compare and noticed I actually do have quite a few blues from NARS. NARS Dogon’s blue is similar in the compact but darker. (Note these were taken early morning without direct sunlight so Les Gris may look different.)

Here are just the blues:

Here is everything from each duo: NARS Brumes, NARS Thunderball, NARS Dogon, NARS Tzarine (I apologize for the crappy swatches) compared to Guerlain Les Gris

The verdict on similarities:

Guerlain’s top silver-mauve looks like the silver in NARS Okinawa
Guerlain’s bottom teal-navy is NARS Okinawa’s blue+Thunderball mixed
Guerlain’s left matte grey is similar to NARS Brumes’ grey, but Guerlain is more cool toned
Guerlain’s brilliant silver grey is unique in my eye

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Guerlain Les Bois de Rose 04 Écrin 4 Couleurs

August 6, 2011
Guerlain 04 Les Bois de Rose is an iridescent quad with a soft pearly white, medium cool rose frost, taupe-grey-mauve shimmer, and a plum brown. The texture is soft and easily blendable. I’ve had good experiences with the prior releases from Guerlain, but found their older quads a bit dryer in texture making them hard to blend and requiring heavy application. The new Écrin 4 Couleurs appear to be much softer and smoother in texture, yet have excellent pigmentation.

The shimmer in this quad is on the medium-to-high side, some might find this too frosty. It’s almost as sparkly as some of the Bobbi Brown Metallic Shadows but not quite as metallic-like. I applied this today over UDPP on the eyes using the sponges on one eye and my regular brushes on the other. The sponges work just fine but I prefer the brushes for a better application.

1. Apply white shade on lids (about 1/2 way from lash up to middle of eye)
2. Apply the right taupey shade on outer corners inward to middle
3. Apply rose frost from inner corner (part closest to nose) and blend towards outer corner mixing with the taupe
4. Apply the darkest shade to line and smudge along upper lashes

I’m sure there are similar colors out there, but I couldn’t find a quad from Chanel or Dior that was exactly the same. I did pull out my Armani Eye Mania 05 and Dior Pink Idol quint to compare for you. Those weary of pinks because of getting that pink-eye look need not worry with the Guerlain. I avoid pinks like the plague but the Guerlain Les Bois de Rose works beautifully.

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Guerlain Écrin 4 Couleurs Eyeshadows Fall 2011 – A Preview

August 6, 2011

This fall Guerlain has released a stunning collection for fall. The standouts for me are the Écrin 4 Couleurs: nine eyeshadow quads in a diverse range of shades from neutral to colorful to dramatic ($59 each). Each palette is encased in a heavy-weight luxurious compact. I love that each palette comes with a unique mixture of finishes (matte, satin, iridescent). I’m one that prefers a finely milled shimmer in shadows to add depth to the eyes, but find the matte colors in each are equally beautiful as they do not fall flat like some mattes tend to do so.

The colors designed by Guerlain are all exquisite. It was hard to pick just one and I was eager to order even before seeing or trying these in person. You can see all nine colors 01 Les Violets, 02 Les Bleus, 03 Les Verts, 04 Les Bois de Rose, 05 Les Gris, 06 Les Fumés, 07 Les Cuirs, 08 Les Perlés, 09 Les Noirs previewed with details on Café Makeup and swatched on Yuki’s Lazy Channel. Thanks to their lovely previews I narrowed down my initial picks to 04, 05 and 06. I have been further tempted to purchase one more, but am going to wait for the next beauty event.

I have yet to play with these as they just arrived yesterday from Bergdorfs, however, my initial thoughts are that these appear to be highly pigmented, versatile, classic, polished and well designed. Even the neutral palettes seem fresh and unique compared to what we’ve seen in past years – something I think can be difficult to do given all the innovative products various brands have released in recent years. I definitely think the packaging and design is an improvement from the past quads. I only have 3 quads from Guerlain (here and here) and as you can see from the comparison below, I don’t find myself using them frequently.

Each palette comes in a black slip case (which I usually toss) and a tiny booklet of instructions/how-to’s. I haven’t tried these ideas yet but thought I’d include it for your reference. The diagrams, while detailed and inspirational, rarely work for me as my eyeshape rarely is the same as what is on the pictures.

Last fall Guerlain released a stunning collection of luxurious eyeshadow palettes with 6 shades per compact at jaw dropping price of $85 each. Amazing reviews, detailed features and lovely how-to’s complete with swatches tempted me from Karla Sugar, Temptalia, The Non-Blonde, Café Makeup and Yuki’s Lazy Channel (to name a few). I must admit I was very tempted. Yet when I saw these in person, as lovely as each palette was, I could not bring myself to spend a full $80+ on a single item. Irrational, I know. Buying multiple eyeshadows individually can easily exceed a total price of $80, still $85 on a single item was too much for me to swallow given the neutrality of each palette (they seemed very basic when I swatched them in person). The fall offerings this year seem better suited for me in terms of price and color selection. There is more to choose from, a more diverse range of textures in each palette and the price is lower making it easier for me to justify.

Detailed reviews and swatches to come soon on each palette. Have you seen the new quads for fall in person yet? Initial thoughts? Did you love last fall’s collections? Is there something I missed that I need to go check out again?

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Laura Mercier Bare Pink, Bare Peach, Bare Naked & Bare Baby Lip Glacé

August 5, 2011

Laura Mercier has released another collection this fall called the New Smoky Eye Collection​. While the highlight is on dramatic eyes, I was personally more drawn to the new nude shades of Lip Glacés. (The smoky eye palette and caviar sticks were indeed lovely but seemed dupeable within my existing stash so I passed.) There are 6 shades of Bare Glosses in this collection ($22 each):
  • Bare Pink is a cream pastel pink
  • Bare Peach is a light peach with subtle shimmer
  • Bare Naked is a nude beige with a slight sparkle
  • Bare Baby is a pale pink with a soft sparkle and a slight hint of peach
  • Bare Beige is a repromote, a neutral caramel nude-brown
  • Bare Blush is a pink-taupe cream
Being the neutral-obsessed that I am, I ended up with 4, Bare Pink, Bare Peach, Bare Naked and Bare Baby. These have the signature Laura Mercier vanilla scent and have sheer coverage. I’ve had good experienced with Laura Mercier’s Lip Glaces in the past. Her colors have a diverse range of finishes from cream to fine shimmer to tiny microglitters. In general, the darker shades have a better pigment payoff. The lighter colors are more sheer. The Bare colors are rather pale. I can’t speak for all, but I do think girls with pigmented lips might not be able to pull these alone as these may end up looking chalky or ashy.

I tried Bare Peach and Bare Baby and while these are pale, they are sheer enough to work with my skin/lip tone. I have not tried the others on the lips yet but have swatched these below. Based on my swatches, I don’t think you need both Pink and Baby (the SA actually put Pink in my bag on accident instead of Bare Beige, but I’ve decided to keep the Pink).

Here is Bare Baby on my lips alone. It’s a borderline wash-out color for me. If you can pull off colors like YSL Rouge Volupte 1 or 2, MAC Angel, MAC Hue etc easily, then you will love this one. For me, it’s going to be more of a higher-maintenance nude. I suspect it will look better when layered over a pencil like Laura Mercier Chestnut or when blended with brighter lip shades.

Comparisons to other Laura Mercier and Le Metier de Beaute neutral shades are shown below. The * indicated the color was either limited edition and has been discontinued. From the photos below you can see the new Bare gloss shades are different from a number of existing Laura Mercier shades. Since most of the shades are sheer and blend out when applied on the lips, I tried to swatch these unevenly so you can see a variation of a heavy versus blended out swatch.

Have you seen or tried these yet? Can you pull of these gorgeous neutrals on your lips? Or are you like me and find many paler shades too pale on the lips?
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Dolce & Gabbana Almond Lipstick

August 4, 2011

Dolce & Gabbana Almond wraps up my review of the items I picked out from fall collection for 2011. Almond lipstick is a luminous richly pigmented warm caramel nude infused with a gold shimmer. It gives full coverage with a hint of shimmer (no frost). There is a natural glossy sheen with the signature soft Dolce & Gabbana rose scent. The texture is smooth and feels natural even though the coverage is full. The color instantly warms up the skin giving me perfect nude-caramel lips. Pure love.

This color might look familiar to you. I found quite a few similar shades, but none had the same rich pigment and depth. Left to right: Dolce & Gabbana Sparkling Shine Lipstick, Dolce & Gabbana Almond Shine Lipstick, NARS Cafe Con Leche, Chanel Secret Rouge Coco, Bobbi Brown Beige Lipstick, Dolce & Gabbana Glossy Gloss

It’s quite similar to Glossy lipgloss in the tubes. However, as you can see from the swatches, Glossy has a slightly transparent quality with more visible gold shimmer making it lighter. Almond appears more tan/almondy. I think these 2 will layer nicely together although these days I prefer to wear either lipstick or lipgloss.

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