Chanel’s star product this season is their Illuminating Powder with Shimmer called Lumière d’Artifices Beiges (18 g/ 0.63 oz, made in Italy). It’s an exquisite face powder embossed with round circles that look like overlapped pieces of sequins. The powder itself is dusted with a silvery glitter overspray. Underneath there are stripes of soft golden beige and soft beige-rose. The powder in the compact itself looks more like a light pink/rose. On the skin this translated into a more golden-beige finish for me with only very slight undertones of pink/rose.
The sparkles were difficult to capture with the camera. At an angle the shimmer/sparkle overspray is easier to see:
Under artificial light, you can see the shimmer:
Here is the powder with the overspray removed. I’ve photographed it at an angle hoping you will be able to see the sheen of the powder. It’s really beautiful in person:
Swatched, this pulls warmer and more beige on me than what I see in the compact:
This is truly stunning on the skin. After the overspray was removed I thought it might be too boring but the color is just really lovely as a highlighter. It’s not too pale and not too dark – it’s perfect for Chanel B30 skin and I suspect it will be lovely on other skintones as well. The pigment is medium but visible and the shimmer just glows on the skin. The texture of this is velvety soft making it easy to blend and layer.
I pulled a small sample of other Chanel powders to compare. Ombres Tissées in Beiges from last August is significantly lighter and more frosty. This summer’s Soleil Tan de Chanel Bronzers have a similar luminous glow, but I would say the Fall 2012 Lumière d’Artifices Beiges has more pigment and a slightly more glowy quality. You might find it too similar to Sable Beige to justify owning both.
I believe this is a limited-edition product. Unfortunately I can’t recall the price – I suspect it was in the $60ish range which I found reasonable given the fact that some other limited edition powders such as Lucky Stripes and Ombres Tissèes Beiges and Route de Indes de Chanel have been upwards of $75 to $95 each.
I personally adore this powder. I do think it’s a must-have for me, but that is simply my own opinion.
