Chanel Pierres de Lumiere Collection Review + Swatches

Chanel launched a new makeup collection for spring called Pierres de Lumiere. Right now it’s available only at Chanel.com and in the past if I remember correctly most of the previous Le Blanc makeup collection have been exclusive to their website and Chanel boutiques. This is the first collection in a while that has me excited about Chanel again! The colors are pretty and soft for spring mixed with some classic bold options for lips. I have swatches of everything except one of the lip colors including:

• Poudre Lumiere in White Opal ($58)
• Les Tissages Blush Duo Tweed Effect in Tweed Beige ($45)
• Les 4 Ombres in Cristal de Printemps and Lueurs Ambrees ($62)
• Ombre Premiere Cream Longwear Shadow in Gemme Doree and Pierre Rose ($36)
• Rouge Allure Ink in Cornaline ($38)
• Le Rouge Crayon de Couleur in Bois Rose and Corail Intense ($38)
• Le Vernis in Joyau, Perle de Corail, Jaspe and Eau de Nacre ($28)

For the face the cheek colors are all about light and luminous kind of shades. The Poudre Lumiere in White Opal is a duo chrome pink violet highlighter. As with the other Poudre Lumieres it is on the intense side of shimmer for Chanel. There are a lot of other similar shades from MAC and Anastasia that have a similar effect, but this is the first duo chrome pink-violet highlighter I’ve felt I can wear without looking like a disco ball. The Les Tissages Blush Duo Tweed Effect in Tweed Beige has an overspray of gold shimmer. Underneath I still find a relatively shimmery blush, it has a lot more shimmer compared to other Tweed Blushes. On me it pulls more like a luminous blush on the verge of highlighter material versus a blush. I still think it’s gorgeous – on my skintone right now it’s like a flesh toned highlight. Both items have excellent coverage and smooth application. Lasting power is very good on the skin.

Tweed Beige swatched with the overspray included, White Opal has no overspray:

Another look at the Poudre Lumiere in White Opal so you can see the shimmer:

 

For the eyes they have a warm neutral and cool pink option for quads and cream shadows. For the warm options, they have:

• Les 4 Ombres in Lueurs Ambrees which has a shimmering bronze, shimmery peach, metallic champagne and a matte soft bone cream
• Ombre Premiere Cream Longwear Shadow in Gemme Doree is a pale white gold shimmer

For the cooler pink options they have:

• Les 4 Ombres in Cristal de Printemps has a deep plum, metallic medium pink rose, metallic pale pink, shimmery white pink
• Ombre Premiere Cream Longwear Shadow in Pierre de Rose is a metallic pale pink with flecks of deeper pink sparkle

I gravitated towards the warmer options. The Lueurs Ambrees is a super easy to wear kind of quad. It has all the shades you need for a complete look. Finish/formula is different from their other Les 4 Ombres. It has a softer almost creamier touch for the metallic colors. The matte is soft and flawless with decent medium-sheer coverage for a light matte. I tried the quad alone and also layered on top of the Cream Shadow in Gemme Doree and both application methods work. The Ombre Premiere in Gemme Dore is a sheer but buildable cream shadow. Once it sets it will not budge and has seriously good lasting power. I like that it has shimmer which makes it easier to blend and is more forgiving on my eyes once it dries. I can’t usually wear matte creams – once they dry they make my lids look dried out and wrinkly.

 

The Pierre de Rose Ombre Premiere surprised me in a good way. I typically avoid baby pinks as they don’t look good on my complexion but this was a really easy to wear fresh pink shimmer. The Les 4 Ombres quad Cristal de Printemps has good pigment and applies well – the light colors are too similar to create contrast on my eyes. On my skin tone they end up looking the same.

For the lips I have three of the four options in the collection in Cornaline, Bois Rose and Corail Intense.

I’ve hated the Rouge Allure Ink in every single color I’ve tried and I now realize it’s most likely just the light neutrals that have poor coverage on my pigmented lips. Cornaline is a bold orange and has the perfect even coverage I expected from the neutrals like Serenity and Lost. I know many of you love this formula and based on my experience with this newer color, I suspect that the darker shades are going to be worth a second look for me. Lasting power with this one is pretty good, but it’s not transfer proof.

There are two new Le Rouge Crayon de Couleur in Bois Rose (perfect neutral rose) and Corail Intense (bright coral). Both have a glossy finish with medium to full coverage. These are twist up crayons so once you start using them the tip will lose its pointy shape and flatten out. Many of you have mentioned that’s a deal breaker for you. It hasn’t bothered me but I do see how having a pointy or angled tip makes application easier for a pencil. Since the formula is so emollient and glossy it will fade faster than a regular lipstick, but it’s comfortable on the lips and I don’t mind reapplying.

The four items I was most excited about were the new Le Vernis colors.

There are new shades in:

• Eau de Nacre is a gorgeous pearlescent opal shimmer, unfortunately it’s sheer and requires at least 3 coats for the coverage I want, still I think the extra work is worth it, brush strokes aren’t too visible
• Perle de Corail is another gorgeous metallic peach gold, this one is also sheer, I applied it with 2 coats and was a little disappointed in the finish, I think 3-4 coats would have been better, but I’m really not that into making a nail polish work more than 3 coats
• Joyau is a perfect pink, it has that subtle shimmer in the bottle but on the nails looks more like a cream, it’s lighter than Camelia which is one of my favorite Chanel nail polishes
• Jaspe is a perfect orange red cream, it’s not quite as orange or deep red as Espadrilles and Arancio Vibrante, you probably can get a similar effect with other corals but if you’re like me and have a serious addiction to coral shades you’ll most likely think this is a must-have

A few sides by sides next to a few other Chanel shades. The new ones have a similar vibe to previous launches.

Makeup look wearing:

• Foundation – Cover FX Power Play Foundation in G40
• Concealer – Armani Power Fabric Concealer in 6.5
• Powder – Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Powder
• Blush – Left is Les Tissages de Chanel Tweed Beige, Right is Tweed Beige + Poudre Lumiere in White Opal
• Eyeshadow – Chanel Les 4 Ombres in Lueurs Ambrees
• Lipstick – Chanel Rouge Allure Ink in Cornaline
• Tee – Anthropologie

Overall pretty and soft for spring. Colors are easy to wear and nice for a fresh faced look. My favorites are the Lueurs Ambrees Quad, White Opal highlighter and Bois Rose Lip Crayon. For the nails I find myself really obsessed with Jaspe even though it’s really close to most of the other orange/corals I own. Have you checked out anything from the collection yet? What did you think?

You can find the Chanel Pierres de Lumiere Collection out now at Chanel.com.

Chanel products provided courtesy of Chanel for review.