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Sabrina

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Bobbi Brown Bronze Tortoiseshell Eye Palette

July 1, 2011
Bobbi Brown has 2 different neutral eye palette options with her Tortoiseshell Collection: Sand and Bronze. I opted for the darker version, Bronze Tortoiseshell ($60), although both were equally gorgeous. The palette comes in a two-tiered brown mirrored compact and I love that the packaging is beautiful, simple and sturdy with no frills. These palettes have a good mix of textures ranging from matte to shimmer to sparkle. I think Bronze will be an extremely versatile palette that will allow one to create a wide range of looks.
The Bronze Palette is the warmer/darker option of the two in Bobbi Brown’s Fall collection. I find it neutral-warm, leaning more towards warm. The shades in the top layer of this palette:
  • Banana is a matte yellowish cream (doesn’t show up on my arm, but mattes out the lids)
  • Gold Nugget Sparkle is a bright gold with micro sparkles (I normally don’t like Bobbi Brown’s sparkle eyeshadow formula but this one is lovely)
  • Olive Sparkle is a sparkly olive-gold (same lovely olive with gold flecks, subtle enough so the sparkles aren’t like glitter)
  • Bronze Metallic is a soft warm bronze (not to be confused with her Bronze Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow which is more golden)
The bottom layer colors include:
  • Tiger’s Eye Metallic is a shimmery orangey amber
  • Espresso is a matte dark brown
  • Copper Cocoa Shimmer Wash is a shimmery warm chocolate
  • Amber Shimmer Wash is a soft peachy orange-gold

When I saw the preview photos pop up a few weeks ago, I immediately dismissed these thinking they would be repeats of prior seasons. Both Sand and Bronze are indeed similar to past creations, and while I’m not a fan of palettes that have more than 5 shades, they are good staples. I wouldn’t call these must-haves. However, Bronze does have a gorgeous palette of shimmers with a few new unique shades. This is very “summery” which I find season-appropriate for right now. Add the fact that I liked 6 of the 8 shades in this palette made it a very easy sell for me. To date, I’ve only had a chance to do one look with this using the top four shades layered and blended together with Espresso applied with a damp brush as a liner. I’m looking forward to experimenting more with this.
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Bobbi Brown Soft Nude Rich Lip Color SPF 12

July 1, 2011
There are three Rich Lip Colors featured for fall Twig, Soft Coral and Soft Nude along with three High Shimmer Lip Glosses in Bare Sparkle, Citrus and Beach. All the colors looked lovely at the counter, but I left with just one: Soft Nude Rich Lip Color ($23). Soft Nude is just that. A soft nude with a hint of pink. It’s a your-lips-but-better kind of color with full rich smooth coverage. It’s very natural but I love it. Soft Nude is one of those nudes that works perfectly. No tweaking or fixing required.

 

Compared to a few other Bobbi Brown shades, it’s most similar to Heather Pink (previously reviewed here). The difference is Soft Nude is less mauve/pink while Heather Pink has more pink/mauve.
  

The Bronze Palette swatches will be posted early Friday morning 🙂

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Bobbi Brown Bronze Tortoiseshell Eye Palette & Soft Nude Rich Lip Color Coming Soon …

July 1, 2011

Bobbi Brown’s Fall 2011 Tortoise Shell Collection features two gorgeous palettes of classic neutrals along with beautiful naturals for lips. I had vowed to not cave for another BB palette, but my resolve was weakened by KarlaSugar and Best Things In Beauty. I opted for the Bronze Tortoiseshell Eye Palette (a double decker eyeshadow palette with 8 shades) and Soft Nude Lipstick (a lovely full coverage true nude-pink). Initially I was a bit concerned the Bronze Palette might be too warm for me. Today, DSK Steph’s lovely feature confirmed that the Bronze option is gorgeous, wearable and naturally flattering.

 Details, swatches and review on each to come separately very soon.

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Chanel Royallieu #58 Rouge Coco Shine

June 30, 2011

Chanel Royallieu #58 Rouge Coco Shine is currently a Limited Edition Chanel.com exclusive. It’s a relatively new release in the US and I would describe it as a lovely pale cool-toned pink. In the tube it appears slightly faded with a slight greyish undetone. If you look closely, you will see the prettiest tiny micro-sparkles. As soon as I opened the tube, I was worried it would be too pale on the lips. Royallieu Rouge Coco Shine is actually quite a bit paler than I anticipated, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is sheer enough to not wash out the lips, but pigmented enough to give a soft pale wash of pink shine.

Here it is swatched on my lips, I’m a Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua in 30 now:

If you love pale pinks, you will love Royallieu. It is similar to a few other shades I have so I wouldn’t say it’s the most unique, however it is a pretty pink that is very wearable. Of the existing Chanel lipsticks, it’s lighter/pinker than Mythic. Also shown below, Dior Urban (shown here) and Rose Comete. I find that Royallieu reminds me a bit of MAC Oyster Girl Lipglass (not shown).

Overall I think for me this fits the bill of a goof-proof go-with-everything lipstick. I will be able to wear it for any occasion and apply without needing a mirror. I love that it goes on smoothly and streak-free. I envision this looking great with a smokey eye, in particular the Prelude Quad from the fall collection!

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Chanel Péridot #531 Le Vernis Re-Visited

June 27, 2011

Since reviewing Chanel Péridot 531 Le Vernis last week (see all three fall shades here) I’ve received a few questions asking to describe this color in a bit more detail. As fall trickles in-stores and you see more reviews of this color, you will see that Péridot is such a complex unique color making it almost impossible for to describe in words. Looking in the bottle, I see glowing yellow gold that flashes different variations of brown, green and yellow pearl. The closest thing I can think of is that it reminds me of a scarab beetle. Depending on the angle I hold my hand, sometimes I see a lot more green than gold – but regardless of lighting and angles, I always see more than one color and my fingers glow.

On my fingers it’s predominantly yellow/gold and the green flashes on the edges. Initially I did not like. After playing with it a few more days, I still am not completely won over. No matter what angle I look at it, Péridot just appears so unflattering on me. Still it’s extremely unique and the complexity keeps me interested. I hope these photos will give you a better idea of how it might look in real life.

See Péridot swatched here on these other amazing sites as well:
The Purse Forum here and here
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Chanel Fauve #90 Soft Touch Eyeshadow

June 26, 2011
I was a lucky girl to get this from Paris while Café Makeup was traveling earlier this spring (see her review here). I wasn’t quite sure if this color would ever be released in the US, but thanks to KarlaSugar’s Sneak Peeks, we now know this will be released this year to the US with the Sophisticated Eye Collection (exact date to be determined).

Chanel Fauve #90 is a sparkly mauve taupe with a high shimmer factor (you can see silver flecks in the pan). It’s beautiful. See it reviewed on Delicate Hummingbird and Pink Sith (they have stunning eye looks featured as well). I’ve tried this a number of ways: dry, over a base, smudged over a liner, alone, combined with other bronzey shades and lighter champagnes. It’s extremely versatile and amazing enough that it’s one of those colors you can wear all by itself (just add mascara) and you have a nice polished look. The texture, although very metallic and sparkly, is smooth. There is surprisingly no fall out from the sparkle flecks, even when applied dry. Some mauves go on pinkish on my eyes. Chanel Fauve has enough taupe and silver to prevent this from giving me that dreaded pink-eye look.

I could not find a single dupe …

I pulled other shadows from Chanel, MAC and NARS. Here are Chanel Taupe Grise, Chanel Fauve, Chanel Misty-Soft, Chanel Safari, MAC Mauvement Pigment, Chanel Illusoire Illusion d’Ombre, Trish McEvoy Raisin, and NARS Ondine.

Swatched L to R (over a slightly moisturized arm): Chanel Safari, Chanel Taupe Grise, Chanel Fauve, Chanel Misty-Soft (lighter side), Chanel Illusoire, MAC Mauvement Pigment, MAC Style Snob, Trish McEvoy Raisin, NARS Ondine

Fauve is a beautiful color and something I find unique enough to justify the price. I am glad it will be released in the US (hopefully soon). I highly recommend.
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Chanel Rouge Cocos Plumetis & Étole and Precision Lip Definers Coralline & Rose Cuivre for Fall 2011

June 24, 2011
The last items I have to review for Chanel Fall 2011 include the new Rouge Cocos and Precision Lip Definers. For the lipsticks, we have Plumetis 79 (a nude pink-peach with silver flecks) and Étole 80 (plum brown). For the lipliners we have Coralline 46 (coral with silver shimmer) and Rose Cuivre 47 (rose brown with shimmer).

 
 

Rouge Coco comparisons to Stunning, Secret, Patchouli, Baroque.

The colors are pretty and will be usable year-round. I’m not wowed by them this season but perhaps this is because I already have too many lipsticks and lipliners. Lasting power is incredible though. The lipliners go well with the lipsticks, when used first they really extend the wearability of the rouge cocos.