Chanel is my favorite brand, hands down. Chanel never fails to release something beautiful and each season I find at least one thing that catches my eye. Many have asked for my top ten picks for Chanel in each product category (nails, lips, eyes etc.) but I find it difficult to narrow down my favorites to any given number. My favorites change monthly depending on season, mood and occasion. I will be hard pressed to name something that I don’t love from the brand (although I’m not really fond of their concealer or mascara). I do love all the other color items, however, RIGHT NOW, my favorites include the following:
Perlé Rouge Coco, Seashell Glossimer, Bronze Universel de Chanel (replaced by Soleil Tan De Chanel), Dragon Le Vernis, Jade Rose Le Vernis, Espresso Stylo Yeux, Regard Perlé Quad, Mystic Eyes Quad, Island Soft Touch Eyeshadow
Lips and Cheeks
Perlé Rouge Coco – soft shimmering pink (if you want something less expensive that is similar in effect, check out MAC VGV lipstick)
Seashell Glossimer – sheer shimmer
Bronze Universel de Chanel (replaced by Soleil Tan De Chanel) – the best cream bronzer to contour your face naturally and lasts all day, hit pan on 1, this is my second one
Nails:
Dragon is without a doubt THE best red out there
Jade Rose is subtle but elegant and never fails to look polished
Jade Rose:
Dragon & dreaming of a caviar classic flap in red:
Eyes:
Island Soft Touch Eyeshadow (unfortunately discontinued) is the prettiest soft peachy pink champagne, Liberty and Lotus are similar, or for cheaper MAC Naked Lunch, but to me nothing truly compares
Regard Perlé is still on my favorites list (see it here)
Mystic Eyes is a classic that can take you from day to night
Espresso Stylo Yeux comes with a sharpener at the end to keep the tip pointy, this eyeliner is soft, easy to blend but stays put all day
Chanel Rouge Coco Shines Part 2 (shown above, left to right)
Évasion 48 is a sheer nude peach-pink-beige
Fétiche 52 is a soft mauve pink shimmer
Romance 55 is a bright warm pink
Chance 56 is a pale cream blue-based pastel pink
Below, left to right: Évasion, Fétiche, Romance & Chance
Évasion is a sheer peach that goes on pinkish on my lips. It’s very sheer.
Fétiche is probably my favorite, a mauve pink with subtle shimmer.
Romance is a brighter blue-pink, it has more blue than Aventure (which has a bit of gold shimmer).
Chance is not a winner for me. Lovely in the tube, but it’s too pale and goes on streaky. I suspect it will be better if applied over a darker matte lip color or a pinky lipliner to even out the paleness.
Canotier 41 is a sheer iridescent golden beige with flashes of multi-colored shimmers, this is so sheer it just adds shine with a slightly shimmery sheen
Biarritz 42 is a sheer peach, slight shimmers, pigment is semi-sheer, it evens out the lips but looks very natural
Deauville 67 is a neutral mauve-brown with pink, slight sparkles (note this won’t be re-lipswatched, see makeover with Deauville here)
Bel-Ami 66 is a plum brown, also has slight shimmer, one of my favorites
My swatches are meh. Check out Karlasugar for the best ones of the entire lineup.
I have splurged on so many Chanel Rouge Coco Shine Lipsticks I probably can go the rest of my life without ever having to buy another sheer lipstick. I thought the wait time in between the sneak preview of Boy in February and the actual release in April was so long that I’d be over it by the time they arrived in-store. Initially I was not thrilled with the sheerness, lack of lasting power, small size, standard color and high price tag of Boy ($32). However, my thoughts on these lipsticks have changed since the initial release of Boy (on Valentine’s Day) as I have had a chance to play with the shades over the past months.
To quote one of my Chanel friends, LR, Boy is “a lightweight, glossy, non-sticky lipstick that compliments many a woman.” I agree with her 100% when she e-mailed me her thoughts on Boy saying, “this isn’t a wow color, but IS something you can put on in an elevator, which is my test for a foolproof lipstick.” Her description is dead-on.
I feel this is how most of the shades are – not exactly life-changing, but naturally flattering and easy to apply without requiring a mirror. Every woman is bound to find at least 1 shade that is naturally enhancing. While the lasting power is almost non-existent, it does feel amazing on the lips and fades in a subtle way so it’s not obvious you only have lipstick around the edges of your mouth. Application is super easy for touch ups. I find if I’ve added lipliner and blend it first, then apply the lipstick on top, lasting power is slightly better.
The big question is: with the new sheer lipstick rage, which brand is better, Chanel Rouge Coco Shines or the new Dior Addicts (previously reviewed in March and April)? The answer to that question will be different for everyone. For me, I think they are just different. Neither is better or worse, the finish, texture and color selections are just different.
Dior has more color options, the texture of the actual lipstick is harder, but still easy to apply. The lighter colors are sheer, the darker/brighter colors show up more. Those who like darker deeper colors will be pleased to find a good selection with the new Dior Addicts. The tubes are bigger than Chanel. I find lasting power slightly better than the Chanel Rouge Coco Shines.
Chanel has a softer texture. Tubes are extremely small and compact. There is a wide color selection, but not as diverse as Dior. I feel overall, the Chanel Rouge Coco Shines are sheerer because of the softness of the actual lipstick.
Both have a high-shine finish. Neither have a detectable scent. Both brands have a good range of colors and finishes. For the price, the Dior is the better buy. The packaging is designed so the product fills the entire tube – a bonus for me as I won’t ever have to worry about lipstick breakage. I have to admit I was overwhelmed by the color options in both brands. It took me at least 3 visits to really decide on colors. Even after that, I was overwhelmed and have decided to wait a few months before I try to look into more colors. After a few hours of hand-swatching, many of the Dior shades started to look the same.
Overall, I’m still not smitten with the price for the size of the Chanel Rouge Coco Shines. I believe it should have been priced around $24 max, but yet I have accumulated quite a few. These are all goof-proof, easy to apply, natural and glossy. I don’t know that I can say I find them moisturizing, but they definitely are not drying. The sheerness makes some of the neutrals look the same on my pigmented lips. I do love the brighter and darker ones. After having some difficulty with opaque lipsticks working because that shade just isn’t quite right, I think you come to appreciate sheer ones because they are just so much easier to work with.
I don’t think these are better or worse than the recently discontinued Aqualumieres. Just different. About the same in sheerness, but softer in texture and glossier in finish with less lasting power.
Now that I have shared my thoughts, I’m going to split up my review on the colors for Chanel Rouge Coco Shines into 2 parts on shades I haven’t covered. For prior coverage, you can see Misia here and Aventure here and Deauville here.
I took the day off work to go to South Coast Plaza. Two-day weekends simply don’t allow enough time to goof off and have fun. I just finished a series of presentations at work so I decided a day off was in order. There were so many beautiful window displays. How fun would it be to have a job in visuals? Unfortunately I didn’t get pictures of all the pretty ones because my iPhone died while I was there. Most of these are from today’s mini shopping trip. There are a couple that are from earlier in the year.
Miu Miu
Tiffany & Co.
Tod’s
Madewell
Louis Vuitton (from earlier this year, can’t believe it’s already mid-May)
Jo Malone – lovely Cherry Blossom displays
Chanel Boutique {swoon}
I missed out on Dior which always has beautiful displays, but you can see Dior’s reflection:
SpaceNK inside Bloomingdales (in the back corner of the beauty department) featuring Rococo Nail Apparel
Have a happy Friday! It appears Blogger is still working out a few kinks with their maintenance. I noticed a number of comments have mysteriously disappeared. If they aren’t restored in the next day or two, I will restore them myself from my emails.
For those wondering, all pics in this particular post were taken with my iPhone which I believe is the very first generation of iPhones. I’m one you would call a “late adopter” of technology and rarely upgrade on new gadgets unless pushed (my regular Sony camera is after all more than 5 years old). Although, when I do, I have to say, I love to oooh and aahhh at all the fancy features and often wonder why I didn’t change sooner.
Back on topic – who makes your favorite window displays?
I love layering and blending out colors, especially for makeup. Layering different textures and shades allows me to create extra depth and also helps to give that slight glowy finish. Layering multiple products is something I usually only do when going out for a special occasion. In the mornings, I’m always running 5 minutes behind. Makeup for work is usually kept as simple as possible, except for the rare occasions that I am able to wake up an extra 30 minutes early.
My makeup looks usually revolve around my clothes/outfit of the day or night. This past weekend I wore a simple floral strapless dress (shown here). It was fairly neutral so virtually any look would go with it. I realize this would be more helpful if I had a photo of my face to go with this, but this is more for my own personal reference since I was quite happy with the result. The numbers in each photo indicate the order of application.
Cheeks: I applied Armani’s Fluid Sheer #10 on cheeks and then applied Dior’s Aurora on top as a contour. I then took a separate blush brush and applied Chanel Espiègle just on the apples.
Lips: Simply line with liner. Fill with a sheer gold lipstick. Top with a sheer coral gloss.
Eyes: The first step was to apply Laura Mercier’s Metallic Gold Creme shadow on the lids as a base. I took the white side of NARS Exotic Dance and and dipped MAC’s 242 (a stiffer brush) into the frosty white and patted it on 1/2 way up the eyes. Taking a larger fluffy brush, I swished it into the golden tan shimmer of Exotic Dance and loosely applied it all over. Next, I took MAC’s Spare Change and applied it along upper lashes in a messy smudgey line and layered Le Metier’s Splendid Frost taupe on top to blend. Last steps were to add a clean fine black line along upper lashes and outer corners on the bottom. Finishing step was with Armani’s Eyes to Kill Mascara.
I’m loving spring pinks right now. I can’t get enough of them. They make me feel polished and brighten my skin in a soft and feminine way. A few favorites right now:
Chanel Riviera Le Vernis – reviewed here, featured here, compared to Rose Insolent here, duped here
Chanel Morning Rose Le Vernis – reviewed here and compared here
Compared to Bobbi Brown Pale Pink (old packaging) for color reference:
Morning Rose feels like it’s a bit faded looking – I think it’s because of the top coat I used which is the Dior from the Electric Tropics duos, I feel as though it doesn’t help colors last and makes them look slightly faded. It looks amazing on the Dior, not so much on Chanels.
