Chantecaille’s Les Dauphins Palette & Bourbon Rose Lip Chic are more beautiful than words can describe. I’ve been thinking of how I can give a review that does justice to the Les Dauphins Palette – and all I can say is I think it’s a must-have for those who love soft spring-like neutrals and especially those who love taupey shadows. Bourbon Rose is the softer color out of the 2 spring lip chics. It’s a natural rosey pink – similar to Tea Rose, but slightly lighter and has golden shimmer.
Another view with flash:
Without flash:
I haven’t had time to do swatches of this palette, but Karlasugar has already done an amazing feature on all the items – so I highly recommend you check out her post if you haven’t already.
I played around with the palette at Neimans and the color on the dolphins is an overspray. The shadows and blush all have a lovely subtle shimmer. I’m typically not a huge fan of split-pan shadows or blushes, but all the colors in this palette are so pretty, I don’t mind.
This is the planned look of the day with the Chantecaille Dauphins Palette & Bourbon Rose Lip Chic.
Cheeks: Giorgio Armani Blush 1 Chantecaille Dauphins Palette Eyes: Chantecaille Dauphins Palette Giorgio Armani Eyeliner #12
Lips: MAC Naked Rose Lipliner Chantecaille Bourbon Rose Lip Chic MAC Full For You Plushglass
Outfit: Jcrew Button Top Banana Republic Beige Pencil Skirt Jimmy Choo Black Pumps Gucci Princy Tote
The entire Trish McEvoy Demure Collection has finally arrived instore at Nordstrom. A few days ago I wrote about the lipstick Gorgeous Demure, today I’m bringing you a feature and review on the new Eye Base Essentials in Demure Sparkle which retails for $24.
My thoughts on this product: The more I experiment with it, the more I like it. The first time I tried it, I wasn’t wowed, but still ended up purchasing it. I tried it on instore and reluctantly agreed to a mini Trish McEvoy makeup application. The artist applied it heavily on the eyes without any eyecream and the proceeded to apply more light lilac-pink shadows on it giving me a chalk-like look. It didn’t help that she kept using the phrase “I love it, don’t you love it?” over and over and over again.
In my past experience with other Trish McEvoy Eye Base Essentials, I know they aren’t great alone on the eyes. They are simply too dry. But I find this the case with MAC Paint Pots too. My solution = apply a light layer of eye cream on the eyes first and this helps the color blend out better. (I really like the Eye Cream from Nars because it’s a gel base rather than a heavy cream.) So I knew that chalky-powdery look I got instore wouldn’t necessarily be what I got at home applying it myself.
The color is a pale powdery pink and you can only see the sparkle when it is blended out. On my hand it looks really chalky. On the eyes alone it appears chalky too, but I don’t think it’s meant to be worn alone as an all-over wash. I think it’s really intended to be an eye base for other shadows.
Here it is swatched heavily:
Here it is swatched but blended out:
Compared to some other pale pink cream eyeshadows including Bobbi Brown Ballet Pink and Laura Mercier Pink Chiffon:
Swatch comparisons, 2 swatches of each color, the first one is applied heavily, the second is blended out:
If you’re fair skinned and find that most pinks look too dark on you, the Trish McEvoy Demure Sparkle might be the answer to your search. If you’re medium skinned or darker I think you might find it too pale. I used this as a base yesterday with NARS Brousse and All About Eve Duos and I have to say I was pretty impressed that my eyeshadow lasted all evening through a 4 hour client meeting and 2.5 hour class.
It depends on what you want for this type of product. If you want an eye base and like pale colors, you will like this. If you’re simply looking for a pink cream eyeshadow – I suggest you look elsewhere.
The items featured in this collection include:
Gorgeous Demure Lipstick – light nude pink (as in very light and washed out)
Irresistible Pink Lip Gloss – shimmery bright rosey-reddish pink (seems similar to a discontinued color, I want to say it was called Rose, but I’m not 100% certain)
All Over Face Color in London and Capri – simply a repromote of her discontinued face shines, London is a pale champagne, Capri is a deeper bronze, they seemed really sheer and just looked like sparkle on the skin
Demure Sparkle – pale pink cream with subtle sparkles
I was initially excited from the promo photos (you can see these at TrishMcevoy.com or on Karlasugar’s blog) but my first reaction to seeing the entire collection in person was “meh.” The lipstick was too pale, the lipgloss was too bright, the face shines too sheer/sparkley. It made me wonder, am I a difficult customer? Or do I just have too much good stuff already? Probably a little bit of both.
Last week I shared a few other items from Nars Holiday 2009: Luxor, Brousse, Eurydice & Aigle Noir. This weekend I was able to check out the entire tester unit (since it wasn’t blocked by tools and tissue boxes from the event) and picked up two more items Taiga Eyeshadow Duo and Mousson Cream Eyeshadow.
No swatches for these, but Taiga has a sheer sparkley light golden color and a shimmery olive-greyish green. The duo does seem to be a bit more sheer than most of his eyeshadows, but is still gorgeous in my opinion. Definitely test it out before buying.
Mousson is the prettiest sparkley silvery-green color. I don’t have a crease so I don’t have to worry about creasing. I know a lot of ladies don’t like the Nars Cream Eyeshadows – I must be in the minority because I have several that I use regularly and love. I do find they fade faster than most, but I personally don’t mind!
I love the smokey eye looks that come out for fall but until recently, it seems like most all the lines usually release the typical variations of black and grey for their “smokey look.” I am not one who can pull of black eyeshadow or eyeliner easily because it’s often too harsh or ends up looking blueish on my skin. I have to opt for other deep colors and did a series on Smokey Eye Variations back in June and am so excited that lines are now releasing collections with a “black/smokey” theme that include colors other than just black or grey.
I just discovered 2 new deep purple shimmery eyeshadows from MAC and Dior and thought I’d pull out some of my favorite deep purples to compare.
1. Dior Ultra-Smooth High Impact Eyeshadow in #186 Ultra Violet 2. MAC Mineralize Eyeshadow in Young Punk 3. Laura Mercier Sateen Eyeshadow in Kir Royal 4. MAC Fertile Eyeshadow 5. Giorgio Armani Maestro #18 6. Bobbi Brown Metallic Eyeshadow in After Hours 7. Stila Poise
A few other pictures of smokey purples:
1. Bobbi Brown Metallic in After Hours 2. Chanel Magic Night 3. MAC Smut 4. MAC Deep Purple Pigment (Pro)
Stopped by the Shu Uemura store today to try out their new Eye Brow Gel in Seal Brown and am happy to report that the new brow formula is much easier to work with than their hard formula pencil. I wouldn’t quite call these a “gel” – it’s more like a cream-powder mixture that is sheer so you can easily fill in the brows without it looking too harsh.
I have dark black-brown hair with natural red highlights and have a hard time finding a good brow product. Black is often too harsh, and it’s difficult for me to find the right shade of brown. At beauty events, Chanel makeup artists always use the Blonde Eye Brow Pencil on me – sometimes it works, other times it looks way too ashy. Shu Uemura looks deceptively pale in the photograph, but worked well on my dark brows.
I finally got my hands on the new Stila Smudge Pots in Black Cat, Kitten, and Little Black Dress. I found these at my local Ulta – I’ve heard several sighting posts around various message boards. The store near me didn’t have them on display but the manager on duty this morning was kind enough to allow his staff to pull them from the back since I told him I didn’t need to test them out and knew what I wanted to get already.
Here are the new shades compared to Golden Noir from the Indian Summer Collection. Each retail for $20. Not all of them are online yet, but the release dates for each collection are September, so I expect these to be trickling in soon. FYI, from the Barbie Loves Stila collection, there are also two other smudge pot shades. Check stilacosmetics.com for more details.
Left to right: Golden Noir, Black Cat, Little Black Dress, Kitten
Descriptions + links to Stila’s and Sephora’s websites:
* Golden Noir – a black base with gold shimmer, according to stila, “This new twist on the cult favorite Smudge Pot sprinkles genuine 24kt gold flakes into the rich matte black base leaving eyes gilded and glam.”
* Black Cat – a soft black with a cooler base than Golden Noir, but this might be due to the silver sparkles that are in the product (haven’t seen this online yet)
* Little Black Dress – described online as a “black with pink shimmer” this really seems more like a deep purple infused with pink and violet shimmers which was surprising to me, especially since it swatched brighter than what it looked like in the pot
* Kitten – this is a shimmery nude champagne pink, similar to the powder eyeshadow version, seems like an odd shade to have as a liner, but I will probably use this more like a cream eyeshadow
Close up photos of the black smudge pots with flash:
Close up of smudge pots in natural sunlight:
Swatches of the shades with comparisons (with flash on bare skin):
1) Bobbi Brown Black Ink 2) Stila Golden Noir Smudgepot 3) Stila Black Cat Smudgepot 4) Stila Little Black Dress 5) Bobbi Brown Violet Ink 6) Stila Kitten Smudgepot 7) Bobbi Brown Beach Honey Cream Shadow 8) Benefit RSVP Creaseless Cream Shadow
Swatches in natural sunlight without flash (same as above):
FYI – the original post has been updated with a review. Perhaps the darker colors like Starry Night and Starry Purple will show up better. But unless you’re a fan of glitter, you’re probably better off trying her original cream shadows if you like creams or metallic powder eyeshadows if you want something metallic.
Definitely recommend trying these out in person as your mileage may vary based on tastes.
