Chanel Rose Envolée Quadra Eye Shadow 31 is a beautiful palette of ivory, pink-gold (that flashes mostly gold), candy pink and plum-brown shimmers. The finish ranges from a satiny shimmer to a high-sparkle frost. I typically find the square-pan quads superior in quality and texture to the round-pan versions, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The pigment in Rose Envolée is a lot better than most Chanel quads with the round-pans (this one is Made in France), but the texture is still not as finely milled as the US square-pan version.
I played with it a bit this evening, applying MAC’s Paint Pot in Bare Study as a base, then I layered the ivory, from lash to 3/4 up and blended the pink-gold on top. I then applied Bobbi Brown’s Cocoa Mauve Gel liner and applied the dark chocolate-plum shade on top for a smudged liner. I have yet to figure out how to pull of that bright pink shade.
I couldn’t find a quad dupe, but here it is compared to my other Euro/Asia Baked Version Chanel Quads: Tentation Cuivrée and White Whisper. Note that the round-pan Chanel Quads come with tiny white-tipped applicators that are made of a soft squishy material (softer than the typical sponge-tip we have in the US quads). I find they are not very good at applying the colors, I prefer actual brushes.
Overall love. I still prefer the square pans, but this makes a lovely quad for spring that I think will transition nicely into summer.
As a recap, the Chanel Le Blanc Collection is an Asia Exclusive (like their Think Pink and Beige Collections from years past). I’ve scoured the web and called a couple Chanel Beaute Studios in the US. These beauty studios are just like the Chanel counters you see in department stores, but they also carry a few select pieces from various Imported Collections and the Boutique Exclusives. As of now, I think there are about 5, one at South Coast Plaza Bloomingdales, one in Seattle’s Nordstrom, one in Hawaii, a couple more perhaps. None of the locations I called said they would receive the Le Blanc items and they have no idea of what to expect next for their Imports collection.
Like many of my fellow Chanel fans in the USA – I think it would be amazing if Chanel would carry their Asia, Europe, Canada and other various country exclusive collections online via Chanel.com, even if it is in limited quantities. It would thrill me to no end!
Here is the second installment of the Bobbi Brown & Tibi collaboration, new for spring 2011. We got our first sneak peek with an exclusive set from Neimans Preview Set (reviewed here). I finally had a chance to see the other items in the Python & Peony Collection and fell in love with the new eyeshadow palette, Lilac lipstick and Pale Peony gloss.
Lilac Rich Lip Color has previously been reviewed and swatched here. To recap, it’s a lovely lilac-pinkish cream color. It’s on the neutral-cool side, but not too cool. Beautiful full coverage, soft lightweight but creamy texture, long lasting. Pale Peony Rich Color Gloss is a sheerish cream pink – compared to other colors in this formula I found Pale Peony on the sheer side, but it still gives a noticeable coverage. There is a slight mint scent. Texture is not as sticky as her regular glosses. Here they are compared to the Pink Lilac Brightening Gloss so you can gauge how cool/lavender/pink these are.
Pale Peony lip-swatched by itself (no liner or lipstick underneath):
I was going to pass on the Python & Peony Eyeshadow Palette mainly because I wasn’t too keen on the packaging. The zip closure is a bit difficult to handle for me (not to mention a bit difficult to hold while applying). However I was smitten with the color palette – I do wish these were available in individual pan form (would have passed on Cool Ivory, Plum Orchid and Eclipse). Opal is a pale cool greyish cream, Lavender is a cool pinkish lilac, Cool Ivory is a grey beige, Cobra is a metallic steel grey, Plum Orchid is a sheer plum, Eclipse is a sheer black. I found the matte colors chalky by themselves, but liked the way they layered over her gel liner or applied with a slightly damp brush.
Over the weekend, I applied Laura Mercier’s Gold Metallic Creme shadow on the lids and topped with Opal 1/2 way up the lid, layered Cobra on top mixed with the Plum Orchid & Eclipse over a dark black liner smudged and then blended.
Today for work, I applied UD’s Sin Primer Potion all over the lids, applied Opal as a wash with Lavender on the center of lids and blended softly upwards. Then I mixed Cobra with Eclipse together as a smokey liner over her Caviar Ink Gel Liner.
Swatched on the arm:
I do think the Lavender in the palette can look a bit too cool if applied with a heavy hand by itself. I’m one who loves light purples but often times in saturated doses it can look very dated. I personally think it looks best when combined with the other colors in the palette. Layering it over a sheer gold cream shadow (not something I think most think of) like Laura Mercier’s Gold Metallic Creme shadow can help balance out the pink/cool tones. If you are finding it too cool – play around with it and layer it on top of other shades or add a smokey silver on top and blend together.
Overall love but I do hope Bobbi Brown slows down with the palettes. I like to pick out my own colors =)
It’s that time of year when Laura Mercier releases several limited edition value sets at Nordstrom (here), Neimans (here) and Saks (here). Each store has their own special kit with exclusive items including a mix of full size products plus minis for $68. This year, the Saks Premiere Beauty Collection appealed most to me with the following items:
Brown zippered bag with a paisley lining
Full sized Tightline Cake Eye Liner in Ground Espresso
Full sized Lip Glacé in Pink Lilac (sheer milky lilac pink)
Eye Colour Duo in Dusk (shimmery pink-lilac) & Chocolate (shimmery brown)
Mini Black Full Blown Volume Lash Building Mascara
Double-Ended Pony Tail/Flat Eye Liner Brush
To break down the cost per full sized items: Liner $22 + Eyeshadow $22 + Lip Glacé $22 = $66. For the additional $2 you get a decent sampling of other items not to mention a nice travel brush (I’ve collected a number of mini brushes from LM sets over the years and rely on them when traveling).
I purchased this sight unseen online, mainly for the new Lip Gloss, Eyeshadow Duo & Brush. I plan on regifting the other items. I’ve had the Cake Eyeliners used on me on multiple Laura Mercier makeover events but I prefer pencil or gel liners to liquid or cake (so this item won’t be swatched). Dusk/Chocolate is a gorgeous combination – I already have Dusk in a mini sample size and like that it’s lilac and cool-toned but not too purple. I find that lilac/lavender eyeshadows can sometimes look dated.
Pink Lilac is beautiful in the tube but very sheer and practically invisible on the lips. I think it will make a good enhancing color for sheer pink and lilac colored lipsticks.
Overall a great value and nice combination of colors. I would have preferred something other than the cake liner since there is already a dark shadow (Chocolate) – like a blush or lipstick, but I know it will be easily regift-able. The lip gloss is pretty but sheer and light, perhaps it will show up better on girls with lighter lips or lighter skintones. I know I’ll get a lot of use with layering it, but I would have preferred more pigment and color. The set also comes with a mini instruction card but I found it very basic.
Have any of you checked out any of the Special Edition sets at Saks, Neimans or Nordstrom? Did any of you pick one up? Thoughts/rants/raves?
I’m always looking for that perfect shade of nude even though I have quite a few favorites (Chanel Mythic & Luminous, Bobbi Brown Beige Gold, MAC High Tea). Everyone has a different interpretation of what they see as a true nude (see an older post here, What’s Your Definition of Nude?) – for me a true nude is something flesh colored. Light nude beiges don’t always work for me, many require tweaking with layering of extra gloss or liner (what I call my high maintenance nudes). Sometimes there are nude colors that are simply too neutral or beige and end up washing me out, but my curiosity always gets the best of me, I can’t help but check out every variation of beige.
A few new discoveries, thoughts, and swatches: MAC Viva Glam Gaga 2 Lipstick & Lipglass, Zoya Naomi Nail Polish, Burberry Trench Eyeshadow, MAC Gana Blush (from the Mickey Contractor collection).
First up are the newest additions to the MAC Viva Glam series: Gaga 2 Lipstick and Lipglass. Both are creamy neutral grey-beiges in the tubes but go on with a slightly peachy cast on the skin. These are true nudes, both of which I find fall under my “high maintenance” nudes category. The Gaga 2 Lipstick resembles concealer on my lips. It has full coverage (the amplified formula) with rich and creamy texture. Having tried other MAC nudes like Cherish, Creme d’Nude and Peachstock, I know this one will work better once layered over a darker liner (and blended of course) like MAC Stripdown and then topped with clear lipglass. I’ve swatched it alone below. Thumbs down by itself – the color just makes my skin look dirty and I look lifeless. Gaga 2 Lipglass is the exact same shade of nude, it’s not quite as flat and has the tiniest bit of sparkle in the tube. The shimmer doesn’t show up on the lips. For some reason the glossy texture makes it more forgiving on the lips. Thumbs up for this one! It’s a wearable nude, but I think MAC Revealing Lipglass is a more universally flattering beige nude. This one is also featured below alone (no lipstick or liner underneath).
In direct sunlight:
Zoya Naomi is an opalescent beige with a soft silver sheen. I ordered this from Zoya.com sight unseen along with a few of the Zoya Spoons. I haven’t tried too many Zoya Nail Polishes yet, but so far I’ve been extremely pleased with the finish, pigment and wearability of the colors. However, my experience with the Zoya neutrals is similar to my experience with Essie neutrals – what you see in the bottle doesn’t always translate to what you get on the fingers. In this case, I found Zoya Naomi a bit too warm for my beige skintone. I had to tweak it with a layer of a sheer silvery pink to get it to work. (Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post to see what I used.) Lovely color with 2 coats, just needed a slight change for my own liking.
Burberry Trench Eyeshadow is one of the best nudes I have ever tried. It’s deceptively boring and dull looking in the pan and swatched on my fingers, but it has a soft velvety texture that brightens and evens out the eye lids with a subtle luminescence. I love it. This isn’t entirely new (bought it back in late August in San Francisco’s Nordstrom) but I haven’t gotten around to reviewing it. I really love Burberry’s soft eyeshadows. I can’t wait for them to release more colors.
Burberry Trench finger swatched (on the hands it just melts/blends):
MAC Gana Frost Blush from the Mickey Contractor Collection was exclusive to select MAC Pro Stores and online. It’s a soft champagne grey pink shimmer powder that looks pretty on the eyes and as a highlighter on the temples. I don’t know if it’s still available or easy to find. It’s the closest thing I’ve found to Estee Lauder’s Tom Pecheux Highlighter (reviewed here) but with a pinkish/grey sheen. Those who can’t find it and want something similar that you can still find, MAC’s Beauty Powder in Play it Proper similar in effect.
Gana Swatched on bare skin:
All the new nudes swatched on arm, two views:
Have you tried any of these nudes I just reviewed? What are your thoughts if you have tried them? I’m especially interested to hear your thoughts on the Viva Glam Gaga 2 Lipstick and Lipglass – how are you making these work for you?
There’s something irresistible about a shimmery palette of neutral eyeshadows for me. I immediately jumped on board for the Calanque shadow trio and Hollywoodland soft touch shadow pencil from the NARS Spring 2011 collection. Perhaps I jumped a bit too soon for the trio, although I do love the new shadow pencil.
Calanque Trio Eyeshadow $45: To date, NARS has released 2 eyeshadow trios, this is the first one I’ve tried. I bought the Calanque Trio sight unseen – my Nordstrom NARS SA was out for the whole week so I used the Order Online Pickup Instore option since there was no tester unit in sight nor were there any NARS reps available. The colors in the palette are:
Pale soft champagne chunky sparkle
Neutral camel fawn with a satin finish
High shimmer bronze
I used this today over NARS Corfu Cream Shadow applying the powders on the eyes in layers with fingers. Step 1: Apply Corfu, Step 2: apply lightest sparkle first, camel second, Step 3: Apply a smudgy bronze liner, Step 4: Apply bronze with finger smudged and blended over the liner.
Thumbs up for the middle and darker shades. The camel color is soft and almost buttery like and blends easily. The darker shade is borderline khaki but has enough brown to be a beautiful unique shade. If you’re looking for that true minimalist look this is lovely.
Thumbs down for the poor layering quality. These colors really need to be layered over creams (cream base, cream shadow or smudgy liner). The powders in this trio do not layer well over each other. I normally layer and blend over creams anyways – these just take a bit more work. I recommend using a denser thicker brush to apply the colors by patting and softly blending. Thumbs down for the price as well (at least for the size and amount of product you get). The cons for me exceed the pros.
Amy from Café Makeup has a lovely review of Calanque for lighter skin. Her photos are phenomenal!
Hollywoodland Soft Touch Shadow Pencil ($24) is a gorgeous shimmery warm beige-gold. I have these pencils in Goddess (soft pink champagne) and Aigle Noir (black with gold sparkle) and like the lighter colors better. They are pretty when applied all over the lid alone, as a base, or just combined with a liner. Lasting power is medium for the lighter shades and non-existent for the darker ones (at least in my experience). Do they crease? I wish I could answer – the only cream product I have had crease on my monolids is NARS’s Eyeshadow Base (and yes I know it has no color, but it still showed crease lines on me). This pencil is gorgeous and right up my alley.
Calanque Comparisons (all swatched over UDPP, neutrals don’t show up well on my arm):
Hollywoodland Comparisons (over bare arm):
Overall – love the pencil, but I could have passed on the trio. I think the texture of Edie and Abyssinia singles are far superior to the Calanque trio. The colors are hard to dupe but not must-haves in my opinion. Perhaps it will take more experimenting for me to really like it. Surprise for those of you who think I’m way too obsessed with neutrals! I have found a neutral palette that is too neutral for me.
Applying with the fingers worked just fine this morning and lasted all day over the cream shadow, but it’s not ideal as the oils from my fingers are bound to ruin the surface texture. I thought I loved it earlier this morning when I applied it, I really liked the result, but after playing around with it more at home this evening with brushes I’ve become less in love, especially after comparing it to the soft texture of the NARS singles and duos. Again, I know this is supposed to give a minimalist effect – but All About Eve, Edie, Silk Road, Abyssinia & Nepal are all minimalist neutrals but give a better payoff enhancing the eyes much better with natural glowy highlights.
On the upside for NARS – you can see they are doing much better in their promotional campaigns with accurate photos! I received a spring flyer in the mail and you can see their photos are pretty darn good. Yay for better presentation to help us get a more realistic idea of what to expect before we get to see the real live product =)
I’m venturing into newer territory with Guerlain this spring. I haven’t tried much from the line except a few seasonal items here and there over the past years. I’ve loved everything I have (quads, singles, rouge g) but for some reason still find their high prices and glitzy packaging a bit intimidating at times. However take the Twitter buzz and excitement from @naturalNchicmak and @CafeMakeup and combine it with the beautiful swatches from Yuki’s Lazy Channel and the cause-effect outcome is that I had to check it out.
Série Noire Blush G, Rose Desir Rouge G, Ombré Éclat in L’instant D’une Ondee 186 & L’instant D’une Soupir 187
The most highly-anticipated item of this collection is the new Blush G, Série Noire ($67), which is labeled on the compact as the “Secret to a Healthy Glow.” It is indeed glowy with four layers of embossed shimmers. NaturalNChicMakeup has lovely swatches on her blog as well and really captures the shimmers in great detail (see her review here). She also has a great feature on the packaging.
So does it really give a healthy glow? Yes, but it’s almost too glowy. When all shades are swirled together it creates a vibrant golden-pink blush but at the same time it applies cool on my cheeks (even if it swatches warm on my arm). To me, this is like a cool-pink version of NARS Orgasm blush. It also applies similar in the sense that it’s very easy to go one swipe too heavy and end up looking sunburned. The pigment is a difficult thing to describe – the texture is finely milled and very soft which allows you to build up layers to suit your preference. I had a difficult time playing with it today, it either looked too sheer or too fake. I have a similar experience with Chanel Fresque which is a lovely light peach, but one stroke too many leaves me looking like a clown.
I personally prefer something a tad bit warmer on the skin like Bobbi Brown’s Antigua Illuminating Shimmer Powder, but the Guerlain Série Noire is unique and beautiful. I will simply need more practice and experiment with different blush brushes to see which one will give the best application.
All the lipsticks from the Guerlain Spring Collection are beautiful. Due to the high price tag, I decided to limit myself to just one, Rose Desir #71 ($47). It’s very sparkly on the back of the hand, but on the lips it sheers out and you get a healthy pink tint. Those concerned that these might be too sheer to show up need not worry. They definitely show up! They just have a glossy shine with has a soft texture. I couldn’t detect a scent and it feels nice on the lips. The packaging this spring is still the metal mirrored tube but this season’s color is black. I like it much better than the silver ones which tarnish easily.
The last items I wanted to feature include two of the new eyeshadow singles, Ombré Éclat in L’instant D’une Ondee 186 & L’instant D’une Soupir 187 ($36 each).
I’ve found the Guerlain single shadows to be hit and miss. Some are simply too sheer, but the ones that do have a good soft texture show up better. #186 is a cool dove-grey with very subtle shimmer. #187 is a high frost bronzey taupe.
Overall thoughts: This collection has the most beautiful packaging this season. My interest in Guerlain is growing as I start to explore their primers and foundations. Still the high price tag prevents me from putting this brand at the top of my list of things to check out. I personally have avoided the Guerlain counter (like the Cle de Peau counter) simply because I find the price points intimidating, but easy to justify with an eager sales associate there to help push you along. Still, the quality is excellent and formula/textures beautiful. The packaging is a true work of art down to the little details of the embossed powders and clever mirrored lipstick.
I spotted Dior’s Spring 2011 collection at Nordstrom but the tester unit seemed to be missing a few things from the previews we’ve been seeing (see magazine scan here). I wasn’t sure if they simply filled in the slots with pre-existing items temporarily or if the US really wasn’t getting all the items we’ve been seeing. The usual Dior rep was off at the time I was there, so I couldn’t verify with her. Some of the items may be Sephora exclusives. I ended up with Gris-Gris 034 Couture Colour Eyeshadow Palette and Gris Montaigne 707 Nail Lacquer – which also happens to be one of the shades from the Gris City nail polish trio.
Gris-Gris 034 is a palette of cool grey, silver, charcoal and sky blue. Using all 5 shades on the eye at one time is not practical for me – the colors are too cool-toned for my skin. I find that the best way to use this is to use 3 shades at the most from this palette and applying the paler shades with a light hand, using a dark grey or black liner smudged, then applying the middle dark charcoal shade on top blending for a smokey eye.
The colors on the outer corners have a high-frost finish when applied with a heavy hand, but blend out to a pretty soft frosty glow. Applied with a softer hand you get a nice dusting of sparkle. The middle shade is a matte dark greyish-black with the prettiest multi-colored micro sparkles. It twinkles when the slightest bit of light hits it. It’s borderline too cool for my skin, it needs a bit of tweaking with something warm like a light dusting of bronzer to make it work better for me.
Gris-Gris unique in the sense that the formula and finish of Dior Quints are hard to match from any other brand. I don’t know of a similar palette that has all 5 shades in one compact. However, the silvery shades have definitely been done before – but in separate palettes, brands and singles. For your reference, here is Dior Gris-Gris compared to other Dior Quints such as Moonlight, Smoky Crystal and Sky Glow. Below it is also compared to Chanel single eyeshadows in Platine, Silvery and Black Star. While the Gris-Gris shades aren’t identical to any of the other colors, you can see quite a few similarities in other eyeshadows.
For the nails, there was a cream pink and a cream grey shade in the tester unit. I picked Gris Montaigne 707. This comes with the same new chiseled/tapered brush that came with the Holiday Nail Lacquers (see here). I find the metallic Dior nail polishes to be a hit or miss, but this non-shimmer formula has me really impressed! You do need 2 thin coats, but the result is a smooth and glossy and the formula is non-goopy. It also seems to dry faster than most nail polishes I’ve tried. A big thumbs up for me.
Two coats, no base or top coat:
I went through my nail polish stash and didn’t find many non-shimmery greys. The only one I have is RBL Stormy (which you can see is lighter than Gris Montaigne). Here is the Dior compared to other silvery greyish colors.
