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New From Edward Bess: Soft Orchid, Soft Smoke & After Sunset

April 26, 2010

I featured a sneak peek of the newest items from Edward Bess about a month ago and am happy to report my presale finally arrived! I am thrilled with my new purchases – the colors are amazing in texture and finish. The new items I ordered:

Soft Orchid Blush, Soft Smoke Eyeshadow Trio, After Sunset Compact Rouge

I had the pleasure of speaking to Edward over the phone and he was so kind to give me detailed descriptions and he was spot-on in comparing the new shades to his existing line. To recap:

Soft Smoke Eyeshadow Trio: which has a pale color similar in concept to their Nude eyeshadow, but brighter less creamy/beige, a soft dove-grey which is described as EB’s first true grey (a sister shade to Dusk which isn’t a true grey since it has a more mossy finish), a deep dark charcoal not quite as dark as Night Eyeshadow
Soft Orchid Blush: soft cool pink
After Sunset Compact Rouge: described as a burned rose, almost bronzey reddish-brown

I don’t have swatches but I do have comparisons to some other colors, so hopefully this will help you get a better idea of the shades:

I really like Soft Smoke for a good smokey eye. It’s what I wanted Chanel Smokey Eyes Quad to be (but was just not the right combination leaving me with tired eyes). The shades are similar in color family to Night, Nude and Dusk, but just as Edward described, are definitely different in undertone and finish.

The new Soft Orchid blush looks coolish in the pan but is very flattering giving a soft pink glow.

After Sunset is equally stunning – something I know darker skinned girls would definitely love. But as a light-medium girl right now, I think it’s very flattering on my skin as well since it blends out nicely.

All were purchased from Bergdorf Goodman for their giftcard event. For more info about the line, click on the Edward Bess Tag below and you’ll find lots more articles and reviews on his products that I’ve tried plus a few guest articles from other EB fans!

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Mini Shu Uemura + Laura Mercier Haul

April 19, 2010

I had a $50 giftcard to Neimans that expired on the 18th and since Shu Uemura was going to be pulled from the store soon, I decided to look at the line to see if there was anything I could find. I found two shadows that I didn’t recognize in IR Brown 850 and P Purple 781, and to reach the $50 minimum for my gift card, I decided on one of the new Laura Mercier summer lipglosses in Glistening Sand. I also had a few cards I received in the mail for a mini Rouge Coco in Legende and a mini DiorShow. I had received the cards in the mail about a month ago – but they didn’t get their samples in until recently.

Laura Mercier has 3 featured glosses for the summer collection: Glistening Sand (a beige with gold sparkles), Bon Bon (repromote, a bright salmon coral pink), and another bright coral (forget the name). She reformulated her bronzers with a wave-like pattern, but as far as I could tell they looked the same as the older ones. There were also 3 new eyeshadows which I neglected to pay attention to, one was a teal, the others were golden. Glistening Sand seems pretty sheer unfortunately – but it will be pretty over other beigey-nude lipsticks. (I don’t test glosses at the counter for sanitary reasons.)

The Shu Uemura eyeshadows have good pigment when applied over a base or with a damp brush. IR Brown 850 is a taupe with a slight greenish tinge on my skin. P Purple 781 is a matte purple-brownish base with silver micro-sparkles.

Eyeshadows are swatched wet (with a damp brush) and dry:

Minis: DiorShow Mascara + Chanel Legende Rouge Coco

All in all, not bad for $15!

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Dior Summer Quints Part 2: Swatches + Comparisons

April 8, 2010

I was able to play around with my new Dior Summer Quints a bit more and find them amazing! Please note the swatches don’t do the actual product justice, these were swatched on a bare arm so the color on the lighter shades don’t show up as well with the flash washing it out a bit.

If I had to pick 1 quint for the summer, it would definitely be Ready-To-Glow, it just seems more unique to me. Although Crush Glow is equally gorgeous, I know I will get good use out of both! The pigment is medium-to-rich, texture easily blendable, finish is glowy and shimmery. The frost is definitely on the higher end, but I don’t find these overly frosty. That being said, I typically only use 3 shades at a time from a Dior Quint. Using all 5 just isn’t very practical for my eyeshape and skintone, although the concept is quite appealing. I simply cannot pull off that many shades at once on my small eyelid area.

Dior Ready-To-Glow 649 + Comparisons:

Dior Crush Glow 659 + Comparisons:

* Note for Lexi – I know you wanted a dupe for the center shade, I compared it to MAC at the counter today, it’s most similar to Paradisco, but the Dior is a lot more pigmented, and a bit lighter – I tried to save my hand swatch, but it didn’t last the car ride home

I won’t be swatching the comparisons. It took a great deal of effort to find dupes because the colors just seemed so unique to me. The Dior Summer Quints all have a multi-dimentional quality which creates a “glow” like the names imply. YMMV depending on your screen, but I couldn’t find exact dupes for any of the Summer Quints, so I pulled what I thought was the closest in color family to provide a comparison and help you gauge the colors depending on your computer screen.

While $58 USD is pricey for an eyeshadow palette, if you factor in the convenience , quality, pigment and price per eyeshadow, it comes to about $11.60 for 1.2 grams. My MAC Eyeshadows range from 1.3 to 1.5 grams for $11.00 (pro-palette form) or $14.50 so if you think about the price in those terms, Dior isn’t really too bad. Overpriced, yes, but RIDICULOUSLY overpriced, no. (Then again, this is only my opinion.)

I didn’t see much else featured in this collection – they are featuring 3 of the Lip Polishes 001, 002 and 003 (which were a Sephora exclusive before) along with some of the new Addict Glosses. There is also a liptint/lipgloss charm in a heavy silver compact with chain. The tester unit wasn’t set up fully, and it seemed to have random testers put in the empty slots. My SA at Nordstrom said she hadn’t received everything yet and wasn’t sure when the rest would be arriving, so I’m not sure if there are any nail polishes or blushes featured with this collection.

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Get Your Glow On with Dior Summer Quints: Ready-To-Glow 649 & Crush Glow 659

April 6, 2010

Dior Summer 2010 has arrived in-store with two stunning quints, Ready-To-Glow 649 and Crush Glow 659. This is only a preview, I don’t have swatches, comparisons, or a full review yet, but stay tuned for an update in the next day or so. Both come in the Iridescent Eyeshadow formula and retail for $58 each. Indeed the names are suitable for both palettes because they radiate pure lovely glowiness when you open the compacts.

Ready-To-Glow 649 is a neutral-cool palette. It seems like a more neutral variation of Smoky Crystal 089, which I’m completely in love with, but the new summer quint has less intense-contrasts in colors and softer more muted shades.

Crush Glow 659 is the warmer variation, which I am happy to report isn’t too warm as I had initially thought it would be based on preview pictures. Still, it’s on the warm side, but lovely and very wearable.

I haven’t had a chance to test these on my eyes, but the testers at Nordies were extremely soft and pigmented. It seems that the summer collections come out earlier every year. This collection seems suitable for spring, although their Spring Lace Collection was equally stunning and suitable for spring. I’m just happy they released a mini collection that seems to be well suited for year round – at least in Southern California.

Again, note that my work is copyrighted, please do not republish or hotlink my photos. Thanks!

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Lunasol Beige Beige Skin Modeling Eyes

April 5, 2010

One of my very first posts focused on 3 Lunasol Eyeshadow Quads I was lucky enough to get thanks to my wonderful sister while she was in Japan. I’ve received requests for more reviews on Japanese brands, which I would love to do, but I have a very small stash of items that come directly from Japan. I realized I never swatched these, so thought this might be a good time to give a more in-depth review.

I discovered this brand thanks to one of my favorite bloggers, Haru at Rouge Deluxe. I’ve been a long-time fan of hers and her blog is one of my daily reads. I highly recommend you check out her blog (the Lunasol tag is linked above) for more pictures, swatches, reviews and lovely EOTDs.

Beige Beige 01 is reported to be the brand’s Number 1 seller in Japan and comes in the Skin Modeling Eyes formula. It has 3 variations of beige plus 1 glimmering chocolate color. I’d describe this as a true classic beige eyeshadow palette for light to medium to medium-dark skintones + a natural chocolate liner shade that softly defines the eye.

I love the fact that the Lunasol website has a “How To Use” diagram for each eyeshadow palette by formula which I find incredibly helpful, even though with beige colors, it’s hard to go wrong any way you apply the colors. This palette gives you a great fail-proof set of beiges that will give you an enhanced but naturally defined glowing eye look.

Swatches top to bottom are in same order as diagram above, A, B, C, D:

Look I did today with the Lunasol Beige Beige Quad using NARS St. Barts + South Beach Multiples blended on cheeks, NARS Serato dusted on top, MAC Teddy Eyeliner, MAC Spice Lipliner, D&G Sparkling Lipstick, MAC Moth to Flame Dazzleglass.

Are there dupes for this quad? Probably yes, but I haven’t found any other brand that can replicate the texture and pigment of these eyeshadows. The palest shade is the most sparkly, border line glittery, but the others have a sophisticated shimmer that is very flattering and natural looking. The pigment for this quad is very high in my opinion, it has the buttery soft texture of colors from MAC’s Starflash Eyeshadows but better pigment. The swatches on the skin don’t do this quad justice for how the colors look on the eyes! Unfortunately, the pigment did not translate onto my arm.

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Love Dior Set by Tyen

April 2, 2010

I am so excited to tell you all I have found the Limited Edition Love Dior Set by Tyen! For this purchase, I have Marina from Makeup4All to thank for writing about the set back last October in her Tyen: 30 Years of Creation Love Dior Palette and also my fellow makeup guru Parsi who told me she spotted it at the Dior Boutique in Las Vegas and immediately sent me a rave review knowing this would be something I would be interested in learning more about. The Dior Boutique in the Forum Shops did have a few left in stock and I was ecstatic!

The set is called Love Dior which retails for $80 US. It comes with an Eyeshadow Palette that is called Love Dior, but can also be used on cheeks as a highlighter. There is also a gorgeous nail polish that has complex shimmers of burgandy-wine-purple-fuschia which I am absolutely in love with.

One more shot, natural light:

I haven’t had a chance to play with the palette yet. It’s too pretty, I don’t know that I want to touch it. The “i” in the Dior arrived crumbled, but no biggie. I will try to pull some similar nail polish shades to do a comparison post soon!

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Color Focus: Dove Grey Eyeshadows

March 30, 2010

I find it incredible how many different variations of grey there are. One particular color I don’t come across very often is dove-grey for eyeshadows, but perhaps this is because I don’t look for it very often. I personally define dove-grey as a blueish grey, but even the ones I pull out are probably subject to interpretation. I didn’t think I had many dove-grey shadows, but I managed to pull out a number of barely used dove-grey shadows from my stash. I need to use these more often. Even for something I would define as “dove-grey” there are quite a few variations. Some of them look more blue than grey. And I was surprised how neutral/warm Apres Ski looks on my skin compared to what I see in the container.

Armani Cream #2 (LE from Spring 2005), NARS Notorious (discontinued), Jouer Truffle, MAC Scene, Becca Chinchilla, Laura Mercier Stone Suede Satinee, Stila Shore, Laura Mercier Sable, Laura Mercier Twilight Grey, MAC Copperplate, MAC Apres Ski