Edward Bess has several new exciting products that are being released for fall and holiday. His new face quad called Summer in Capri ($45 for .25oz/7g) has recently been released in-store at Bergdorf Goodman and online on his website. It’s a beautiful highlighter with four shades of tan and peach all of which contain a lovely subtle pearl glow. The powder is encased in a rectangular black mirrored compact complete with a face brush for application. The texture is soft and the powder is finely milled and applies beautifully on the skin to give you that subtle glow from within.
On my face it adds a lovely beautiful soft light peachy glow. The luminosity resembles Chanel Poudre Douce with a slightly more contoured finish since the Edward Bess Summer in Capri has two shades of beige/tan. I really love the little brush that comes in the compact. The handle is beveled to a point which makes it easy to hold and the brush head is wide enough to cover the whole cheek with two sweeps. On the face I’ve worn this over his Daydream Bronzer to add a subtle glow and I love the way it makes the skin look. Each shade individually also works on the eyes (I love it layered over his Sunlight cream highlighter) as a lovely all-over lid color. My favorites for the eyes are the bottom two shades layered together for a very subtle contour.
Best Things in Beauty has a lovely review and managed to get all four shades to show up in her swatches (something I was not able to do). Here is my swatch on the arm (which was very difficult to photograph).
Blended all together on the arm (blurry, but the best I could get):
Out of all the new holiday highlighter options out there this season, I say hands down this is the highlighter of choice for me. Do note that this season seems to be the season of highlighters that offer a very subtle subdued glow. If you’re looking for something more visibly shimmer or glowy you may want to shop your stash as most of what I’ve seen this season from Chanel to Guerlain and even MAC seems to be more on the subtle side. Edward Bess Quad Royale in Summer in Capri shows up on my skin and is easily layerable. Adding a few more swipes on the cheeks over a cream blush makes it show up even better. Due to the subtle glowy finish and lightness of the colors I’m not sure how it would work with darker skintones. I personally adore it and highly recommend. It is a face powder that will work year round for any occasion.
Have you tried Edward Bess Summer in Capri?
P.S. I know I’ve been a bit slow in blogging this week. I hope to catch up this weekend!
The last two items I will be featuring from the Chanel Holiday 2011 collection include Noir-Ivoire Eyeshadow Duo ($42) & Féérie Natural Finish Loose Powder ($52).
Noir-Ivoire Eyeshadow Duo ($42) is a beautiful classic duo of a soft luminous ivory shimmer and a complex semi-satin soft black. In the compact it looks very basic, unoriginal, almost bland. However I found on the eyes it looks quite lovely. The ivory shade is not quite as yellow as the promotional photos show but it does have a yellowish tinge. It’s similar to the Lumière Sculptée de Chanel Highlighting Powder but the powder is more beigey-pink and the shadow is more yellow. The black shade looks matte in the compact but after brushing it on the skin I found that it’s actually not really matte. It’s not really a shimmer either, but I would describe it as a having a satiny finish. I love the complexity of the colors in this because it prevents it from looking too harsh or ashy.
Féérie Natural Finish Loose Powder ($52) is a pinkish-beige soft sheer matte powder with tons of pink and white shimmery flecks. It comes in the finishing powder formula which I found a bit odd. The base is very sheer and light and the shimmer is not quite the glitter size but bigger than a shimmer. It seems too sparkly to use all over the face in my opinion and even as a highlighter seems a bit too glitzy. I think it would make a lovely dusting powder for going out on the cheeks. I don’t think I will be using this on the eyes – I’m worried about the glittery fallout but I haven’t tested this on the eyes yet. It’s simply gorgeous in the tub but too much for me for everyday. I recommend reading reviews from Best Things in Beauty and Fruity Lashes – they both love this powder.
Swatches:
With High Flash:
Comparisons (I apologize for the mis-spellings):
I really love the duo in this collection even though it’s fairly basic. The powder is something I’ll have to play with more. Thanks to alice for pointing out I spelled Noir-Ivoire incorrectly. I hope it’s now updated everywhere in the post (except for the labeling).
Lumière Sculptée de Chanel Highlighting Powder ($72 for 13g/0.46 oz) is the star product of the Chanel Holiday 2011 collection and in my mind the star highlighter of the season. This highlighter comes in a large black compact with an angled brush. The embossed pattern is a beautiful work of art and is simply to die for. In the compact I initially saw a luminous beige soft gold but depending on how the light hits the palette, you can see soft flashes of pearly pink. Do note that the beautiful sparkle that you see in the first photos is only a sheer layer overspray. Had the beautiful shimmer been consistent throughout I would have deemed this back-up worthy. Underneath (what the real product is) is still luminous and glowy but much more subtle and subdued. Swatches, comparisons, and descriptions below. First a few shots of the palette. As you can see when the light hits the sparkle the palette seems to just glow from within.
Once the overspray is removed this is what you see:
Still even with the overspray removed, you can get a beautiful pearly shimmer (this is applied heavily):
Comparisons to some other highlighters with multiple comparison shots so you can see the difference in shimmer. The Lumière Sculptée de Chanel Highlighting Powder has the most finely milled luminescence. The others either have more frost or a bit more sparkle. I love the complexity of the Chanel because it’s not a pure champagne, gold, beige or pink but rather a mix of all the colors. Still it manages to be soft and refined.
Overall thoughts: I wish the overspray wasn’t an overspray but I still really love this. On my face the palette looks chalky on first swipe but blending gives a beautiful subtle glow. This one blows Guerlain’s Holiday 2011 highlighter out of the water but I still prefer the ones I have in my current stash. I prefer the Pearl Glow over the Lumière Sculptée de Chanel Highlighting Powder but I still really like the new one for holiday. I highly recommend you try this in person before deciding to pass. On my skin the Lumière Sculptée de Chanel Highlighting Powder is very sheer simply because of my skintone. I suspect on darker skins there will be more of a contrast and show up better. On fairer skins I think it will be beautiful as well. I actually prefer this one on the eyes as an eyeshadow because it shows up better for me.
For holiday I’m not even going to look at Cle de Peau’s (the price point is pure insanity) but I am curious to see what the MAC Glitter and Ice Shimmer Powders will look like. Guerlain’s pressed highlighter is nice but not a must-have due to the sheerness. Bottom line I think Chanel’s is the best so far for this season.
Guerlain seems to be the earliest with holiday releases this year. I was only planning on the Meteorites Powder, but instead caved on the Parure de Nuit Pressed Powder & Blush and Rouge Automatique in Flirt d’un Jour #169. I am still relatively new to Guerlain products but have discovered quite a bit this past year from the line. I’ve fallen in love with the Lingerie de Peau and new eyeshadow quads that were released for fall. My interest is slowly growing. For those interested, I spotted the collection at Neimans last week. It should be arriving at your Guerlain counters very soon.
After my fall highlighter post, several have asked for my thoughts on the ones for holiday. To date, I’ve only seen Guerlain’s. The Parure de Nuit Pressed Powder & Blush ($67) design was too pretty to pass up on and from a distance I thought the red circles were ladybugs, although they are in fact in the pattern of peacock feathers. This comes in a double tiered compact with a compartment for a turquoise/teal goat-hair brush. The brush feels very nice on the skin but I am not sure it’s the best for this highlighter/blush. The Parure de Nuit is a very soft and sheer pearly shimmer powder. There is a gorgeous overspray of an iridescent opal pink and I was sad to find that it disappeared after the initial application/swipe. What lies beneath is a soft pinkish pearl – even after swirling your brush in all the colors over the red circles, all that you really see is a luminous pearl. It gives a beautiful soft glow but I wish there was more pigment or more visible shimmer. I could not get a decent arm swatch to photograph. On the face it gives the slightest hint of glimmer when applied with a stiffer denser blush brush. I would not use this as an all over the face powder, although some might.
I took my fingers and swiped them back and forth three times all over the powder for this swatch. Below it’s been swatched heavily on fingers so you can see the pearly finish, but on the face it is barely detectable.
Rouge Automatique in Flirt d’un Jour #169 ($35) is a beautiful soft pink. The texture is very smooth and feels moisturizing on the lips. It has a natural sheen but gives decent coverage to cover the entire lip. The finish is the slightest bit transparent so your natural lip shows through a little bit. I’m not the biggest fan of gold packaging but the push nob in the front almost makes this lipstick feel like a toy.
Overall I love the lipstick and semi-like the highlighter/blush. I realize the highlighter was designed to give a subtle glow, but as Messy Wands wrote, I do agree that I think darker skins will find it will not show up. I’m not dark or tan, but with my medium skin, it barely shows up. It does give a nice soft luster to the cheeks but I personally prefer something that is more visibly glowy or pearly (without the frost). If Guerlain had kicked up the pigment/intensity by 1.5 notches this would have been a winner for me. The darker berry lipstick looked divine but I’m still scared of dark berries. Perhaps I will be brave enough to try it the next time I’m at the Guerlain counter.
Here are some comparisons of Chanel’s Brompton Road (exclusive to Harrods) to a few other pinks by Chanel. Featured in this post are Poudre Tissée in Brompton Road, Joues Contraste in Narcisse & Rose Pétale, Les Tissages in Tweed Pink & Ombres Tissées Beiges. (Note that all the blushes are US versions.)
On the skin, Brompton Road goes on a baby soft pink with a slightly iridescent finish. It most closely resembles Narcisse but is paler. I tried this today over a liquid luminizer (one of Armani’s Fluid Sheers) and it still emphasized pores and bumps on my cheeks. I believe this is probably best used as a subtle highlighter rather than a full-on blush, at least for my olive toned skin which is slightly tanned. The texture is soft and finely milled very similar to the US Joues Contraste blushes by Chanel. While the Joues Contraste have a soft rose scent, the Brompton Road has none.
In comparing the finish of Brompton Road (for the face) compared to Beiges (intended for the eyes), I find the Beiges more shimmery while the Brompton Road more satiny.
While the finishes and intended purpose of all these are different, I prefer Beiges for a highlighter and Narcisse/Rose Petale for blushes over the new Brompton Road. I think it will perhaps suit fairer skintones better. For me it’s like but not love right now but as my skin lightens as we transition to fall/winter I think I will be able to get more use out of Brompton Road.
P.S. – USA girls, you can order this on Harrods.com, they ship internationally! Also, they deduct VAT so the shipping isn’t too bad. The checkout process can be a bit feisty, I recommend you create a profile and then go through the entire checkout process. Also, for some reason, I couldn’t process my order via Firefox, but Internet Explorer worked just fine.
*UPDATE Sunday, Sept 18* I applied Brompton Road over a dewy gel blush, NARS Cadaques Multiple Tint which helped provide a good base for the Chanel Highlighter. My skin has since improved after a week of healing (allergic reaction to a new product) and the Chanel no longer emphasizes the imperfections as much. I recommend that you apply to a well moisturized/prepped face before applying Brompton Road to the cheeks. Using a transparent slightly dewy liquid or gel base (something not pale) on top of foundation and under Brompton Road will help the application look much better on the skin. Finding the best application method for this powder will be trial and error for girls with medium-darker skin.
Chanel and Harrods partnered to create an exclusive makeup collection to celebrate the “Chanel at Harrods” exhibition. The pink-themed collection is called the Knightsbridge Collection which consists of:
Poudre Tissée in Brompton Road (£46.00 on Harrods.com)
Rouge Allures in Kensington, Hyde Park and Belgravia
Glossimer in Chelsea
The items are exclusive to Harrods for a limited time. Currently only the powder is available for purchase online. You can check out the coverage of the event on these resources:
Style Bubble has beautiful photos and a snapshot of the entire makeup collection
Combine the words “exclusive”, “Chanel” and “pink” and I was sold. I purchased the powder in Brompton Road (converted into approximately $72) online. It’s a satiny pink base with soft white-beige shimmery Cs that comes with an overspray of beautiful silver glitter. Per Harrods, “The Exclusive Creation POUDRE TISSÉE in Brompton Road, opens up to reveal a fabric-like effect, evocative of a fine, light and refined knit. The sheer, satiny powder enhances the radiance of the complexion while giving it a beautiful translucency. Brompton Road, a tender pink with golden shimmers, can be dabbed onto cheekbones to subtly brighten and freshen the face.”
With overspray:
Without overspray:
The powder comes in a similar format to the Ombres Tissées in Beiges from the Aquarelles Collection. Both compacts come with the same embossed quilted pattern covered in a beautiful oversprayed layer of sparking glitter. Both are made in Italy and have multiple colors in the compact which are intended to be swirled together to create a glow. The differences (aside from the colors) are in the intended use and finish:
Beiges has 13g / 0.46 oz and is labeled with the name Ombres Tissées – Iridescent Effects Eyes (although I’ve used this on the cheeks as well), this comes with three layers of iridescent pale beiges and pinks for a highlighting effect, it also comes with a sponge tipped applicator
Brompton Road has slightly more product with 15g / 0.50 oz and is labeled with the name Poudre Tissée – Highlighting Powder and Blush Natural Finish, this comes with two colors, a soft shimmering white-gold in double-crossed Cs and warm pink background that is more matte, the powder comes with a small angled brush
The top layer of glitter is easily removed to reveal a soft powdery mixture of pink and a soft beige-white shimmer. Combined they give a baby pink cheek without any detectable shimmer (at least from initial testing). The texture is a dry powder similar to the Beiges that almost feels creamy when you touch the compact with your fingers. It does not arm or hand-swatch well. As you can see below and from other blogs, it appears rather chalky on the hands. On the face it blends nicely to give a soft pink glow. Here it is swatched, L to R: both colors mixed, pink and white (these were finger swatched over bare skin).
I found this Hyde Park Rouge Allure feature to be lovely:
I’ll be posting a few comparisons and more thoughts later. I do believe you need to have fairly decent skin to wear this. The texture tends to emphasize any imperfections when applied to the face directly (over foundation and powder). Perhaps adding a luminzer underneath will help the application to appear more natural. It doesn’t appear chalky on the cheeks but the dry texture of the powder emphasized all my bumps and pores. Do note that my skin is recovering from an allergic reaction to trying a sample of Burberry’s Fresh Glow, so this is probably not the best time to make judgements about the finish. Compared to using my MAC blushes this past week, it appears the Chanel Highlighter emphasized bad spots while the MAC worked normally. That being said I’ll only be wearing this on good skin days.
This year designers have brought us some of the most beautiful bronzers and highlighters I’ve ever seen. For the summer releases we saw gorgeous bronzer palettes from Chanel, Dior & Guerlain with intricate embossed patterns woven with different shades. The trend has continued into the fall season with the release of new highlighters that have unique formulas & textures. When it comes to highlighters, I’ve traditionally been very open to all intensities of shimmer and frost. These days, my preferences have changed and I now look for powders that have a finely milled shimmer without the intense frost and that are also easy to apply with a single swipe on the cheeks or temples. The highlighters I tried this season include Dolce & Gabbana Illuminator in Shimmer, Chanel Ombres Tissées in Beiges, MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Semi Precious Crystal Pink, Chanel Pearl Glow Powder and Estée Lauder Pure Color in Modern Mercury.
My thoughts and close ups of each shimmer powder:
Dolce & Gabbana The Illuminator Powder in Shimmer ($47 at Saks, reviewed here and also on Makeup Magpie): I find this shade to be more of a contouring powder for my skin rather than an illuminator/highlighter. On the skin, the powder applies slightly darker than what you see in the compact. The texture is buttery smooth with a finely milled finish. It blends naturally with my skin and to give a gentle glow. It makes the perfect nude contour. This product doesn’t really fit the bill as a highlighter, but as a nude blush or soft contour it’s a winner.
Chanel Ombres Tissées in Beiges ($75 at Chanel.com, reviewed here): I personally adore this palette. The texture and blend of light pinks mix together beautifully to give a lovely glow. The texture is predominantly powdery but has a slight cream texture which I believe helps this adhere to the skin to last all day. In terms of uniqueness for the color payoff, I think you can achieve a similar effect with other pale highlighters. However, the design of the quilted texture is exquisite. (Note the sparkle is an overspray.)
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Semi Precious Crystal Pink ($28 still at Maccosmetics.com, reviewed and swatched on Temptalia and Karla Sugar): This is described as having a pink champagne base with an inner circle having a fusion of pink, dirty green and bronze. It’s almost impossible for me to pass up any Mineralize Skinfinish from MAC. The frost and shimmer is high, but they have the most beautiful multi-colored shimmers. At $28 the beautiful swirls of color are hard to resist. Semi Precious Crystal Pink goes on a nude pink frosty champagne (no glitter). Applying with a skunk brush in one sweep on the cheeks to temples over any blush or bronzer will give a beautiful glow. I tend to use a lighter hand as MSFs tend to have a high impact shimmer and are easy to overdo. It’s versatile and easy to use on the eyes as well.
Chanel Pearl Glow Powder ($60 at Nordstrom, reviewed here and also on Cafe Makeup and Orange to LA): This is currently exclusive in limited quantities to Nordstrom. It’s a subtle glowy highlighter that I find less pink and less frosty than Chanel Beiges. If you asked me to pick only 1 Chanel highlighter this year, it would be the Pearl Glow. The texture is sheer but I love the finish as it gives the most exquisite wash of shimmer that makes the skin simply glow. If you’re looking for something sophisticated, subtle and refined, this is the highlighter for you.
Estée Lauder Pure Color in Modern Mercury ($40 on EsteeLauder.com, see it reviewed on Cafe Makeup): This is a unique powder + liquid + gel in one highlighter with a highly reflective peachy gold shimmer. Modern Mercury gives a highly pigmented glow without any glitter although it makes the skin glimmer like a crystal in sunlight. I highly recommend you read Cafe Makeup’s review if you haven’t already. She has a lovely set of comparisons as well as a few looks that are highly inspirational. The texture is slightly creamy with a highly metallic finish when applied with a heavy hand. The product blends beautifully and adheres to the skin well to melt into the natural texture of your skin. It makes the skin glow with or without direct light.
All lined up plus swatches on the arm:
I know many of you will want to know which highlighter I think is best. This is an impossible question for me to answer. All these highlighters have their own unique quality that makes them different for achieving different effects. The best highlighter will depend on what you’re preferences are for price range and shimmer intensity. My recommendations:
For the most subtle glow, I’d recommend Chanel Pearl Glow.
For a contour nude suitable for even the fairest skintones, try the Dolce & Gabbana.
For the most unique texture/finish, Estée Lauder Pure Color in Modern Mercury is a must have (this also lasts long on the cheeks).
For the best price, MAC is your best bet.
For inquiring minds, I did check out the beautiful Jacquard Face Palette from Armani but found the frost too strong even though the texture and design were to die for.
Did you fall in love with any highlighters this season? Or did you find them to be duplicates of previous releases? What caught your eye this year? If you see any you like I recommend you purchase soon – most are limited edition!
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