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Burberry Pale Barley No. 22 Sheer Eye Shadow

January 4, 2012

Burberry Pale Barley No. 22 Sheer Eyeshadow ($29) is a beautiful shimmery neutral sandy beige with a complex sheen. It glows with a mixture of warm gold and neutral taupe and champagne-opalescent sparkles. Over the phone, Pale Barley was described as a color that matches the classic Burberry Trench Coats with shimmer. It just might be the most beautiful neutral I’ve ever laid eyes on. The texture is soft and smooth and the pigment is anything but sheer. I do find that Burberry eye shadows are all soft and blendable for a soft sheer wash of color but the intensity of the pigment is quite good with the paler shades. The shimmer finish is similar to Rosewood with a soft luminous sheen. Lasting power by itself was less than satisfactory, however when Pale Barley is applied over a cream shadow, it lasts all day. I’ve experimented over the past few days and tried it three different ways: over Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin, MAC Nubile Paint Pot and Laura Mercier Metallic Creme in Gold. Each one individually helped the color from the powder to stay put from morning to evening without changing the effect or color.
A few close up shots:

Left is with a heavy swatch, right is blended slightly, photos look frosty from the flash but the color is a luminous shimmer in real life:

At an angle, you can see the beautiful glowy sheen:

Creating a fresh unique neutral can be hard to do, but Burberry has pulled it off flawlessly. Pale Barley is different from anything they’ve released before and different from other neutrals I own from other brands. Here is one comparison set with Burberry Gold Trench, Almond, Taupe Brown, Rosewood, Midnight Brown and Edward Bess Intimate:

Compared to other brands I found Pale Barley unique as well. I wasn’t able to photograph the actual product in good light but did get swatches before the sun went down. Here is one more comparison set to Bobbi Brown Beige Shimmer Wash, Bobbi Brown Nude Beach Metallic, Le Metier Jojo, Le Metier Splendid Frost (taupe), Chanel Beige Lame, Chanel Safari and Urban Decay’s Naked2 Suspect.

I believe Pale Barley is a definite must-have. It’s beautiful, layerable, complex yet classic. It’s one of those shades you can wear alone (over a base that is) and just add mascara and have a finished eye look. I love that it’s a swipe-and-go type of shade that is goof-proof, fool-proof, and easy to incorporate into any look. For the woman who needs more than one color on the eyes, note that it layers well with other shades too. I purchased it sight-unseen and have no regrets. Pale Barley is a classic color and just absolute perfection on my skin. It’s a staple and I highly recommend it.
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Burberry Spring-Summer 2012 Picks

January 3, 2012

Burberry’s Spring-Summer for 2012 has just hit counters at select Nordstrom stores. To date, Burberry is limited to Nordstrom.com and only a handful of Nordstrom counters like South Coast Plaza, San Francisco & Chicago to name a few. Like many of my readers, I do not have easy access to Burberry Beauty so I rely on blog posts and tweets from my fellow bloggers to be my eyes and ears for the latest. Without them I would have no idea what to expect, although these days promotional stock/web photos are improving. My go-to resources for Burberry Spring include the following:
  • The full lineup is listed on Rouge Deluxe 
  • Pretty Addicted has featured her picks on her blog
  • Many thanks to Café Makeup for taking a few moments from her busy schedule to let me know the collection arrived at Nordstrom San Francisco (I called and ordered and I’m thrilled!)
  • Lipstick photos for spring were tweeted by @Nordstrombeauty which you can see here
  • NaturalNChicMakeup swatched all items on her hand
The collection has a mixture of neutrals and brights for lipsticks and glosses along with a neutral shimmery trench-coat color eyeshadow. The look is fresh but natural for this season. I don’t have the breakdown for the look but my guess is that the model appears to be wearing Devon Sunset Lipstick with Blossom Blush. {Via Nordstrom.com}

I ordered from the San Francisco Nordstrom store. All my experiences have been absolutely phenomenal. I really appreciate how well-trained and knowledgeable the Burberry artists are. They know their colors well and have always been able to help with comparisons in their own line. They also give excellent advice on how to coordinate colors. My picks: Pale Barley No. 22 Eyeshadow, Tulip Pink No. 27 Lipstick, Devon Sunset No. 28 Lipstick, Hibiscus No. 13 Lipgloss & Nude Rose No. 14 Lipgloss.

Swatches to come soon. I’ve only played with Pale Barley Eyeshadow and the Tulip Pink Lipstick so far but initial impressions are a huge thumbs up. The quality of Burberry’s eyeshadows is excellent with a buttery soft blendable texture that melts into the skin. Please hold your questions until I post individual reviews – I will say that Pale Barley is different from anything else in the Burberry Eyeshadow Collection. It looks similar to Gold Trench in the photos but it’s quite different when put together side by side.

Burberry Beauty is available in the US at a few select Nordstrom locations. The counters I know of include South Coast Plaza, San Francisco, Bellevue and Chicago. I believe there may be a few more. The entire collection is also available online at Nordstrom.com.
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Le Métier de Beauté Come One, Come All Kaleidoscope Eye Kit

November 21, 2011

Le Métier de Beauté Come One, Come All Kaleidoscope Eye Kit ($95) was recently released as an exclusive to Nordstrom Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Maryland. Many thanks to Best Things in Beauty who told us all about this the morning it was released for the Trend Show. She provided detailed descriptions, contact information, swatches and photos and I called to order as soon as I saw it. The colors & descriptions (thanks to Charleston Girl for providing the names as well since the kits don’t have names on them):
  • Haute Honey is a glistening warm champagne gold
  • Tawni Taupe is a shimmering frosted taupe with gold shimmer and slight olive tones
  • Montgomery Mauve is a mauve reddish purple
  • Bethesda Brown is a deep brown with gold flecks

Haute Honey

Tawni Taupe

Montgomery Mauve

Bethesda Brown

It took a little over a week to arrive from the East Coast and when it did, it took my breath away. I was however slightly let down for two reasons: 1) The kit contains yet another warm burgandy/plum/mauve shade which I feel are in too many Le Métier Eye Kits (I find these difficult to wear on my eyes, even with layering). 2) I found that three of the four colors are duplicates from other kaleidoscope kits, Splendid Frost from last holiday and Silk Road from this past fall. Makeup Magpie has also identified the same dupes. I highly recommend you check out her beautiful photos and swatches on her blog to see them on different skintones. (I did not photograph my swatches of the dupes but they are indeed identical. You can click for larger viewing.)

I applied this on the eyes as soon as it arrived using the Le Métier couches de couleur method of layering from top shade in the kit to the bottom color. The result: unexpectedly gorgeous. Yes, I detest warm reddish shades, but layering these colors resulted in a really stunning eye look (not to sound vain, but the color combination is really astounding). So I take back part of my pouty attitude, the colors are really very wearable. I wore this kit every day for the last week. I still cannot take good eye pics so I tried to layer on my arm to show you how they look mixed. I love the convenience of this kit.

At this time I do not know if the kit is still available but check out Best Things in Beauty for the contact info for the counter. If you have Silk Road and Splendid Frost, I don’t think you need this one. I still haven’t found a good dupe for the top shade although it reminds me of Chantecaille’s Rose Gold Eyeshadow (currently missing in action, I’m just disorganized at the moment).
Even with the dupes, many might ask: was it worth the $95? I think so, but I could have lived without this. Curiosity got the best of me. Still, I adore it and I would have never thought to combine the colors together like they are in this palette. The versatility of this palette is amazing. I think that Come One, Come All should have been released for fall instead of Silk Road since it appears to be more neutral and universally flattering. Silk Road is indeed gorgeous, but a bit difficult to pull off because it’s so warm (at least in my mind but of course I still caved even though I did not review/feature it).

Many have been asking if I will order Dustin’s new kit from Bergdorfs (see preview on Messy Wands). I’m still undecided. That rust-shade scares me but every NY girl tells me it warms up the look wonderfully. I’m still not sold … yet.

Copyright © 2009-2011 The Beauty Look Book.
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Chanel Foundation Brush #6

September 28, 2011

Chanel is currently revamping their US brushes and the first new one to be released is the #6 Foundation Brush ($45). Many thanks to Cafe Makeup who let me know this was released with the new foundation (the brush was not on the Nordstrom display and without her, I would not have realized this was out). The brush has a sleek and sophisticated look with a matte black handle and silver embossed lettering. I’ve tested the new one for about a week with different liquid foundations and find it performs very well to evenly blend the foundation on the face. With all foundation brushes, I find a bit of streaking because of the bristles. I typically prefer a sponge, but when I do use a brush, I always end up smoothing out my face with fingers or a sponge. This one seems to work better for me than most others because the bristles are more naturally tapered.

Here are a few closeups of the new Foundation Brush #6, the handle has a beautiful black matte finish which contrasts nicely to the silver lettering:

Compared to the original one #16, the new #6 is made of different bristles, is slightly shorter in overall length, has shorter bristles and is slightly chubbier in depth. Both the original and new versions are made in China. To me the performance is very similar but I prefer the look of the new one. It just looks cleaner and more professional. Here is the original compared to the new:

Here is the new Chanel compared to a few other brands including Armani, Prescriptives and MAC:

The other brands have worked well for me in past years. The oldest one I own is the Prescriptives Foundation brush which has held up for me since my high school days. All the ones I’ve tried have worked well, I have no complaints, but the new Chanel #6 definitely has the best design and at $45 seems  very reasonably priced (unlike their eyelash curler). Definitely worth checking out if you’re near a Chanel counter. I’m testing out the new Perfection Lumiere and so far love it but need a few more days of use to provide a thorough review.
Have you checked out the new Chanel foundation brush? Do you own the original? What are your thoughts comparing the two?
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Burberry Sheer Eye Shadows: Pearl White, Pearl Grey & Lavender

September 22, 2011

I stopped by the Burberry counter at Nordstrom San Francisco last month and was helped by the most wonderful, artistic & knowledgeable staff. After chatting a few minutes about my past experiences with Burberry, the artist quickly urged me to try something new and non-neutral. He mentioned most women gravitate towards the safe colors of Trench, Gold Trench, Rosewood and Taupe Brown. His observation was that while these colors are good, he felt there were better colors in the Burberry Beauty Range to take a woman’s looks from good to great. I eagerly listened. As I swiped my finger in Pearl Grey No. 17 to see how the color blended on my hand, he picked up Pearl White and Lavender to show me how I could mix and match these two shades with my existing products by blending and layering on the back of his hand. The three new shades I ended up with included: Pearl White No. 01, Pearl Grey No. 17 and Lavender No. 14 (all $29 for 2.5 g/ 0.088 oz).

Pearl White No. 01 is a pure pearly white. It has scared me every other time I’ve been to the Burberry counter so I never gave it a chance or even a swipe. I thought it would be too pale, too chalky and just not me. However, Vaugh, the artist at Burberry, showed me on his hand how Pearl White is not like most other white shadows. Its finely milled texture and beautiful pearly quality gives a beautiful sheen to the skin. It looks amazing when combined with Rosewood on the eyes either as a soft blending shade, a highlighter on the brow, or for a subtle highlight to the inner corners of the eyes. I particularly enjoyed The Non-Blonde’s lovely review and Café Makeup wrote about this shade in a recent Burberry Makeover which will give you ideas on how to coordinate this color. Although Trench is still my favorite nude shade for a base and Porcelain is my favorite for an all over neutral wash, Pearl White is going to become a staple in my stash.

Pearl Grey No. 17 is something I’ve had my eye on for quite some time but never pulled the trigger to purchase. Most medium grey shimmers can look ashy on my olive skin. Most of us first saw Pearl Grey featured on Lisa Eldridge’s Burberry Beauty Review Video (eyeshadow application starts around 4:12), however given her amazing makeup skills, beautiful features and fair skintone, I wasn’t sure this color would be as pretty on me. This color is a fairly sheer grey shimmer with a loose fluffy brush. I found the best application and finish for me was to pack it on with a dense MAC 242 brush directly over a cream base (like Laura Mercier’s Satinée Crème Eye Colour or Metallic Crème Eye Colour). It layers well over Rosewood, but if you layer it on top of too much powder, the color loses its luster and quickly looks dull. Once the color is on the eye, I think it best to not touch or blend too much or else the color/sparkle disappears quickly. It’s fairly cool which is hard for me to pull off easily for everyday, although it makes a lovely going out/evening color.

Lavender No. 14 swatched so beautifully on the back of the hand. Unfortunately, the application to the eyes did not translate quite as well. On the fingers and hands you see a gorgeous blue-purple with a slight lavender periwinkle sheen. It’s quite lovely. When applied with a brush, the shimmer disappears and the color looks a bit flat. I tried this numerous ways with different brushes and bases and have resorted to just applying as a liner with a damp brush. Yes, I can create a smokey eye by layering this with a slightly damp smudge brush, but for deeper vibrant colors like this, I want something with high impact and pigment that is easy to blend (similar to what Midnight Brown is). With a bit of work, this color looks amazing, but I find it too high maintenance to love it. I know that Burberry shades are meant to have a subtle glow and finish but I was still slightly disappointed with this color. If you’ve had better luck with the application please share!

Here are all three swatched, two variations of lighting (I wish that Lavender would look as good on the eye the same way it swatches on the arm or hands):

I pulled a few other shades from Burberry (Trench and Rosewood), Le Metier (Thunder) and Armani (Maestro 21) to compare. I didn’t really try to look for dupes, but just similar shades.

Overall I’m still very impressed with the quality of Burberry Eyeshadows. To date there are only 2 that I’ve tried that I did not love (Midnight Black and Lavender).
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Les Jeans de Chanel for Fashion’s Night Out

September 9, 2011

The limited edition trio of nail polishes in the Les Jeans de Chanel Nail Color Collection launches today in celebration of Fashion’s Night Out. Each shade was designed by Peter Philips Creative Director of Chanel Makeup and retails for $29 each. The three shades in the collection are Blue Rebel, Coco Blue and Blue Boy. The collection is available at Nordstrom Seattle, Saks San Francisco, select Neiman Marcus locations (see list here) and select Chanel Boutiques (listed here) as well as online at Chanel.com.

Blue Rebel is a rich dark navy denim blue (cream, no shimmer). The texture seems to be a bit thinner than the traditional Chanel nail polish. It requires two thick coats for full coverage.

Per Chanel, “It recalls the inky dye used to create dark-wash jeans — an iconic fashion staple and an essential part of every modern woman’s wardrobe.”

Coco Blue is a soft powdery denim blue with white and blue shimmer particles, the shimmer is very subtle on the nails and barely noticeable from arm’s length. The formula for this one is similar to Riva. It needs three coats for full coverage or else it’s a bit streaky.

Per Chanel, “This muted blue tone can be worn with the same effortlessness as a favorite pair of softly faded jeans.”

Blue Boy reminds me of the traditional denim color. It’s a soft grayed blue cream without shimmer. The texture is also thin so I recommend two thicker coats but it applies very smoothly.

Per Chanel, “Dressed in Blue Boy, fingernails reflect the fashionable and quintessential cool of jeans and heels.”

Initial thoughts: I will be doing a comparisons post shortly but my first thoughts are a bit mixed. They are nice to have but not must haves unless you are a denim/blue fanatic or a die-hard Chanel collector. I like Blue Boy the best out of the three but Coco Blue isn’t super flattering on my skin and Blue Rebel doesn’t seem very original as it appears to be very close to Dior’s Bond Street (which I absolutely adore). I knew there was a good chance Coco Blue wouldn’t suit my skintone (baby blues just don’t look great on my fingers) yet I still caved to have a complete set from this collection.

For me I was expecting a bit more since last year’s Khaki and Soho Collection were such beautiful unique releases. That being said, Chanel has released quite a bit this year and plenty has kept me busy since spring was released (I’m still enamored with the Black Pearl Nail Polish). Still Chanel did an excellent job creating a beautiful trio of rich high quality blues. They are nice to have, just not the most unique or must-haves in my mind.

Will you be getting the Les Jeans de Chanel shades this year?

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Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air

August 21, 2011
I surprised myself by caving on a glitter nail polish: Deborah Lippmann’s Glitter in the Air. I’m the type of woman who detests glitter makeup. I think there are so many beautiful products out there that are ruined simply because the designer has added chunky glitter. There are a few exceptions such as some MAC Dazzleglasses, anything from Chanel, a few Urban Decay shadows but for the most part I hate glitter.

It was love at first sight for Deborah Lippmann’s Glitter in the Air ($18). The bottle looks like a blue daydream. It’s a pale milky blue base infused with multi-colored glitter in different sizes. It’s just beautiful! Being wary of glitter, I decided to wait and look for reviews to see how it looked on others. The reviews have been mixed but the result is so intriguing and different. I had to give it a try. I kept the reviews from Polish Police, All Lacquered Up and Temptalia in mind when trying this.

My first attempt had a decent glitter payoff, but the finish was uneven. A professional application resulted in 2 glitter spots per nail. After 2 fails, I decided to try it one more time with 4 coats and finally was able to achieve the right glitter to nail ratio I was looking for. I found the tips from Temptalia extremely helpful to dab lightlightly and apply slow and smooth to avoid the glitter from being dragged off the nail. The pale blue is fairly clear so the result on the nail is a pale sheer tinted blue-cream looking color. The formula is set up to disperse the glitter in an uneven manner (which I love).

Overall I like it but I wish it had more glitter in the bottle. It would make the application so much easier. It really is the most high maintenance nail polish I own. To achieve an even application requires quite a bit of work and extra time for drying in between those 4 coats. I really like the result though. It’s fun without being too juvenile.
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