Chanel’s Venice Collection Rings Deep for Fall
OVERALL, Chanel’s Venice Collection has a lot of wearable colors and shades, particularly in the lip department, as well as a fun and creative glossy quad of eyeshadows. I found myself gravitating towards the easy-to-wear lip colors more so than the eyeshadow quad, oddly enough! I really wanted to fall in love with Tweed Sienna, but I found it just looked dirty on my coloring.
My favorites from the launch were the two Glossimers, both of them equally lovely. Courtisane is easy to wear by itself, and Arlequin is my favorite to pair with my new everyday lip color (Urban Decay Naked lipstick). I liked the Murano eyeshadow quad, but I didn’t fall in love. I decided to pass on it, because I just know I won’t reach for it enough. (That’s me trying to resist temptation!)
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Indian Summer Duo Eyeshadow
NARS’ Fall 2009 Collection is a small launch of three eyeshadow duos, one eyeshadow single, one lipstick, and one nail polish. I was not alone in my excitement for this launch, but I’m afraid for me, the launch was incredibly disappointing. I was particularly excited for Indian Summer Eyeshadow Duo, but the promotional image and the actual product are are so drastically different, I wonder if there wasn’t some sort of mix-up. I even double and triple-checked the labels, because I really couldn’t believe the two were one and the same. The best part of the launch was Mekong single eyeshadow, followed by Tokaido Express nail polish. Nothing else was a winner for me, unfortunately.
You can purchase the Fall collection at NARSCosmetics.com!
Duo Eyeshadows ($32.00 each)
- Indian Summer is a duo of whitish-pink champagne with sparkling white-gold shimmer and yellowed brown with soft gold sheen. The champagne shdae has a bit of a frosty look, while the other color has more of a satin-y finish. The yellowed brown reminded me of MAC’s Soft Ochre eyeshadow, which was just one of those colors that did not work with my skin tone.
- Silk Road is a duo of peachy-pink with soft shimmer and a pinked-up brown with a frosty look. Of the three duos, this was theo ne I liked the most. The shadows were smooth, soft, and had decent pigmentation. They are both incredibly wearable, too. The pinked-up brown does have a bit of a glittery texture, but it didn’t give me too much trouble.
- Brumes is a duo of matte charcoal-gray and a satin-y dark blue-gray with green sheen. Both colors went on easily and had lots of color pay-off. The dark-nearly-navy-gray-blue has a bit of a green shimmer/sheen to it, which was nice.
Single Eyeshadow ($22.00)
- Mekong is a warmed-up deep, rich brown with golden shimmer and sheen. It almost looks like a burgundy-brown when swatched and in the light.
Lipstick ($24.00)
- Fast Ride looks like a dark, intimidating vampy red-wine, but it’s nothing like that on lips. It’s a sheer, glossy reddish-berry with minimal shimmer. On lips, it’s still sheer, and it does have a tendency to settle into lip lines, so I do recommend a base of some sort.
Nail Polish ($16.00)
- Tokaido Express is a dark, subdued plummy brown with golde and violet shimmer laced throughout the base color. It looks a lot more purple in the bottle than it does on actual nails, but when the light hits it, you’ll see more of a reddish-burgundy and the violet sparkles are more apparent.
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Indigo Charm Ink Artliner, Declaring Gold Color Fever Gloss, Indigo Charm Eyeshadow Palette
Lancome’s Declaring Indigo Collection is a large collection filled with a variety of products. In my eyes, it’s almost three distinct collections. Each collection features an eyeshadow palette and then colors and products that complement it.
Color Fever Glosses
- Declaring Gold is a sheer glossy base with golden shimmer.
- Raspberry Glimmer is a subdued raspberryish shade with multicolored shimmer.
- Golden Rouge is a warmed up red with golden shimmer.
- Berry Glamour is a deep, sultry burgundy-wine with golden-pink shimmer.
- Rouge Magnificence is a subdued reddish-pink.
Lipcolor
- Rouge Liberty is a poppy red, seems a bit orange toned on me.
- Front Page is a brownish-burgundy with sheen.
- Paris Rouge is a subdued pink-mauve with multicolored shimmer.
- Berry Sensual is a slightly berried-red.
Golden Audacity Eyeshadow Palette contains four shades of color: a soft, wheat-gold, a dark, cool-toned smoky brown, a warmed-up antique gold, and a softer, more golden-toned antique gold. The Nude Elegance Eyeshadow Palette contains a matte, subdued taupe-beige, a lightly yellowed gold, an antique-gold, and a smoky brown.
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Naive
Along with Glossimers, Chanel released two shades of Rouge Allure Lipstick ($30.00 each) with their Les Naturels de Chanel collection. As you can guess, the collection was designed to be wearable and natural, and Chanel delivered well on both.
Rouge Allure Lipsticks
- Naive is a soft, sheer layering of subdued pink with a little mauve in it. It goes on very my-lips-but-better. It is slightly creamy, though not opaque nor overly so. It has just the lightest dusting of golden shimmer that’s extremely subtle (more so than Glossimers). Looking back at the swatches now, it’s reminiscent of Urban Decay’s Naked lipstick, just not as shimmery.
- Curious is a soft, sheer brown-based nude with subtle golden shimmer that’s just as slight as Naive. Both of these have finishes that look more like a soft sheen than glossy, shimmery, or frosty.
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Oil Slick
Urban Decay: Oil Slick, Naked, Confession Lipsticks
New for fall from Urban Decay are three new shades of lipstick ($22.00 each). All three have a satiny, slightly glossy finish, and they feel very moisturizing on the lips. They smell sweetly scented — I think I detected a bit of caramel-ness to it, too. Ever since Urban Decay launched their lipstick line, I’ve always been a huge admirer of the creative packaging. I still love it, but it has to be some of the more impractical packaging I’ve come across, just because the label is on the “top” but the daggers are out of the bottom (which don’t stand very nicely). But I really do love it anyway. It’s just so beautiful to look at.
Both Oil Slick and Confession should be worn with a lip liner (clear or otherwise), or you could wear this with Urban Decay’s new Lip Primer Potion ($20.00). I haven’t yet tried it, but I’m planning to see how the two work together later on (and will definitely post some comparisons for you all, too). These two shades tend to settle into natural lip lines and may bleed, too, without the proper base!
- Oil Slick is a sheer, glossy black with small, silver sparkles. It’s extremely wearable–not necessarily on its own–when you layer it with other shades. Try topping it with a really rich red or pink!
- Naked is creamy, pinky shade with a little bit of beige to tone it down and gold shimmer to warm it up. Love it. LOVE.
- Confession is a sheer, glossy burgundy-wine shade. It goes on much brighter/lighter than it looks in the tube–so don’t be afraid of the near blackberry color it appears to be. (Actually, the transformation reminded me a bit of how Clinique’s Black Honey is!)
Naked is my new obsession, though. It’s absolutely stunning on lips. It’s totally my-lips-but-better (MLBB) and yet way more complex and interesting than just MLBB. It’s this glossy pinky color with gold shimmer/sparkle. I feel like I’m wearing a lip color that brightens my whole face without anyone really having a clue I’m wearing any. This shade really grabbed me from the get-go, even if it’s not necessarily a unique or eye-catching (hey, it’s no hot pink!).
Anyone else check these out yet?
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Illamasqua: Lip Focus
I am absolutely in LOVE with Illamasqua’s Lipsticks (£14.00 each). The texture, pigmentation, and feel of the two I tried is phenomenal — incredibly smooth, extremely color-rich, and moisturizing. The wear time is top notch, giving me several hours and lasting through drinking a glass of water.
Encounter Lipstick is an opaque shade red that almost looks and feels like a matte, but it is more like a satiny finish with plenty of color and a soft sheen. Not every red works well on me, but this one made me want to go out and show ‘em off!
Obey Lipstick is a pretty coral-pink that’s rich in color so it’s opaque, and it has the same satiny finish of Encounter. I just love when a lipstick is soft, creamy, and has a natural sheen to it. (I find it difficult to wear matte lipsticks sometimes!)
I also tried out Lily Rose Sheer Lipgloss (£12.50 each), which is a semi-sheer red with just a little bit of pink and silver shimmer. It has an ultra glossy look when applied to lips, and it did give my lips plenty of color (kind of looked like watermelon-red on me). It makes me curious to see how intense the Intense Lipglosses are if their Sheer Lipglosses can give me this much color!
Have you tried Illamasqua’s lip products? Any favorites or recommendations?
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