Dior’s Jazz Club Collection featured a great many items for the season, lots of smoky shades of shadows, pouty lip colors, and flawless skin could be seen.
Eyes
Night Butterfly 5-Colour Eyeshadow Quint ($56.00) is a stunning combination of lilacs, jewel-tone purples, and glittery black. It contains a medium jewel-toned purple with pink shimmer, a softer pink-lilac, a shimmery berry-wine, a soft, gray with brown tones, and the centerpiece is a matte black with silver glitter. All five colors were well-pigmented, and all but the center black shade was incredibly smooth. I found the black shade to be a tiny bit chalky, and the glitter, while pretty to look at, resulted in a fair amount of fall out. The black shade reminded me a lot of MAC’s Black Tied eyeshadow.
Smoky Jazz Eyeshadow Palette ($65.00) has four shades of eyeshadow, one shade of eyebrow powder, and one shade of eyeliner. In this palette, the eyeliner is a dark black, which wasn’t super creamy, so it made it a bit difficult to use. The brow powder shade was a cool-toned medium-dark brown. The four eyeshadow shades included a lightly grayed-black, cool-toned bronzy-taupe, medium silver, and a brighter silvery-frost. Pigmentation was so-so in these, but I felt like Dior’s singles, duos, and quint eyeshadows were much better in quality and pigmentation in comparison.
Purple Jazz Eyeshadow Palette ($65.00) has four shades of eyeshadow, one shade of eyebrow powder, and one shade of eyeliner. The eyeliner in this palette is a cranberry-burgundy shade, and again, not ultra creamym, making it less appealing. The brow powder was the same, cool-toned medium-dark brown as in the Smoky Jazz palette. The four eyeshadow shades included: a red-toned purple-plum, a cool-toned amethyst purple, a cool-toned shimmery taupe-brown, and an icy pink with silver shimmer. Again, pigmentation wasn’t the best in these, and I certainly couldn’t recommend these at the price point they’re at, because the quality just isn’t up to snuff.
Argentic 1-Colour Extreme Eyeshadow ($27.50) is a silvery, lightly-taupe shade of eyeshadow. It’s extremely shimmery and pigmented. (For the price, it should be!) Trendy Taupe 1-Colour Extreme Eyeshadow ($27.50) is a semi-matte deep brown that runs more neutral than warm or cool. Cocktail Look 2-Colour Eyeshadow ($35.00) is a duo featuring a semi-matte, satiny silver-gray and a shimmery confection pink.
Lips
Taffeta Plum Ultra-Gloss Reflect ($25.50) is a semi-sheer plummy-raspberry with pink shimmer with a frosty finish.
Draped Burgundy Ultra-Gloss Reflect ($25.50) is a semi-sheer deeper, reddish-burgundy with light golden shimmer.
Mauve Royale Addict Lip Color ($26.00) is a shimmery pink with slight mauve tones. It has a bit of golden shimmer weaved throughout the shade. It felt semi-sheer to me.
Decadent Plum Addict Lip Color ($26.00) is a rich, semi-opaque reddish-wine with plummy tones. It reminded me a bit of a red plum outside, just a little more vibrant. This one has more of a glossy sheen than any shimmer.
Negligee Pink Addict Lip Color ($26.00) is an opaque, pinky-red with a glossy sheen and no real shimmer.
Rose Nectar Creme de Gloss ($26.00) is a semi-sheer peachy-rose with golden shimmer with a frosty finish.
Sweet Praline Creme de Gloss ($26.00) is a semi-sheer deeper, more brown version of Rose Nectar, with more of a soft coppery shimmer.
Nails
Black Plum Vernis ($20.00) is a dark, burgundy-wine shade that goes on glossy and opaque.
The collection also included some permanent items being repromoted, such as Rose Diamond Skin Shimmer, Strawberry Sorbet and Rosebud Blushes.
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!)
See product photos, swatches, and individual reviews by product… Continue reading →
Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Eyes line is probably one of the top eyeliner formulas on the market to-date. It’s extremely budge-proof, smudge-proof, and water-resistant. It actually holds up quite well to all three claims. Add to that a diverse range of color choices (Sephora sells 25), and you have a winning combination. They’re smooth, well-pigmented, and deliver long-lasting color.
#5L is a khaki-bronze with a hint of green in it. It’s like a deep, slightly green-toned antique gold. I love wearing this with golds, browns, and greens.
#17L is a soft, yellowed spring green with soft shimmer sheen. I was hoping for a little more chartreuse in it, but it’s still a nice, subtle liner color.
#20L is a forest-green with teal in it. I adore this one — a definite must-have. I pair it with blues, teals, and greens.
#12L is a dark blue with a subtle shimmer-sheen. It’s not super unique, but it’s a nice blue shade.
#7L is a nice pop of blue-based turquoise. It’s the brightest color that I own.
#15L is an violet-blue shade. I liked this one, because I felt like it was fairly unique. I don’t have anything like this in my collection of eye liners.
#10L is a bronzy-copper. It’s very “me” in a sense, because I love these kinds of warm-toned bronzes. It’s great with warm-toned looks, particularly neutral looks, for an extra kick.
Just four months ago, I wrote about what my seven must-have eye brushes were.. and they’ve already changed a bit! In this video, I talk about six brushes I think are really excellent for building up your eye makeup brush stash, plus a little talk on two extra brushes that you might want to consider as well (or in place of one of the six).
Make Up For Ever Star Powders ($19.00 for 0.09 oz.) are finely milled loose color. Think MAC pigments, but more of a powdery texture and more finely milled. They can be used wherever you want, however you want. I only used mine with mixing medium, personally, as I found without the adhesiveness of mixing medium, they didn’t stay put as well.
Pure Pigments ($19.00 for 0.12 oz.) are extremely pigment-rich loose color that are matte in finish. They’re like Star Powders, but they’re more intense and contain no shimmer. Pretty much all of the Pure Pigments will stain the skin (and your brushes — so be sure to wash those ASAP! after using).
#920 is a shimmery muted golden yellow with frosty shimmer. This is a good base shade under golds, browns, pinks, and oranges.
#910 is a grayish-green with golden shimmer. It looks like an olive green at first, but it’s a bit more gray.
#958is a pretty medium green–reminds me of a grassy green, actually. It has slightly more subtle shimmer than some of the other Star Powders, though it is still noticeably shimmery.
#960is a mix of blue with aqua and green shimmer. It reminded me a lot of MAC’s Parrot eyeshadow, but in a loose form. It also seemed a little bluer.
#929 is a warm, chocolate brown with golden shimmer. It goes on smoothly and has good color pigmentation.
#18 is a matte turquoise. If you ever lusted after MAC’s long-discontinued Turquoise pigment, check this out. It’s extremely similar, but it’s much better in finish/texture. If you’re into intense color, you’ll love Pure Pigments. I don’t like how much they stain skin/brushes, and I don’t have a need for shades quite this bright, so I don’t think I’ll pick up any additional shades going forward.
