Guerlain Gentiane Rouge G Lipstick
Lip Luxury: Guerlain Gentiane Rouge G Lipstick
Guerlain Gentiane Rouge G de Guerlain Lipstick
($45.00) is a smooth, lightly shimmered rose. This is exactly what I picture when I think of a rose lipstick. It’s pigmented, goes on opaque in just one layer, and it feels amazing (as all Rouge Gs do). It’s soft color that looks feminine and very wearable for a variety of skin tones.
This is definitely one of my favorite shades from the Rouge G line that I’ve tried, because it’s a color that works on so many levels. You can wear it alone, for the everyday, with a smoky eye, or with a neutral eye. It’s versatile, and I can appreciate a lip color that I can work into my look wardrobe with no fuss.
Of course, the price is steep, so this isn’t a product for everyone!
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- Product: 28/30
- Value: 7/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: If you’re on the hunt for a rosy pink, Gentiane might be it!
Availability: Nordstrom
, Sephora
LORAC Silver Screen Palette ($30.00) is a face palette that contains eight shades of eyeshadow, two shades of blush, a double-ended brush, and a lipgloss. It’s from LORAC’s Hollywood Ice Collection.
The palette is actually divided with both cool and warm eyeshadows — the first row of eyeshadows are warm, while the second row of eyeshadows are cool. The idea behind the palette is having the ability to go from day to night within a single palette. I definitely think LORAC hit a home run on that mark — this can be easily used to create several softer, more neutral looks, while the mauve, silver, and black-blue shade can add drama to any look.
- Warm eyeshadows: a warmed up champagne, a peachy-pink, copper-brown, chocolate brown
- Cool eyeshadows: an icy, semi-matte white, a silvery mauve-plum, a brownish-green-blue (reminded me of MAC’s Club eyeshadow), and a blue-black with blue-green sparkles.
- Blushes: a bright, peachy-apricot and a semi-matte to matte dirty pink
- Lip Polish: a semi-sheer, reddish-brown with gold shimmer
If you’re looking for an easy-to-use palette with both eyeshadows and blushes in one (but thankfully no lip color wells!), I think you might find LORAC to your liking. The quality of the eyeshadows is great — they’re smooth, soft, and pigmented. They’re not ultra pigmented, but I don’t think ultra pigmentation is always necessary (good pigmentation is enough — ultra can actually make a color harder to work with at times!).
The palette is housed in sleek, silver packaging and it’s pretty lightweight. The brush is a throw-in; it’s not spectacular, but it’ll do ya in a pinch. I think they could have gone with a more neutral lip color (I know, gasp!), because I’m not sure that deep of a shade will work for the majority of looks.
Bottom Line: The colors weren’t necessarily to my personal taste, but these are quality shades at an affordable price. It’s hard to beat $30 for this much product!
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- Product: 26/30
- Value: 9/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: Still hunting for a holiday palette? Wanting something with variety? Try LORAC!
Availability: LORAC Cosmetics, Ulta
Holiday Makeup: Subtle Glam?
Sonia Kashuk Starry Eyes Eye Palette ($14.99) is a mix of six eyeshadows–three glittery, three matte–for the holiday season.
My favorite part about this palette is the outside casing — it’s this shimmery, sequin-y black case that sparkles in the light. It’s really stunning, and it’s probably one of the best holiday-themed packaging jobs I’ve seen in awhile. Unfortunately, the inside of the palette, which is more important, just fell a little flat for me.
While I liked Sonia Kashuk’s Showstopper Eyeshadow Quad, which had the same shimmery shadow texture, these colors just seem drab–muted. They’re so muted and subtle and yet have so much shimmer, it seems contradictory. The texture is smooth, and they look wet when applied and have surprisingly little fall out (though there is some). For me, the colors don’t jump out at me, so I’m just not excited over it.
Included in the palette are three glittery shades: a muted warm-toned medium-dark brown, a glitzy warmed up champagne gold, and a muted mauvey-brown, along with three matte shades: a cool-toned chocolate brown, a dusty white, and a plummy mauve. The matte shades didn’t feel chalky or dusty, though they were a little sheerer than I’d like–overall, they felt smooth to the touch.
I did like how the shimmery shades were coordinated with the matte shades – almost like reflections of each other. I think I liked the actual shades of the matte colors more than the shimmery ones, though!
Bottom Line: This just isn’t the palette for me, but it’s still a quality palette. The shadows were smooth, had decent color pay off, and they’re shades that can definitely be worn by many. Though they’re muted and subtle (and inexplicably, it just didn’t work for me in this palette–because I know I can appreciate a subtle color palette!), they would make for some more nuanced, less in-your-face holiday looks for sure.
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- Product: 26/30
- Value: 9/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 5/5
Recommendation: If you enjoy more subtle, muted shades, you might like this!
Availability: Target
Add a Little Holiday Opulence to Your Look
Estee Lauder Opulent Shimmer Powder
($32.00) is a limited edition, holiday highlighter from Este Lauder’s Ultimate Red Collection.
It has this kind of basketweave-esque pattern on the outer portion of it, which is slightly bronzer, while the inner hexagon is flat and more of a beige-y shade. Nevertheless, you swirl and mix both sections together to get a shimmery shade of beige-y gold. It was surprisingly subtle and not at all frosty or glittery — very smooth, soft, and appropriate In my swatch, you can see that it doesn’t show up too bright or look glittery, but it lays on skin quite well. I’d say my arm is somewhere around NC20 or so, for reference.
Certainly not as pretty (just as far as the pattern goes!) as Lancome’s Sparkling Cherub, but it’s more my style and something I’d reach for more often. I found Lancome’s Sparkling Cherub to run deeper and have more of a semi-matte finish–it just felt more like a bronzer than a highlighter to me. I do feel like they’re very different products, so it’s more a matter of what you’re looking for and what you want the product to do. If you’re just looking for a shimmery highlighter, Estee Lauder’s is your better bet; if you’re looking to add more warmth to your skin, Lancome’s is the way to go.
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- Product: 27/30
- Value: 8/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: If you’re in the market for a soft, smooth golden highlighter, you might like this limited edition holiday offering.
Availability: Nordstrom
Dolce & Gabbana Gold Lipstick
Holiday Dazzle: Dolce & Gabbana Gold Lipstick
Dolce & Gabbana Gold Shine Lipstick ($30.00) is a shimmery, shiny dose of bronzy-copper with flecks of coppery gold. This is not really a shade that works best alone but as a layering tool. This is a great lipstick to layer to achieve a warmer, brighter, or more shimmery lip color. It works particularly well under semi-sheer to sheer red-based lipglosses! It is semi-opaque, actually, because it does significantly cover lips, but since it’s more shimmer than lip color, it can look patchy on its own if you’re not careful. Even though it’s a shade I’d wear with other products, it can still be worn alone since it has decent coverage. Dolce & Gabbana lipsticks are very creamy, smooth, and always last a good four to five hours on my lips.
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- Product: 27/30
- Value: 8/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: Add some dazzle to your lips with this shimmery lipstick from Dolce & Gabbana!
Availability: Saks Fifth Avenue
China Glaze Lemon Fizz Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Up & Away Collection: Lemon Fizz
China Glaze Lemon Fizz Nail Lacquer is a spring-y daffodil yellow. It’s pale and pastel, but there’s a little warmth there to keep it from being too cool or dull. There’s even a brightness–maybe the optimism of spring captured in color–to the yellow without making it a traffic-stopping yellow (which is more Happy Go Lucky’s style). I’m not a fan of yellow on my nails, but this is a yellow I could feel comfortable wearing.
Like some of the paler shades from this launch, application proved trickier than usual, but I found one thin coat (which may or may not have been streaky) followed by a thicker second coat worked well to given an even, creamy finish. I had the mentality of, “Fine, be streaky on the first coat… but I’m covering all that up later.” I would really suggest just playing around with different applications, coat amounts, thickness, etc. (you may even have to test out different base/top coat combinations), but the results are certainly worth a few botched attempts!
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- Product: 28/30
- Value: 9/10
- Ease of Use: 3/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: For a perfect-for-spring yellow that’s not too sunny, try Lemon Fizz.
Availability: January 2010
