Sunday, April 1st, 2012
Guerlain Guet-Apens (167) Rouge Automatique Lipstick
Guerlain Guet-Apens (167) Rouge Automatique Lipstick
Guerlain Guet-Apens (167) Rouge Automatique Lipstick ($35.00 for 0.12 oz.) is a reddened berry with soft raspberry red shimmer. The color coverage is semi-opaque, but it doesn’t give the most even coverage. Guerlain L’Heure Bleue is redder. Dior Nocturne is redder and has gold shimmer. Dior Technicolor Red is redder and brighter. Guerlain Nuit d’Amour is a bit darker. MAC Rebel is a bit redder and more opaque.
I wish the color applied more evenly! Guet-Apens has the right color coverage–not totally opaque, a little translucent–for the formula, but it doesn’t want to cover evenly, which is a major bummer. It still felt lovely going on; creamy enough to glide over lips without being slippery. Once on, it felt lightweight and wore for four and a half hours and left behind a very subtle stain. For more packaging photos, please see this post.
Where to Buy: Nordstrom, $35
I'm usually very impressed with the Rouge Automatique line, and this is really the first shade I can remember having real trouble with. The feel and consistency is true to form, but the application is more troublesome if you want even color coverage.
Thursday, March 29th, 2012
MAC Pink Tea Blush
MAC Pink Tea Blush
MAC Pink Tea Blush ($20.00 for 0.21 oz.) is described as a “neutral beige pink” with a satin finish. These blushes are really interesting, just because they tend to swatch and apply darker on the skin than they look in the pan. As I write this post, I’m staring at the swatch on my forearm going, “Really?” In the pot, it looks exactly as described: pale, neutral pink–almost looks a little gray–but swatched it takes on a light-medium pink with a hint of berry hue. It loses the neutrality and grayness entirely! It is crazy how different it appears swatched as well as when applied to cheeks. On cheeks, it looks a little more neutral as a result of not being terribly pigmented.
Illamasqua Chased is a bit similar, though cooler-toned. Chanel Tweed Fuchsia is a little lighter and more shimmery. Bobbi Brown Pretty Pink is a bit yellower. NYX English Rose is cooler-toned. And yes, it does bear a resemblance to Lovecloud, which is a little warmer (and on, Pink Tea is softer, more neutral). Also, while it seemed like it might be similar to also-releasing (in Reel Sexy) Pink Cult, they’re not quite–Pink Cult actually retains the grayish, slightly neutral quality that you see in the pan when swatched, and it’s much more pigmented. Pink Cult swatches more true-to-pan, so if you saw this shade and wanted something more like the pan, you may want to hold out for Pink Cult. Not entirely different but not quite the same.
Pink Tea had the sheerest coverage out of the whole bunch; it took some layering to build it up enough so you could see it in the photograph. I think on pale complexions, it could easily become a go-to everyday/natural blusher, but on medium to deep skin tones, it’s just not going to do much. The texture is dry but soft, and blending isn’t difficult, but partially, it’s a result of how little color gets deposited on the skin! I really thought I was going to fall in love with this one, but the way it changed colors on me conflicted with my expectations. Have you ever had that happen?
I’ve tested numerous MAC blushes in the past, and overall, they hold up between seven and eight hours. Out of this particular launch, I only specifically tested Full of Joy (which stayed true to the average) but hope to try a couple more shades. If there are any discrepancies, I’ll be sure to update the review to reflect that.
Where to Buy: MAC, $20 (launches April 5th in-stores)
Pink Tea had the sheerest coverage out of the whole bunch; it took some layering to build it up enough so you could see it in the photograph. I think on pale complexions, it could easily become a go-to everyday/natural blusher, but on medium to deep skin tones, it's just not going to do much.
Monday, March 19th, 2012
Chanel Lucky Stripes Iridescent Powder
Chanel Lucky Stripes Iridescent Powders for Eyes and Cheeks
Chanel Lucky Stripes Iridescent Powder< ($95.00 for 0.53 oz.) is described as a highlighter for both cheeks and eyes. It’s part of the online exclusive (and at select boutiques) Las Vegas de Chanel collection and easily the pricest piece of the launch! It has six stripes of color, though the medium orange and gold shades seem to have been done twice, which resulted in four unique shades.
When blended together, the result is a warm, orange-tinted gold with a glowy shimmer-sheen. It looks a lot like Guerlain Terracotta Sun in the City, actually! Perhaps not quite as dark, but when blended out, the differences nearly disappear. Lucky Stripes has a less metallic finish. Chanel Shimmering Tweed is more golden, less orange. MAC Sun Rush is similar but in liquid form. Chanel Empreinte de Chanel also is similar, perhaps a little less golden.
There’s a medium-dark brown with red-orange undertones and a subtle satiny sheen. Urban Decay Chopper is similar but slightly redder. NARS Isolde is deeper. MAC One to Watch is a touch lighter. Bare Escentuals Fire is similar but a little more orange. To the right of that is a medium orange with a golden shimmer-sheen. MAC Fresh Daily is darker, more intense. Dolce & Gabbana Cocoa is similar but a bit darker and matte. Inglot #368 is lighter.
Next, there’s a medium yellow gold with gold shimmer–it’s actually not quite as refined, soft, or as pigmented as the other shades. It’s similar to golds like MAC Goldmine, Urban Decay Blunt, and Bare Escentuals Remix. The last shade is a pale white with larger white shimmer. It’s similar to MAC Winterscape and MAC White Frost.
It adds a warm, golden reflective quality to the cheek without emphasizing the skin’s texture. More glowy than metallic, but it’s still a more noticeable highlighter overall (which may or may not be to your liking!). I think it performs best as a cheek product, but it can be used on the eyes, too. There it blends out too easily; the colors seem to disappear as you blend, which can be frustrating. The texture of the powder is soft, finely-milled, and not at all powdery. On cheeks, it wore for seven hours and looked patchy after eight hours. On eyes, without a primer, it wore for seven hours with some fading, but with a primer, I didn’t have any wear issues.
I cannot figure out just what about this powder gave Chanel the gall to price this at $95. It’s like with every ultra limited edition launch, they tack on another $10 (and it may just feel that way). There’s nothing about this powder that feels different than other Chanel highlighting powders (or other high-end/designer powders for that matter). It’s gorgeous to be sure, and it’s a pretty design on the interior, but it’s still a plastic black compact on the outer edge. Hey, at least Dior and Guerlain will often give you limited edition, specially-designed packaging with their high price tags! (Dior often has signature limited edition pieces that come out in the $80+ range, and Guerlain has debuted similar products in the $60+ range.)
Where to Buy: Chanel, $95
I suspect that for most readers, the price alone will be a major turn-off. For me, a product at this price point needs to perform immaculately. This is a good product but falls short of greatness. It's too similar to both past Chanel powders but also to recently released Guerlain Sun in the City--which is $25 cheaper.
Sunday, March 18th, 2012
Bobbi Brown Ultra Violet Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow
Bobbi Brown Ultra Violet Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow
Bobbi Brown Ultra Violet Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow ($21.00 for 0.08 oz.) is described as an “electric purple.” It’s a red-toned violet purple with purple flecks of shimmer. MAC Power Boosted is similar but frosted. NYX Violetta is also similar but has gold flecks. Bare Escentuals Boudoir is frosted and lighter. Urban Decay Purple Haze is purpler, a bit darker. Urban Decay Fishnet is brighter, more shimmered.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow formula, it’s designed as a “sheer, lightly pearlized shadow.” There is an underlying sheerness with this shade, so it can easily be used as a wash of color. It is somewhat buildable to semi-opaque color coverage, but the faded quality of the wash is always there in the background unless you layered this over a white or purple base–I think you could get really full coverage that way (true with most sheer products). There is some fall out from the sparkle, unfortunately! Not that much translates from pan to eye, so there is less to contend with as fall out, but there is still some. This wears just around eight hours with very, very subtle creasing without a primer, and it wears all day with a primer.
Where to Buy: Bobbi Brown, $21
Fall out is a big no-no for me, so I'm not a fan of this type of eyeshadow texture, where the shimmer/glitter sits more as an overlay than really interwoven with the base product, because it results in fall out.
Thursday, March 15th, 2012
Chanel Vegas Gold Le Crayon Levres / Precision Lip Definer
Chanel Vegas Gold Le Crayon Levres / Precision Lip Definer
Chanel Vegas Gold Le Crayon Levres / Precision Lip Definer ($29.00 for 0.04 oz.) is an molten gold designed to line the center of the lips to add a “touch of light.” The color is similar to Urban Decay Eldorado, which is an eyeliner. I can’t think of any lip liners that I own that are similar, but NYX Gold might work (I haven’t seen it, so I couldn’t tell you for sure) as it turned in my search for “gold lip liner.”
I can imagine this working really well with reds, berries, and plums, actually. The combination of the orange-gold tone with red would be fantastic. It applies fairly well, though it does pull and tug just a tad, and the shimmer has a slight grit to it. It’s not the best lip pencil I’ve used, but it’s certainly one of the more unique shades I’ve come across. It yielded good color payoff in a single pass, though on lips it’s a bit harder to get those results as the surface area is much larger! I found it was a little dry on its own. Overall, the formula and feel leave a little to be desired, but there’s something about the color itself as a lip product that draws me in.
Where to Buy: Chanel, $29
Overall, the formula and feel leave a little to be desired, but there's something about the color itself as a lip product that draws me in.
Thursday, March 8th, 2012
Guerlain Terracotta Sun in the City Illuminating Powder
Guerlain Terracotta Sun in the City Illuminating Powder
Guerlain Terracotta Sun in the City Illuminating Powder ($70.00 for 0.52 oz.) is a metallic yellow gold with buildable color. It doesn’t take a lot of product to achieve an appropriate amount of highlighting color on the cheek, but it is very blendable so it can be sheered out or applied softly from the start. When I wore this, it lasted for seven hours with noticeable (but not disastrous) fading by the eighth hour. I wore it as a blusher, just because it’s easier to identify how well it wears when you cover a larger area, but I’d typically dust this on cheek bones and paired with a warm-toned blush (maybe a coral or natural brown).
If you have a yellow gold eyeshadow, you could likely achieve a similar look with that. Chanel Empreinte de Chanel is a little darker, almost orange-ish, as is Chanel Shimmering Tweed. While Guerlain often has incredibly subtle, finely-milled highlighters, this one is more metallic, more noticeable–it’s therefore easier to dupe (it’s usually that finish that is more difficult to dupe). It still feels soft to the touch, but there’s that metallic shimmer that keeps it from being buttery soft. The way it feels reminds me a bit of Estee Lauder’s Illuminating Gelee formula, though this is less dry.
Guerlain knows how to design a powder; the design looks like fields of golden wheat swaying in the breeze. The design doesn’t fade away after one use either, which is nice, though eventually you will wear away a lot of the texture on the top, it should take several uses or more. The compact also contains a brick o’ highlighter–weighing in at 0.52 oz.–and most blushes and highlighters come between 0.15 oz. and 0.25 oz. It is heavily fragranced, as is typical for the brand, so if you’re sensitive to scents, you may want to check it out in person. I had this open on the desk where I take photos, and I could smell it from a couple of feet away.
Where to Buy: Nordstrom>, $70
While Guerlain often has incredibly subtle, finely-milled highlighters, this one is more metallic, more noticeable--it's therefore easier to dupe (it's usually that finish that is more difficult to dupe). I know this is selling quickly partially because of the design, but from a use standpoint, I don't think it's a must-have.
