Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder Review, Photos, Swatches
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder ($72.00 for 0.46 oz.) is an intricately embossed illumatinating powder that “gently highlights the skin with a sheer blend of tender pink and pearlescence.” Of all the products I purchased from the holiday collection, I figured this was the one readers would be most interested in.
On me, it swatches as a pale beige with a soft shimmer and sheen–but it’s so light against my skin tone that it reads powdery. It applies much lighter than it looks in the pan. When applied on cheek bones, I felt the powderiness of the product was further emphasized. I had to use either an extremely light hand and barely dust on product or blend, blend, blend it away so it looked less ghost-like. It catches the light well and seems to photograph better than it looks in real life, which emphasizes my pore size and just seems to sit on the top of skin, rather than really melt into it.
For lighter complexions, it would work better–as compared to my medium skin tone–because it will be similar to your natural skin tone and will highlight without lightening. I don’t like the powdery, almost chalky appearance it has on my skin. It wore for six hours before beginning to fade, and by the eighth hour, it was no longer noticeable.
The powder itself is soft and finely-milled, though the larger shimmer is merely an overlay, so underneath is a more refined, less shimmery, more sheen kind of finish. Because of the silkiness in texture, it is easy to blend but just doesn’t seem to lay as well on the skin as other Chanel powder products have in the past. It’s soft but powdery and kicks up a fair amount of excess product when you go to use it.
It reminded me of a lot of the lighter highlighters I’ve come across, like MAC Lightscapade, Chanel Beiges Ombres Tissees (significantly more metallic), and MAC Too Chic.
Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder
LELimited Edition. $72.00.
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder on cheek bones (Chanel Tweed Brun Rose on cheeks)
Chanel Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder
I tried this at the counter a few weeks ago and feel more or less the same way, meh. Too white, too powdery, not pearl-enough. It does settle into pores somewhat-but looks better in natural light. I prefer the Estee lauder illuminating gelee/powder for a more golden glow or Nars albatross for something lighter and pearl-y.
What lipstick is this? You look amazing!
I wore Dior Nocturne!
hmmm no,thanks.I will be getting only one pretty powder from this year’s holiday collections and it is Guerlain Parure de Nuit!
btw,What are you wearing on your lips christine? it looks lovely
It’s Dior Nocturne 🙂
The shade is almost a dull white- would be best suitable for pale skin tones like u mentioned. Your lip color is looking lovely here! Which one is it?
It’s Dior Nocturne!
Not gonna happen. Hope people saved money and bought Lightscapade.
I went to the Chanel counter just to check this out. My Nordstrom has the Chanel counter right next to the MAC counter, where I also saw a tester of Lightscapade out. I swatched the Chanel highlighter and the Lightscapade right next to each other and couldn’t tell the difference. I already bought two Lightscapades, so that saved me from buying the Chanel.
You don’t seem to like it and yet it looks lovely on you, Christine. Sometimes a restrained pearl glow is far more elegant and beautiful than full on shine, frost, or shimmer.
Judging from the promo pictures, this product is aimed at fair complexioned, more “mature” women who don’t want a lot of sparkle where they highlight. I fit both criteria and have had excellent results with this. I use a soft highlighter brush (Hakuhodo) to sweep it from brow bone to cheek bone in the classic “C” formation. It gives me a believable glow that works well in tandem with my blush. My only criticism is the price which is ridiculous since I am actually using this rather than saving it in a collection.
Hi Eileen,
I mentioned in the review that it looks better in photographs than in real life, where the pores look huge and the product looks powdery, just like it’s sitting on the surface. It has nothing to do with it not being shimmery enough or anything to that effect – it just doesn’t look flattering on. I like highlighters from barely shimmered to metallic, but this one was a miss for me. If the skin is at all textured, I expect it won’t look natural when worn.
I haven’t had your problems with it sitting on the surface, emphasizing pores, or looking powdery so I guess that means that, for an old broad, I’ve got a very good fair complexion! LOL Seriously, no product is going to work well for everyone and it’s always a matter of skin condition and type, complexion tone, etc. You’re a lovely young woman, Christine, and certainly know what works best for you. I wasn’t implying that you didn’t and I did, indeed, read your full review before commenting.
Oh, no, I meant more that if you have any texture issues – young or more mature – that it could be problematic.
What lipstick are you wearing here Christine?? It’s gorgeous. 🙂
Dior Nocturne
Althought it s packaged beautifully, the product lacks serious luster, huge let down.
the product looked good on you nevertheless! and hooray for the face swatches again. please don’t mind readers who comment that they aren’t helpful at all!
I think I said it before, but I never removed them entirely – only that if I was pressed for time, I had photos sitting around for too long, etc. then there was no reason to wait just to find a moment to do a cheek swatch. The majority of people do not find them helpful, so it’s not something I should put a review off 2 months for! 🙂
What lipstick are you wearing, Christine? It’s gorgeous – I want that! Pass on the powder 😉
Dior Nocturne
What color lipstick are you wearing in these pictures? It’s lovely!!
Dior Nocturne 🙂
I’m desperately trying to convince myself that I don’t need this. I have so many highlighters already, and this one doesn’t seem that special.
I love the lipstick you’re wearing though, please let me know what it is, thanks. x
Dior Nocturne!
Balls. It’s beautiful, and no doubt would like nice on my uber pale skin, but it’s got both silicones and paragons. The former I avoid because of breakouts, the latter out of some vague principal. :/
Thank you for reviewing! It looks so beautiful in that pan!
Paragons – ha! I’m having more than a few issues and annoyances with my spelling corrected lately. yeesh.
Parabens!
I love Chanel but not a fan of this. It’s does look pretty on you though.
Thanks for the review, I’ll pass this and probably indulge and buy Lightscapade. You look absolutely lovely, next time I’m at Sephora I’ll go and check out Dior Nocturne.
I think your review is pretty straight-forward about who this highlighter will look best on. Fortunately (or unfortunately for my bank account) I’m a B10 shade and so the coloring works well on me…as for the pore thing I’ve had that problem with most highlighters I’ve tried!
Anyways, as other posters have mentioned, it looks nice on you (at least in pictures) and your Dior Nocturne is fabulous 😉
Overall nothing is really wowing me like holiday 2010 did. I loved fuchsia tweed and I am still trying to get my hands on Rouge Coco Magnolia after passing it up.
So far what I’ve been hearing from everyone is that this line is ‘blah’ and that they are waiting on Spring. I think I’d rather get Guerlain holiday meteorites than this if I was looking for subtle highlighting shimmer.
Christine what eyeliner did you use along the lower lashline? On your left eye it looks brown but not dark enough to compete with your eye color. The right eye the liner looks a little darker more black-tinged. My iris is about the same shade of brown as yours and I’d love to find a brown eyeliner of the same color.
It’s actually an olive green 🙂 Tarina Tarantino Sparkling Ammunition!
This is gorgeous, I need this I think! x
Nice, but I still think the best highlighter is Nars Copacabana, its creamy and smooth.
You look so pretty Christine 🙂
Hi Christine, thanks for another great post! I have been patiently waiting for you to review this Chanel highlighter as I can’t make up my mind whether its this or the Guerlain parure de nuit. Based from the photos above, this one looks like a sculpture built by the Mayans. But I guess I would be sticking with the Guerlain highlighter (which looks like a work of art as well) as I already have MAC Lightscapade. 🙂
Guerlain’s is definitely better 🙂 I reach for that all the time!
I appreciate your advice, Christine! Many thanks and more power to you. 🙂
I love most of the Chanel holiday collection, and I did buy many items from the collection this highlighter was not one of them, I have Chanel pearl glow and like that much better. While the packaging and detail is gorgeous, it’s nothing special and for $72.00, No way 🙂 I am loving Benefit Watt’s Up too.
It looks like a lovely highlighter in the pan, too bad it doesn’t work better. Although even if it did, I can’t see spending $72 on it.
Definitely not for red-undertoned dark skinned girls. Tried this at the Chanel counter and I looked like one of those zombies from The Walking Dead 🙁
when i went to my chanel counter the ma seemed like she was really trying to sell me this product. for 72 dollars i expect “magic” lol . ill just stick to my lightscapade!
Thanks for the review. I would love to see everything else you got from this collection, particularly the eye products and loose powder. When you have time. Thanks