Chantecaille: Les Macarons Face Palette

Chantecaille's holiday 2010 Les Macarons Face Palette is a convenient, slim-sized palette containing two eyes colors: Cassis, a striking deep aubergine and Caramel, a beautiful champagne shimmer; a blush, Raspberry, a healthy pink with gold shimmer; cream highlighter, Rose, a pale icy-pink; and Strawberry lip gloss, a sheer, peachy-pink with subtle gold shimmer. According to Chantecaille, this limited edition palette was inspired by various flavors of macaroon cookies. It retails for $68 and is currently available at Neiman Marcus and at Chantecaille.com.

What drew me to this palette were the flattering shades and variety of products included. The size and weight is ideal for stashing in your purse. A drawback is that a blush brush is not included, so you would need to carry along your own brush if you plan to reapply during the day, as well as use it carefully due to the small pan-size of the blush. It is such a pretty color though! The eye colors and blush are nicely pigmented and the highlighter is gorgeous. The lip gloss is a little sheer to use on its own, but is nonetheless very pretty and will look great over another lipstick or liner. Chantecaille's website suggests using it along with Water Lily (Hydrachic) and Discreet (Lip Definer). I hope to get a lot of use out of this palette!

From left to right:  Cassis Eye Definer, Caramel Eye Color, Raspberry Cheek Shade, Rose Face & Eye Highlighter, Strawberry Lip Gloss

From left to right:  Strawberry Lip Gloss, Rose Face & Eye Highlighter, Raspberry Cheek Shade, Cassis Eye Definer, Caramel Eye Color

A few favorite polishes for Halloween (or anytime!)

Here are just a few shades that I thought might look nice for Halloween! I love OPI's My Private Jet. It was first released back in 2007 as part of the "Night Brights" collection. I read that it has been reformulated since that time, but I have only ever known the version shown here. It's definitely an interesting shade and especially lovely when the light hits it and shows off the holographic sparkle.

Left to right:  Illasmasqua's Rampage, Lippmann's Superstar, OPI's My Private Jet, Zoya's Mimi, and Dior's Black Sequins. (Photo taken in natural light above and with flash below.)

Wishing everyone a happy and safe Halloween this Sunday!

NARS Holiday 2010

Here are my picks from the NARS Holiday collection. I skipped the lovely Okinawa palette. It's a nice combo of black, silver and blue. I just don't need it. Of course I didn't need the Melusine duo either, but hey, it's got purple in it! And I can't pass up purple! Especially when it's Nars' purple :).

The new single eyeshadow offered is Etrusque, a beautiful 'old gold' shade. I love this one. I wouldn't say it is entirely unique, but it is well-pigmented, has a great texture, and is just so pretty! Well worth getting if you are a fan of gold eyeshadow.

The blush in this collection "Sexual Healing" is very light--a soft matte peach shade, but I wasn't sure it would provide enough color. I passed on it for now but may revisit it in the future as it does look very pretty.

There are two nail polishes: A taupey-brown 'a la Particuliere' kind of shade called Bad Influence, and Pokerface, a pastel purple/dark lavender with subtle silver frost. (I chose Pokerface because, after all, it's purple!)

The lipsticks are Petit Monstre and Little Darling: In the tube Little Darling looks to be a shade similar to the Bad Influence polish, but swatched on the hand it is very sheer semi-gloss, with a slight brownish tint. Petit Monstre is a medium-dark brick red/warm berry with subtle gold shimmer.

There are also two new lip glosses, which I passed on as well (for more info on these check Irish Beauty Blog's post here).

On to the photos:

Apologies for the blurry photos. The silvery shade has a bit of a pink duochrome--although you can't tell from these photos, but it's very pretty!

The first shade above (from left to right) is the silvery-lavender shade from Egea, followed by the shimmery shade from Violetta, and then both shades from Melusine (sadly, my skin tone is not the best for displaying these lighter shades!).

Pokerface has a somewhat thick formula and is almost opaque with one coat. In comparison, Zoya's Zara is a similar tone of purple/lavender but is very sheer and has gold shimmer as opposed to the subtle silver shimmer of Pokerface. As you can see below the shimmer doesn't show up much on the nail, but does provide a bit of a glow.

Petit Monstre Lipstick

Such a pretty antique gold.

Happy Friday everyone. Have a great weekend!

Chanel Holiday 2010: An Overview

Here is a quick look at Chanel's Holiday collection. All the products were lovely but I tend to go for warmer colors for lips most of the time, so the Patchouli Rouge Coco and Pleasing Glossimer were love at first sight. I really like the look on the model in the display image. The smoky bronze eye combined with the hot pink lips, cheeks, and nails is so pretty and unexpected for a winter/holiday collection!

(Note: the browns in the quad do not look quite as bronzey as on the model in the photo below. There is a mink brown with micro-sparkles; a pale cream/champagne with pink tones; a slightly darker and more iridescent soft pink with micro-sparkles; and a deep, almost black-based, mahogany brown with very subtle shimmer.)

I was surprised to see that the quad is of the round-pan design and because of this I was kind of worried about the texture because they always seem to be a little more dry and powdery than the other square type. I swatched them today and the payoff of these colors is dependent on how you apply them. When applied dry the finish was a bit disappointing, but when applied with a wet brush, the colors and shimmer really come to life! The darkest shade is nicely pigmented, and if you use base or primer you shouldn't have any problems with these.

Below is a list of the products featured in this post. On display, but not pictured here, were a deep purple mascara and eyeliner: Cassis (repromote), a few other Glossimers, Rouge Coco in Magnolia, and Mica Rose nail polish (repromote).

Eyes:
Ombre D'Eau Fluid Iridescent Eyeshadow 757 Splash
Les 4 Ombres Quadra Eye Shadow Tentation Cuivree
Lips:
Rouge Coco 107 Patchouli
Rouge Allure Extrait De Gloss 54 Liberte (currently exclusive to Saks)
Glossimer: 227 Pleasing
Cheeks:
Blush Duo Tweed Effect 17 Tweed Fuchsia
Nails:
Le Vernis Nail Colour 547 Pulsion

LES 4 OMBRES Tentation Cuivree

Swatched dry using a brush:

Swatched wet (what a difference!):

OMBRE D'EAU 757 Splash

I think this will look amazing as a base for powder shadows, but also looks great on its own.

Splash vs. Sand

ROUGE COCO 107 Patchouli

GLOSSIMER 227 Pleasing

ROUGE ALLURE EXTRAIT DE GLOSS 54 Liberte

BLUSH DUO TWEED EFFECT-17 Tweed Fuchsia

Tweed Fuchsia compared with Tweed Pink

LE VERNIS NAIL COLOUR 547 Pulsion

in the shade

in bright sunlight

Pulsion vs. Riviera

 Pulsion is a lot darker than Riviera and more of a cerise/cherry pink. It's gorgeous! 

(I am sorry there are no swatches here for the blush, some of the lip items, and the polish, but will try to get some up soon.)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone!