NARS Bento Box Set

The NARS Bento Box has been generating quite some buzz, including a mention in the New York Times Magazine. With the expected release date of November 1st, I was surprised to find out yesterday that Saks Fifth Avenue has received some stock of this item and that it was available for purchase. So here are the pics! As with the Paul & Joe sets, I have yet the heart to use this item; so no swatches. I think I need to start a museum like display case of my own.

The hefty Bento Box Set comes in a matte black Nars box:

With the box lid removed:

The Bento Box itself is a black wooden lacquered box.



With the wooden lid lifted:

Inside are the 2 kabuki bowls and a kabuki lip brush.

The bowl lids come with padding:

Bowls revealed! L->R: Sakura and Maiko

Close up of Sakura (pink).
I did use flash for the pics but both lip colors are pretty vibrant.


Here's Maiko (Red):


Close up of the gorgeous kabuki lip brush. It is only available in the set. Although Nars does offer other kabuki brushes (I am eyeing the Yachiyo brush).


In case you're wondering on the size of the bowls.
Here is a bowl next to a full size Nars lip gloss:



Each bowl is labeled as having 0.12oz (3.5g) of product.

Without a doubt, this is a gorgeous luxe holiday item. Craftsmanship definitely went into the set and everything is solidly made. Is it something you can carry around and show off? No, but it does make a lovely display piece. I think I will eventually use it even though a part of me does want to keep it pristine. If you're interested, but not near Saks, there is a sign-up to be notified of when it's released on the Nars cosmetics site.

Paul & Joe Holiday 2010-Eye & Lip sets and Nail polish

I'm a sucker for nice packaging and Paul & Joe often has some of the cutest packaging around so it's oh so hard for me to resist. I purchased both of the eye & lip color sets and some of the nail polishes from the holiday collection through beautyhabit.com. I haven't gotten a chance to swatch the collection so it's just product pics for now.

The theme of this collection is "symphony". The lining of the boxes and the eye shadow cards have a sheet music design on them.

Each of the Eye & Lip color sets come in a floral pouch with a kiss clasp.

Interior:

The Eye & Lip color set includes a lip rouge and 5 eyeshadow cards.

For the Adagio set, there is a dark pink/red color combine with a light pink color:

The five eyeshadow cards:


Close-ups:

For the Allegro set, the lip rouge is a shimmery clear color combined with a dark pink flower.

The eye shadow cards:


Close-ups:

So far, I like the colors in both sets. The eye shadow cards are novel although they do have an over sized sample feel to it =P Hopefully both items will wear well. I will post swatches once I have the heart to use them.

The 2 polishes I decided to get are Classical (light pink) and Minuet (light grey cement):

Close-ups:


Minuet reminds me of Rescue Beauty Lounge Jane polish:

A new press powder duo was also released along with a limited edition compact case with the floral motif like the pouch. There is a Face color and Lip gloss set shown on the Paul & Joe beaute website but I haven't seen it available yet.

Dior Five Golds palette-Holiday 2010

I stopped by Saks Fifth Avenue a few weeks ago since I had a promotional gift card to use and I spotted a few of the Dior Holiday items. The Minaudiere clutch palette didn't wow me enough and in the end I only purchased the Dior Five Golds palette.

The name is a bit of a misnomer since the palette doesn't really have five golden colors. It actually has a bright silver, a shimmery copper, a shimmery bronze, a shimmery light gold and a glittery black.

The shimmery copper and shimmery bronze are the standout colors and I do like them a lot. They kind of reminded of some of the Urban decay colors so I compared them to 2 that I though seemed to be similar-half baked and smog.

Half baked had more of a sheen to it and was a bit brassier than the Dior copper. Smog was close to the bronze in the Dior palette but it also seem to have a different finish to it and the color was just a bit off.

I'm on the fence on this palette, the browns are gorgeous but the other colors in the palette are just ok for me. I've seen this listed on the sephora.com site but it's currently not in stock.

tokidoki Robbery Palette

I spotted the tokidoki Robbery Palette on Sephora.com and had to order it right away. It was too cute to pass up and packed a lot into one kit.

The palette comes in a metal tin with a large detachable magnet. It's the same logo design as the one on the tank tops.

Here's the tin with the magnet removed:

When the tin is opened; the lid contains a small mirror and the bottom houses 3 mini palettes.

When the mini palettes are removed; you can see the poor jailed characters.


Here's the three palettes opened up:


The first palette is called Royal Pride. The shadows are Royal Pappa (bronze), Savana (Bright gold), Ercolino (copper) and Bulletto (golden dark brown). The cheek color is Royal Pride (golden shimmery light brown)


The second palette is Arlecchino palette. The shadows are Soya (lime green), Candy cane (silvery white), Ninja Dog (shimmery indigo), and Meteo (navy pearl). The cheek color is Momobella (golden shimmery pink).


The last palette is Rapina palette. The shadows are Liberty (dark blue teal), Bullets (silvery grey), LA Gun (dark blue green), Adios (matte black). The cheek color is Polpettina (shimmery dark pink).

The shadows dry swatched decently except for Liberty =( Sorry no swatched for the cheek colors, they weren't showing up well, although you can see Royal Pride between the eyeshadow swatches for the first two palettes. I didn't realize it would show up till I took the pics. doh.

Close up for Royal Pride and Arlecchino palettes:


Swatch for Rapina palette:

Judging from the Cromatico Eyeshadow list, most of the shadows are new except for Savana, Bulletto, and Soya. Royal Pride is the only cheek color currently available solo. Along with the cute packaging, I think this is an awesome way to try out the tokidoki shadows without dealing with the bulky packaging and it's nice to see some more cheek colors available as well. The palette is also super travel friendly since you can just take one mini palette at a time. The set was $49 on sephora.com.