Dior Garden Clutch~Milly Garden-Swatches

I did manage to stop admiring the Dior Garden Clutch for a moment so I could do some swatching. I picked a flat spot between the rosettes so the overall pattern on the eye shadows were preserved :)

The flap on the right lifts up to reveal the lip colors.


Close-up of the eye shadows. Colors are a dark purple/grey, a light silver/grey and light pink. All the shadows are shimmery/iridescent.


Close-up of the lip colors. One is a lip plumper and one is a regular gloss. I have not worn either color so I can't tell which is which. I am guessing that the pale pink is the plumper and the other pink is the regular gloss.


Swatches~sorry all under indoor lighting. On the right are the lip colors; followed by the eye shadows, no primer.

The pale glosses don't really give off much color. The shadows have good pigmentation, although the palest color only shows up as a iridescent shimmer on my skin.

Quick eotd~

The Dior Garden Clutch in Milly Garden is available now on the Nordstrom website.
The rest of the Dior Spring 2012 is also on the site. Milly Garden is listed as exclusive to Nordstrom, but it may also be available on the Dior.com site in the future. There is also another variation of the Dior Garden Clutch called Granville Garden; to see pics and swatches of this clutch, please see Fruity Lashes' post.

Chanel Holiday 2011-A few product pics

I got the chance to meet with the lovely Macnunu and Asiyakei today. We made trip to Saks and found that the new holiday items from Chanel were available. Here's just a few quick product pics of what I purchased~

Luminère Sculptée de Chanel Highlighting powder


Closer look at the gorgeous embossing


Glossimer in Sweet Beige


Ombre Essentielle in Beige Lamé on top and Glossimer in Sweet Beige


Les Tissages de Chanel Tweed Brun Rosé blush


Will try to have more pics and swatches up soon!

Kose Esprique-Dimensional Eyes, Aqua Drape Rouge and Melty Fix Cheek

I was curious to try the new Kose Esprique line (which replaces the Kose Esprique Precious line) so I ordered one of each of the available products-the Blend Dimensional Eyes palette in A-1, the Aqua Drape Rouge in PK870 and the Melty Fix Cheek blush in PK800. The packaging for this line has is made of solid plastic but it has a diamond pattern in black/dark grey which I believe it is suppose to give an air of sophistication but it didn't really impress me much.

Blend Dimensional eyeshadow palette in A-1:

Melty Fix Cheek in PK800:

Aqua Drape Rouge in PK870:

Better picture of the pretty shimmer

The applicator has a flat oval shape.

Swatches:





Top: Aqua Drape Rouge in PK870
Bottom: Melty Fix Cheek in PK800 (swatch in last pic is blended); Blend Dimensional Eyes in A-1

The Blend Dimensional Eyes palette in A-1 was a pretty shimmery neutral palette but it didn't wow me. It went on nice enough and blended nicely but the colors didn't really stand out. I don't often use blush sticks but the Melty Fix Cheek in PK800 was easy to use and blended very nicely. I thought it had a more powdery feel and finish compared to a Nars multiple. My favorite item was the Aqua Drape Rouge in PK870. It felt a bit sticky and thick when I applied it but that feeling soon went away. It gives a nice glossy look; the shimmery is subtle and overall a very comfortable gloss. I'm looking forward to trying out a another color. I ordered these items from Mihoko Shop.

Nars Summer 2011 part 2 and a shiny fing

The sun was out today so I took the chance to take more pics of the Nars summer collection. Here are better pics of Cap Ferrat, Exotic Dance and Dogon.

Cap Ferrat


Exotic Dance and Dogon

The only lip color I skipped on was the Carthage matte lipstick because as much as I liked the color, I couldn't see myself wearing it all that much. Here are pics for Mayflower, Bolero and Wonder.

Mayflower
-Goes on smooth, with a bit of shine.

Bolero Velvet Matte Pencil
-Quite a bold and unforgiving peach color. I prefer it topped with Wonder.


Wonder lip gloss
-Gorgeous glossy and shimmery orange

When I saw the New Order blush, I was afraid the shimmer would be a bit too chunky but once applied, it works as a subtle highlighter.

Swatches:



Top: New Order
Bottom (l ->r): Mayflower, Bolero, Wonder, Bolero topped with Wonder

I've been loving orange/coral lips lately so the Nars offerings were right up my alley and New Order was a pleasant surprise.

As I was looking at the Cap Ferrat trio, I realized the colors were reminiscent of a shiny fing that I recently purchased. I have been a follower of Yasumi's lovely blog and was delighted that she was once again making shiny fings. I ordered her "Principessa Oceano" earrings and they arrived at a lightening speed (2 days from the UK to US-I didn't know it was possible!).

They came wrapped with care:


and safely contained:


I think they go well with Cap Ferrat:

Do visit her emporium here.

Hello Kitty x Sephora swatches

The Hello Kitty x Sephora collection is now officially available online. I've seen a handful of items at one of the Sephora stores in town so the line should soon be in-stores as well.

The Say Hello Palettes has 4 eye shadows and 4 lip glosses. For the Super Fun palette (Click here for product pics) the eye shadows are: Sugar Plum (pale lilac), Raindrop (dark grey), Sweet Plum (smoky purple with silver sparkles) and Goodnight Dreams (black with silver sparkles); the lip glosses are: Snowflake (clear), Pink confetti (sheer pink), Strawberry Cookie(sheer mauve) and Sweet plum (sheer plum). The eye shadows were nice, but the lip colors were super sheer so they were a bust.

Top (l->r): Snowflake, Pink confetti, Strawberry Cookie, Sweet plum

Bottom (l->r): Sugar Plum, Raindrop, Sweet Plum, Goodnight Dreams

The kohl eyeliner set has 7 liners-Goodnight Dreams (Black), Grape Juice (Violet), Chocolate Milk (Dark Brown), Happy Cloud (Light Gold), Blueberry (Turquoise), Bicycle (Forest Green), and Blue Sky (Navy). The liners are super smooth and the colors are lovely but they do seem to smudge pretty easily.

l->r: Goodnight Dreams, Grape Juice, Chocolate Milk,
Happy Cloud, Blueberry, Bicycle, Blue Sky

I decided to try the eyeshadow stick in Cupcake (light gold) and Cream Puff (silvery purple). They go on very smooth and makes a nice eyeshadow base. Cream puff was a great base for the eye shadows from the Super Fun palette.

The Big Smile gloss is a bit sticky but gives has a nice pigmentation to it. Swatch below is for Cheery (Medium pink).

The Sweet glosses, on the other hand, are pretty sheer and only give a hint of color. Below are swatches for Pink Bow (Sheer pink), Peachy (Sheer coral) and Goldfish (shimmery gold). All the Lip colors have a sweet fruity smell to them that reminded me a bit of sanrio erasers when I was growing up.

Top (l->r): Cupcake, Cream puff
Bottom (l->r): Cheery, Pink Bow, Peachy, Goldfish

I also tried out the nail polishes and nail stickers. Will post up pics for those items soon!

Overall, the Hello Kitty x Sephora items are nice but not necessarily amazing. The best part for me was the packaging-it was cute but not too cutesy. I liked that the Hello Kitty motif was printed on the products and not stickered on. The packaging design was pretty clean for the items and not gaudy. As for picking up more from this collection, I will probably try a more eyeshadow sticks and nail polish. I did not get many of the accessories items since I knew I wouldn't really use them. Between this collection and the Mac one, I think I may like this one a bit more for the more pleasing packaging and variety of products. Which one do you prefer?

Chanel Spring 2011- part deux

Before the year ends (over in New York).....Here are swatches for the eyeshadow palettes along with pics for the nail polishes and a few lip products.

The Ombres Perlees de Chanel eyeshadow palette is so pretty, I almost didn't want to take the swatches off my hand. Each color has a gorgeous shimmer to them.

The colors are light white gold, warm pink, dark plum with pink shimmer, mossy green with multi colored shimmer and dark grey with multi colored shimmer. Pigmentation start off sheer but can be built up nicely.

(Without flash)

The Regards Pearle quad is not the most exciting quad and I almost passed on it; but it is a nice neutral set for spring. The colors are a shimmery black green, a golden peach, a rosy pink and a golden white.

(Without flash)

For lips, I decided to go with the Rouge Coco in Peregrina (light pink coral), the Rouge Allure in Coquette (red coral (a bit like Mac Viva Glam Cyndi lipstick)), lip gloss in Nakkar (golden red) and the Rouge Double Intensite in Cristal Rose (shimmery beige).

Top: Peregina; Bottom: Coquette


Top: Cristal Rose; Bottom: Nakkar




L->R: Peregrina, Coquette, Nakkar, Cristal Rose

Last but not least, here are the polishes from this collection. I thought I would be more in love with Black Pearl, but it really didn't wow me for some reason. I realized I didn't have a lot of white polishes/lighter colors so I decided Pearl Drop and Peche Nacree would be nice additions.

Hope everyone has/had a great new year!