Laura Mercier Customizable Artist Palettes Sets

Laura Mercier has released 2 customizable artist palettes sets recently. I had purchased the Laura's Colour Favorites set at Bergdorfs awhile ago and more recently, I ordered the Signature Colour Trend set through the saksfifthavenue website. The mini eye shadows are adorable and the caviar eye liners are one of my favorite Laura Mercier products so I am pretty pleased with both sets.

 Top: Laura's Colour Favorites

Bottom: Signature Colour Trend

 Each set comes with an empty six pan customizable palette

 

 Laura's Colour Favorites palette

Top quartet: Twilight Grey/Pale Pink/Topaz/African Violet

Bottom quartet: Gilded Pines/Cinnamon/Gold Royale/Pink Pearl

Tightline Cake Eye Liner in Chocolate Brown

Caviar Eye Liner in Chestnut

Second Skin Cheek Colour in Sweet Mandarin

Bronzing Pressed Powder in Matte Bronze

Faux Lash Mascara in Black, Lip Glacé in Raspberry and  Crème Smooth Lip Colour in Crème Coral

 Signature Colour Trend Palette

Top quartet: Platinum Pink/Steel Violet/Graphite/Driftwood

Bottom quartet: Tiger's Eye/Baroque/Sandstone/Coffee Ground

Tightline Cake Eye Liner in Black Ebony

Caviar Eye Liner in Cocoa Plum

Second Skin Cheek Colour in Orange Blossom

Bronzing Pressed Powder in Golden Bronze

 Brush bag with Cheek Colour, Eye Colour, Smoky Eye Liner (I haven't tried this one yet but the full size is awesome) and Flat Eye Liner travel size brushes.

Laura's Colour Favorites palette can be ordered through Neiman Marcus and the Signature Colour Trend Palette is available at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Nars Holiday 2011-Color Collection

Here are items from Nars Holiday Color collection. It's a nice collection, the only letdown for me was the trio-the promo pics seem so awesome but when applied it's just not as vibrant. Anyway here's what I picked up:

Arabian Night Trio
(I wished the colors really did apply like it looks in the pan)

Swatches:

Much like other Night Series shadows-the Arabian Nights colors look very sooty when applied dry and without primer.

Ponderosa Cream Shadow
(I always think of the word "steak" when I hear Ponderosa)

Swatches:



L->R: Ponderosa, Arabian Night trio over Ponderosa
The cream shadow definitely helped to bring out the glittery color more in the Arabian Night Shadows although all three still looked very similar.


Top row: Ponderosa and Arabian Night over Poderosa
Bottom Row: Arabian Night dry swatches

The new multiple in G Spot was an item I wasn't sure if I would pick up but once I swatched it, I really liked the color for fall. It has a subtle shimmer and the color a pretty rosey color (not as brown as the picture looks)


My weakness in life is colored eyeliners:

Top: Campo di Fiori
Bottom: St. Marks Place

Swatches:

L->R: St. Marks, Campo di Fiori and G Spot (light swatch)

And the last item is the Mandchourie eyeshadow duo
(shimmery golden olive blue and matte navy):


Dry swatches

Swatch on the right is the shimmer shade layered over the matte shade. I'm still undecided about this duo. The shadows felt smooth but color payoff was a bit iffy. I'll have to play with it more and test it with some primer :)

So, the cream shadow, eyeliners and multiple were hits for me but the trio and duo haven't quite won me over. I wished the trio wasn't black based and showed up as the pan color. I'm also debating on the Joyous Red lip color. I'm normally not a red lip wearer but I liked that it fell on the more warm brick vibe which I think I could pull off more easily for daytime. All items are now available on sephora.com and narscosmetics.com and I've spotted them in store at various counters too.

Chanel Summer 2011-Part 2

Here are pics for the Khaki-Discret duo, Lilium quad and Rose Platine liner. All of the shadows are nice and smooth. I have to confess though I getting tired of seeing dark green in the Chanel quads...seems like it keeps popping up recently, although the one in the Lilium quad is quite pretty. The Rose Platine liner is a gorgeous taupe color. The color gives a soft definition to the eyes.

Swatches with flash:

Top: Rose Platine liner, Khaki-Discret duo
Bottom: Lilium quad

Swatches no flash (natural light indoors)

Top: Rose Platine liner, Khaki-Discret duo
Bottom: Lilium quad

I had mentioned in an earlier post that I thought L'oreal Yellow Seahorse may be a possible dupe for Mimosa, but was wrong. Here are comparison pics:

With flash:

Both are great yellows and perfect for summer. Yellow Seahorse does have an advantage in formula. It went on very smooth but is a bit sheer so you will need 3-4 coats to not have a visible nail line but it is no where as finicky as Mimosa :)

tokidoki Sodashop Palette

I was happy to see that tokidoki decided to release another palette and even more glad that the new Sodashop palette has a completely different set of eyeshadows. This palette has 12 eyeshadows, 1 eyeliner, 1 nail file and a sheet of magnets housed in a decorated tin.

Tin in the clear plastic sleeve


Tin with sleeve removed. The tokidoki flag is a removable magnet


A sheet of magnets for decorating fun


Lid contains a large mirror. Bottom of tin holds the shadows, eyeliner and nail file.


There is a plastic sheet with the eyeshadow names printed on them.


Close up of eye shadows with plastic sheet removed. Eyeshadows are almost full sized (compared to the solo Cromatico shadows). They are listed as being 0.06 oz, while the solo shadows are 0.07oz.


Top row l->r: Skull donut (shimmery white), Potatino (light gold), Riposino (shimmery dark copper), Ciccio (shimmery light copper), Mummetto (matte dark brown), Mozzarella(shimmery dark taupe), Tulipano (matte lilac), Nancy Rocks (violet), Romeo (Shimmery Romeo)
Bottom row l->r: Ciotolina(shimmery moss green), Arrosta (dark grey), Furbina (dark purple with pink glitter)

The full-sized tokidoki perfetto eyeliner is in Carina, a dark eggplant (not swatched). The matte colors were a bit chalky and felt a bit sheer, but the other shadows were very nice. The shimmers were especially gorgeous; my favorite colors are Riposino, Mozzarella and Ciotolina. All the shades are exclusive to this palette it seems except for Nancy Rocks (which is available as a solo Cromatico shadow). The large nail file is a bit random to me but it looks cute in the set. If you were still interested in the Robbery palette (earlier post on that palette here) and haven't picked it up-it's currently on sale for $39. The Sodashop palette is $49.

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?

Sephora x Hello Kitty Product pics

Sorry to interrupt the Chanel postings, but I need to re-do the swatches for the Regard Pearle quad anyway so I thought I would share some pics of things from the Sephora x Hello Kitty collection. I had taken advantage of the preview sale over the weekend on sephora.com for the Hello Kitty collection and to my surprise, an order arrived today! I have another order on it's way, since a few items got re-stocked on Sunday; but for now, please see below for pics of the brush set, eye/lip palette in Super Fun, the Charmmy Kohl Eyeliner kit, some shadow sticks, Pen Pal eyeliner and BigSmile Gloss in Cheery. I haven't tested any products out yet but so far the packaging is really nice ^^

Super fun palette-eye shadows (top tier)


Super fun palette- lip colors (bottom tier)


Hello Kitty brush set was smaller than I expected but still cute. It's a shiny plastic but not the finger print magnet type. The white cup that the brushes are in can be removed.


Brushes are travel sized. I'm doubting how effective they will be but we'll see.

Hope you liked the pics!

Chanel Fall 2010 blushes, lip color and eyeliner *updated*

I've been checking out various stores to see who has this collection and so far I have not seen it at Bloomingdales but the 2 Chanel boutiques I've visit have had the Fall Collection available. All pics in this post are with flash, unless noted otherwise.

The Bergdorf display had the 3 new blushes displayed along with 3 other blushes. I had picked up Rose Bronze which I think is part of the permanent Joues Contraste blush line. Since all the fall blushes have shimmer in them, I was a bit hesitant to purchase them so I decided to wait and give it some thought before committing.

I thought the Rose Bronze would be a nice highlighter and give a bit of a pink sheen without being to frosty.

So after a few days, I did decided to pop by my nearby Chanel boutique and pick up 2 Fall blush colors. The shimmer isn't really that prominent or disco and the colors are quite lovely. I decided to get Pink Explosion and Rose Temptation.

Pink Explosion (on the left) is a cool pink and Rose Temptation (on the right) is a deeper mauve color. As the swatches show, the shimmer does not stand out too much.

*Update*
Since my swatch at home is a bit hard to see,
I decided to take a pic in some brighter indoor lighting. Pic is without flash

Sorry order is reversed-Rose temptation is on the left, Pink Explosion is on the right

This was my first time with the Joues Contraste blushes and I really like them a lot. The powders are soft and it was easy to blend the colors. They do have a rose scent to them in the compact but once you wear the blushes, the scent quickly dissipates.

There were 4 new glossimers and 3 new Rouge Coco lip colors. I picked the Rose Dentelle lip color and Coral Love lip gloss.

Rose Dentelle Rouge Coco (medium pink)


Coral Love glossimer (golden coral)

An interesting item (to me anyway) was the Intense eye liner in Clair, a nude color. I was skeptical when Mac came out when the skin colored Chromagraphic pencils in the Pret-a-Papier collection but was quickly won over when I actually tested out the pencil. Thus, when I saw the Clair eyeliner I wondered how it would compare to the Mac pencil. Turns out Clair is a bit lighter, less yellow and more pink than the NW25/NC30 pencil that I have but is still an effective eye brightener.

Intense Eye Pencil in Clair (no flash)

Swatches:

Left side: Rose Dentelle (top), Coral Love (bottom)

Right side: Intense Eye Pencil in Clair (left), Mac Chromagraphic pencil in NW25/NC30

So that's Chanel Fall for me. I do not know when other stores will get this collection but I expect it to be soon. And just a tidbit-when I went to get the Pink Explosion blush, I was told it was already the last one so if you're interested in that color it may be best to jump on it when you find it.