Here's another purchase from this season's holiday collections. Chantecaille's Lip Chic line has a wonderfully elegant formula that glides onto the lips. I purchased Nocturne (US$35) from BeautyHabit.com after reading about it on Best Things in Beauty.
It looks quite red in the tube but on the lips, it's a very pretty rosy pink, perfect for virtually any occasion.
There's a slight shine to it, and no frosty shimmer or glitter particles. Made in Italy, it wears very comfortably on the lips, although it doesn't quite have the melting quality of Esprique Mellow Forming Rouge.
For this look, I used Shu Uemura Prestigious Bordeaux from the Karl Lagerfeld collection with the dark purple applied from the upper lashline to the crease, the light purple over the browbone area, the brown shade in the crease and the orangey-gold shade along the lower lashline and over the middle of the upper lid.
The deep purple shade has a very lovely violet shimmer in the pan but it looks much more muted and murky on my lids such that the brown and bronze tones tend to dominate instead. Nevertheless, I still like this palette and have been reaching for it frequently. See more looks on Drivel about Frivol.
Other products used for this look: Urban Decay Naked Skin Foundation 3.0, Lavshuca Fairy Candy Cheeks OR1, Becca The Ultimate Mascara, RMK Super Basic Liquid Concealer EX01, Too Faced Shadow Insurance and K-Palette Lasting 2Way Eyebrow 02.
The Lavshuca Fairy Candy Cheeks OR1 give just a subtle hint of peachy color with a glowy finish, not really discernible in the photos but it's there. It's a pity that this is limited edition.
The Naked Skin foundation is a sample that I picked up a couple of months ago in London.
It has a very light texture that is easy to blend. The coverage is light to medium and it doesn't completely conceal the redness in my cheeks and around the nose, although it does help to even out the skintone somewhat. While the shade 3.0 is a good match, I won't purchase this as Coffret D'Or Silky Fit Liquid Foundation suits my needs better.
Awhile ago, I ordered some Chantecaille items from Nordstrom.com. I had been quite pleased with the pigmented and silky shades in the Bengali palette which I picked up in Honolulu earlier this year so I was looking forward to trying out more Chantecaille products. I got the Les Passementeries palette, along with a Lip Chic and Luminous Eye Liner.
Les Passementeries looked very attractive online due to the mix of shades but alas, I should have known better and checked the reviews on MakeupAlley first. As it turns out, the shimmer is merely an overspray that disappears quickly when you first use the shades. After the overspray disappears, the shades are actually have a soft matte finish.
Below is the product description on the box. The most misleading part of it is the description of the palette as "richly colored". In reality, the shades apply sheer even when used over a base and take a lot of layering to get them to show up well.
The part of the palette that I was most looking forward to was naturally the blue trio. Sadly, the lovely medium blue shade on the right side applies much paler and more greyish than how it looks in the pan.
After prepping with Urban Decay Primer Potion, I used the included brush to apply the light beige shade over the browbone area, the light greyish blue shade from the upper lashline to the crease, the medium blue shade along the upper lashline and the outer corners, and the medium brown shade above the outer half of the crease.
As you can see, the blue shades turned out to be a matte-ish grey rather than blue. I also tried using a sponge tip applicator to intensify the medium blue shade but it did not help much. The overall look was just too blah and muted for my liking. The blush was better though in terms of colour payoff.
For this look, I also used Dior X4 Control Compact Foundation 012 over RMK Face Protector N SPF31, Shiseido Nourishing Mascara Base topped with Visee Lash Wide Impact (Curl Long) BK002, K-Palette Real Lasting Eyebrow 01, Heroine Make Smooth Liquid Liner, Paul & Joe Lipstick C 067 topped with Esprique Precious Aurora Crystal Gloss SP002 (from the Twinkle Story Collection), Jill Stuart Loose Powder 01 Natural and Dior Skinflash Radiance Booster Pen.
Here's my collective beauty shopping loot from Hawaii's Sephora, Neiman Marcus, Long's Drugs, Target, DFS Galleria, MAC and Walmart stores. I got the two Paul & Joe makeup pouches at the DFS Galleria while at Sephora, I got a Korres Prep, Prime Perfect set, Bliss Triple Oxygen + C Energizing Cream, Fresh Strawberry Flowers fragrance and Sugar Lemon soap and OPI for Sephora Metro Chic nail polish. At MAC, I got an eyeshadow and two lipsticks from the Liberty collection.
As it has been 2.5 years since I last stepped into a Sephora (US) store, the experience was overwhelming in terms of the sheer number of brands available. The Sephora store at Ala Moana Shopping Centre had just started to stock the new Sephora-exclusive Tokidoki line with only the eyeshadow palettes, lipstain markers and eyeliners available. Unfortunately, the travel accessories were not yet available or I would probably have hauled them too. I only picked up the Cromatico Eyeshadow Palette in Diamante as the eyeshadows looked quite average, to be honest.
The transparent plastic cube packaging is also a bit too bulky for my liking and the lid is not easy to open.
Each palette comes with a charm accessory in the bottom compartment. Question is what should one do with the bottom compartment after removing the charm?! Just across from the Sephora store at Ala Moana is a store called Animation Addict, which carried the Tokidoki line of T-shirts, hoodies and other accessories.
NARS Purple Rain nail polish.
Snagged this Fresh set which seemed quite worthwhile at US$28 as the Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment usually retails at US$22.50 by itself.
The new Philosophy makeup line was also out so I picked up the Color of Grace Amazing Grace Shimmering Face Powder.
I was curious to try out Revlon's new Photo Ready foundation and Lancome's Oscillation, both of which get pretty mixed reviews on MakeupAlley and the beauty blogosphere. Philosophy's Supernatural Superbeautiful also found its way into my basket as a paraben-free sheer foundation.
The Physicians' Formula Shimmer Strips caught my eye as they looked like a knock-off of Bobbi Brown's Shimmer Brick Eye Palettes. These cost only about US$10 each and come in about a dozen variations.
At Walmart, I picked up some of the Hard Candy nail polishes, mascaras and eyeliner. While the line is nicely affordable, the display was picked over quite badly and many of the products looked somewhat cheap. The lipsticks are not even sealed properly.
At Neiman Marcus, I got the Chantecaille Les Dauphins and Bengali palettes.
Over at Juicy Couture, I found this roll-up flexi keyboard just too cute to resist!
