Holiday 2011: Dior Couture Golds

Dior was a bit late in releasing their 5 color eyeshadows for this season, but I snagged one yesterday at my local Nordstrom counter. This was swatched in indoor OTT lighting.
The quint is of the newer formula and is a bit harder pressed than the usual irridescent quints. It still applies fine though

Holiday 2011: Laura Mercier Book of Nudes and NOTD OPI Meep Meep Meep

One of the things I bought for Sephora's Friends and Family sale is the Laura Mercier Book of Nudes. This palette contains 8 shadows, 1 cake liner, and 3 cream cheek products. Most of the eye shadows are smooth and buttery, but Tiger's Eye is an unpigmented, hard pressed mess. The other shadows are somewhat sheer, but very buildable. All swatches were taken in a mix of natural lighting and OTT lighting over UDPP, roughly 3 swipes each (except Tiger's Eye)

Buff is a matte beige.
Tiger's Eye is an warm brown with gold glitter. It's hard and unpigmented and easily forms a crust on top. I had to really dig in to get payoff. I think this was 6 swipes or so with my brush, and I had to really pack it on.
Sandstone is a shimmery beige pink.
Bamboo is a warm, slight antiqued bronzey taupe.
Baroque is a warm orange brown with gold shimmer
Fresco is a matte, pinked brown.
Granite is a deep, matte grey.
Cocoa Brown is a reddish brown with slight bronze shimmer. The shimmer doesn't really transfer onto the skin.
The cheek creams in the palette have a smooth, kinda oily texture. The only one I found somewhat pretty is the cheek veil which is a slightly corally peach shade. Bronzer veil reminded me kind of like baby diarrhea...it didn't look particularly pretty swatched onto my arm. Glow veil is a golden highlight shade. The only one of these I tried on my face was the cheek veil. It was easy enough to blend, but I didn't like the payoff on my face. Each of these swatches was maybe 4 swipes. They're definitely quite sheer.

I did neglect to swatch the cake liner, but you can find a swatch of it with the LM Luxe Color portfolio I swatched earlier this month if you're interested. Overall, the palette is okay, but the colors themselves don't particularly appeal to me. If you're torn between getting the luxe color portfolio or the book of nudes, my personal preference would be towards the luxe color portfolio. The Book of Nudes is quite a bit cheaper though, so if you like the colors, it's okay to get, but it doesn't excite me whatsoever.

Here's a look at yesterday's NOTD as weel; OPI Meep Meep Meep. This polish is a slightly pink red, that I found was somewhat jelly-like in color payoff (I can still see my nail line a bit after 3 coats). There's some multidimmensional shimmer to it as well that I feel like my camera didn't capture so well. This photo was taken under OTT lighting at the end of the day shortly before I removed it.

Laura Mercier Holiday 2011-- Luxe Color Portfolio

Laura Mercier Luxe Color Portfolio- retails $98
Contains: 6 eyeshadows, 3 cake liners, 2 blushes, and 3 mini brushes

Laura Mercier Luxe Color Portfolio (close-up)

Natural Lighting + OTT light over UDPP

Primrose-Warm shimmery pink.
African Violet- Warm violet shade with gold shimmer
Merlot-Deep plum shade with mild shimmer
Truffle-Warm matte brown
Topaz-silvery taupe
Stellar-shimmering beige

Indirect Natural Lighting, no base

The Luxe Color Portfolio by Laura Mercier is my favorite palette so far this season. It's really the only thing I've truly been happy with purchasing in a while (with the exception of the Guerlain 4 pan palettes) and is well worth the hefty price tag to me. All 6 shadows are smooth and blendable, and carry medium pigmentation. The mini brushes are soft, and very useable, unlike a lot of brushes that tend to come in sets. The cake liners are fairly easy to use; lightly dampen an eyeliner brush and mix with the liner. If you dampen the brush too much, you won't get a nice, pigmented line. I wouldn't really purchase the cake liners on their own, as I prefer pencil/gel liners but they're nice to have in the palette and come in very pretty colors. Ground Espresso is even a bit taupey.

Dior Holiday 2011--Celebration Collection Deluxe Palette and Eye palette

The last couple of years, Dior has managed to sucker me into purchasing their deluxe palette. This year I got suckered into the eye palette as well. The packaging for these was too adorable for me to pass up.

Dior Holiday Eye palette (outside)

Dior Holiday Eye Palette (inside)

The eye palette contains 3 eyeshadows and an eyeliner and comes packaged with intructions for creating certain looks with the palette. The eyeshadows themselves a beautifully pigmented and silky in texture. Each of these only took a single swipe to photograph well on my arm. The eyeliner is a cream liner that I'm not all that fond of. It stays creamy and never really seems to set, even if you press the dark brown eyeshadow over it to set it. Unfortunately, this means I had smudgy eyeliner under my eyes by the end of the day. I really wish Dior had gone with a 4th eyeshadow instead. I do however, really love the eyeshadow colors that were in this palette. They're shimmery without really being frosty this time. I'd say the lighter gold-brown shade is more metallic than a frost this time. I fell in love with it when I wore it. The darker brown is also beautiful. The eye palette retails for $44 (pretax)

Dior Holiday Eye palette over UDPP, natural+OTT lighting

This year's deluxe palette features 3 eyeshadows, a cream liner, 1 lipstick, 1 gloss, a lip balm, a miniature Diorshow Iconic, and a miniature Diorskin sculpting powder (020). My honest opinion on this one is that the eye shades are similar enough to last year's palette that you probably don't need this one if you bought last year's. Unfortunately for me I got suckered into this one for the adorable packaging, and ended up really liking the lip shade (Rouge Dior 644).

The eye shades are a pink-beige shade, a lilacky taupe, and a smoky plum shade. The eyeliner is a soft black, and unfortunately, like the one in the eye palette, smudgy. I probably would only use this liner in a pinch. The insert that comes with the palette gives you directions for 2 eye looks, as well as directions for using the sculpting Powder. The sculpting powder has 3 sections; the top section, which is lighter is for hightlighting. The middle shade is supposed to be for contouring, and the bottom shade is for setting/blending. It seems like it'd be a cute product, but unfortunately, with the powder being the size that it is, it's virtually impossible to use this powder the way it was intended. I attempted to just swirl it all together and use it as a setting powder, but the powder sits lower in the palette instead of at the surface, making it even more difficult to use. The lip balm, Creme de Rose, is decent; it's nothing special in my book, and carries a light rose scent. This probably would have been better if it had a more portable option. Either way, it was nice for Dior to add this in as I find the regular lipstick line kind of drying. The lipgloss (Ultra-gloss Reflect 246) is practically clear. It has a tiny bit of a peachy tint to it, but on my lips it might as well be clear gloss. I definitely wish Dior had chosen a different shade, as I can't really tell the difference between the gloss and the lip balm on my lips.

Dior Holiday Deluxe palette (outside)

Dior Holiday Deluxe palette (outside)

Dior Holiday Deluxe Palette over UDPP, natural+OTT lighting

I do like the big palette overall, and it's a nice little splurge if you don't already have a lot of Dior, but I don't really consider it a must-have. There's definitely other nice things that you can spend your money on this holiday season, but if you want to shell out the $77 for it, it's not a bad purchase either.

Chanel Holiday 2011--Beige Lame Single

Chanel Beige Lame

I've been a bit MIA for a while, but I've decided to tentatively wiggle myself back into blogging now that I have the time for it. My local Chanel counter just got in the holiday collection so I wandered in to check this out, since there's been some buzz on the new highlighter they're releasing with the collection. Luckily for my wallet, I didn't find it that interesting; the shimmer is just an overspray on the highlighter. After the overspray is rubbed off, it's sort of just a satiny texture, and while I like subtle highlighters, this one was just a little TOO subtle for me to want to shell out the money for it. Originally, I had also been interested in the gold single, as the gold used on the model in the promo pics was gorgeous, but it turned out to be far too yellow for my liking. The beige lip gloss was very nice, kind of a pinky beige, but I left it alone for now. (I may go back for it later though). What I did come home with, was the single eyeshadow in Beige Lame.

Beige Lame is a dark, warmish beige with multicolor sparkle. The texture is similar to Fauve, which was released in the previous collection, but instead of silver sparkles, you get multicolor sparkles. The shadow is not quite as sparkly on my lids/arm as they are in the pan, but you still get some.

Closeup of the sparkles...yummy!

Swatched on my arm, mix of natural lighting and OTT light, no base

OVerall, I really like this single, but the price tag is pretty hefty for the color itself ($28.50 pretax). I don't feel like the base color is all that unique, but I do like the multi-color shimmer that this shadow has, so I'm thinking I'll keep it in my stash.

NYX Single e/s Swatches..Quality Control anyone?

NYX has generally surprised me over the years with the high quality of their shadows in combination with their low prices. The eyeshadows, most especially the single colors, are smooth, pigmented, and blend very well. I've bought quite a few of them along the way, but these are the ones I've kept.Sparkle Cedar-a nice taupe with a lot of sparkle to it. It appears to me to have a slight hint of green to it while still remaining on the cooler side of the spectrum.
Taupe Pearl-named quite literally. It's a taupe eyeshadow with a pearl finish. It's nice, but not horribly unique to me in any way. I'm not really complaining for $5 though
Iced Mocha- one of my oldest NYX singles; it's a bit warmer than Taupe Pearl, but the two are fairly similar.
The last two swatches of this set are both NYX Root Beer-both were bought at different times from different places, but both have the same name and look very different from each other. The first one, has a considerable amount more purple tones to it and is a lighter taupey color. The second is a richer brown-taupe with a hint of pruple, but it's a much less strong purple tone than the other one. I had bought the second one after depotting the first one and being left with regret. However, I discovered after coming home with it that the two colors were not identical; and therefore felt the need to keep both. Seeing the two of these next to each other, I can see why people have argued about whether or not NYX Root Beer is considered a dupe for the elusive MAC Moth Brown. (I'd say one of the versions is probably close)..which I suppose leads me to my title question; Quality Control anyone? It's a bit silly to have shades that are so inconsistent among batches..

Skin Tight-a light warm peachy skintone like shade with golden peach sparkle. This is pretty without lending too much color on my eyes.
Champagne-the color apples turn when they start oxidizing...only shimmery. I don't feel like Champagne is a real Champagne color, but it's still a nice color.
Flamingo- a nice, dirty pink/gold duochromish shadow. I like this shade quite a bit, but I find it harder and more difficult to work with than the rest of my NYX.
Deep Bronze-the name fits the shade on this one. I don't have a whole lot to say on it
Silver-a nice silver shade without too many blue tones.

Khaki- a pretty green shade with a hint of grey
Herb- a warm bronzed green
Green Tea- I kinda like this shade..it's a dirty seafoam greem type of color with a silvery pearl to it...just beautiful
Hunter green- a deeper green-grey shade
Charcoal-gunmetal grey

Wet 'n' Wild 8 Pan Eyeshadow Palettes

Last weekend I picked up the 3 new 8 pan Wet 'n' Wild eyeshadow palettes at my local Walgreens. They retail for $4.99 and are a great value for the money. For the most part I like them, despite generally being a total brand whore, but Wet 'n' Wild has always been one of those exceptions for me; the quality is always great.


First up is the beautifully neutral toned Comfort Zone. The quality on this one is nice; it's soft and pigmented and delightful to apply. I do feel like the left side of the palette is too warm for my taste, but I love the green side of the palette (minus the ugly warm brown duochrome shade)

The second palette is Petal Pusher, the purple toned palette in the new collection. Again, one side is cooler toned than the other. The cooler toned left side is far less pigmented than the other. I had a bit of trouble applying the lid shade without packing it on, and even then it didn't show up too well. I haven't applied the right side yet, but it swatched pretty nicely. I would say that this is the least pigmented of the 3 palettes, which is a bit dissapointing to me because I'm fond of purple eyeshadows.

The last palette; Blue Had Me at Hello is the most pigmented of the 3 palettes, and oddly enough my favorite. I'm wearing the right side of the palette today, and it applied smoothly and coordinated perfectly. The silver shade is also the most amazing silver I've come across. I feel like this palette is worth it for that shade alone if nothing else. I am a little bummed that they shoved two black shades in this palette that are nearly identical; the glitter in the right side of the palette falls off pretty much immediately leaving it identical to the other black shade. The blue on the left side is also black based; making it come off as nearly black on my lids. I really wish that the creative team at Wet 'n' Wild had seen fit to put a different shades in here, but I'm still happy with the palette overall.

The last thing I have for you ladies today is my manicure for the day; China Glaze Cracked Concrete over ORLY Cashmere Cardigan. It's not my favorite combination, but it works I guess.

NARS Calanques Trio

The only item that I had actually preordered from NARS Spring 2011 was the Calanque Trio, which I had originally thought would be beautiful, taupey goodness. Unfortunately it didn't quite live up the the promises the stock photo seems to promise me. However, it wasn't that the stock photo was altogether decieving...as you can see below, the picture I took of the palette matches the colors in the stock photo pretty accurately. However, the middle shade is not taupey at all, but is instead a relatively nude shade.

The colors themselves apply smoothly, with the exception of the largest shade, which is a bit grittier in texture and sparkly. It's more of a sheer sparkle on my lids without much color on it's own. The darkest shade in this palette is sheer love for me. I love that it is a warm, green-tinged brown. However, I don't know if it's altogether worth keeping this for the price point. It's a smidge steep at $45... If these colors do float your boat though, you can use 132011cp on the NARS site to get 17% off with $65 purchase. (Expires 2/7/2011)

Tarte Jewelry Box

I've had these swatches sitting around for months, but never got around to uploading them on here. I figured I'd get around to it now, while Sephora was still selling these. The Tarte Treasure Chest retails for $52 and contains 32 e/s, a highlighter, a bronzer, 8, lipgloss and 5 eyeliners. The eyeshadows are less pigmented than their previous palettes, but I didn't have the same problem with them I did last year with them oxidizing on me. However, I didn't like the sheer quality of the mattes (the mattes last year were much, much nicer), or the bulky packaging of it all, so it went back to the store. I did really like the colors of the eyeliners, but it wasn't enough to get me to keep them. The eyeliners applied smoothly, but never fully set; they remained smudgeable throughout the day, but I didn't have too many problems with them as long as I didn't rub at it throughout the day. Besides the bulkiness of the packaging, I found that it had a similar problem to last year's palette where the drawer would slide out if you moved around; not exactly great for travel. I did find that the eyeliner drawer was a bit difficult to pull though. All around, this palette wasn't really worth the money to me, despite the large amount of product inside. I think I may need to accept that Tarte probably will probably never put out a palette on par with my beloved A-list palette.