Nude Eyeliners

 Up until a couple of months ago, I didn't own a single "nude" eyeliner.  Having been tortured throughout the '80s by white eyeliner that was supposed to make you look more "awake" (but in reality just kind of made people look like they had been attacking their eyes with Tipp-Ex), I didn't really think there was anything you could realisitically use these pencils for.  I'd been reading a lot of love on blogs for Stila's Topaz, and when it came up on ModestyBrown's blog sale I bought it.

And now I own seven. <sigh> I'm not sure if it's a problem or not, to be honest.  I now have Une's Skin Glow, GOSH Go Bananas, Stila Topaz, Chanel Clair, Mally's double ended pencil, Laura Geller's I-Care pencil in Bone, and Guerlain's Secret Glow.

Did someone mention swatches?  Here you go:

Thoughts on each:

Une Skin Glow: This is actually meant to be a concealer, but I find it works marvellously well on the waterline, it's light and creamy, and lasts pretty well.  As it's meant to work on your skin to cover up blemishes, it works remarkably well on the waterline to disguise any redness.  A winner.

GOSH Go Bananas: This is actually a shimmering yellow.  Not actually that great as a nude liner, it's a little too yellow for that.  That said, this lasts astonishingly well, and won't actually disappear until you use a remover to take it off.  Great for highlighting around the tearduct rather than using on the waterline, if you ask me.

Stila Topaz:  Although this was the one that started off my collection, I have to say that it's very much not my favourite.  In fact, it's probably the worst liner on this list.  Why?  Well, it's very soft and creamy.  FAR too soft and creamy, in fact.  It's exceptionally easy to overapply (making it look like, well, ta bit like: Your eyes are leaking!! Leaking onto your face!!!  which isn't a great look outside of Halloween), and it can get onto your eyelashes a bit which just looks wrong, really.  Also, it's a little on the peach side, which means it's not a great match for most people's skin tone.

Chanel Clair:  Probably the hardest pencil on this list, it's very subtle, and all the better for it.  The firmness means you don't get the "ooziness" of the Stila, and the colour is very good too.

Mally: The second palest on this list, this gives a very similar effect to a while pencil.  If you're very, very pale, this might be a great choice for you.  It's a double ended pencil though, so means you don't get very much in there.  I'll be talking about the other half of this pencil next week ...

Laura Geller: Another hard pencil, this time in a shimmering ivory shade.  Possibly the prettiest pencil in the collection (and has a great built-in sharpener), alas, I can't get this one to show up on my waterline at all.  Such a shame!

Guerlain Secret Glow: A shimmering vanilla shade, this is glorious (and works well as a browbone highlighter too), being a powder, it's easy to overapply, and make yourself look a little odd, but I do love this one quite unreasonably.

Overall, the ones I'd buy again (and I did buy most of these myself) would be the Chanel and the Une.  What do you think?

Chanel Taupe Grise & Khaki Vert Applied

For all those complaining (ha ha!) that I've not done any FotDs for a while, here's two for the price of one:

I wanted to show you the difference between the two shades, apologies for the differences in lighting conditions!  On the left there is Taupe Grise, and on the right is Khaki Vert.  Both are applied over a Trish McEvoy eyeshadow base, and I've used Guerlain Lingerie De Peau foundation - review to follow next week!  Lipstick in both pics is Edward Bess Secret Desire, and the picture on the left is slightly more colour-accurate for that.

I hate both of these pictures, but on the plus side, I think I've figured out which is my best side.

Fine Print of the week (for those who were asking, who knew disclaimers could get fan mail?): I bought everything you've seen from Chanel this week. Unless you're MrLippie, in which case, it was a present from the makeup fairies*.
*Debenhams**
**No responsibility can be taken if Debenhams isn't actually staffed by fairies.***
***Mine isn't either, but the assistant did give me a badge.  Like the ones you used to get from the Dentist, but this one reads "I survived a visit to Westfield today". ****
****Gifts With Purchase really aren't what they used to be, are they?*****
*****I'm done now, please stop reading.

Chanel Autumn Collection - Eyeliners Cassis & Clair

You all Chanel-ed out yet?  Well, I'm not, but this is the last one for a couple of days, I promise! I had seriously promised myself that I'd only been going to get the eyeshadows I showed you yesterday, but when I swatched these, I had to have them too.  (I bought Paradoxal because, well, even I get swept along in the hype sometimes)

The waterproof liner in Cassis is a gorgeous dark purple shade, perfect for green eyes.  It's dark enough to appear black from a distance, but just gives you a tiny pop of purple along the lashes, I love it.  It's very smudgeproof, I had a swatch on my hand for about 8 hours on the day I bought this, and it did not move! It's an automatic propelling pencil (about a third shorter than the Khol, for some reason), but I love that it has a built-in sharpener at the end.

 Clair is a nude skin shade made specifically for use on the waterline, to make your eyes look brighter. It's a traditional khol pencil, that comes complete with a sharpener (as all Chanel pencils do).  It's not as soft as I would have expected, but this isn't, actually, a bad thing.  Some nude liners can be very soft, and this can lead to you applying a little too much which can make you look a little odd ...

It's not too white, which is nice.  Here's how it looks on the waterline:

Can you guess which eye is which?  Would you use a nude liner?

Chanel Eyeshadow Singles: 87 Khaki Vert & 88 Taupe Grise

When I was buying Chanel Paradoxal the other day, I was very aware that it was quite low down on my list of "must-haves" from the collection, these two little beauties were the things I was eagerly awaiting, and how happy I am to have them, finally! 

Sadly, the picture has washed both shades out a little.  On the left above is Taupe Grise, which is a gloriously complex shade of ... well ... taupe.  On me, this pulls to the purple side, which I really, really like.  There's a hint of silver in the powder too, meaning it's not flat, but it's also not a total shimmer fest.  It's very flattering and a perfect foil for the cassis eyeliner that's also available in this collection.

Vert Khaki, is a green shade, with hints of gold.  Similar to (but darker than) Mac's Sumptuous Olive, I adore this shadow, it's the very definition of "murk", and I think it goes well with my eyes, which are also a murky green shade.  Here's a very light swatch of both, without primer:

I'm totally looking forward to creating some smokey/bruised shadow looks with these little babies!  They don't look too different here, but I'm hoping the FotD that I have coming up will show off how different the shades are.

I love the autumn collections, it's probably my favourite time of year for makeup, before the cosmetic companies try to convince us that green and red and glitter are the only things you can wear ...

Chanel Paradoxal Dupe?

 I picked up Jessica's Venus Was Her Name about a month ago, because it appeared so unusual in the bottle!I got it from The Sanctuary, but I'm assured there are other places you can pick it up from.  In the bottle it appears a charcoal shade with tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of purple shimmer.  Sound familiar?  Here's now it looks on the nails:

On the nails, it looks more purple than grey, but when the light hits it, oh my!  Your nails will light up with an amazing "lit from within" glow, that is entirely missing from Chanel Paradoxal.  Please excuse the tipwear in the above pic, btw, it was on it's sixth day of wear by the time I got around to photographing this ...

A bottle comparison of Paradoxal and Venus:

See what I mean about that "lit from within" glow?  Yes, the Chanel appears mouse-y in shade, and the grey is darker in the Jessica, but the Jessica is more of a jelly finish which allows more of the shimmer to shine through.

Which do you prefer?

Nail of the Day: Chanel Paradoxal

Yes, you may have seen this on a few blogs already, but if you know me, you know I have a hard time resisting Chanel, and I love my murky shades.  So, when Chanel bring out a range of murky shades, I'm in there.  Totally!  Paradoxal is a grey with purple shimmer, but depending on the angle you get either a purple-grey shade, or a pinkish-purple shade with a grey background.  Compare the above and below pictures:

Because Paradoxal is a creme-finish, once it's on the nail, the shimmer hides somewhat, and you get a grey nail, with just the very tiniest amount of shimmer (sometimes referred to in blogger circles as a "hidden shimmer") that only shows at certain angles and in certain lights.

The pic above is how the shade will appear in most lights - a lightly pinked grey, with just a hint of brown in the base shade.  I like it a lot.  If you shift your fingers around a little though, you can pick up the shimmer a little:

It may help if you enlarge the pic, but there is a definite hint of the shimmer on the little finger and around the outer edges of the ring and index finger.  You have to hunt for it though!

I liked a great deal of the rest of Chanel's autumn range too, much to the salesperson's delight, and I'll be showing you some of that later this week, but tomorrow I'll be showing you a cheaper dupe of Paradoxal, which isn't from Model's Own ...

Have you picked up any of the new Chanel collection, or are you all purpled out?

Birthday Giveaway Winner!

Yes, I know the announcement is a day late, I do hope you'll all forgive me!  I did contact the winner yesterday though, so at least I managed to make someone else's day a little happier! Our lucky winner has elected to remain anonymous, but this was her winning entry:

Ten things that make me happy:


1. My husband - sickening but true. He also makes me crazy/angry/laugh/despair/throw things/bemused/proud
2. My friends - they are great. All of them. I'm not one of those people with masses of friends, but the ones I have are the best kind. When life goes wrong they bring wine and sarcasm and make it all better.
3. My cats - who can fail to be made happy by a cat that randomly bites you and uses people as trampolines, and and a cat that is so dumb that to list the ways in which she brings delight would take too long?
4. Baths - deep, hot, and the bubblier the better. I like a Lush bubble bath bar, or my REN rose otto oil - if only that made bubbles
5. My NEOM organic candles - one of the best things Get Lippie ever promoted to me
6. My nephews - especially when singing songs about poo. #Hey poo, where are you, I want to see you in the loo#.
7. Brownies from Borough Market. Nom nom nom
8. Good hair days.
9. Cakewrecks. I cannot read it without collapsing into laughter. The carrot riding babies! The cupcake cakes!
10. Lazy days on the sofa with old films and endless cups of tea. Aimlessly flipping through the channels when bored and miserable and suddenly finding a film you love is on. I did this the other week and found Calamity Jane in the middle of singing about the Windy City. Love it.
Bonus 11: Champagne! Cocktails!

These are what make me happy, and I am glad they exist.
 
The winner was picked in as scientific manner as I could manage, I shortlisted MY favourite entries and asked several other people which one they preferred.  This one was the favourite.  Our lucky winner has selected Chanel Rouge Coco in Mademoiselle as her preferred shade, and a gift voucher for this, alongside Chanel Particuliere, and Guerlain Khol in Oriental Metal has already been despatched, alongside a couple of other lovely goodies that I couldn't resist sneaking into the bag!
 
I had over 100 entries to this givewaway, and it's been an utter delight to have run it.  Thank you so much to every single person who took the time to enter, if I had something to give each one of you, I would. You're an amazing bunch of people, and you shared some amazing stories with me, I'll do a post soon highlighting just how wonderful my readers are.
 
Thank you so much.

Last Call!

Time is running out on my giveaway - it ends at midnight (GMT) tonight!  The rules are very simple, and I'd love to hear from you.  Just click this link to find out how to win Chanel Particuliere nail varnish, Guerlain Oriental Metal eyeliner, and your choice of Chanel Rouge Coco lipstick ...

Birthday Giveaway Reminder!

Guerlain Oriental Metal, Chanel Particuliere, PLUS a Chanel Rouge Coco (you pick the shade!) are what you can win in my birthday giveaway/competition.  This is just a little reminder post, as the giveaway closes next week (midnight on Wednesday 9th June), prior to my giving away the goodies on my actual birthday on June 10th.

Click here to be taken to the post with the entry requirements

I want to say a MASSIVE thank you for the astonishing number of amazing, wonderful, heartwarming, funny, and occasionally tear-jerking entries that I've received so far, there have been so many more than I ever expected and every single one of them has made me smile! You're an amazing bunch of people, thank you so much for sharing your stories with me.  I'll be printing up some excerpts from some of them when I announce the winner on Thursday of next week.

So, if you haven't entered yet - and remember, you don't have to be a follower to take part in this one, and it is open internationally - please do take a look at the original giveaway post, and find out how to take part.

Birthday Giveaway!

If you read my Zuneta post yesterday, you'll know I'm about to have a milestone birthday.  In many ways the milestone birthday.  Eek!

But, I thought I'll make the most of it and share some of the wonderful goodies I've discovered over the last few months with you.  So, with that in mind, I'd like to offer you a chance to win all of the following:

Chanel Nail Varnish in Particuliere (limited edition, no longer available in stores):

 A Guerlain Kohl in Oriental Metal (limited edition taupe shade):

 And finally, one Chanel Rouge Coco lipstick in the shade of your choice:

How to enter:

Okay, writing this blog makes me happy.  Discovering new products makes me happy.  Other bloggers make me happy.  Getting new comments on posts here makes me happy, Basically, this blog makes me a very happy bunny indeed, but I want to know what makes you a happy bunny!

So.  Basically, tell me what makes you happy. A story, a product, a picture, an anecdote, a makeup look, anything, it doesn't matter what it is,  if it gives you joy, I want to hear about it! There are two ways to enter (and you don't need to be a follower, either):

1) If you have a blog, write a blog post about what makes you happy - please link back to this post - and leave me a comment in the comments section here with a link to it, so I see it!  I'll comment on it so you know I read it! 

or

2) If you don't have a blog, (or you're just plain shy!) then drop an email to contest@getlippie.com and tell me about your happy things.  I just want to hear about good stuff in time for my big day!

Only entries submitted either in blog posts or emails will be counted, the comments on this post should just be used to give me your links to your entry posts. 

This contest will close at midnight (UK time) on Wednesday 9th June, and I'll announce the winner of the contest on Thursday June 10th (which is actually my birthday, but I want to give someone else a little present on the day!). And yes, it's open to all my international readers too! I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

The Fine Print: All prizes in this competition were purchased by myself at various times throughout this year, prizes are brand new, in packaging, and unused. No PRs were harmed/hassled/bothered/asked/approached/emailed or tweeted about this, so they didn't supply anything.  The judge's decision will be final, random.org won't be used in this one.

Chanel Limited Editions

I've picked up quite a few over the years, and these are my favourites. There are no reviews or swatches with these, but if you'd like to see any, please ask.

And a closer look at each:

This last is the newest addition to my collection (courtesy of the lovely Charlie at Lady of the Lane) I love how it appears to glow!

I sort of regret how bashed up and over-used some of these are - what I wouldn't give for a pristine version of the Rouges Noir palette again! - but I think makeup is here to be used, played with and loved, not stuck in a box and saved for it's rarity value.  What do you think?

Favourite Brands?

I get asked a lot what my favourite makeup brand is, and it's such a difficult one to answer!  There are so many brands out there, and they all do something well that picking out just one for praise is almost impossible.  Well, for me it is, anyway.

But, I guess, if I had to pick just one brand that I'd use for the rest of my life, that brand would be Chanel.  Yes, I'd miss my Lancome mascaras and Bobbi Brown tinted moisturising balm - my other desert island items, those - but my collection already contains a lot of Chanel. Foundations, blushers, eyeshadows, pencils, mascaras, lipsticks, glosses, perfumes, bathing potions, nail varnishes ... the list goes on! It's probably my most "complete" collection of products from any brand.

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, then you'll know that I went a bit crazy and bought several Rouge Cocos when they were released recently, but I was very happy to realise that I'm not the only person who thinks they are fantastic, alongside a lot of other bloggers, lots of makeup artists have discovered their greatness too.  There are a few videos about the lipsticks floating about, but these are my favourites:

First of all, Peter Phillips talking about the inspirations behind the range, and how it came into being:  (can't figure out how to embed this one, I'm afraid).

This is the utterly fab Mary Greenwell showing three fabulous looks with three different shades:


And finally, this is Lisa Eldridge (who I met and chatted with last Friday, and I'll be telling you more about that later this week), showing how to use one Rouge Coco in four different ways:



Tomorrow I'll bring you some pictures of my favourite limited edition palettes from Chanel which I've picked up over the years, and will be bemoaning the fact that I've used and abused them instead of keeping them pristine and clean ...

What's your favourite brand?  Why?

Chanel Ombre D'eau

I don't see these very often around the blogosphere, and I wonder why that is? I find them very easy to use, and  60: Sand (on the right)is very often my default eyeshadow for applying a slick of over the lid for those "can't be bothered" days.  If I want something a bit more sludgy, then I'll pop a little of 100 Torrent over the mobile lid too, and blend them both together. There is a doe-foot applicator in the bottle, and they have a tendency to settle if you leave them alone for a day or two.  It's easily remedied though, just give them a shake, and the ball-bearing in the bottle will re-mix them for you.  They're basically a pigment in a water base, which means they're very cooling to apply, and leave a good depth of colour behind.

These aren't quite as budgeproof as the shadows I showed you yesterday, but they do stay put with a minimum of creasing, without a base, for around 10 hours, which is great. They do contain shimmer though, so if you're looking for a matte finish, they're probably not the shadows for you.  Here's how they swatch:

One word of advice, they do dry very fast, so blend as quickly as you can! What's your default makeup for those "can't be bothered" days?

The Fine Print: Yup, bought these too.  Man, I love me some Chanel.  Wanna see my whole collection?

Chanel Coco Rouge Swatches

I make no apologies whatsoever for featuring Chanel's latest lipstick offerings once again. Beyond gorgeous formulations, pigmented, light and beautifully moisturising, they're everything YSL Rouge Voluptes should be, but aren't (I'll give you my thoughts on those another time).

Since I unexpectedly picked up Cambon way back in January, I've since been out and bought two more, Mademoiselle, and Rouge Orage.  Cambon is a bright - BRIGHT! - hot pink, which leans towards orange, Mademoiselle is a lovely nude rose, and Rouge Orage is a soft blood-red.  I find the colours last three to four hours before they need a touch up.  There is a hint of the classic Chanel lipstick scent (which I happen to adore, but I know some people have a problem with scents), and they cover the lips perfectly in one swipe.

On the lips, Cambon:

Last time I swatched this, the pictures made it look rather too scarlet.  This is a much better representation of the colour, a hot, hot pink, with no real blue undertones.  A happy-making colour.

Mademoiselle:

This is the signature shade of the range, and possibly rightfully so.  I've seen a lot of swatches of this recently, and I think it's a very nice neutral, goes-with-anything colour and it seems to suit most people, though I've noticed it can look a fair bit redder on people with a lot of pink in their skin.  My hands are pinker than my face, and I've noticed the hand swatch is redder than the lip swatch as a result.  On my lips, however, it's a wonderful nude-shade.

I love this colour!  Haven't seem this one getting too much attention lately, but when I went on a mad swatching-frenzy in my local Debenhams recently (seriously, I got through a box of kleenex and half a bottle of their makeup remover, they hate me in there), this shade just called out to me.  It's a warm, but not too orange red, that's quite suitable for daytime wear.  It doesn't, in all honesty, look like anything out of the ordinary in the tube, dare I say it even looks a bit dull? But put this on skin, and it's beautiful.  It might just be my new favourite red, as it very wearable, and not too garish. Not as scary as it might look in the tube, well, I think so anyway.

Will you be trying any of the Rouge Cocos?  What's your favourite shade? Rouge Cocos are widely available now, and cost £21.

Foundation Week Finale – Liquids

I love liquid foundations, and have amassed a fair collection of them over the years. There are very many different formulations, and with liquid foundations, it can be a case of trial and error getting the right formulation for yourself.
There are two main kinds, ones that leave you with a dewy glow, and matte ones – but, of course, there are all kinds of gradations in-between.  Me being a dry-skinned kind of gal, I tend to favour more glowy kinds of foundations over the matte ones, but I’ll have a look at some good examples of both in this post.
Dewy
Foundations that give you a dewy finish can be heavier in oils, and therefore they’re better for drier, or more mature skins.  My absolute favourite foundation in this category is Chanel Vitalumiere, which I find leaves me with a lovely “glowing” effect, without making it look like I’m either sweaty or greasy.  It last pretty well, too, but the shade range isn’t all that wide (I find the pale shades pretty dark, and they don’t really cater for darker skins at all, which is a shame), but I like the air-free pump bottle, which means no messy spills!
Bourjois 10 hour sleep effect foundation is another good one, but I find it can my my (only slightly) dry skin look a little too shiny, and so I find that setting it with powder takes the edge off that.
Nars Sheer Glow is one that a lot of people swear by, but I found in my recent Nars makeover that it just made me look sweaty, even after a good powdering!  However, if you have really dry skin, it might be a good one to try out.
Matte
I’m not the best person to ask about matte foundations, as I find that many of the “oil-free” formulations that abound, like Lancome’s Teint Idole Ultra (which is actually an excellent foundation for greasier-skinned people) suck all the moisture out of my face after a couple of hours and leave me looking a little desiccated.  I also recently tried Bourjois Mineral Matte foundation recently (which is cutely packaged with it’s own tiny kabuki brush) but again, it just dried my skin out that little too much to be comfortable.
So, can dry-skinned people use a matte base without resembling an Egyptian mummy by lunchtime?  Surprisingly, the answer is yes! 
I recently discovered Rimmel’s Stay Matte formulation (okay, I may not have been the first person to ever have bought this one) and I absolutely love it!  Now, the reason I love it is probably because it’s not really as matte as it claims to be.  Personally, I’d describe the finish as a “satin”.  It doesn’t give me as dewy a glow as Vitalumiere, but there is definitely a lovely sheen to my skin when I’m wearing this.  Over the winter, Rimmel Stay Matte has been my default foundation, and currently, it’s the one I use as a benchmark for ALL foundations, it’s that good!  I also purchased a couple of back-ups …
Another one with a great satin, or “semi-matte”, finish is Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation, which I like a lot, but the texture is a bit more liquid than the Rimmel, and I think doesn’t last quite as well.
Application
With all my liquid foundations, I pour a little onto the back of my hand, and dab a flat-topped Kabuki brush into it, and use that to spread the foundation over my trouble spots (nose and T-Zone), then use the slightly denuded brush to blend it over the remainder of my face.  I then use my fingers to add a little more in place of concealer where I need it.  Sometimes, I finish with powder, sometimes I don’t, it depends on what I’m doing for the day.
That said, there’s no real right or wrong way to apply your foundation, the right way is simply the way that works for you.  For my makeovers, I usually use a disposable foundation sponge, but sometimes I use my fingers.  As long as you don’t end up looking like you’re wearing a mask, it’s all good!
What’s your favourite liquid foundation? How do you apply it, and what finish do you like?

Lip of the Day - Chanel Rouge Coco "Cambon"

This is a sneak preview of one of the lipsticks Chanel is premiering in March, from their "Rouge Coco" range, the shade I have is "Cambon":

Chanel are introducing this range of lipsticks - all named after Coco Chanel's favourite things, this one is named after the Cambon Handbag, hence the picture at the top there - for the spring/summer season.  Highly moisturising, and very pigmented, they're a delight to wear, and there will be 30 shades in the full range.

This is a HOT pink, indeed an almost fuschia shade, but with a hint of orange rather than blue.  I love it.  My All Time Favourite Lipstick of All Time is a Chanel pink (India, long since discontinued, but I never pass a Chanel counter without having a quick look for it, just in case, I miss it so!) so when this baby popped into my grubby little paw on Saturday , I was very happy indeed!  The pictures are making it look very scarlet, which is a shame, as this is very definitely a pink.

They wear well, fade evenly (no ring of doom here!) and last pretty much six or seven hours before you need to reapply - at least, if you don't eat, they do.

This is one of those bright, sunshine-y shades that instantly makes you happier when you wear it, and it's bringing a little cheer to my dingy corner of winter at the moment!

Many, many thanks to British Beauty Blogger for the surprise present, I love it!

Pastels, schmastels, my spring is all about the BRIGHT, how about you?

Chanel Kaska Beige Swatches

It's not often these days that I get excited by an entire collection, and if you'd told me a few months ago that the one collection I would be super-interested in this year would be, well, beige, I'd probably just have looked at you like you had two heads or something.

But recently, I've been going through something of a taupe phase, I dug out my beloved - and sadly discontinued - Clavin Klein makeup collections, which are full of beautiful dusty colours, and have been using those a lot for these "non-colour" makeups I've been craving.

So Chanel's latest collection has really called to me this week, I don't know why, but it has.  I showed you Particuliere the other day, but I caved in and bought these beauties too.  The lighting isn't great in these pics, so I'll redo them soon, and bring you a FotD for those of you I'm not seeing in the flesh this weekend!

From left to right there, we have: Rouge Allure 82 "Incognito", Quadra Eyeshadow 18 "Kaska Beige" and Fluid Iridescent Eyeshadow 100 "Torrent"

To be honest, I'd only gone to pick up the quad, but I had to get the lipstick and the liquid eyeshadow too after swatching in-store.

Shadow swatches:

They're a little sheer here - but that's because I used the sponges in the quad - I've also swatched them with fingers over primer and they're much more intense that way.  Lovely, lovely neutrals.

I love the lipstick, it's a lovely cool neutral rose, which is a good, "my lips but better" shade.  And I fell totally in love with the liquid eyeshadow, which has a hint of holographic sparkle, which the camera hasn't picked up there.  I simply couldn't leave it behind ....

One last gratuitous lippie shot:

Will you being picking up any Chanel this season?

PS - have you entered my giveaway yet?  If not, why not?  I'll be at IMATS this weekend, and picking up some goodies for you!

Unexpected Nail of the Day - Chanel Particuliere

Don't you just love synchronicity?  I was just thinking this lunchtime that my polish needed changing, and was musing about what colour to do them next, when I noticed that the Chanel counter at my local Boots had the spring range in, and they had Particuliere!  I've been lemming this colour for ages, but instead of trying to assuage my NEED with similar colours, I told myself I'd be good and wait ...

It's a taupe shade - somewhat less grey than I was expecting, and it shades almost to a milky chocolate colour in artificial light, but I love it.  I don't own anything quite like it already, and I can see I'm going to be staring at my nails all day tomorrow ...

 

 

Pictures show two coats with a Seche top-coat, application is fine, a little sheer on the first coat, but it builds up nicely on a second.

Apologies for the appalling lack of cleanup in these pics, but I wanted to show you the swatches as soon as I possibly could ... I like it an alwful lot more than the last Chanel special edition I bought you, which was Kaleidoscope, and I hated it.  Normally I avoid browns - I'm scared of them - but this is one I think works quite well with my skintone.

Will you be buying?