Illamasqua Reflection Palette and Shard Lipstick

I don't often post about Illamasqua, whilst I love them and a couple of their products are in my daily staples (liquid liner in Abyss, I'm talking about you), sometimes I find them just a little too edgy, not to mention precise for me.  That said, I love the fact that they take risks, and that they feature shades difficult to find elsewhere.  The Sacred Hour collection, however, is designed for the risk-averse, which is far more down my alley.

My picks from the collection (which also encompasses a set of eyelashes, two blushes, two nail polishes, and a new variant of the Skin Base foundation designed purely for the undereye, plus a set of gems) are the Reflection palette and the lipstick in Shard.
 

Reflection is a selection of almost neutral shades, and Shard is a beautiful plum matte lipstain.  Let's take a closer look:

Natural Light

 

With Flash

The eyeshadows have an innovative powder to cream formulation, almost a gel, which makes them bouncy in the pan, and almost entirely gets rid of fallout, which, particularly with the darker shades is a blessing!

Clockwise from top left, the shades are: Precipice (icy pale yellow), Acute (silvered plum-mauve), Graphica (sparkling charcoal), and Dart (medium bronze).  The shadows are perfect for being applied with your fingers - I found that applying them with a natural-hair brush washed the shades out a bit.  Here they are, applied with a brush without primer:

The yellow doesn't show up so well on my skin as my skin is slightly yellow, but I love the mix of colours, and think it'd be easy to get a range of looks from this quad.  My favourites in particular are Acute (surprise!) and Graphica.  I find the shadows to be long-lasting even without a primer.

Here you can see them with the lipstick, which I adore. A long-lasting stain, this is a perfect cool purple (or, as illamasqua describe it, a red-violet).   It can be applied fully as a completely opaque lipcolour, or sheered out as a stain, as below:

Applied fully, you can get a proper "goth" look going on, which I rather like, but your mileage may vary.  I don't find it quite as drying as Illamasqua's other matte lipsticks (ironically), and the stain has excellent lasting properties.

What do you think of my picks of the Sacred Hour collection?

The Fine Print: PR Samples.

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Lancome Rouge in Love - 379N Rose Sulfureuse

  
I've been sorting through my lipstick collection a bit recently, trying to find the best colours to "match" my new palette, and I realised that I didn't have any really deep but still cool purple shades.  I have SO many burgundy and wine shades, in a variety of textures, but I wanted to explore some cooler shades.  I'm short on plums for some reason, and, well, we are heading into autumn.  Shush, autumn is by far my favourite time of year.

On my way through Debenhams, I did a quick smash and grab at the Lancome counter, and this colour caught my eye.  I've only tried a lipgloss from the range previously, and, whilst I liked the packaging, I wasn't particularly wowed by the formula (or the colour), so haven't really written about the "Rouge in Love" range before.

The packaging is on the dinky side, being slightly smaller than the average  lipstick casing, but there is still a full-size bullet in there which is nice (particularly as this has a £21 price tag).  Billed as a hydrating formula with a six hour wear time, it's a very traditional kind of lipstick, completely in keeping with the slightly retro-feeling case.

It looks rather matte in the bullet, but this is misleading. It's actually a lovely, glossy shade of plum. not quite as dark as it appears here:

I don't think it does last quite as long as six hours on the lips because of the glossy formulation. Certainly, if you eat or drink something you'll have to top-up quicksmart, but it's an average-lasting shade, and it very definitely delivers on the hydration feeling both cushion-y and rather balm-y, and it has excellent pigmentation.  It doesn't, however, stain the lips at all.  Once the gloss is gone, the lipstick's gone completely, I found.

It's a glorious deep, cool raspberry shade on the lips.   Not quite as "milky" as my camera is making it appear here (it's definitely closer to the hand swatch colour, for some reason), it's definitely a statement shade, without being too "vampy".  The formulation is easy to wear - the press bumpf mentions "feather-lightness", and for once, I'm inclined to agree.  It doesn't last quite as long as you'd expect from the box, and the advertising materials, but reapplying is a pleasure.

Overall, I definitely prefer the Rouge in Love over the Gloss in Love formula (though I adore the unusual "click it" opening for Gloss in Love), and I'm delighted with this shade.  After a couple of weeks of £30+ lipsticks on the blog, £21 is beginning to seem positively mid-range ... I need to investigate some mega-cheap makeup soon, I think!

The Fine Print: Purchase.
 
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Guerlain, I have a problem ...

A BIG problem ...

I have too many Rouge G's.  Dammit!  Why can't I resist the flipping things?

Top Row (l-r) 
Galante
Madame Batifole
Betsy
Madame Reve
Georgia
Luxere

Bottom Row (l-r)
Madame Flirte
Gardner
Rouge Sensuel
Geisha
Provocative
Paresse.

Worst bit - took all the photos for this post then realised I had left Gracy and Garance in my handbag. :sigh:  
 
The Fine Print: Mainly purchases, with two PR samples.
 
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Guerlain Christmas 2013 - Crazy Paris Eye Palette

  
This is my final post about the Guerlain "Crazy Paris" Christmas 2013 collection, On Monday I featured the Sulfurous nail polish and UV topcoat, on Tuesday there was the Provocative Rouge G, yesterday I featured the Crazy Pearls Les Meteorites, and today I'm showing you the Crazy Paris eyeshadow palette, which is on the far right of the picture above.

Guerlain haven't done a stand-alone eye palette in the Christmas collection for about four years now, I think it was a Russian theme last time (I still have it somewhere, must dig it out now I come to think of it), but this is a little different.  In the same sleek black-lacquered case we've seen in the rest of the collection, but this time the neon pink adornment is on the inside, not the outside:

There are four eyeshadow shades, a copper, a pale gold champagne, a shimmering white, and a cool sparkling pink.  Next to that, there are two shadow liners, one a mid-grey and the other a dark charcoal (it's definitely not quite black), the liner shades are "wet & dry" powders, meaning you can wet them down for a more pigmented look.

Here's how they swatch:

As you can see, they're not the most hugely pigmented shadows out there - the coppery shade is by far the softest and easiest to work with.  The pink is the least pigmented, but it is intended purely to add a sparkly finish to the other shadows, using the pink brush supplied in the palette, rather then being a stand-alone shade in its own right.  Guerlain suffer from patchiness when it comes to shadows, and this palette shows off the vagaries of their formulations quite well, some shades are soft and buttery, and some are rather hard and are more difficult to work with as a result.   I think the liners will work well wet, however, and a primer underneath all the shades would really give all the colours a  bit of "oomph".

It's an unusual mix of shades, I think, with the warm richness of the copper contrasting hugely with the rest of the cool shades, but I think I can make it work, I'll show you a FotD with this palette soon.

So, which are my top picks from this collection?  Well, it's the products featured below ...

 What caught your eye?

The Fine Print: PR Samples.
 
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Guerlain Christmas 2013 - Les Meteorites "Crazy Pearls".

All this week, I'm featuring my picks of the Guerlain "Crazy Paris" Collection for Christmas 2013.  On Monday, I showed you the nail varnish in Sulfurous and the UV topcoat, and yesterday, it was the turn of the new Rouge G in Provocative. 

Today it's the turn of what is the cornerstone of any Guerlain Christmas collection, Les Meteorites Perles:

Thankfully back in a tin pot this year (I hate the cardboard pots of perles that occasionally get released, if you're spending £37 on a pot of face powder - and you are - then you want it to last), it's black-laquered, and it is adorned with the words "Champs Elysees" embossed in neon letters around the sides.  Whilst I love the black and pink that is the signature of this collection, I have to admit that I'm not a massive fan of this particular tin this year, I much prefer the sleeker styling of the Meteorites Perles de Nuit from Christmas 2011.  This is ... whilst I hesitate to actually say it's tacky, I'm think I'm going to have to say that it's a  ... bit tacky.  So there.

Right, having got that off my chest, let's take a look at the perles, eh?

New to the mix this year is a "tangy" pink, cool toned, it mixes with the gold, white, lavender and beige of the rest of the perles quite well:

It's quite a bright pot this year!  They're still delightfully scented with violets, and give the same "airbrush" finish that you get with the normal perles.  They're not coloured enough to act as a blusher, and don't appear pink on the skin.

I tried my best to swatch the perles, but this is a hiding to nothing, as you can see below:

I always have a pot of Les Meteorites on the go, they're easy to dip into, I adore the smell, and love the airbrushed, non-cakey effect. But, whilst it might be a collectors item, I'm not a huge fan of the tin.  Still, you don't wear the tin, eh?

What do you think of the packaging this year?

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Guerlain Christmas 2013 - Rouge G in Provocative.

All this week I'm featuring the "Crazy Paris" collection from Guerlain this Christmas.  Yesterday, I featured the Sulfurous nail polish and UV topcoat, and today it's the turn of the Rouge G from the collection, in Provocative.

I mentioned last week that I love a Rouge G (or seven),  and this one is no disappointment either.  Given a black coat of glossy lacquer, and with a neon pink button, I think this might be my favourite packaging of the entire collection.  It's reminiscent of the summer collection from a couple of years ago, but those had a silver button rather than pink.  So, what's inside?

A glorious pink.  Pink took over as my favourite lipstick shade a good while ago, and this is a great medium pink.  Highly saturated in shade, but neither too cool or warm, it's a good, extremely versatile colour that I think would suit all manner of skintones (I'd love to see this on some very dark or deeply tanned skins).  I'm still currently sporting my winter shade of pale blue, owing to trialling a number of factor 50 suncreams recently, and I like the contrast between the pale skin and bright lipstick, as you can see below.

You can see the skin on my hands makes the colour seem a little bluer than it will look on darker skins, but on my rather pigmented lips, it's not quite so cool, and pulls more neutral. It very definitely isn't a "hot" pink, however.

It has the same great Rouge G formula, being soft and moisturising, and rather featherlight in wear.  The lasting power is average, reaching 4-6 hours, depending on what you eat and drink whilst wearing it.

It'll be £36 pounds (yowch!) and launches November 1st. 

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Guerlain Christmas 2013 - Nail Polish 861 Sulfurous & UV Topcoat

 
This year's Christmas Collection from Guerlain is a little departure from the classic Guerlain designs. Taking its theme as "Crazy Paris", it's a celebration of colour inspired by the sights and sounds of the brand's home city. Packaged in shiny black accented with glints of neon pink, it consists of an eyeshadow palette, a nail polish and top coat, a new Rouge G, a Rouge Automatic, the iconic Meterorites perles, a perfumed shimmer powder (this year in La Petite Robe Noire), and two new pressed powders one a bronzer, and one pressed Meteorites.  I'm loving the black and the pink (in the most part), but how do the products stack up?

 Well, I have a selection of them here, and I'll be showcasing the collection throughout the week, starting today with the "black without black" nail polish: Sulfurous (£18).

I love this colour, it's a deep, dark grey, with hints of brown but there's a beautiful hint of violet and pink in there too. Whilst it is deep, you could consider the shade almost a neutral.  In some lights it is brown, others it's a grey, and in yet others it could be considered a purple, it's a very complex, and rather beautiful colour, I like it a great deal.

The pictures in this post show the shade after three days of wear, and I have to admit I've been impressed with how it's worn so far.  I was a little sceptical when Guerlain announced their entry into nailcare, but on the evidence of this polish, and the other one I've had to test recently, I have to admit my cynicism was a little misplaced.

The collection also comes with a UV topcoat (£18), which has three main functions.  One, as a glossy topcoat, obvs. Two, if you wear it on bare nails, the slight purple tones will have a whitening effect on any staining, or yellowness,and thirdly, it'll also glow under ultra violet light!  Now, I can't even remember the last time I went near a UV light, and I doubt I'll be near one in the near future either unless I buy an aquarium ... however, it's a good very glossy (albeit slightly on the gloopy side) topcoat, which really does seem to protect the polish it's covering.  It's not particularly quick-drying though, beware!

The "Crazy Paris" Christmas collection from Guerlain will launch on November 1st.

Back tomorrow with more of the collection ... 

The Fine Print: PR Samples.

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