On Tuesday, May 15, 2012, Chanel held its Cruise 2012/13 show at the gardens at Versailles. Tents were added to the already manicured, rich setting:
The clothing played with the Marie Antoinette theme, the last queen to occupy this opulent palace:
For Spring 2012, Chanel released an Asia-exculsive collection, Le Blanc de Chanel (previewed here at Rouge Deluxe). Through the kindness of a fellow beauty lover, I was able to obtain the Fleur de Lotus Joues Contraste Blush (#69). My hope is that this might be picked by a U.S. source and released in this country (and elsewhere in the world).
Because of its current limited availability, this review will be short. Essentially, Fleur de Lotus can be summed up in a single word: Spectacular. This is a finely-milled, brightening coral that adds a beautiful glow. Yes, it is the baked formula, but we’ve talked about this before. I found that the overall texture of Fleur de Lotus was sufficiently soft, a standard blush brush was fine (I found it similar to Rose Tourbillon in texture).
Here are swatch comparisons with Chanel Malice (which is more pink) and Chanel Espiegle (which is more peach):
I found that the closest that I had in my stash is MAC Hipness, swatched on the far right for comparison.
Obviously, the Joues Contraste formula sets Fleur de Lotus apart.
Maybe if we all contact our favorite department stores (do you hear me Nordstrom?? Neimans? Saks? hellooooo?), and we all do lots of good deeds for others we can all get our hands on one. I’d certainly get another. This thing’s gorgeous.
Every year, Chanel has been releasing an Asia-exclusive collection. For 2012, Chanel’s released a beautiful Le Blanc collection based on a brightening them previewed here at Rouge Deluxe. Last year, Nordstrom brought this collection to the U.S. during the July Anniversary sale, and I’m hoping that they do this year as well. I was able to obtain only two pieces (although I’d pick up more if I was able to find them from a U.S. department store or on Chanel.com.).
I was able to buy the Chanel Illusion D’Ombre in Rivière, from Chanel’s gel-like eyeshadow line (discussed here). Rivière is a soft silvery light mint, with the lightness and touch of sparkle emblematic of the Illusion D’Ombre line.
As a person with blue-green eyes, I was concerned that this shadow would be “too green,” however I found that the color is quite silver, cool and light. Because of the texture of this shadow, the color does not apply like a block of mint at all–instead, it’s a touch of eye-brightening silver with a faint hint of mint. I like to pair this with Emerveille, although this formula plays very well with powder eyeshadows as well. Here are swatches of Chanel Illusion D’Ombre in Rivière swatched lightly and heavily (I prefer to wear it lightly), and also a comparison with Chanel Illusion D’Ombre in Epatant (the other green in the Illusion D’Ombre line):
I agree with The Nonblonde that this is “gorgeous”–her thoughts about Rivière are here. Since she posted her review, Rivière has gone out of Strawberrynet.com (that was my source for this product as well).
Chanel Summer 2012 brings us two new eyeliner pencils. First is Chanel Le Crayon Yeux Precision Eye Definer in Brun Intense ($29).
This pencil is a deep brown with subtle sparkle and a combination of both gold and red. It should coordinate beautifully with the Chanel Sable-Emvouyant Eyeshadow duo released at the same time (reviewed here), one of my favorite pieces of this collection. As with the other pencils in Le Crayon Yeux line, this comes with a smudge tip on one end, and of course a sharpener.
Chanel Le Crayon Kohl Intense Eye Pencil in Peche Cuivre ($28) is a subtle shimmery nude. Unlike Brun Intense, there is no smudger on one end, although there is a sharpener included.
The effect of using Peche Cuivre is very subtle. There is a slight sparkle, and the color nearly matches a fair skinned person. It adds the slightest touch of polish to the eye. It’s pretty, but many of you will not notice any dramatic effect. Others will love the very soft brightness it will give to the eye area. Because of the sparkle, those of you with sensitive eyes will want to use some caution if you are thinking about using this on your inner eye rim.
Swatches of Brun Intense and Peche Cuivre are able. I’ve also included some other eye-brighteners that Chanel has released over the past year–Khaki Platine and Rose Platine for comparison.
Bottom line: Many eye pencil lovers will find Brun Intense a useful addition to their beauty stash. The texture is soft, and it is very easy to get an even, intense line of color. The smugger is handy to push the line into a subtle line of smoke. This is a very good addition to add a touch of depth to the bottom outer lid, as well as a good traditional eyeliner.
Peche Cuivre’s texture seems harder to me than Brun Intense. You’ve got to push it to really get some color onto the lid. Because the color is quite subtle on fair skin tones, the effect will be quite subtle. Given the price point, some caution should be exercised–that is, is the look perfectly subtle for you, or too subtle on your skin tone? Personally, I liked the subtle effect of the pencil, it’s similar to adding a touch of a light eyeshadow (such as Burberry Porcelain or MAC Naked Lunch) under the eye as a brightener.
Chanel Summer 2012 brings two new Chanel Rouge Coco Shine lipsticks, the sheer coral En Vogue and the beige balmy Empreinte ($32.50) It has been a while since I’ve purchased any lipsticks from the Rouge Coco Shine line, and I purchased these both without taking a look at them in person. I wear Bonheur quite frequently (lately, almost daily), so my current impression of the line has been good. It may be a while until I buy another.
So pretty in their tubes, aren’t they? You can see why I was tempted. En Vogue seems to be the perfect coral red, precisely on trend for this summer and coordinating perfectly with the rest of this sandy beige and gold collection.
And the soft sandy gold Empreinte seems like the perfect neutral for summer. Pair this with coral nails and you’re good to go, right?
What you get in the tube is sheer, sheer, sheer. Really, there should be a new word for sheer to describe these. As Messy Wands post confirms, the Chanel Calypso Glossimer in the Summer 2012 has a healthy dollop of pigment compared to En Vogue. And Empreinte is little more than a sheer balm on my pigmented lips.
Another, but don’t get your hopes up:
Yes, these are moisturizing balms that you can toss into your summer bag and apply without a care in the world. But so there’s no confusion: