Nars Lhasa Eyeshadow Single

 Eyeshadow, NARS  13 Responses »
Jan 142012
 

Nars Lhasa eyeshadow ($23/ 0.07 oz) is a perfect eyeshadow for understated elegance. If you love a neutral with a kick, you need this.

Part of Spring 2012 now online, Nars has a way of releasing must-have staples seasonally. Lhasa is a soft lavender gray that manages to emphasize one’s natural eye color and add a little sophisticated polish. It’s a beautiful wash, or staple lid color that could be supplemented with a touch of deep gray/black in the crease or a touch of shimmering ivory in the inner corner.

Is this a taupe? I’d say it’s not. The lavender has a mink-brown tinged with gray, but it’s different enough from my taupes to declare it one-of-a-kind. It brings out the warmth of my skintone and a touch of green in my eye color. I found that my closest color is Chanel Fauve, although Fauve is comparatively shimmery compared to Nars Lhasa’s satin-matte finish. Here, I compare Lhasa to some “true taupes”–Chanel Safari and Shu ME 945 Silver.  For fun, I added the right half of the Nars Habanera duo, which is clearly more purple, more deep in tone and more shimmery than Lhasa.

Swatches of all shades:

Do you need? Yes. This one is a must.

 

Cafe Makeup received this eyeshadow from Nars Cosmetics without charge for consideration for review.

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Nars Spring 2012 Preview

 Blush, Eyeliner, Eyeshadow, Lip Pencil, Lipstick, Nail Polish, NARS  7 Responses »
Jan 112012
 

Nars Spring 2012

Here’s an upcoming preview of Nars Spring 2012, a collection that is a study in contrasts: bold color underscored by sophisticated shimmer. For eyes, either tones of lavender and pink or bronze accented with navy on eyes. Cheeks are flushed with candy pink. Lips gleam in topaz or pop with berry. Metallic violet nails add a finishing touch to a collection that’s bright, strong and iconic. Here are the details of the complete Spring 2012 Nars collection.

Douce France Trio Eyeshadow ($45), with three gorgeous powder eyeshadow variations on pink—a cool light pink highlighter, a medium rose-petal pink and a deep rose with a touch of brick:
A minky silver-lavender single powder eyeshadow Lhasa ($23), named for the Tibetan region that hosts many Buddhist palaces:
An powder eyeshadow duo, Paramarimbo ($33) with a soft metallic green-brass and green-bronze tones. These are both shimmery textures with a rich complexity.

Gaeity Blush ($27), which I’ve been waiting for with my breath held. This is an extremely cool-toned pink:

Mexican Rose Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil ($24). I love this formula. This is a red/hot pink combination made to make your lips look gorgeous and glossy:

Valpraiso Pure Matte Lipstick ($25), an deep rose with a touch of coolness:

A shimmering gold-topaz deep nude in Bilbao Lipstick ($24)

Dark Rite Soft Touch Shadow Pencil ($24)

Diamond Life nail polish ($17) (not yet arrived)

In person, everything so far looks gorgeous. I’ll be providing you with updates and reviews on these products in the coming days.

These products were provided to Cafe Makeup without charge for consideration and review.

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Dior Garden Pastels 5-Color Eyeshadow

 Dior, Eyeshadow  Comments Off
Jan 032012
 

Dior Spring 2012 includes a limited edition 5-color eyeshadow palette, Garden Pastels ($59/ #441 / Couture Color 5-Coleurs Eyeshadow Palette Garden Collection in Garden Pastels). Like its twin Dior Garden Roses, the texture of this palette is beautifully pearly. All of the shades have a dimensional, shimmery quality that lights up when struck by the light.

Dior Garden Pastels

Like Garden Roses, the palette is embossed with a beautiful rose design:

You can see that the roses are raised:

Dior Garden Pastels

These colors are so far outside my comfort zone that I was very close to canceling my order for this palette. I was afraid that these colors would be very similar to a vintage palette that my friend had shown me, called Yardley Glimmericks, released in 1969:

Fortunately, Dior’s Garden Party is greatly updated and wearable on my warm skintone so long as I keep the look sheer and contained. Unlike the use of Yardley Gimmericks in the ad, I can do a simple wash of one or two colors on the lid area only, with perhaps a light shade in the inner corner. I use a soft matte liner (cool toned, either black or gray) and no shimmer on the brow bone. Otherwise, the cool shimmering tones might be overwhelming. Otherwise, they make beautiful little pearly accents used with other soft-toned mattes.

I can picture that some women are going to look incredible wearing these shades all over the eye area. The green is really unbelievable.

Another set:

This palette is beautiful, and will be a welcome addition for Spring. I have to use these colors with care, because they are so striking. Although these colors won’t work on everyone (what does?), this is a gorgeous and unique palette to pick up. Honestly, I don’t know of anything quite like it.

 

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Dior Garden Roses 5-Color Eyeshadow

 Dior, Eyeshadow  4 Responses »
Jan 032012
 

Dior’s Spring 2012 collection includes a Garden Edition Garden Roses 5-Color Eyeshadow palette ($59/.016 oz. / #841 / Couture Color 5-Coleurs Eyeshadow Palette Garden Collection in Garden Roses), a series of roses and grey with an incredibly pearly texture. The format of the packaging is familiar. For these, the palette is embossed with beautiful rose shapes that catch the light.

The colors of Garden Roses is quite outside my comfort zone. These are cool pinks and violets, with a soft gray. The texture is incredibly fine–it virtually melds to the skin without a hint of powder. There is a trace of powder as I dug into the pan, but on the eye the application was smooth and without fallout.

Dior Garden Roses

The texture of these is remarkable–they have a shimmer and sheen that resembles an actual pearl. I’ve applied them sheerly, so that they look like shimmery watercolor shades. I found that I need to “anchor” the shades with either a matte eyeliner or a matte crease color (typically, a soft gray from Bobbi Brown). Otherwise, I use just a touch sheerly.

Another set of swatches:

Dior Garden Roses is indisputably beautiful–the question is whether it will work for you. The colors are a gorgeous combination of roses with a single gray tone. This is well worth a look, unlike some Dior shimmery shades, these colors do not turn frosty.  They are very high-sheen, which can be both dramatic and may require a matte foundation finish to compensate.

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Chanel Eyeshadow Duo in Noir Ivoire Review and Look

 Chanel, Eyeshadow  8 Responses »
Nov 072011
 

Chanel Eyeshadow Duo in Noir-Ivoire ($42/ Ombre Contraste Duo #27) is a new permanent shade released with Holiday 2011. Chanel’s duo series offers a range of nice basics–typically a matte paired with a very softly sheeny shimmer light yellow-ivory shade.  This lighter shade is far more wearable than Chanel Blazing Gold (reviewed here) which was released at the same time.

 As you would expect from this series, the shades are rich, pigmented and are appropriate for day or night. Everyone needs a nice black eyeshadow or two, this one is excellent quality.  The ivory shade has a slight yellow cast, which is light enough to work as a versatile neutral.  The combination comes with two very small brushes–one bristled, the other sponge.

The easiest way to wear the combination is to use the black as a liner, and the yellow-beige as an overall lid wash.  

Swatches:

 Here, Liz did her variation by wearing the ivory-shade as a lid wash, and then used the black in the crease to add depth:

Overall, Chanel Eyeshadow in Noir Ivoire is a beautiful basic neutral palette.  It’s foolproof, formulated to look beautiful and is very high quality. Recommended.

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