My favourite blushes of all time! (Part 1)

I received a request by one of my best friends to review blushes, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to  blog about my favourite blushes!

 The first blush that I will talk about is MAC Ripe Peach. MAC is not a brand that I use besides the occasional limited edition items, and even then, it needs to be something special - be it the packaging (Wonder Woman Collection), or new, unique colours with above average quality (Mac Peacocky and Spring Colour Forecast).

MAC Ripe Peach is just special. It is a graduated peachy shimmery blush that changes colour from a strawberry peachy blush to a light peach.It actually does look like a ripe peach!

Ripe Peach is the most natural looking peach blush ever!! Normally, I would never say that a peach blush can look natural, because lets be honest - who here on Planet Earth actually blushes peach?? For most people, the most natural blush colour would have a pink, nude or brown base.

Ripe Peach

L-R: Individual colour swatches, Mixed colour blended out

Next up are the infamous Chanel Joues Contraste Blushes. These are pretty expensive and so I am pretty picky when it comes to choosing which colours are the most flattering. For your reference, I have a light-medium complexion with warm undertones (Laura Mercier Sunny Beige).

I have five Chanel JCs to date - Narcisse (EU), Reflex (US), Espiegle (US), Pink Explosion (EU) and Fresque (EU). Chanel JCs are some of the best blushes you can own if you can stand the strong rose scent emanating from the blush. They are soft and not overly pigmented so you can never overdo it and end up looking like a clown. JCs blend into your skin perfectly and gives you a natural finish.

Note: European (EU) JCs are baked and weigh in at 4 g, while the lucky people in the US gets the older version of JCs which weigh in at 6 g. There is a slight difference in application and texture but I find that overall the US version is more powdery, while the EU version is of harder texture but more glowy (and a little sheerer).

Narcisse

L-R: Heavy Swatch, Blended Out

Another favourite blusher of mine is made by Korres. Korres originated in Greece and this brand markets itself as an all natural makeup company which I really dig. Korres blushes are super expensive here in Australia, so if you can get someone to pick it up for you from the US or Greece, you can potentially save a LOT of money :). Anyway, Korres makes these super finely milled blushes that are a cinch to apply! I usually need to go easy on these because they are really pigmented and you can easily overdo it. My favourite shade is Coral (45), because eventhough it is a matte blush, it makes your cheeks glow! Love it!

Korres Coral

L-R: Heavy Swatch, Blended Out

Lastly, there are Shu Uemura blushes! I am becoming more and more fond of Shu Uemura lately because I find that they are very reasonably priced - on par with MAC, and I think they have better quality too :). Shu Uemura blushes have decent pigmentation and they have a great colour selection. My current favourite is P 366 Medium Coral. This colour is a bright pinky coral with gold shimmer and is very flatering and brightening.

L-R: P 366, P 832, P 781

L-R: Heavy Swatch, Blended Out

See you lovely ladies! Stay tuned for Part 2 :)

xoxo
Cindy

My Le Metier de Beaute Experiment

Tonight I decided to do a bit of "fun" swatching and just mix and match my existing Le Metier de Beaute shadows using the Couches de Couleur technique. Admittedly I am an amateur at eye makeup application so I do like techniques that are simple to duplicate and quick to pull off early in the morning. So!

Here are the results :)

L-R: Le Cirque, Splendid Frost, Experiment 1, Experiment 2, Violaceous Splendour *

The last three swatches are my own mix of colours. I think they turned out quite pretty! For some reason, I do believe the limited edition kaleidoscope eye kits contain much much better quality shadows. The regular line of permanent eyeshadows have some outstanding shades like Jojo & Corinthian.

Experiment 1 is Innocence, Chameleon, Sequoia, and Midnight Blue. I don't like Midnight Blue much, i found it to be gritty and sheer in pigmentation but it does remind me of a "Midnight Blue" sky. The resulting colour is weird. At first glance it seems to be a sheered out black with glitter but you can see that its not. Its hard to describe and capture in photos, so its best to maybe try this combo yourself in the store :)

The swatch that I called Experiment 2 is a mix of Goldstone, Jade, Jojo and Tamarack. All four shades are amazingly buttery smooth and pigmented and creates an olive-y gold that is to die for!

The last swatch is actually not really "my"experiment... not really LOL! I purchased a Violaceous Splendour that has been modified and does not include the red (second) shade. I chose Sugar as a replacement because I thought it would be a nice colour to tone down the purple. Here is "my"version of Violaceous Splendour...

On a side note, I have been road testing LMdB's Peau Vierge for a week now, and so far I love it!

xoxo
Cindy

P.S: If anyone wants swatches of any of the shades I mentioned, please ask me and I'd be happy to post them.

Get Intense eyes using Blast of BLUE

Eyes to Kill Intense Eyeshadow #1

 

Claire

I've all but forgotten about Armani makeup when I got an Eyes to Kill Intense eyeshadow no. 1 from Cindy. All of a sudden my desire to have everything Armani came alive again and I can't stop!
Armani Eyes to Kill Intense no. 1 is a nice mix of bright blue and gold.  This is Cindy's favorite color.  It's a nice shimmery (not glittery) eyeshadow with a unique texture.  It looks like it could be loose powder but feels creamy.  It lasts all day without having to use a base.  That's no small feat considering I've been looking high and low for eyeshadows/liners that don't smudge and haven't found much out there that doesn't end up underneath my eyes.

Everytime I use a different brush I get a different effect.  Even the color looks a bit different with every method of application.  It's like having several shadows in one!
If there's only one thing that you could buy at the Armani counter, it should be this!  I know it brought me back from makeup abyss!

Cindy 

For me, personally, this is the most special colour out of the whole collection of Eyes To Kill Intense (ETKI) Eyeshadows. I was on holiday in Melbourne when I came across this shadow and I hunted it down 'till I got my grubby little hands on it. ETKI #1 is a shade called Blast of Blue. It looks great in a smoky eye look with black eyeliner :) I have even worn it to work by applying it sheerly on the lid with a clean finger.

Below are dry (bottom) and wet (top) swatches of the shadow. 

The first lot of swatches leans more gold. As you can see from the picture of my ETKI jar, the gold colour is more prominent at the top. I had to dig into the powder eyeshadow to get more blue pigments.

The second lot of swatches are done using more blue pigments. You can see that it creates such a beautiful navy blue/purple eyeshadow with subtle gold shimmer.


Bottom Line: ETKI #1 is a must have from this collection. I am happy with the pigmentation and longevity of this powder eyeshadow. There was a bit of fallout on application but once the eyeshadows "sets", it sits there and doesn't budge at all.


Until next time!


Claire & Cindy