Beauty Find: Chanel Soleil Tan de Chanel 4 Facettes Bronzing Powder

The Beauty Club has a surprising gem hidden in their stock, it is the limited edition, drool-worthy bronzer that was released last year called Bronze Rose and Bronze Corail.

Bronze Corail (stock photo)

Bronze Rose (stock photo)

If you missed out on it last time, what are you waiting for? Jump on it here. Prices are more expensive than US pricing but they are ultimately much much cheaper than Ebay, especially since these are hard to find.

If you were worried about authenticity, don't be. I have ordered from TBC many times before and have never been let down.

I do have Bronze Corail in my stash, and it is quite similar to this year's offering of bronzers - Sable Beige and Sable Rose. The Bronzes only have four strips of colour compared to seven strips in the Sables, with Bronze Corail leaning more peach and Bronze Rose leaning more pink (it is actually more appropriate as a blusher when you use all four strips; avoid the last strip for a more conventional bronzer colour). That said, the one that is right for you is entirely dependent on your colouring and bronzer preferences. Comparisons and swatches can be found at The Beauty Look Book. Happy shopping!

xCindy

The Balm Shady Lady Palette Volume 3 - Review and Swatches

I'm going to start the Shady Lady Palette reviews with the latest release, Volume 3. Shady Lady Volume 3 is housed in a print cardboard casing in line with the previous releases of the Shady Lady palettes, and this time its giraffe print!! I think some people are a little put off by the names and the picture on the cover but if you can get past how racy they are, you'll find that these gems are worth the price.

Cover

Back of the Palette

The pans are quite large. I don't believe I will ever use up even one of these colours (especially now that I have three Shady Lady palettes LOL). Do you think that 39.50 USD for one of these is quite reasonable? I think Australian readers would be shocked to hear that, because quite frankly, makeup prices here are ridiculous. For e.g. 39 dollars for a Dior Polish, and 74 dollars for a Chanel JC blush (seriously, no one would buy anything at these prices except me).

As usual, I have swatches for you below. Directly below is a swatch photo taken indoors, and following that, I have a swatch photo taken outdoors in natural light. It was an overcast day with light sprinklings of rain, but the photos turned out really well :)

Swatches - Indoor, Artificial Light

I have started with Volume #3 because this is my least favourite in terms of colour selection. My skintone is quite dark so I do need a darker colour to bring out my eyes. Light, frosty colours are not my best friend. In saying that, I am happy to have this :) I can always use this palette more in winter when I am really pale! Haha :)

The texture of these eyeshadows are so soft and blendable, definitely one of my favourite formulations out there! The longevity when worn with a primer or cream base is excellent, I get about 8-10 hours of wear out of them (but I have really oily skin so...). The colour payoff is also fantastic, very true to pan. This is probably due to the fact that 90% of the shadows are shimmery, and I find that shimmery/satin finishes always perform better than matte shadows which are often a bit more chalky and not as pigmented.

If I can nitpick, the downfall of this palette is the lack of variation of finishes. Because the majority of the shadows are shimmery, it does limit range of looks you can create (unless, of course, you don't mind having so much shimmer on your eyes). On the other hand, these are not *nearly* as shimmery as say, Illusion d'Ombres or Eyes to Kill Intense eyeshadows so its still more wearable in that regard. Like I said, I'm being really nitpicky.

Swatches - Outdoor, Overcast day

Hope you liked my review! This is definitely worth a look-see. My friends in the US have told me that Shady Lady palettes often are on sale on TJ Maxx or Marshalls for under 15 dollars. If they are, I suggest you pick them up because they are so. worth. the money.

Cindy

The Balm Meet Matt(e) Palette - Review and Swatches

I purchased The Balm's Meet Matt(e) palette when they were having buy 3 Shady Lady palettes for the price of one promotion. Strangely, the shipping cost to Australia was ridiculous (USD 40), so instead of wasting hard earned money on shipping, I purchased this palette and a few other goodies to push my purchase into the free shipping threshold (US 100, if anyone is interested). I ended up getting four palettes, two brushes, and a nail polish. I think this was quite a good deal considering each Shady Lady palette costs 39.50 USD normally.

True to its form, The Balm's Meet Matte(e) palette consists of 9 matte shades whose names all started with "Matt". As Sheldon Cooper would say, "What's life without whimsy?"

Front of Palette

 I personally love the packaging of all The Balm palettes. The back of Meet Matt(e) palette has the profile of Matt who features on the front of packaging LOL Its like a dating advert!

Back of Palette

Indoor, artificial lighting

I swatched all the shades for you in the order they appear in the pans. I took two photos below, one indoors and one outdoors to show how they look under different lighting conditions.

Swatches - Indoor, Articial Lighting

Swatches - Natural Light, Overcast Day

Now, lets get down to the nitty gritty. I won't describe each shade individually. I believe the pictures are very colour accurate (the second photo to my eye is spot on). The texture is very soft, and the shades are all blendable and creamy. There is a touch of fallout when I use a stiff liner brush with the darker shades, and I do find this rather annoying with some better quality eyeshadows because of the unnecessary wastage.

All of my swatches are done on an unprimed arm. What I love about The Balm is that the shadows tend to cling to my skin very nicely and they have great lasting power with a cream base. The colours that you get on the lids are pretty much what you see on the pan.

The Balm is hands down my favourite mid-end brand for eyeshadows. The price of one palette is equivalent to the price of a MAC single and therefore, in terms of value for money, The Balm just kicks ass!!

Cindy

Chanel Sable Rose Bronzer and Chanel Calypso

I think I'm in love!! To be perfectly honest with you, I have never found a bronzer that I truly liked. I mean, I have a couple of bronzers in my stash which I use occasionally, but I found them to be too orange/too red/ too fake. I guess I can afford to be a little picky because I don't use bronzer often anyway.

Chanel Sable Rose is hands down, the BEST, most luminous and natural looking bronzer I have ever tried on. Chanel is such an awesome go-to brand for face powders and this definitely does not disappoint.

Closer look at the strips in Sable Rose. I love using the 4th, 5th, and 6th strip together for highlight, and the top three to contour. If I want a light sweep of bronzer all over, I would use the brush it comes with and go over the surface top to bottom.

I have tried my best to swatch all the strips for you but they are so tiny!! My fat fingers couldnt pick up each distinct colour adequately (time to go on a diet...). Just look at the glow!

I also used the brush to apply the bronzer to my arm. Because of the rose tones, this bronzer is also suitable for a blush medium-dark skinned ladies. 

Typical of me, I have gushed so much about the bronzer that I almost forgot to feature Calypso. Calypso is my first ever Chanel lipgloss and I have to say that I am enjoying it a lot! 

Calypso in the tube is an almost neon orange coral with gold shimmers. When applied, the effect is more subtle and pretty (you definitely won't look like a beautiful person with strange orange lips LOL). I can see myself using up Calypso purely because of the colour and the beautiful fine shimmer. Chanel does microshimmer so well (I can also gush about their shimmery nailpolish if you like... haha).

Anyways, if you have a similar skintone to mine, I do recommend that you at least TRY Sable Rose and Calypso. I can almost guarantee that you will walk out the door with these two beauties (perhaps more, depends on whether your counter has the latest collection out yet). TWO THUMBS UP!!!

Cindy

Laura Mercier Moonlight Collection - Reviews and Swatches

As promised, here is my review of the Laura Mercier Moonlight Collection. On the left is the Bare Beam gloss, and the lipsticks on the right are Rose (bottom) and Mistress (top). Mistress was the GWP from my purchase. How nice is it to receive a GWP that is full size and is not some weird colour that no one ever buys?

Bare Beam is a delicious warm caramel with flecks of pink shimmer, Rose is a neutral-cool leaning soft pink, while Mistress is a bright red coral.

Bare Beam has a sickly sweet scent when applied. It lingers for a bit too, but the smell reminds me of their creme brulee body lotion (which I love!) so I don't particularly mind it.  Bare Beam is a little sticky and I can feel its "weight" when I wear them. From memory, I dont think that these are plumping lip glosses but I certainly feel a little more pucker-y when I have these on.

The two lipsticks apply with no discernible scents. They have a nice shine to them and applies very smoothly on the lips. The texture is so remarkable and I am very happy with the two colours I ended up getting.

All three lip products sit comfortably on the lips and the wear time is decent, about 4-5 hours.

Next, I have two eyeshadows for you. Deep Garnet, shown below, is a dark burgundy brown in the pan with bronze flecks. This shade reminds me a lot of the brown/violet sparkly shade in Becca's Balearic Love palette!! I must do a comparison soon :)

I also purchased Pink Pearl, a nice light baby pink with purple sheen. The shade is very opalescent. I love it! 

Laura Mercier eyeshadows often suffers from lack of pigmentation but I suspect that this is because she recommends using her eye shadow base/primer with all Laura Mercier eye makeup. Granite and Pink Pearl both have medium pigmentation, soft texture, and minimal fallout. Worn over a cream shadow (base), the lasting power is 8 hours.

I have arm swatches for you below below. From bottom to top, I swatched Bare Beam (ran out of arm space at the top there...), Granite, Pink Pearl, Rose, Mistress, Rose + Bare Beam (currently a lip combo I love to wear).

Personally, Rose applies a little too cool and too light on my lips so that is the reason why I warm it up with Bare Beam. 

I hope you have enjoyed my Laura Mercier post. Stay tuned for some Chanel goodness (oh my, Chanel! My one true LOVE).

Cindy

Latest Hauls and Upcoming Reviews

I recently attended a couple of beauty events in Myer for beauty (power)houses Laura Mercier & Chanel. Like a hopeless makeup junkie, I went home with a few goodies. Thankfully, I had some restraint and did not buy everything from the collections. I will be reviewing the following items in the next couple of days (schedule permitting!).

From Laura Mercier's Moonlight Collection, I purchased a couple of eyeshadows (Pink pearl and Granite), a lipgloss (Bare Beam), and a lipstick (Rose), and the nice ladies at the counter gave me a free lipstick as GWP. Score!

A couple weeks later, I dropped by Chanel and picked up ONLY the latest bronzer in Sable Rose and the lipgloss in Calypso. That was a difficult day. I wanted so many more products from this Summer Collection. I urge you to at least give the bronzers a try. Best in class, in my humble opinion! If I had the chance to pick up more items from this collection, I would probably go with Sable Beige (the light coloured bronzer), the duo in Sable-Emouvant, and the eyeliner in Peche Cuivre. The nail varnish in Delight is also calling me. ARGH!!! So frustrating to be on a budget.

Lastly, I want to share with you some current go-to favourites from my stash. They are Le Metier de Beaute lip creme in Red Velvet, Le Metier de Beaute eyeliner in Artemis (this is HG for me, Love Love!), and Le Metier de Beaute eyeshadow in Water Sapphire. I purchased this eyeshadow from Nordstrom and it came completely shattered :( Lucky for me, Nordstrom agreed to give me a refund and on top of that, I was allowed to keep the shadow :D 

P.S: Sorry about the watermark, I took this photos with a different setting and I had to use a converter (Contenta) to be able to upload them onto Blogger :)

xxCindy

Nars Habanera - An Old Favourite

Contrary to what you might believe, I haven't always been a fan of exclusively high end brand like Chanel, Dior, Guerlain or LMdB. Sometimes, if I see a colour I like, I might buy it eventhough it lacks 1.) texture, 2.) longevity. The Nars Duo in Habanera is one such product. For me, the texture of the eyeshadows are sub par, but the pigmentation packs a punch. I guess pigmentation is lower in my priority list because I do tend to favour more subtle makeup.

Nars Rubber Packaging is a gripe with me - it seems to attract fingerprints, dust, marks, etc.

Nars Habanera consists of a beautifully curated duo. On the left is a silvery blue green that looks slightly more silver in the pan but swatches show that the blue comes through strongest on the arm (and on the eye). On the right is a purple brown with flecks of green shimmers. This shade is a perfect accompaniment to to the blue green as it adds depth. However, use with a light hand as this shade can look slightly bruisey in huge amounts.

I have swatches of this duo below. Isn't it just fabulous? I need to do a look and show you just how great this looks on the eyes. My favourite way to wear Habanera is to place the silvery blue green on the mobile lid (freshens up the eyes) and the purple brown on the outer v and slightly on the crease. Finish off by lining with a jetblack liner and pat the purple brown on top.

The left side of Habanera is similar to Chanel IdO in Riviere, but its a little more blue and pigmented. Riviere is more silvery green. Side note, I need to print a retraction on my earlier review of Riviere. The initial disappointment with the colour itself is overshadowed by the fact that it looks so damn good on my eyes!!

What do you think about Nars Duos? Are you a fan?

xxCindy