Hide The Credit Cards: Chanel's Spring Makeup Debut

I love makeup.  If you were to add up the total cost of my makeup collection, I could go to Paris for a week.  It's borderline insanity how much cosmetics I own.  It's actually getting disappointing going into Sephora and realizing that you already own most of the store.  MAC, I challenge you to show me something that I don't have already. 

I really haven't been paying too much attention to new makeup collections lately because I keep seeing colors I already own.  However, for some reason this week I opened an email from Chanel announcing their new spring lineup.  My jaw dropped and my credit card shrieked.  May I introduce Chanel's Harmonie de Printemps (Spring Harmony for the non-French speakers)?



It's soft, lovely, and just drop dead beautiful.  Since I'm a huge polish lover, my eyes were instantly drawn to the soft orange on her fingertips, which is named June.  My heart stopped beating, and you can bet my first stop this weekend in Easton will be to the Nordie's Chanel counter.  Here's the pieces from the collection that I will probably end up buying:

Out of the polishes, I will definitely be buying June and probably May.  May is a vivid pink and reminds of the cherry blossoms in Washington D.C., which is one of my favorite things ever.  There is a limited edition eyeshadow that is roughly the exact same shade of the June polish called Tigerlily, and I originally thought it was included in the quad eyeshadow palette.  It's actually not though, and I have similar shades already.  The blush has all of my favorite shades blended into one handy compact. 

Pantone has called orange the color of 2012, and this simply wonderful collection is a great way to get introduced to the fun of one of my all-time favorite colors.

Here are some swatches I've pulled from some of my fellow beauty bloggers who already have the collection:

June polish, source, The Polish Police

May polish, source, The Polish Police

Tigerlily shadow, source, The Best in Beauty

Tigerlily swatch, source, The Best in Beauty

 

 

 

 

 

BGP: Tarte's 8th World Wonder Set

In one of my most recent posts, I discussed my purchase of Tarte's 8th World Wonder Best of the Amazon makeup kit from QVC.  I got it Monday, and have worn it every day since then.  To quickly summarize my overall review: meh.  This set is good, but not great, which is a shame because  I wanted to really love this set.  Here's the breakdown and reviews of everything in the set:



Amazonian clay full coverage balancing foundation in light.  According to the little pamphlet that came with this set, this foundation will "adjust to meet and address your skin concerns for makeup that wears better, longer, and truer!"  When I think of a full coverage foundation, MAC's StudioSculpt or StudioFix come to mind.  In my experience, those foundations cover every uneven skin tone or acne scar.  If MAC is a 100% coverage, the tarte formula is at best a 75% coverage.  I have some minor acne scarring, and this foundation didn't cover it very well.  However, the color matches my skin beautifully, and it did last all day.  With this set comes an "airbrush finish" foundation brush.  According to the directions, you're supposed to put quarter sized dots on your face, and then use the brush for a "flawless" look.  I'm not a big fan of foundation brushes to begin with, but this one is nice and fluffy so I thought this one might be different. I wasn't impressed.  It gave the foundation an even lighter coverage.  The brush is very nice, though, very well made with a bamboo handle.  I think it'll be great for powder or bronzer.
Foundation grade: B. 
Brush grade: A



Amazonian clay blush in glisten.  I just ran out of my Nars Orgasm, and the pictures and description sounded a lot like it, so I was excited to see if this would be similar.  On first glance, it is.  However, the tarte blush has less pigment in it and seems to be all shimmer.  It doesn't build well, I had to apply the blush about five times to get it visible on my cheeks, and I'm pretty pale.  It didn't last very long as well, by lunch time there wasn't a speck of color and hardly any shimmer.  However, while playing around with some of my other blushes, I have found the tarte blush layers very well with my all-time favorite blush, Benefit's Coralista for a great glow.  Here are some swatches:



Blush * is where I applied the blush with my finger maybe 2-3 times and it looks great there.  But blush ** is where I applied the blush with my blush brush, and I think I counted like 5 times trying to build the color.  If you can't see what I'm talking about, click on the photo and it should blow up to its actual size.  Look for what appears to be hives on my arm.  I also have the swatches for the eye liner and lip gloss on my arm as well.
Blush grade: C- on its own, B- if layered



Amazonian clay eye shadow palette.  Clockwise, Shimmering Bronze, Shimmering Cocoa, Shimmering Sand, and Shimmering Plum.  I think I was most excited to get this palette than I was anything else, purely for the Shimmering Plum shade.  It does not disappoint, it is gorgeous.  I have dark brown eyes, and it really enhanced them.  The Shimmering Cocoa and Bronze have a rich color to them, and are well-pigmented.  Shimmering Sand is okay, it's very sheer and doesn't show up very well, but I think that's how it was supposed to be.  It's a good canvas for the rest of the colors.  I've very happy with this palette, and have no doubt it will go into heavy rotation in my daily makeup bag.  It also comes in an adorable bamboo compact that is a tad awkward to open. Swatches for the colors are below:


Eyeshadow grade: A+



PureOptic gloss in Golden Pink.  I'm not a huge fan of tarte's glosses as most of them are UBER-sparkly.  The color itself is pretty, but I don't like it with this set.  With the heavy amount of shimmer in the blush and eyeshadows, a super sparkly gloss turns your head into a sort of flesh disco ball.  It has a light mint flavor. 
Gloss grade: B if not worn with set.



Amazonian clay waterproof eyeliner in Golden Plum.  I don't use eyeliner pencils as I prefer a thinner line, so I really don't know how to grade this product.  It lasted all day, and went on smoothly.  Yay?
Eyeliner grade: ?



Lights! Cameras! Lashes! Mascara in Black.  This is my all-time favorite mascara.  It makes my lashes super long, and they don't clump.  unfortunately, it's pricey at $19 a pop, so I switch between this and another mascara to make it last longer.
Mascara grade: A+

The set came in a purple clutch that is made out of PVC that has a stamped woven effect.  Normally, I end up giving these sort of things away because A) I'm up to my end parts in all sorts of makeup bags and B) they're usually just cheap pieces of crap.  But the one that the set came in is well made and can hold a bunch. 

The set was available on QVC and QVC.com for a short bit before they sold out.  They still have the set available in Deep, though.  I've read on a few blogs that this will be coming back, they're just waiting to get more in stock.  The item number is A212775.

FAUX PAS #2

Yet another post in a long-winding series of faux pas.

I've been trying to come up with several ways to open this post, but I can't.  I mean, a picture is worth a thousand words, but I just can't find them.  So I'm just going to show you the picture and let you make your own words:

There are some things that should  be orange, like Florida oranges, the Oregon State Beavers football uniforms, and the Dutch Oranje football (soccer) team:

Please, do take a minute to look.  I'll wait.

It's one thing to desire a sun-kissed glow, it's universally attractive, and can be worn no matter your size.  However, orange is not sun-kissed and sexy.  You're the same color as an Oompa-Loopa from the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder version is so much better*).  The only thing being orange proclaims is that you've made a bad decision somewhere. 

I could discuss the dangers of tanning heavily, but I feel the public is well aware of them.  I also understand that some people do get addicted to tanning, but I'm not a mental health professional.  I'm just a fashion and beauty blogger.  It's your decision if you want to tan or not. 

What really gets to me is the pictures posted.  Not only is the woman in question orange (strike one), but she's wearing frosty white eyeshadow circa 2002 (strike 2), and to strike out for the inning, she's making a duckface.  A duckface is less kindly term for making a kissy face, often with the subject's eyes looking back over her shoulder.  From what I understand, this started in Japan with girls trying to imitate the Anime cartoons, and it spread over here.  It's not attractive at all.  If you're under 20, it's forgivable, but beyond that, you just shouldn't do it.  It looks stupid, and makes you look stupid. 

The second picture is just all sorts of wrong.  Beyond the citrus-hued skin, her top is simply too small, her lipstick is too bright, and with more frosty eyeshadow, it's just too much.  If you're heavily tanned, you should not wear frosty pastel eyeshadow.  It's too garish and often makes you look older than you are.  Also, if you're going to wear bright lipstick, go easy on the eyes, and vise versa.

*I do not idolize Johnny Depp.  He's a good actor, but I don't think he's anything close to attractive.