Saturday 19 March 2011

Chantecaille Sea Turtles

Worship at the House of Blues is currently having a blog sale to raise funds for the Japanese Tsunami appeal. When I spied the Chantecaille Sea Turtles listed, I knew it had to be mine.

There are rather a lot of pictures, I hope you'll forgive me, but I was very excited. I denied myself the Tigers palette last year so there's been rather a big build up to this Chantecaille purchase. The only thing stopping me before has always been the price. These palettes retail for £73, so they're even more expensive than the Guerlain Ecrin 6 Couleur palettes (£52.50) and the Le Metier Kaleidescopes (£65). I bought this for less than retail, but I don't mind admitting that I think these would be better priced around the £50-60 mark.


Flash

The colours are housed in an attractive high shine case with sizable mirror and good size pans of each colour. One thing I did notice was that the pans twisted around in the palette as I swatched. My first attempt at swatching didn't go very well. I used my fingers to apply to bare skin and as the eyeshadow colours are a little sheer, I struggled to get the base colour to show up.


I decided to re-do the swatches using a brush to apply to the colours to primed skin (TFSI). Unfortunately, as the base colour is so close to the colour of my skin, it still doesn't show up well. On my eyes it applies as a sheer pale gold with some shimmer. The other colours in the palette are a warm mid-brown crease colour, the stunning blackened teal liner and a warm peachy pink, orgasm-esque cheek colour.

Indirect light
Direct sunlight
Although the colours are a little sheer, the texture is lovely and I think they're all extremely pretty and work well together. I will share a face of the day in the next couple of days. I'm not 100% sure if they work for me but I will let you decide for yourself. One thing I will say is that I really need to invest in a sealing gel. Both the blackened teal from this palette and the grey from Rue de Rivoli are not reaching their full potential when applied dry.

I think this is a nice palette, but when I try and consider whether it's worth £73, I inevitably want to compare it to my other high end brands. I think the colours are more interesting than the Guerlain palettes and the eyeshadows aren't dissimilar to the finish of those in my Le Cirque Kaleidoscope. I don't think they hold a candle to my RBR eyeshadows, but I appreciate that not everyone gets on well with very pigmented colours. I think the bottom line is that this is good, but not great and I think this experience might stop me from lusting after another one of these, unless I was utterly wowed by the colours. I actually wonder whether the Tiger in the Wild might have been a better choice for me.

I will leave you with a little look at how the wee sea turtles look after a couple of uses. Poor little things, it almost makes me feel guilty for having touched them!

11 comments:

  1. Looks pretty, although I am with you on the price. I try toalways consider how much I will use a product and try to invest wisely. (I do try! That's what counts right?) Cute designs get me though!! Emma xx

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  2. The Sea Turtles! I'm glad I didn't pick this up now, as I really enjoy pigmented colour (because of the specs, and because I'm lazy) but I imagine there will be many girls who will enjoy this sheerer eyeshadow. Thanks for the review!

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  3. You did it! I had a feeling you'd cave at some point and at least it was less than retail, a price which frankly makes my head spin round! They are lovely colours but for me just not spesh enough to warrant that kind of spend, although I have a feeling they are going to look lovely on you, especially the greeny one!

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  4. The palette looks beautiful but as you stated, I agree the price is a bit high. I was excited about this at first but the price and uniqueness of color made me think twice. Thanks for the beautiful photos and swatches.

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  5. Palette is lovely! But for the lack of pigment AND the price, it's a no-go for me. The turtles are beautiful though!

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  6. @Computergirl: I try to be wise too. It doesn’t always work though! It is cute and I’m really pleased I’ve finally tried one of these palettes.

    @dempss: I’m all about lazy ;). It’s pretty but I think it might be a bit wrong for me as an ensemble. I’ll be mixing it up a bit next time.

    @Debbie: The greeny one is definitely my favourite. As much as I like the spendy things the Chantecaille palettes are really a leap for me. I do regret not getting the Tigers though. I’ll be interested to see what thing of this one applied.

    @Kristie: I’m glad you enjoyed the pictures.

    @Lorin: It’s hard to explain, the colours are pigmented but the finish is sheer rather than opaque. They’re soft and easy to work with. The only one that I had problems with on the eye was the liner shade. I had to really build it up but I think using it wet or with a sealing gel would produce the colour that I’m after. I don’t think it’s an essential though.

    Jane x

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  7. You beat me to it! Thank you very much for this review, I think its the blusher and Green that keep reeling me back in but I think if you are not wowed by it I'd be hesitant to pick this up given the price x

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  8. The blusher and the green are my favourites. I will hurry up and post the eye look so you can how it works (or maybe doesn't) on me. I does make me wish I had gone for the Tiger in the Wild palette as I think the cooler colours might have worked better for me. The base colour definitely comes up as pale (yellow) gold on me when I would prefer something more like MAC Brule x

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  9. This palette looks gorgeous!!!
    id be so upset to see the turtles dissapear as I used the gorgeous colours though, just lovely

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  10. I just love how we both (among others I'm sure) think so highly of RBR that we immediately compare a new e/s from a brand we've never tried to it, lol!!!
    Hey, at least you have this now, I remember you were tweeting about it!!! ;)
    The colours do look lovely, I must admit, although the price is way too high for what it is..!

    x

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  11. Hi Lulu, it is sad to see them disappear. It actually happens really quickly. I tried working round them but it was impossible!

    @Tina: Can you imagine my excitement when I saw it in a blog sale?! It's funny isn't it that somehow RBR becomes a universal point of reference. I actually have a new RBR pigment that is sat patiently waiting for me to try it out.

    Jane x

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