Lancôme Erika F Eyeshadow

For some reason, I had always assumed that Lancôme's Erika F eyeshadow was a limited edition. I was aware of the buzz that surrounded the colour when it was released but I just presumed as I didn't get my hands on it then, it would never grace my makeup bag. So, you can imagine my surprise when I spotted the shade on the Lancôme website.

It is as pretty as I had been led to believe and just as sparkly. It is a khaki grey-green with lots of iridescent shimmer. I find it best applied over an eyeshadow base, the eyeshadow seems to take better to the lid that way and require less layering. I do experience a bit of fallout as I apply (you could get around this by applying eyeshadow before base) but I didn't spot any shimmer migrating during the day.

Wearing this colour makes me feel very cheery. I'm not usually one for sparkly things but I think I particularly like this as it's a slightly grungy colour with sparkle. I agree with The Non-Blonde, that is probably isn't office appropriate. Of course, no one bats an eyelid at sparkles in the playground!

I had wondered how similar Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in Epatant might be to Erika F so was keen to do a side by side swatch. In terms of coverage, Erika F is a little more opaque than Epatant. I would say that Erika F is slightly darker and more grey toned than Epatant, which leans a little more yellow.

I have to admit that Erika F is one of those cult favourites that hasn't disappointed. It's always nice to find something that really does live up to your expectations. The only thing I need to do now is find a suitable liner to wear with it. Brown doesn't seem right and I fear that black may be too harsh. What do you/would you wear with it?

Erika F Ombre Absolue Eyeshadow is available from Lancôme and costs £17. When I was checking the price online, I spotted they have an offer on for free shipping at the moment with the code FREESHIP.

Disclosure: PR Sample

FOTD with MAC Naked Lunch and Trax

I spent some time over the weekend re-arranging my makeup collection, it's nowhere near as fun as it sounds! One of the principal objectives was to make my eyeshadows more accessible. For a long time my MAC 15 pan palette has been at the bottom of a drawer underneath lots of other palettes and consequently it has been neglected. Now that my palette has been released from it's hiding place, I thought it was time to revisit some of my old eyeshadows.

I have included brushes in my product pictures today. I did this in honour of Delicate Hummingbird who is still missing in action. I always love the detail in her face of the day posts and you can consider this a (really poor) homage. Come back soon DH!

Eyes
MAC Naked Lunch all over the mobile lid
MAC Cork in crease and outer V
MAC Trax over Cork in the outer V and in towards the centre of the lid
Rouge Bunny Rouge Delilah Eye Kohl
Japonesque Medium Fluff Brush* to apply Naked Lunch and Trax
Louise Young LY38 to apply Cork in the crease

Face
MAC Studio Sculpt in NC20
Shu Uemura brow pencil in Seal Brown
W3LL People Universalist stick in #5*
BECCA Pressed Shimmer Powder in Nefertiti
Adesign flat topped foundation brush* - to blend the W3LL People #5 on my cheeks.
Rouge Bunny Rouge Crease 011 Brush - to apply the BECCA Nefertiti as a highlighter

Lips
NARS Falbala lipstick

It probably looks and sounds like a strange combination of colours but I like how it turned out. I've always liked how Trax's appearance changes according to the other colours that it is paired with. I'm still on the fence about the MAC Studio Sculpt foundation. The coverage is much heavier than I'm used to and the colour isn't perfect however, it gives a more flawless finish than any of my other bases and doesn't look cakey. The Adesign flat topped brush was recently sent to me for review. I normally wouldn't mention something so early on in my review process but this is becoming a fast favourite. It works really well with my W3LL People Narcissist foundation too.

* PR samples

Stila Week: Wonderful in Wakiki Beach Palette

I had a look at the Stila limited edition Collectable Beach Palettes in Boots earlier this year. 'Stunning in Sayulita' caught my eye as a pretty neutrals palette. I toyed with the idea of trying one of the others but was foiled as they only had testers for one of the colourways. In the excitement of the summer holidays I forgot all about them.

I was sent three of the palettes to try: Living the Life in Laguna, Wonderful in Wakiki and Striking in South Beach. The two others palette that complete the collection are: Stunning in Sayulita and Haute in the Hamptons.

 

After my personal failure to swatch in store, I wanted to swatch all of palettes to share with you. As you might imagine I've ended up with a lot of pictures. So, rather than have one single very picture heavy post, I will post about each palette individually. I also have an outstanding review of a Convertible Colour to share with you so I think we can safely call this Stila Week!

Wonderful in Wakiki

 

Wonderful in Wakiki is a very vibrant palette to look at. As well as three warm neutral colours it has a pop of colour in the form of a striking blue. The lightest eyeshadow Wahine is a a sheer gold with shimmer, Sarong is an intense coppery shade and Coconut is a medium brown with golden shimmer. The vibrant blue Surf is the only matte finish. One word of warning, Surf does seem to stain the skin a little so be careful with your placement!

Natural Light

Flash

The cheek colours are quite similar in depth. North Shore is the blusher and has more of a coral undertone whereas Hanauma Bay is a bronzing shade. Although confusingly on the placement guide inside the palette it suggests you apply Hanauma Bay to the cheeks and use North Shore as a highlighter. There's no way I could use North Shore as a highlighter on my pale skin. Both the cheek colours contain shimmer and can be a little dusty as you pick them up, so you will need to tap off the excess before applying.

I applied each of the colours as per the placement guide inside the palette. In the photographs below I am wearing Wahine as a wash all over the eye up to the brow bones, Sarong in the crease, Coconut on the mobile lid and Surf on the lower lash line. I was happy with how the colours look on the lid but I'm not sold on the blue underneath the eye, purely because of my eye shape. The cheek colours felt a little too warm and intense for me and I suspect that this particular palette would be best suited to darker skin tones than my own. However, I can imagine it would be a nice selection of colours for a holiday in the sun.

I will do a roundup once I have posted swatches of all three and will include my general impressions of these limited edition palettes. Suffice to say that priced £10 each, these are an easily affordable treat. The Stila Beach palettes are available from Escentual.com and Beautybay.com, as well as several other online retailers.

Disclosure: PR Sample.

Lost Weekend Look

I thought I would have a go at re-creating the look from the BECCA Lost Weekend promotional pictures. In the breakdown of the look it says to use the Eye Tint in Baroque as a base. I don't have this so instead I used the Automatic liner in Goa as a base along the upper and lower lash line. I applied the darkest colour, Chino, all over the lid taking it quite high and beyond the crease. I used the lightest shade, Moleskin, to blend out above the crease. I used the shimmery shade Moiré in the crease and also ran it along the lower lashline. I applied more of the Goa liner along the upper lash line and also used a small amount of the black Majorca pencil at the outer corner and underneath the lashes. I smudged any harsh lines with a pencil brush.

No matter how much I tried, I couldn't get the colour quite as dark as in the promo pictures above. I think it would really require a darker base to do this. My apologies for all the frowny face pictures. The sun was quite bright when I took these photographs and I was squinting rather than trying to look intentionally moody!

Face
BECCA Luminous Skin Colour in Sand
MAC Studio Finish concealer in NC20
MAC Select Moisturecover in NW20
BECCA Beach Tint in Fig
Shu Uemura Brow Pencil

Eyes
BECCA Lost Weekend Palette
BECCA Automatic Liners in Goa and Majorca
MUFE Smoky Lash

Lips
RBR Decadent Duo in Flamenco Duende lipgloss


Disclosure: The BECCA items used in this look were all provided without charge.

NARS Delphes Applied and an Update

I posted pictures of the NARS Delphes trio a few weeks ago now. I have been playing with it for a while in an attempt to share a successful eye look. I thought that I had taken pictures of the look I was happy with. Unfortunately I was mistaken and I only have pictures of my first attempt. I hope you will forgive me for sharing a less than stellar effort but I think it will at least demonstrate some of the trios 'issues'.

 

Knowing that the lightest shade is more glittery than pigmented, I did not use it as a base colour. Instead, I applied the green all over the mobile lid and attempted to use the grey as a crease colour. As you can see, the green dominates and the grey is barely visible despite layering. I applied a little of the lightest shade at the edge of the crease for a little sparkle. I think I also chose my cheek and lip colour unwisely here. They seem to accentuate the green and make it look more unflattering on my colouring. Black would also have been better choice as a liner. This wasn't a good makeup day!

As the green dominates the grey, I've since tried the reverse placement. The grey works OK as a lid colour but when applied to the lid the grey is quite sheer. I was surprised by this as it does not appear to be sheer when swatched. I also found that the grey needs to be applied over a primer. Applied to my bare lids, it is a little patchy.

I have to concede that Delphes has been a disappointment. It looks very nice in the pan but the colours and eyeshadow formulas are very hard work for me. I find it interesting how NARS can be so variable in terms of their powder eyeshadow, these are complaints I have encountered before.

Have you tried this trio? How do you find it? Is there a particular knack to it?

ARTDECO Eyeshadows

ARTDECO is a brand I've not really come across other than through the online beauty community. It isn't widely available in the UK so I was excited when the talented creator of shiny fings* and curator of Worship at the House of Blues, sent me this set of eyeshadows to try. The eyeshadows come as little rectangular refills which you can slot in to their magnetic palettes. The compact shown above can hold four eyeshadow pans but I believe you can get empty palettes in a variety of sizes.

This is the individual packaging. This was actually an eyeshadow sent to me by Mookie On The Bench which isn't in my compact and I'm afraid I also forgot to include a swatch. I probably don't need to tell you why Klara thought I might like this particular colour!

L-R: 99, 98, 12, 205

The four colours shown in the compact above are: #99, #98, #12 and #205. #99 is a beige pink pearl. Despite the appearance in the pan, #98 is a frosted pale lilac. #12 is a shimmery chocolate bronze and #205 is an ashy brown. According to ARTDECO's own descriptions #99, #98 and #12 are all pearl finish eyeshadows  #205 is a duochrome. Personally, I would describe all of them as having a frost finish apart from the beige pink. #99 is also not quite as pigmented as the other three shades. #12 and #205 are especially pigmented and creamy to apply.

L-R: 205, 12, 98, 99

L-R: 99, 98, 12, 205

As you may recall, I took this palette with me on holiday. It really was an ideal selection of colours to travel with. I could create a variety of looks with this combination of shades. I enjoyed pairing the pale lilac colour with my YSL purple liner for days when I wanted something less neutral.

Here's a look I did pre-holiday. I applied #99 on the inner 1/3rd of the lid, #12 on the outer 2/3rd and #205 blended on the outermost corner and into the crease. I lined with BECCA automatic liner in Goa and used Le Metier Anamorphic mascara in Aubergine on my lashes.

 

ARTDECO products are available online from Cocktails Cosmetics and The Garden Pharmacy. The eyeshadow pans cost £6 each and the Beauty Box compacts come in a variety of sizes.

* ATTENTION: I want to bring to your notice the newly opened online store, The Worshipblues Emporium. If you like shiny fings, you're going to love these pieces!! ♛ ★ ♛

Silk Road Kaleidoscope Applied

I recently posted pictures of the Le Metier Silk Road Kaleidoscope. As promised, here is a picture of all of the colours applied. It took a little while for me to figure out how best to apply this palette but I think I've finally cracked it.

With flash

With flash

Eyes
Le Metier de Beaute Silk Road Kaleidoscope layered top to bottom -
Tapestry on the mobile lid, Damask layered over Tapestry especially concentrating on the inner corner. I applied Brocade on top of Ikat on the outer corner and into the crease.
GOSH Truly brown liner
MUFE Smoky Lash mascara

With flash

Face
Max Factor Second Skin in Creamy Ivory
Old Ruby + Millie powder and wax set on brows
RMK Super Basic Liquid concealer on undereyes
BECCA concealer in praline on blemishes
e.l.f. HD powder
RBR Delicata blusher
Pink blusher from the Chantecaille Turtles palette on the the apples of the cheeks

Lips
Giorgio Armani Shine lipstick in #5
(in the final image I added a touch of Hourglass gloss in Ignite)


I was so pleased with how this turned out. After being very nervous of the gold/copper Damask, I found that layering lightly over the plum Tapestry shade created a wonderful effect. As you can probably tell, I added a little more of the gold towards the inner corner of the eye. I layered both of the darker shades only on the outer edge of the eye and into the crease. As always with the signature Le Metier couches de couleur technique, the overall effect is greater than the sum of its parts.


Disclosure: The Kaleidoscope was a PR sample

Annabelle Smoothliner in Jade

This Annabelle eyeliner found it's way in to my possession from a giveaway hosted by the lovely Lipstick Rules. Annabelle is a Canadian cosmetics brand and not one that is available in the UK, as far as I'm aware. I love coloured eyeliners and this is no disappointment. Jade is a gorgeous rich green, though I'd say it's more emerald in colour rather than jade. It has some shimmer which you will hopefully you can see in the swatch.

This is called a Smoothliner with good reason. The pencil is so soft to apply, it glides on like butter. It's not messy or smudgy though and it was possible to get a nice even line. It reminds me quite a lot of the YSL Waterproof liner in it's application. This is also a waterproof formula and after some very watery eyes yesterday, I can confirm that it is as good as it's word. The staying power is excellent and it lasts all day without smudging or fading.

Looking on the Annabelle website, these retail for $6.50 (CA) which is a little over £4. If you have access to the brand I would definitely recommend giving these a try.