Guerlain Spring 2013 - Ecrin 4 Couleurs 502 Coup De Foudre Review and Swatches

This is the second limited edition eyeshadow quad from the Guerlain spring collection, if you haven't see the purple one, you can check it out here. Coup De Foudre contains 3 green shades and a bright coral.

The palette hasn't got any special packaging, it's housed in the regular gold compact. It comes with a double ended sponge tip applicator and a full size mirror in the lid. The colours are very pretty and springlike. The palette contains a frosty khaki, a satin bright coral, a frosty light silvery green and a slightly frosty greeny-grey shade. This one doesn't have a highlighter shade, which some people may not like, but the 4 colours work together well, so I'm happy. I haven't used the coral shade yet, but I can see it working well with the light green and the khaki colour. I have done a look with the three greens which you can see at the bottom of this post.

The eyeshadows are really lovely, smooth, buttery and pigmented. They go on and blend easily and stay put all day (I always wear Too Faced Shadow Insurance under them). I'm not sure which one of the two palettes is my favourite, I love purples, but these greens and the coral are so gorgeous as well.

It's really lovely to see two such great quality palettes out this spring, in fact I have found that Guerlain's limited edition palettes have been consistently excellent quality lately. Makes you feel better about forking out for them.

You get 7.2 g of product for £38. The Guerlain spring collection is available from all good department stores and Escentual.com (for a bit less).

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did with this palette after the jump!

Guerlain Spring 2013 - Ecrin 4 Couleurs 501 Attrape-Coeur Review and Swatches

Guerlain released two limited edition eyeshadow quads this spring and I have 501 Attrape-Coeur to show you first. This is the pretty purple one, I will show you the green one tomorrow. In fact you've already seen it in action in yesterday's post about the new Cils D'Enfer mascara. If you haven't, check out my post here.

The palette hasn't got any special packaging, it's housed in the regular gold compact. It comes with a double ended sponge tip applicator and a full size mirror in the lid. The colours are very pretty and springlike. The palette contains a muted lavender, a frosty white, a frosty dark purple and a pinky violet shade. I like purples like these that aren't mauvy or red, but true purples, they look better on me. (Mauves make my eyes look tired.) Unfortunately this is exactly the shade of purple my camera hates and doesn't pick up properly, the colours are much prettier in real life.

The eyeshadows are really lovely, smooth, buttery and pigmented. They go on and blend easily and stay put all day (I always wear Too Faced Shadow Insurance under them). I like it that this palette contains a complete look with a highlighter and a dark shade as well as two lighter ones, but equally I wouldn't mind to have a different colour instead of white. It's not too harsh for a highlighter though so it does work well with the palette. 

You get 7.2 g of product for £38. The Guerlain spring collection is available from all good department stores and Escentual.com (for a bit less).

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did with this palette after the jump!

Want It: Guerlain Spring 2013 Collection

I'm really excited about seeing the promo pictures and details of the Guerlain Spring 2013 collection, so I thought I'd quickly share them with you. Firstly, another gorgeous promo picture featuring the lovely Natalia Vodianova. Can't help but wonder how photoshopped those eyelashes are though...

So there is a new mascara coming out, it's a volume creating, curl sculpting mascara.

Cils d’Enfer – Maxi Lash (£22)

• 01 Noir
• 02 Violet

The secret of this brush is all in the three polymers. “The first one wraps the lashes in extremely adherent oils, coating and thickening the lashes. The second one, made with supple waxes, acts like a conditioner, softening the lashes so you can sculpt them into just the right shape and style. The last one forms a thin film, coating the lashes to trap the wax and set the amazing curve.”

This mascara also has an innovative brush which is described the following way:” full, round brush caresses each lash to thicken and lengthen at will. The volumising effect is accentuated by the new generation hollow fibres, capable of dispensing just the right amount of mascara with each stroke. Cleverly placed in a criss-cross pattern, they carefully separate the lashes and spread the rich formula without clumping.”

The other products in the collection are as follows:

Ecrin 4 Couleurs Long-Lasting Eyeshadows (£38)

• 501 Attrape-Coeur - mauve, violet, white illuminate, prima donna purple
• 502 Coup de Foudre - green, silvery patina, bronze-khaki, vibrant coral

Eyeliner (£24.50)
 
Ebony black liner with an ultra-thin tip (I think this is permanent actually).

Météorites Perles du Paradis (£43)

New Limited Edition of Meteorites come in XXL size with a pink powder puff with a black bow on top. These Meteorites come in a box adorned with an illustration of a boudoir. The pearles come in six shades.

Rouge Automatique Lipstick (£24.50)

• 601 Romance
• 600 Ballade

Shine Automatique Lipstick (£24.50)

• 762 Rendez-vous
• 761 Flirt

Kiss Kiss Gloss (£24.50)

• 870 Cherry Pink (repromote, see swatches here)
• 849 Fizzy Mango (repromote, see swatches here)

This collection will be out in January.

Pictures and information source

See lots more pictures after the jump!

My Guerlain Holiday 2012 Collection Haul Part 6 - Ecrin 4 Couleurs 500 Les Ombres Turandot

The last product I bought from the Guerlain holiday collection is the 4 colour eyeshadow palette #500 Turandot. The biggest reason for leaving this last is that it wasn't available when I tried to buy it at Harrods and I kept waiting for Debenhams to have it for ages, until I got bored and ordered it from Escentual. It was a good decision as I saved 10% as well.

Anyway, this year's limited edition eyeshadow quad has no special pattern or packaging which is a bit of a let down in my opinion, but I know that shouldn't be the reason why we buy make up. And it isn't, it just makes it even more desirable. Turandot has 4 rather warm shades, a shimmery warm gold, a satin orangey rosy pink, a matte plum and a metallic dark brown-taupe (a very hard to describe colour). All housed in the usual gold compact, which comes in a black velvet pouch with red trim and the usual black outer box (which also has red on the inside, like with the other palette and the powders in this collection).

The eyeshadows are nicely pigmented and easy to work with, they're soft and smooth. They stayed on my eyes without creasing and fading for 10+ hours. I admit they're all rather warm and might not be very easy to pull off for some skintones. The colours remind me of the Tsarina quad from 2009(?) which is also a very warm quad. It's actually quite funny as the Tsarina quad was part of the fall/autumn collection and Turandot also feels very autumnal, rather than Christmassy.

As I mentioned, I bought my quad from Escentual for 10% less than the usual retail price of £37 which I was very pleased about. You get 7.2 g of eyeshadows which is almost twice the size of the Mac holiday eyeshadow palettes for only £5 more. Just saying...

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did with the palette after the jump!

Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs 01 Les Violets Swatches and Review

Last year Guerlain reformulated their eyeshadow quads and released 9 variations (since then they have added a few more colours to their permanent line up), one of them being 01 Les Violets. I initially only picked up 08 Les Perles because that one seemed the most unique and I'd already had all the older eyeshadow quads so didn't feel necessary to buy the others, but I saw this one on eBay and decided to pick it up.

As you can see this is just a tester, so it doesn't come in the fancy compact, but it does come with a plastic protective lid, so still properly portable. If you want to see what the compact looks like, please check out this post. You still get the full size eyeshadows, 7.2 g in total. In Les Violets you get 4 different shades of purple (who would have thought?), from very light pinky violet to dark mauve (the colours in the pictures look more blue than in real life). The textures are different, you get a matte shade, a frosty/metallic shade  and 2 satin shades. None of them are shimmery/glittery. Some feel softer than others, the matte shade in particular is a bit chalky, with the frosty cool purple being the softest and most pigmented.

This quad felt a little bit below par considering the usual quality of Guerlain eyeshadows, a couple of shades just didn't feel as nice as they should. I do appreciate that mattes can be a bit harder to work with, and I think Guerlain does frosty/metallic and satin shades better than mattes. The eyeshadows still stayed on my lids for 12+ hours without fading and creasing, so that's up to Guerlain quality, it was more the application issues I had with a couple of shades that I wasn't too pleased with.

All in all, the colours are lovely, but I can't recommend this palette wholeheartedly. Unless you are a massive purple fan, I'd skip this, especially as the recent additions to the Ecrin 4 Couleurs line have been a nicer quality.

I bought my tester for £14 on eBay, but Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs eyeshadows retail for £37.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Guerlain Fall 2012 - Ecrin 4 Couleurs 14 Les Fauves Review and Swatches

Guerlain's autumn/fall collection also contains an eyeshadow quad, #14 Les Fauves. It will also become part of the permanent line.

Les Fauves contains 3 shades of warm brown and a bright coral. The colours are definitely on the warm side, ranging from a shimmery caramel to a warm chocolate brown. The coral is definitely more orangy than the coral that was included in the summer palette. The eyeshadows are all very soft, buttery, smooth and very pigmented. I wasn't all that chuffed with the coral in the summer palette, but all 4 shades in this one are absolutely gorgeous. As ever, they stayed on my eyes without creasing and fading. Very pleased.

I guess some people might not like the fact that there's no highlighter shade in the palette, but it doesn't bother me. I have plenty enough highlighters to last me a lifetime. The quad costs £37 and you get 7.2g of eyeshadows, which is not too bad at all.

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did with these eyeshadows after the jump!

FOTD: Guerlain 66 Boulevard du Montparnasse

This is the look I created with the Guerlain 6 colour palette 66 Boulevard du Montparnasse. I think it's a really lovely palette and you can create soft and more dramatic looks depending on what you want to do.I didn't like the gloss with this look, but since I'd already applied it, I left it, but I think something more pink would have looked nicer.

I have included a picture of the palette below so you can see which shades I used as it's a bit difficult to explain which shade is which.

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Barbara Daly Even Smoother Eye Base
Guerlain Ecrin 6 Couleurs 66 Boulevard du Montparnasse eyeshadow palette shade 4 on middle of lid
Guerlain Ecrin 6 Couleurs 66 Boulevard du Montparnasse eyeshadow palette shade 5 in crease
Guerlain Ecrin 6 Couleurs 66 Boulevard du Montparnasse eyeshadow palette shade 6 in outer corner and lower lashline as liner
Guerlain Ecrin 6 Couleurs 66 Boulevard du Montparnasse eyeshadow palette shade 2 in inner corner and on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Zero on waterline
Guerlain Noir G de Guerlain mascara in Noir
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Ginvera Green Tea Nude Cover BB Cream
Guerlain Radiant Butterfly Meteorites Voyage Powder
Guerlain Meteorites Cruel Gardenia Highlighter

Lips:
Guerlain Kiss Kiss Lipgloss in 869 Rose In Bloom

See more pictures after the jump!

FOTD: Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs 11 Les Roses

This is the look I did with the new Guerlain Les Roses eyeshadow quad from the spring collection. I just love the dark mauve colour, it makes the look a lot darker and smokier and it's so smooth and gorgeous! I like my pink eyeshadows anyway, but I think these colours work particularly well with my dark brown eyes. (Sorry the pictures are so dark, it was a very gloomy day.)

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Barbara Daly Even Smoother Eye Base
Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs 11 Les Roses eyeshadow quad matte medium pink shade on middle of lid
Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs 11 Les Roses eyeshadow quad pearly medium pink shade in outer corner of lid
Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs 11 Les Roses eyeshadow quad deep mauve shade in crease
Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs 11 Les Roses eyeshadow quad light pink shade in inner corner and on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Crash on waterline
Guerlain Noir G de Guerlain mascara in Noir
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Ginvera Green Tea Nude Cover BB Cream
Guerlain Radiant Butterfly Meteorites Voyage Powder
Guerlain Blush 4 Eclats Sculpting Blush in 04 Rosee Du Printemps
Guerlain Meteorites Cruel Gardenia Highlighter

Lips:
Guerlain Kiss Kiss Lipgloss in 870 Cherry Pink

See more pictures after the jump!

Guerlain Spring 2012 Collection - Ecrin 6 Couleurs 66 Boulevard Du Montparnasse Swatches and Review

The third palette that was released with Guerlain's spring collection is this 6 colour palette called 66 Boulevard Du Montparnasse. Quite different from the other permanent 6 colour palettes in that it includes a lot more colour. Still quite neutral and certainly very wearable, it's nice to see that there's more than just the middle shade that  has some colour (and by colour I mean not neutral/brown/grey). The eyeliner is a gorgeous plum colour and you also get a lovely taupe eyeshadow as well as the beautiful pink shade in the middle. 

This palette is possibly my favourite of the existing line of 6 colour palettes, even if we include Rue de Rivoli from last year's spring collection that had that lovely fuchsia colour in the middle. The shadows come in the usual silver heavyweight compact with the gorgeous cut-out lace design and flip-out mirror. You get 7.3g for £52.50, so actually this is a lot more expensive gram per gram than the 4 colour palette, but I guess you're paying extra for the compact itself. Interestingly the price remained the same as last year's, even though the other permanent 6 colour palettes now cost £53.50. I believe this is also going to form part of the permanent line which is really nice as there are just far too many gorgeous products coming out with this collection and it can get very expensive having to buy them all (I should know!).

The shadows are soft and very easy to blend, stay put all day, don't crease and look vibrant for hours and hours. One shade (the one across the bottom) has the least colour payoff, but generally they are all nicely pigmented. I did a lovely look with them which I'll be posting soon. The swatches below were done anti-clockwise from the lightest shade, then the middle shade and last the liner shade on the right. Isn't that pink just beautiful?

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Guerlain Ecrin 6 Colour Eyeshadow Palette Swatches

I'd been thinking about doing this post for a while now, but never got around to do it. After posting about the Guerlain fall 2011 collection, including the new Ecrin 4 colours eyeshadow palettes, I thought it's about time I finally got out and swatched my 6 colour palettes. I didn't include Rue de Rivoli because it was a limited edition palette, but you can read my review on it here.

Currently there are 5 permanent Ecrin 6 colour eyeshadow palettes: 2 Place Vendome, 29 Rue de Sevres, 10 Rue de Francs Bourgeois, 93 Rue de Passy and 68 Champs Elysees. They come in a beautiful silver compact with an intricate lace pattern and little bee, inside of which there's a fold out mirror and a double ended brush as well as the 6 colour eyeshadow palette. They currently cost £52.50 which is a lot, you pay for the packaging as much as the product in my opinion. I only have 2 of these compacts, the rest of my Ecrin 6 colour eyeshadow palettes are testers that I got from eBay for around £20. I think these palettes are all a bit too neutral and dare I say boring to justify the price, although they are high quality, apply really nicely and don't crease for 12+ hours. Do you own any of these eyeshadows? Are you tempted by any?

See more pictures of the eyeshadow compact, my collection and swatches after the jump!