Guerlain Spring 2012 Collection - Meteorites Cruel Gardenia Highlighter Swatches and Review

The star item of Guerlain's upcoming Spring 2012 Collection has to be the new Meteorites Cruel Gardenia Illuminating Iridescent Powder. It is so beautiful to look at and it is absolutely gorgeous on as well. Unfortunately mine arrived slightly dented, but I'm actually grateful for this, because I often don't use pretty powders like this because I don't want to ruin the design, however this is already messed up, so I dived right in. And I'm really happy I did, because I discovered a gorgeous highlighter. I still might buy a second one just for the design though.

The powder comes in the usual black outside packaging, and the compact has the same flower pattern as all the Meteorites. The compact is actually the same as the Poudre de Perles Illuminating Perfecting Pressed Powder's (which you can see at the bottom of this post). It's basically a plastic cylinder shape with screw off top. It is a bit bulky and you don't get a mirror in it either, so it's definitely not the most luxurious or best Guerlain designs, but what counts is what's inside.

And what is inside is a gorgeous flower shaped pearly pink highlighter. The powder is domed and it's beautifully crafted, a real masterpiece. It looks quite frosty, but it is certainly not shimmery and once applied it gives a lovely sheen. It gives enough colour to be used as a subtle blush on lighter skintones, otherwise it makes a lovely pink highlighter. In the pictures below I'm wearing it on top of Mac Azalea Blossom Blush Ombre, but today I've applied it as a blush and it shows up pretty well (I'm a light medium in Mac MSF Natural, I'm guessing that's an NC/W 20-ish). There is no overspray on the powder, so what you see is what you get. It actually feels a bit like a cream highlighter, although it's definitely a powder, but not powdery at all, if you know what I mean. Unlike regular Meteorites it has no scent as far as I'm aware.

I know a few people have noticed that the design looks suspiciously similar to the new Laura Mercier Rose Rendezvous face illuminator, but I have swatched them both and they are actually very different. The Laura Mercier one is darker and more bronze, whereas the Guerlain one is lighter and definitely pink, not bronze. You can see comparison pictures at the bottom of the post.

You get 9 g of powder and I suspect the price will be in the region of £33-35, but I don't know yet as I bought mine from eBay. EDIT: It will retail for £41 - ouch! I believe the collection will be available in January, but again, not sure exactly when.

See lots of pictures and swatches after the jump!

Guerlain Spring 2012 Collection Sneak Preview!

I have three items from the upcoming Guerlain Spring 2012 Collection (for details see here) to show you, I will try to put all the reviews up tomorrow, but for now here are some pictures to drool over. Sadly my pretty Cruel Gardenia powder arrived damaged (no thanks to a not very nice eBay seller), but it's still pretty and I love it very much! More details tomorrow!

EDIT: You can find the detailed reviews by clicking on the links below:
Guerlain Meteorites Cruel Gardenia
Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs 12 Les Aqua
Guerlain Rouge G 72 Rose Innocent

See more detailed pictures after the jump!

Givenchy Phenomen'eyes Paillettes Glitter Topcoat in Plum Sparkles

I wore this mascara top coat in my previous post, so I thought I'd show you in a bit more details. It's part of Givenchy's holiday offerings and comes in 3 shades: Plum Sparkles, Gold Sparkles and Black Sparkles.

Givenchy Phenomen'eyes Mascaras are one of my favourite ones, so I was hoping this topcoat would have the same qualities, but sadly, no. I tried wearing it on its own, but the formula is too runny/thin for that and it hardly made any differenc to my lashes. On top of another mascara it adds some very hardly noticeable sparkles, but no volume or length. The sparkles were just not obvious enough to justify paying £20 for a topcoat, so I'm quite disappointed with this product. I haven't tried the gold shade, maybe that's a bit more blingy, but this plum shade is certainly very subtle.

Otherwise, it has the same brilliant brush as the regular Phenomen'eyes mascaras and you get 7 g which is a good size for £20. I think I will just stick to my regular Phenomen'eyes mascaras, they have never disappointed me.

See more pictures after the jump!

FOTD: Stila Naturaleyes Eyeshadow Palette Neutral Look

Following on from my review of Stila Naturaleyes Eyeshadow Palette here's the look I did with some of the shadows. I used Kitten, Bare and Sunset to create a neutral look which was very well complimented by Damsel Smudge Stick. Let me know what you think!

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Stila Naturaleyes Eyeshadow Palette:

• Kitten all over lid 
• Bare in inner corner and on browbone to highlight
• Sunset in outer corner and crease

Stila Smudge Stick in Damsel on lower lashline
L'Oreal Telescopic Explosion Mascara in Black
Givenchy Phenomen'eyes Mascara / Top Coat in Plum Sparkles
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Lancome Teint Miracle Foundation in 02 Lys Rose
Mac Truth & Light Magically Cool Liquid Powder
Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Peony as blush

Lips:
Guerlain Rouge Automatique in 170 Nuit D'Amour

See more pictures after the jump!

Stila In The Light Naturaleyes Eyeshadow Palette Swatches and Review

It seems every brand is coming out of their version of Urban Decay's Naked Palette and today I have Stila's Naturaleyes (why one word?) palette to show you. I bought this online a couple of months ago for £22.50, but literally days later I noticed that it had gone up to £25. I'm glad I managed to snatch it up for less. :)

You get 10 eyeshadows, 4 matte and 6 shimmery ones. The colour selection is really good, you get a couple of highlighter shades, and as well as lots of neutrals, you also get grey and black, so you can create a nice smoky eye as well. All of them swatched nicely, and I'm sporting a look today I did with 3 of the matte eyeshadows and they applied and blended easily and their colour payoff is very good too. You also get a smudgestick included which I'm also wearing and it has stayed put on my waterline for hours now (6 hours and counting). It's a plumy colour, so less harsh than black, but still dark enough. You also have a small booklet with ideas for looks included which is a nice idea.

My only complaint about this palette is that you don't get a mirror in the lid, instead you have some quote from someone I don't know that I quite frankly could do without. I feel that at this price and considering that this palette is supposed to be a portable, contain all you need for your neutral looks, it really really should have a mirror.

Other than that I am really happy with it and I think it's a nice alternative to Urban Decay's Naked Palette. It's also quite a bit smaller, so should be easier to carry with you, if only it had a mirror too... The palette cost £25 and you get 14 g eyeshadows and 0.28 g eyeliner.

See lots more pictures including swatches after the jump!

NOTD: Models Own Beetlejuice Golden Green

This is the second shades I have tried out from the Models Own Beetlejuice collection. (You can read my review on Aqua Violet here.) This is the only shade as well as Pinky Brown that's sold out already, I think a lot of people might have thought it was a dupe for Chanel Peridot that also sold out very quickly. I thought it was too, but it's not. Firstly it's hardly even duochrome, on me it's mainly light golden green, sometimes a bit darker from certain angles, but I don't really see the duochromeness you see in the bottle (and even that isn't that great).

With flash

Peridot is more gold with definite green and even some blue duo(multi)chrome. Anyway, I didn't buy Golden Green because I wanted a Peridot dupe, I bought it because it looked amazing in the promo pictures. It's nice, but not that special. This also chipped on me pretty quickly, similar to Aqua Violet, but I'm used to that. All in all, a nice polish, but don't expect it to be that amazing duochrome you've seen in the promo pictures.

What do you think of the Models Own Beetlejuice polishes? Did you buy any?

See more pictures after the jump!

Want It! Guerlain Spring 2012 Collection - Les Roses Et Le Noir

I know, I know, it's not even winter yet and I'm already talking about spring collections, but of course as we all know, cosmetic companies bring out their collections very early into the previous season. Guerlain's spring collection is due to be released mid-January and the official photos have already appeared on the internet.

My first impression of the collection: love it and want everything! You think I'm joking? Come January you will see my haul review post, and find that I am serious. It's all so pretty and very springlike. The promo picture, as usual, features the gorgeous Natalia Vodianova. The star item of the collection is the flower shaped highlighter / iridescent illuminating powder, Meteorites Cruel Gardenia. It is just absolutely stunning.

Guerlain is also releasing a new mascara, Noir G de Guerlain that comes with the same compact as the Rouge G de Guerlain lipsticks and is refillable. It looks wonderful and I will definitely give it a go, especially as one of my most favourite mascaras is from Guerlain (Le 2 Mascaras).

Other products in the collection include 2 new 4 colour eyeshadow palettes, Les Aquas and Les Roses, and a new 6 colour eyeshadow palette, Tailored Harmonies, 4 new shades of Rouge G lipsticks, 75 Rose Barbare, 74 Rose Piquant, 73 Rose Ensoleillé, 72 Rose Innocent, and 4 new KissKiss lipglosses.

They are all so pretty and I can't wait to get my hands on them. January cannot come soon enough (although I am rather looking forward to Christmas in the meantime, so it's all good). Are you interested in anything from thsi collection? Let me know in the comments!

See lots of product pictures after the jump!