Laura Mercier Folklore Collection Illuminating Eye Colour in Sun Glow, Fire Glow and Earth Glow

I already told you about this collection and now I can show you the eyeshadows I got which is basically all 3 of them! They are called Illuminating Eye Colours and they are pretty much exactly the same thing as these eyeshadows that came out last winter. Probably best if you read my previous review by clicking on the link because they are very very similar to last year's release.

Colourwise these new shades are warmer, more bronzy, summery shades. I've compared them to last years' colours and found that Fire Glow was more coppery/orangey than Gilded Rosegold, Sun Glow is more orange than Gilded Moonlight and Earth Glow is a much warmer brown shade than Gilded Bronze. The new shades also seem less metallic than the previous ones, but they still have plenty of sheen to them. No glitter and no fallout, and the formula is just as lovely, smooth and long lasting as last year's ones.

I would love it if Laura Mercier released these eyeshadows in more colours (I'm thinking of blues, greens, purples, pinks) as so far they've only done more earthy, natural colours which are nice, but I also love bright colours! These new 3 shades are perfect for the summer though, I've paired them up with Urban Decay 24/7 eyeshadow pencil in Clash which is a crazy bright turquoise shade and really makes the look pop.

These eyeshadows cost £18.50 which is actually £1.50 less than last year's ones and you still get 2.5 g for your money. I bought mine from House of Fraser, but Space NK also stocks them and on their website last year's Gilded Moonlight is still available!

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

Want It! Laura Mercier Folklore Collection for Summer 2013

I like the look of the upcoming Laura Mercier summer collection, especially the Illuminating Eye Colours. I have 4 of the previous ones (as in all 4), if you want to read about them, click here. The new colours seem quite similar, but may well be different enough to buy. The texture of these eyeshadows is really lovely, similar to the Mac Extra Dimension shades, but even better.

I also like the look of the lip crayons and the baked blush bronze.

Here are the collection details:

Illuminating Eye Colour

Eye colour with a multi-dimensional, luminous pearl finish with a soft, bouncy texture for excellent colour pay-off and a smooth, even application.

• Fire Glow – copper shimmer
• Sun Glow – gold with shimmer
• Earth Glow – deep brown

Lip Crayon

A smooth lip colour that provides pure, long-wearing colour to lips in three on-trend shades for summer. With a convenient purse-friendly package, Lip Crayon never needs sharpening, making it perfect for travel and touch-ups on the go.

• Folklore – fuchsia
• Maya Sun – orange pink
• Burnt Clay – deep brown

Baked Blush Bronze

Laura Mercier Baked Blush Bronze is a baked powder with five complimentary shades that together provide the perfect, natural colour for cheeks and face. Each tile is hand-mixed with a unique design.

Creme Eye Liner 

An ultra-smooth, water-proof creamy eye liner that applies with the ease and smooth silky finish of a gel and the precision of a liquid liner. Smudge and transfer-resistant, this long-wearing formula goes on “foolproof” with the Laura Mercier Angled Eye Liner Brush.

• Canard – teal
• Cobalt – vivid midtone blue

Faux Lash Mascara

• Sierra Brown – chocolate brown
• Black – black

Long Lash Mascara

• Bleu – true cobalt

Angled Eye Liner Brush

Specifically designed by Laura Mericer to work with the Crème Eye Liner, the Angled Eye Liner Brush uses high quality synthetic fibers in a narrow, exact point with a thin profile that creates the most precise looks.

Body Bronzing Makeup

Available for a limited time, Laura Mercier Body Bronzing Makeup instantly reveals healthy, radiant, bronzed skin without long-term commitment.

See more pictures after the jump!

Laura Mercier Illuminating Eye Colour Review and Swatches

As part of their Art Deco Muse collection Laura Mercier came out with 4 new, limited edition eyeshadows for the holiday. The collection was inspired by the decorative architecture, style and mood of the Art Deco perios in Paris in the mid-1920’s.

These eyeshadows have "a multi-dimensional, luminous pearl finish with a soft, bouncy texture for excellent colour pay-off and a smooth, even application" according to the official description. I'm not sure about the soft and bouncy bit, but these eyeshadows are certainly very smooth, buttery, and indeed give a gorgeous luminous finish. They remind me of the Mac Extra Dimension eyeshadows, only better. Extremely smooth, pigmented, they apply and blend really well and look gorgeous on, they also last for hours on end without creasing and fading. They have a high sheen, but they're not glittery and there was no fallout from them either. While they're not cream shadows, they certainly feel creamy. They really are lovely, and will most probably be my choice for a Christmas party make up.

They come in 4 shades: Gilded Rosegold, Gilded Platinum, Gilded Bronze and Gilded Moonlight. Gilded Rosegold is a warm, coppery pink shade, Gilded Platinum is a shiny white gold, Gilded Bronze is a taupey bronze colour and Gilded Moonlight is a yellow gold shade. I've worn them all and they all have the same wonderful texture and colour pay off. I have to say I am now very happy I passed on the Dior holiday quints because these are possibly the nicest gold/bronze eyeshadows I bought this year - probably similar to the Guerlain Calligraphy palette if not nicer.

The eyeshadows cost £20 each and you get 2.5 g which isn't too bad. For the quality, I think these are well worth their price, honestly, they are really really fantastic.

See more pictures including swatches and looks I've created with them after the jump!

Laura Mercier Petite Baked Eye Colour Trio in Golden Metallics Review and Swatches

This holiday Laura Mercier has released some very pretty palettes and I picked up this Petite Baked Eye Colour Trio. Although I'd already owned one of the shades, I thought it was still worth picking up.

The palette contains 3 baked eyeshadows in the following colours: Gold Leaf, Black Karat and Emerald. Out of the 3 only Black Karat is permanent. Because they're baked, they can be used both wet and dry, and usually look more intense when used wet. I tried Gold Leaf and Black Karat dry on the lid and then Emerald wet as eyeliner and they looked very pretty. I didn't take any pictures of the look, sorry.

Even when used dry they're nicely pigmented and there isn't much fallout from them, what little there was occured during application and not afterwards. I used them over primer (Too Faced Shadow Insurance) and they stayed creaseless all day. There's a lovely shimmer to them, but no chunky glitter, so if you like some shimmer, these could be a good choice for you. I can see this as an option for a Christmas party make up look.

You get 3 x 0.5 g of product which isn't a lot, but it's worth keeping in mind that baked eyeshadows are often lighter than non-baked ones. The palette is slightly worse value at £20 than buying the eyeshadows individually (although technically you can't anyway), because the singles cost £18.50 and you get 1.8 g for that. If you don't think you want to fork out £20 for this, then wait until the sales because I have seen other Laura Mercier palettes go on sale after Christmas, clearly they are not as limited edition as Mac products are. If you like it though, best get it now, just in case.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Laura Mercier Rubellite Baked Eye Colour Review and Swatches

As well as the Pink Tourmaline Shimmer Bloc I also picked up Rubellite baked eyeshadow from Laura Mercier. I believe this was/is part of the Summer Jewels collection. This was more easily available than the Shimmer bloc, but I actually ordered it unseen from Harrods, as I'd already owned a few of these baked eyeshadows (check them out here), so I knew I was getting something good.

Rubellite is a gorgeous bright pink shade without shimmer, although it has a nice sheen to it. It's a baked formula, so it can be used wet and dry as well. I used it dry and it gave a good colour payoff. It was very smooth and buttery, and there wasn't much fall out from it either, the little that there was only happened during application. It remained bright and didn't crease on me all day (applied over primer).

Laura Mercier Baked Eye Colours are £18.50 each and you get 1.8 g for your money. The come in a mirrorless compact with a clear lid, so you see which shade you have straight away. I love the formula and the colour and I will definitely buy this in another shade if Ms Mercier releases more of them.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Laura Mercier Pink Tourmaline Mosaic Shimmer Bloc Review and Swatches

I really like highlighters, the prettier the better (heck, I even named my blog after one!) and Laura Mercier's Shimmer Blocs are one of my favourites. I think the Orchid Mosaid Shimmer Bloc was one of my first high end make up purchases. So of course I was very happy to see that a new shade was released earlier this summer (in fact there were two, but I only got this one as the other one - Starlet - seemed a bit blah to me).

The shade I did get is Pink Tourmaline Mosaic and it consists of 4 shades: icy white, bright warm pink, light pinky beige and soft rosy pink. Mixed together the shades create a soft pink glow. It is quite frosty, but applied lightly it does give a very nice sheen to the skin. Of course the shades can also be used separately as eyeshadows, or you can swirl them together as highlighter while omitting one or two colours. The segments are not really big enough to be able to picked up individually with a blush brush, but a small one might work.

I believe this was part of the Cinema Noir collection just like Starlet Shimmer Bloc, but for some reason this seemed not to be available everywhere. I bought mine from Harrods actually, maybe they had it as an exclusive. It cost £31 and you get 6 g which is rather small actually, Bobbi Brown Shimmer Bricks are 10.3 g. That said there's only so much highlighter you can get through in a lifetime.

I'm sorry I never got around to taking pictures of me wearing the shimmer bloc, but I have swatches. Check them out after the jump!

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!

Yves Saint Laurent Pure Chromatics Eyeshadow Palette Review

Ever since Yves Saint Laurent released their new Pure Chromatics eyeshadow palettes I'd been wanting to try them out, but in all fairness, I couldn't justify paying £37 for one. But luckily I found this one on eBay for £25, so I thought I'd give it a go. Out of the 6 palettes available no. 6 (this one) seemed the most interesting to me. Some of the other palettes seem more complete with a highlighter shade included, but this one has 4 shades that don't all go together that easily.

The four shades are olive green, warm golden yellow, light pink and dark purple. These eyeshadows seem very similar to Bobbi Brown Sparkle eyeshadows and Laura Mercier Sequin eyeshadows, they look like cream shadows, but they are actually powder. You can apply these both dry and wet, apparently you get more intensity wet (I have not tried them wet yet). There are two double ended applicators included in the compact, one for applying with dry, one for wet (which are more plastic than foam looking). I usually just use brushes for application, but you always have the option.

Below you will see some swatches (dry) and a look I created using the olive, yellow and pink eyeshadows. I couldn't really fit the purple shade in there. Next time I'll try pink, purple and yellow I think. The eyeshadows didn't crease all day, the colours did fade and migrated a bit by about 12 hours' wear, but other than that, I was very happy with how they performed. I'm still not sure these palettes are worth £37, but for one third less I'm happy I've got this one. Have you got any of these? Are you tempted to get one?

See more pictures, swatches and the look I created with this palette after the jump!

Laura Mercier Portofino Summer 2011 eyeshadow palette and cream highlighter review

I've recently purchased these two products from Laura Mercier's summer collection named Portofino. I'm a big fan of this brand and have quite a few eyeshadows, palettes, lip products and face products (including her Shimmer Blocs which are a variation on Bobbi Brown's Shimmer Bricks). I bought Golden Pink Sheer Creme Glow and Riviera eyeshadow palette.

Golden Pink Sheer Creme Glow is a cream face highlighter in a light warm pink colour with slight golden shimmer. It's really pretty, so I just couldn't not pick up, even though I don't use cream highlighters much. It's housed in the same compact as the eyeshadow palette, basically the brown signature palette almost all Laura Geller products come in. You get 8 grams for £29.00, so it's likely to last a very long time.

Riviera is a 4 colour eyeshadow palette consisting of dark blue, sand, light blue and white colours which appears to have been inspired by the seaside. There is a wavy pattern on the palette like the one the sand has after the waves have washed onto the beach. Very pretty. The shades are a bit on the sheer side, I had to swatch both twice to show up properly, but I have to add that I have not tried them on my eyes, so I don't know what result you get with a brush. It's definitely a nice summery colour combination and easy to wear. You get 8 grams for £31.00 which is actually pretty big seeing that a Dior quint is only 6 grams and I would consider that already pretty good. (Mac single eyeshadows are 1.5 g for reference.)

As I said, I have not worn these products, so I can't really tell you how long-wearing they are, but I really wanted to show them to you and there are some swatches for you to see after the jump. Do you like Laura Mercier products? Are you tempted by any of these?

Laura Mercier Baked Eyeshadow Review and Comparison Swatches

I promised this review a while ago, and finally here it is.Laura Mercier has 6 new baked eyeshadows out and I've got 3 of them to show you. The other colours I didn't get were Violet Sky, a beautiful dark purple without much shimmer, Terracotta, a shimmery copper and Ballet Pink, a gorgeous pinky highlighter, but at £18.50 each I just couldn't justify buying them all. What I did buy though are Black Karat, a blackened gold with gold shimmers, Lagoon, a rich turquoise and Petal Pink, a gorgeous baby pink with white shimmer. I'm told they are permanent additions to the line.

Black Karat, Lagoon, Petal Pink

These eyeshadows are quite generous size at 1.8 g each, although they are smaller than Mac mineralize eyeshadows (2.2 g) and as a result, gram per gram they are more expensive as well. However, I find Laura Mercier eyeshadows consistently very good quality, so I can justify the higher price. I would like to point out that I have not worn these eyeshadows on my eyes, but they all swatched beautifully, they are nice and smooth and very pigmented even dry. I also haven't tried them wet yet. I find with most Laura Mercier eyeshadows that they stay on well all day and don't crease, but as I said I have not worn these yet, so can't really tell you how they hold up. If you have these and you have tried them, please let me know what you think!

See many more product pictures, swatches and a couple of dupes after the jump!

Laura Mercier Silk Road Spring Collection Eye and Cheek Palette

When I saw the photos of Laura Mercier's spring collection, I knew I wanted to get this palette, as I love purples very much (I'm wearing purple eyeshadows right now). I was lucky enough to buy it one day before it's official release because I asked at the counter since it wasn't out yet, but they'd already had it in the drawers, so they let me take one. It launched on Saturday 15th January (in the UK).

This is a limited edition palette featuring 4 eyeshadows and 2 powder blushes. I'm not too sure if all the shades are new and/or limited edition, but I definitely didn't own any of them. Palace Pink blush is a light pink shimmery blush, probably works better as a highlighter. Persian Rose is a lovely pinky coral blush with good pigmentation. The four eyeshadows are all pretty shimmery and frosty, except for Regal Violet which has beautiful pink specs of glitter in it in the pan, but it doesn't seem to transfer onto the skin, it just comes out as very dark and a bit dull purple. Maybe using it wet would help. The other shades are lovely, especially Rare Taupe and Lavender Silk, but Golden Sands is a bit sheer (would make a good highlighter though). The palette costs £37 and it's a good deal considering that one eyeshadow costs £18 (although the Laura Mercier single eyeshadows are 2.6g whereas the eyeshadows in this palette are 1.4g each, but you also get two 3.4g blushes).

See more photos and swatches after the jump!

Laura Mercier Sequin Eyeshadows review

Laura Mercier's Sequins Collection includes 9 eyeshadows in the following shades:

• Tiger’s Eye – warm chocolate brown with flakes
• Twinkling Star – soft neutral beige with flecks
• Shimmerplum – cool lilac grey with flecks
• Pink Crystal – soft pale pink with flecks
• Black Ice -  cold gray
• Lapis – vibrant blue indigo with flecks
• Copper – warm copper brown
• Jade – light smoky green
• Brilliant Rose – rose copper with flecks

The collection is now out and it looks so tempting that I ended up buying 6 of the 9 eyeshadows! As you know, I love sparkly eyeshadows and I just couldn't resist picking more up. I reviewed the 3 Sequin eyeshadows that came out with the autumn collection here together with Lapis that I already had (courtesy of eBay) but which is actually part of this collection.

See which shades I've picked up and read my review after the jump!

Bobbi Brown Sparkle Eyeshadows vs. Laura Mercier Sequin Eyeshadows

I ordered a couple of Bobbi Brown's Sparkle Eyeshadows and I just received my order this morning, so thought I'd review it straight away. And while I was taking photos I realised that these eyeshadows are actually quite similar to Laura Mercier's Sequin Eyeshadows (from her recent Mystique collection), so I thought I'd include those in this review as well. I bought Bobbi Brown's Sparkle Eyeshadows in Denim (from the Denim & Rose collection) and Black Velvet (from the new Black Velvet collection). Denim is a shimmering blue, Black Velvet is a glittering deepest plum - according to Bobbi Brown. Denim is pretty, but to me Black Velvet is amazing, it has these multicolour sparkles that are just gorgeous! Unfortunately the photos don't do it justice, my camera couldn't really pick up the sparkles in it. I did include a slightly blurred swatch photo that shows the sparkles a bit better.

Bobbi Brown Sparkle Eyeshadows Denim and Black Velvet

Denim

Black Velvet

Denim, Black Velvet

Denim, Black Velvet (click on image to see those sparkles properly!)

Read my review on Laura Mercier's Sequin Eyeshadows and see pictures after the jump!

Felines inspired look

Temptalia is currently running a readers challenge for creating felines inspired looks (inspired by the new Mac collection, Fabulous Felines) and I have submitted an entry, which I would like to show off here as well. This is a simple look, mostly recreating the eyes of cats, or trying to anyway, definitely not something elaborate with leopard spots or tiger stripes. I actually wore this look all day yesterday. :) This look was also a good way of testing out my new Mac Superslick Liquid Eyeliners (I got 3) and new Laura Mercier Sequin Eyeshadows (from the Mystique Collection). I really like both of them, so that's great! :) Here's the look I did: See more photos and find out which products I used to create this look.