THREE La Teinte des Bijouxxx Collection for Holiday 2014

Today I'm excited to showcase THREE's holiday 2014 collection: La Teinte des Bijouxxx. It's a small collection with two sets of Shimmering Color Veil loose pigment trios. The final gift set in the collection is a three piece brush set.

Picture heavy post!

The pigment sets are housed in a simple, sleek but rather mediocre black satin box, though I'm personally happy with the lack of tacky peripherals you often find with the Japanese holiday coffrets (they try very hard to out tackify each other year on year!). The pigment tubs are very basic see through screw cap containers, each containing 0.9g of product. Do note that the net weight of the permanent lineup is 1.7g, almost double that of a single in the set, and that packaging slightly more elaborate. On net weight alone, I think you get a better deal with the permanent line up as it’s almost double the amount, but not more than double the price. However, there is an exclusive shade in each set, so it really comes down to whether you love the LE shades.

The brush set contains three weasel and horse hair brushes; a Blend In Brush Round (LE travel size), a Color Veil Brush SS (LE travel size), and an exclusive Color Veil Brush XM, as well as the exclusive black makeup pouch. They’re all flat paddle type brushes that work well with these pigments. As much as I wanted to take all three sets home, I passed on the brush set since I plan on getting the Nars holiday brush set and maybe one of the MAC ones.

Here’s a closer look at each shade by set, and some stash comparisons. You can also check out a small clip of these sparkling goodies in my IG here. To save my sanity, I've not compared them to pan based powders or liquids, though in hindsight I should have compared with a few of the Etude House Play 101 pencils (reviewed here).

Shimmering Color Veil Bijoux Box 1 contains:

Ice Blink #29 - a soft feathery snowy white with diamante effect micro glitter.

Pink Topaz Gisele #X02 (LE) - a mauve pink with pink, purple and gold micro glitter. The glitters here are the largest flecks in this set.

333 Dreamers #38 - a "deep purple that almost looks gray" with skyblue, purple, pink and silver micro glitter.

Box 1 = bottom row swatch

Even when swatching on the back of my hand, I had difficulty with Ice Blink. It’s either too ‘feathery’ and clumpy or it’s barely there at all. A flat paddle brush doesn’t help, and I have better luck patting it on with fingers. Under good indoor lighting the glitters are very pretty, very fitting to its name. Nonetheless, this one was my least favourite by far.

Pink Topaz Gisele and 333 Dreamers are exquisite. They apply great with a paddle brush and can be blended without disappearing. They are very complimentary to each other, and this set was what used on the model for the promotional pictures.

Some stash comparisons:

a. Ice Blink

b. Dior Fusion Mono in Lune #001

c. RMK Ingenious Cream & Powder Eyes in Silver Gold #01 (LE)

The Dior is much more metallic and silver, while the RMK has pink tones.

a. Pink Topaz Gisele (LE)

b. Chanel Illusion d'Ombre in New Moon #97 (LE)

c. MUFE Aqua Cream in 17

The Chanel has much more gold and silver hues, the MUFE is close in colour very little sparkle effect.

a. 333 Dreamers

b. Chanel Illusion d'Ombre in Diapason #92

c. RMK Ingenious Cream & Powder Eyes in Purple #03 (LE)

d. Armani ETK Silk in #33

e. Armani ETK Silk in #3

No real close comparisons here, 333 Dreamer is much more grey.

Shimmering Color Veil Bijoux Box 2 contains:

Wild is the Wind #33 - a “grace blue that shines like light reflecting on water” with pink and blue micro glitter.

Black Diamond Iris #X03 (LE) - stormy black grey that leans purple with a rainbow of micro glitters.

Shadowland #35 - a “brown color that is reminiscent of cocoa powder” with gold pink and green micro glitters.  

Box 2 = top row swatch

The colours in Set 2 reminds of me this year's Chanel holiday eye palette and I'm far more impressed with these than Chanel's mediocre performer. I don’t really agree with the official description of Shadowland, it’s more of a muted mustard gold to me and I don’t really see the green in there. All three pigments give me spectacular performance, and Shadowland is deceivingly pigmented, so a tiny bit goes a long way.

Some stash comparisons:

a. Wild is the Wind

b. Armani ETK Silk in #10

c. Armani ETK Silk in #35

Both the ETKs are much more silver.

a. Black Diamond Iris (LE)

b. NYX Roll On Shimmer in Onyx #04

c. Armani ETK Silk in #4

d. Dior Fusion Mono in Cosmos #281

e. Dior Fusion Mono in Aventure #081

Black Diamond Iris leans more purple than the other which are grey/black/blue based.

a. Shadowland

b. NYX Roll On Shimmer in Walnut #16

c. NYX Roll On Shimmer in Almond #11

d. MUFE Aqua Cream in #15

Shadowland probably lies in the middle of the two NYXs in terms of colour, and the MUFA is quite close in colour, but has no glitter effect.

The texture of all of them are super super fine and almost wet to the touch. Indeed the main reason I didn't get the more affordable MAC Heirloom pigment sets was because they came with pigments that was purely glitter, and big pieces at that. Would not be very fun with those piece falling into the eyes. Using a paddle brush I am able to get intense colour with all except one of the pigments (Ice Blink), thus it's possible to use these as an eyeliner.

Lasting power is about ten-ish hours on me, after which it starts dulling and the colour fades a bit. There's very minimal fallout, and certainly if I blended a bit under the lower lashes, it more or less 'hides' any fallout. Have not needed to use a primer or spritz my brushes with fixing spray. One observation made trying to hand swatch for photos, they didn't perform as well on the back of my hands, which is quite dry, so those with drier eye lids will want to use something to help adherence.

A note about the NYX Roll Ons, they’re really amazing for the price and in person, they are pretty good dupes of the Color Veils. However, they do tend to fall out, so some type of fixing spray is a must, and they blend away to nothing very easily, so dabbing is my perferred way to apply them.

Below are my first try’s with each set. Look 3 was my failed attempt to recreate the promotional picture, before remembering to check their website for the tutorial (in Japanese only)
Look 1: using Shimmering Color Veil Bijoux Box 2

Black Diamond Iris unblended

Black Diamond Iris blended towards crease, Wild is the Wind blended in inner third, Shadowland blended in socket line and brow bone area

Look 2: using Shimmering Color Veil Bijoux Box 1

Pink Topaz Gisele as blended liner, 333 Dreamers in outer third, Ice Blink in inner corner and brow bone area

Look 3: using Box 1 and Shadowland

PTG unblended

PTG blended upward towards crease into Shadowland, Ice Blink in inner corners and brow area

Other things used:

Mikimoto Essence Liquid Foundation in OC03 or Bobbi Brown Foundation Stick in 2

Chantecaille Compact Makeup in Shell

MUFE Full Cover concealer in #6 for spots

Chantecaille Le Camouflage Stylo in 2 or Diorskin Star concealer in 001 for under eye

THREE Color Veil for Cheeks in Wind Swept Love #16

THREE Flash Performance Eyeliners in Eye Belong #04 (Look 3) & Eye Rock #05 (Look 1)

Shu Uemura Brow Pencil Hard Formula 9 in Seal Brown 02

YSL Gloss Volupte in 106 in Look

Cle de Peau Shimmering Lip Gloss in #1 from the Holiday 2014 lip gloss trio (really regret giving the other two to family, this stuff is like a glossy serum lip balm on my lips)
Can't remember which mascaras were used

Brushes used with pigments:

MUFE #10S (from the older lineup)

Smashbox #15

Smashbox #20

In all honesty, I find the Shimmering Color Veil pigments to be easier to use than their 4D palettes (haven't tried the eyeshadow duos yet though), simply because the pigments worked spectacularly well with whatever random and clean brush I picked up, while the 4D palettes are a little picky with brushes... or it could just be my crappy skills.

All in all, I love both of these sets very much. If you want a more timeless, perhaps safer option, then Set 2 allows for a sparkly take on a classic grey smokey eye. If you want something warmer and slightly more colourful then the coppery purple tones in Set 1 is well worth a look.

Now that I've had a proper introduction into loose pigments, I'm eager for more! Have you tried any?

xx

Noodles :D

FOTD feat. Canmake Juicy Pure Eyes in 03

Wandered into my local Plaza store (Japanese drugstore chain) looking for small nic nacs to make a teen-friendly gift basket and happened upon the new Canmake Juicy Eyes display. Canmake eyeshadows are far from my favourite among the Japanese DS offerings, but the allure of messing up almost completely new makeupz is too much of a calling to ignore. Was very pleasantly surprised at how buttery soft and smooth these new shadows felt under the finger tips, and how well they glided on to the skin for swatching.

The Juicy Eyes trios contain 2 shimmery shades and one ‘Juicy coat’ shade that packs a high amount of glitter (the middle column of swatches). Each trio offers a different brown theme, and there are currently 4 palettes in the lineup; 01 is a pink toned ‘classic’ brown, 02 is a ‘happy sunny’ orange toned brown, 03 is a green toned ‘antique gold’ brown, and 04 is a nude toned ‘sweet beige’ brown.

I thought these might make a nice little addition to the gift basket, so I decided to pick one up and test out just to be sure it was worthwhile. It was a tough choice to pick one because they are all rather flattering variations of brown, but I ended up getting 03, the greeny antique gold one since that’s the least prevalent tone in my stash.

03 contains a nude beige shade with gold and green shimmer, a glittery gold center shade that lines a lime gold, and a dark olive brown with gold shimmer.

I always use my Smashbox #7 brush to try out a new eyeshadow, not because the #7 is my favourite brush, far from it. It’s because the #7 is my first proper eyeshadow brush, having either used fingers or sponge applicators before it, and I more or less learnt how to do blended eyeshadow looks on this brush, so it’s more of a habit and a good reference of a new eyeshadow’s characteristics.

Other Stuff on Da Face post sunscreen:

Rouge Bunny Rouge Original Skin Primer

Mikimoto Cosmetics Pearl Precious Essence Liquid Foundation in OC03

Makeup Forever Full Cover concealer in 6 for spots

Pupa Milano Cover Cream concealer in 06 for under eye

MUFE HD Cream Blush in Flamingo Pink #215

Dior Diorshow Maximizer Lash Plumping Serum

Chantecaille Hydra Chic Lipstick in Fairy Moss

For the FOTD, I swept the nude shade which applied much more pigmented than I anticipated and leans an orange tan, then I used the darker brown shade as a thick blended liner, and finally added the glittery shade on the center of the mobile lids which adds that luminous green gold glow.

I’m very impressed with this Juicy Eyes trio. All three shades glided smoothly onto the skin. The two shimmer colour shades are well pigmented and blend beautifully. They give a high shimmer, but not at all frosty, so it’s a very flattery glow. The glitter shade also retained decide pigment and is not blaringly sparkly. While I personally would not describe the finish as juicy or wet, I do think as a powder, the result is very close to what you might get from a glittery cream or gel shadow. I'm definitely going to pick up either 01 or 02 (or both) for the gift basket, and fingers crossed I don't lose control and hoard all of them for myself.

Have you tried anything from Canmake before? Or been impressed with any drugstore offerings lately?

xx

Noodles :)

NEW Giorgio Armani Organica Palette

Another quickie FOTDs post featuring Giorgio Armani Organica Palette from their fall 2014 makeup collection ‘Fade to Grey’, which very quietly launched in Taiwan last week. The collection is quite a full one from the brand, with 1 eye palette, 1 blusher, 4 liquid eyeliners, 3 lipsticks, 4 nail polishes, 1 Eyes to Kill Solo (#25 a matte bone shade), and 1 black felt tip eyeliner. I’m pretty sure everything is LE, except for maybe the felt tip liner.

Today I showcase the Organica Palette, which comprises 5g (0.177oz) of two beautifully shimmery metallic eyeshadows in total, one a lavender pewter the other an apricot beige. Both shades have a grey metallic tone to it that makes the overall palette lean cool. When swatched and certainly under indoor lighting, the silver is much more lavender toned than in the FOTD shots. 

Packaging wise, it’s the same as the patent black case as their LE palettes from previous collections (thus a bigger version of the new Eyes to Kill Solos), with a mirror and 2 double tipped sponge applicators hidden in the bottom compartment. Unlike many of their recent LE palettes, the Organica palette does not have an overspray layer of deceptiveness. The embossed lotus pod (I think) detail will slowly erode after some use.

I have to say, the quality and pigmentation of both shades is PHENOMENAL. These are perhaps the most silky smooth, buttery soft shadows I’ve come across in recent memory. I thought I had a good general idea of how pigmented the shadows were from swatching it at the counter, and on both FOTD occasions below I wanted to keep eye makeup minimal, so I used my trusty pigment-diluting Smashbox #7 brush to do a light sweep of colour across the lids. With the beige colour, this worked perfectly fine, and I was certainly very impressed at how intense the colour was given how little product I applied. The same goes for the silver shade, and then some. Just a tiny bit, and I had full on dramatic silver lids. It was so intense, I actually had to micellar and re-apply with even lighter application the first time I used it. I am able to wear this for a whole day without primer, but the beige shade does slowly disappear when my oils do their wrecking.

The two in-a-rush looks created with the Organica palette very much resembles my FOTD using the Cle de Peau 302 quad (more or less applied in the same lazy spirit of someone who hasn’t really woken up.) In person, I’d say the Organica is more dramatic, more metallic and obviously more properly grey toned. I would even describe it as looking more dirty, smudgy (but in a good way) and grungy than the CdP 302, which is cleaner and softer (at least from how I’ve been using both).

I’ve also had a quick play around with the new metallic liners, nail polishes and the lipsticks at the counter, and will follow up with a post of my thoughts and what I plan to (or have) purchase when time allows.

Has anything from GA’s fall lineup captured your interest?

xx

Noodles :)

NEW Cle de Peau Ombre Couleurs Quadri Eyeshadows!

There’s (and will continue to be it looks like) definitely been an eyeshadow new release/reformulation overload this year. So far, I’ve particularly loved Armani’s new singles and Chanel’s Tisse quads. The new YSL palettes are nice, but I personally like the Chanels better. As for singles, the new Nars' are also nice, but price wise, it’s only slightly lower (at least in Taiwan) than the Armanis so, I would much prefer to save my money for the latter which is for me superior in quality and pigmentation. The currently-being-released Dior palette reformulations is a huge 11 palette launch, and I’m terribly overwhelmed and slightly not as excited about, because fatigued.

However, Cle de Peau to me is like dessert. I have multiple separate stomachs for more dessert. I am a cow for it, and I moo with enthusiasm. This curveball totally came out of no where. I received the flyer below in the mail about CdP’s newest launch only yesterday morning, didn’t even have time to really look at it and had assumed it was for their fall 2014 Celestial Radiance collection. Instead, when by happenstance I walked by a CdP counter during lunch break, I was met with a whole lineup of 8 newly reformulated eyeshadow quads, 2 reformulated mascaras and 3 new lipstick colours.

The world stopped ya’ll.

The very second my finger touched the tester, I knew I NEED! It was so buttery soft and silky to the touch. Swatching it, every colour was at least duochrome complex, and wonderfully velvety smooth pigmentation. They are definitely more buttery and shimmer-themed than a lot of the older CdP palettes, which tended to be more matte or sparkles than shimmer, that’s not to say there is a lack of gorgeously sparkly colours in the new lineup.

I was able discern 3 major textures; Radiance that has visible (but still micro fine) glitter, Shimmer, and Matte. By matte, it’s really not actually a powdery matte, there is still a soft, almost hidden shimmer to it, and as far as I could remember all had duochrome qualities. I ended up making a seriously messy swatch of everything including the lipsticks, so I don’t have any swatch pictures. I know I’ll be revisiting the counter again for these, so I’ll attempt a better swatch then.

Not surprisingly, I went into Pokemon mode and chanted in my mind ‘Gotta collect them all!’ Alas, I did the grown-up thing and walked away with merely three (I feel the weight of judgement…).

302 (Stardust) is a green themed quad with one radiance shade, and 3 shimmer shades.

L-R: A shimmery pale apricot nude that leans pink in certain angles, a shimmery olive green with gold tones, a shimmery mauve nude, and a radiance forest green with gold undertones and silver micro glitter (it's complexity didn't show up in this particular pic)

303 (Baby Universe) is a earthy pink nude themed quad with 2 mattes, and 2 shimmers.

L-R: A matte tan with a subtle purple undertone, a shimmery pink nude, a matte purple mauve with subtle gold tones, and a shimmery deep copper that leans purple. The beauty of this quad was quite hard to capture in the swatch pictures, but I can tell it will be one I reach for often.

308 (Cosmic Aura) is a purple themed quad with 3 shimmers and 1 matte shade.

L-R: A brighter purple with blue shimmer, a silvery lilac shimmer with pink iridescence, a more plummy purple shimmer with rose gold tones, and a navy matte with grey tones.

Even though the new quads can fit into their old palette cases, there is a new one that came out in the launch. I like to do without packaging as much as possible so I have only picked up the refills.

Some quickie first try looks with two of my three palettes. I don’t really wear strong eye looks for work, so I’ve basically used my Smashbox #7 (that has a tendency to dilute pigmentation) brush to lightly apply and blend. I’ll follow up with a more detail comparison after I’ve recovered from my multiple orgasms at the counter.

Using 303

Using 308 (camera couldn't capture fully the pink iridescence)

For now, all I can say is…LOVE!

What recent eyeshadow releases have been breaking your resolve?

xx

Noodles :)