Shu Uemura Blush Swatches -- part 2 (peaches/oranges)

So apparently sunny days and nice SAs are like buses...

Today I swatched the 'Peach' and 'Orange' blushes from the Shu site along with P 531 which they inexplicably shoved into the 'Pink' category.... as you will see, it aint no pink.

natural light (more colour-accurate)

direct sun, angled to show which shades have more shimmer

Only browns, ambers and highlighters to go :)

Shu Uemura blush swatches -- part 1 (pinks)

Today was the first day since arriving in Hong Kong that I a. got some weak sun and b. found an amenable SA. So to celebrate, here are some belated Shu Colour Atelier blush swatches!

I swatched the 'red', 'wine' and top row of the 'pink' categories on the Japanese Shu site, slightly out of order as the lovely SA had to go dig some out of storage. HK$135 for a refill.

First impressions: these seem to be softer and more pigmented than the old Shu blushes, but I'm not sure if it's due to the testers being newish and some of my old blushes pushing double digits. If you have blushes from both generations, please chime in!

Pigment and finish varies between shades (225 and 325-327 are softer and more muted -- but I believe this is intentional). All swatches are 1 swipe onto bare arm. Click to enlarge as always.

natural light

better-lit shot of the muted shades on the left, natural light

KATE Wide Edge Eyes swatches

Kanebo KATE makes some of my favourite drugstore eye products. Their gel and liquid liners have been my staples for years, and their eyebrow products regularly win awards in Japan too.

Most Asian drugstore eyeshadows are on the sheer, glittery and girly side, so KATE was always a breath of fresh air, with its buttery, pigmented sheen and bolder colour options. The sleek black packaging and adverts with girls sporting louise-brooks bobs and clean lines are also more to my taste than acres of ruffles, ringlets and baby pink duck-pouts...

Lately, KATE releases have been more hit and miss. The Reflect Mirror trios (Spring 2011) and Crystallise Quartz quads (Autumn 2010) were all rather sheer and gritty but they pulled out all the stops with the fabulous Dual Blend eyes (Spring 2010).

My favourite KATE palettes were the discontinued Deep Trap Eyes quints so I was excited to see the release this autumn of a new series of five-pan eyeshadows: Wide Edge Eyes (HK$115 for 2.7g).

Swatches are all one-swipe onto bare arm, artificial light, no flash, in this order:
E (demi-matte powder primer/base)
A, B (both shimmers)
C and D (both metallics).

PU-1 (my favourite! The most unusual combo of shades in this line-up and a less complex/pigmented but cheaper version of the Lunasol 3D 03 quad I picked up last week)

PK-1

BU-1

BR-1

GR-1 (interesting murky greens -- I'm tempted by this one)

As you can hopefully see, these are all nicely pigmented. The textures are not up to the best KATE standards, but still pretty good (especially D, C and E). Yuki's Lazy Channel has swatches on a medium skintone and product pics here.

Cake break

It is a truth universally acknowledged that fashion bloggers all adore -- simply ADORE -- macarons. My extremely scientific survey of... uh... my blogroll, shows that beauty bloggers are fond of a vaster range of cakely delights. And who am I to ignore a jumpable bandwagon when I could merrily ride it down the sprinkle-strewn path?

Pistachio walnut muffin

 

Chocolate salty balls I mean, chocolate lava mochi donuts

 

Cinnabon-brioche-cheesecake hybrid THING OF WONDER

Matcha, pistachio and sour cherry donut-shaped muffin (ikr?)

Chez Shibata La Venus -- dark chocolate mousse, boozy cherries, crispy chocolate ballz, sponge, cream.... and for a' that, it was not true love :(

Chez Shibata Almond Choux Puff

Also somewhat disappointing -- pastry slightly chewy, too much cream drowning the custard... I prefer my lowbrow Beard Papa's tbh (now you know why I'm not a food blogger)

Hmm, not sure how this post turned into a Chez Shibata diss. They make the single bestest thing I've eaten here so far: Salted Japanese-style cheesecake with a tiny bit of berry coulis swirled through. No pictures because I can't seem to remember the existence of things such as cameras when confronted with such glory.

Shu haul swatches and a purple autumn FOTD

I have been remiss! Here are the belated swatches from my Shu haul last week.

From left to right:
Eyeliner Matte White
M White 907
G White Rainbow
P Dark Green 595
ME Medium Plum 761

No in-depth reviews; if you've tried older Shu shadows, you'll know they rock. These new Colour Atelier ones have vastly improved the P(earl) finish, maintained the quality of the M(attes -- which are still a little hit and miss, but better than 95% of other matte eyeshadows out there), tweaked the ME(tallic) texture to somewhere between the awesomeness of gen 2 and the platonic buttery perfection of generation 1 (from which the fabled ME Silver 945 hails). And added a Glitter finish that comes in fabulously complex shades and feels more like a cream than a powder, with NO fallout. :D

artificial light

with flash and angled to show shimmer

But Driveller, I hear you cry, two of those shades look TOTALLY DIFFERENT! Why yes, kiddiewinks, they do. That's because the G Rainbow is a HOLO and my camera freaked out. Trust me, there is much multi-coloured fabulosity going on there. And ME761 is a duochrome that shifts from a neutral purple-tinged brown to a warm reddish plum depending on the angle... all together now: *swoon*

Now onto the FOTD: the result of wanting to wear all my new things at once combined with a desire to see how far I could take the monochrome thing...

Eyes: 

Paul&Joe Eye Gloss in Depth (LE Summer 2011): purple to line

Shu ME 761 smudged over liner, blended upwards onto lid

Lunasol 3D Eyes 03: bronze in crease, lilac under lower lashline

Majolica Majorca LEFP mascara

artificial light

with flash

Lips: Lavshuca Dramatic Memory Rouge in RS-1 (see my swatches here)

Rest of products: 

Shu Stage Performer

Kevyn Aucoin SSE SX-01

Shu M 33 E blush

KATE eyebrow gel BK-3

with flash

Cle de Peau Spring 2011 quad swatches

These two eyeshadow quads, 206 and 207, are both permanent additions to the Cle de Peau line-up, released in Spring 2011 to join the previous five released in Autumn 2010. The 20x line replaces the previous series of quads which were numbered 1-21, some of which are still available in certain countries.

Having been a huge fan of the buttery soft texture and refined shimmer of the old style CdP quads, I originally bought the newer quads in 201 and 202 'blind' (no counters in the UK), and immediately regretted it. While the colour combos were beautiful, I found them extremely sheer and overly glittery -- I'm a fan of shimmery eyeshadows in general but not when the glitter chunks are large and rain down onto my cheeks throughout the day.

Unfortunately, both 206 and 207 fit perfectly into the new series, with beautiful complex colours and the same mediocre textures.


Swatches are all TWO layers onto a bare arm -- I almost never do more than one layer, but these really needed them to show up at all on my camera.

206

207

both with flash

Guerlain Asian foundation swatches -- palest shades

As with most other Western brands, Guerlain have a range exclusive to Asia: the Parure Pearly White range of powder and liquid foundations. In addition, all of their foundations are available in the shade 01 Beige Pale whereas in N. America and Europe, the ranges all start from 02 Beige Clair.

The bad news is, the truly pale still won't be able to find a match here. The palest Guerlain 01 shade is still around a MAC NC15, so only wearable if you can find a white mixer that plays well with their delicious formulations...

Swatches from left to right (starred ones are Asia-exclusive):
*Lingerie de Peau compact cream 01
Lingerie de Peau compact cream 02
*Parure Pearly White liquid 01
*Lingerie de Peau liquid 01
Lingerie de Peau liquid 02
*Parure Aqua liquid 01
Parure Aqua liquid 02
*Parure Gold 01
Parure Gold 02

natural light

Shu Uemura FOTD

Hello lovelies! Most of you will know that green eyeshadows make me go weak at the knees. So from my recent Shu haul, the P Dark Green 595 shadow was first up. Words cannot express how much I love this shade! The texture is buttery and blendable as with all Shu, but most importantly, the shimmer shows up effortlessly and it's one of those rare beasts that look more complex on the eye than in the pan :D

I was not a huge fan of the old Shu P(earl) shades (always more an MEtallic or Matte girl), but this has convinced me I need to try more of these beauties.

Shu ME Light Pink 126 on inner 2/3 of upper lid and lower lashline
P Dark Green 595 in outer v, used to line upper lashline and outer 1/3 of lower lashline
M White 907 to highlight browbone
Becca Doeskin in crease
GOSH white kohl pencil on waterline (not ideal, but I can't find a good flesh-coloured one here)
Majolica Majorca LEFP mascara

with flash

natural light

natural light

Yeah, it probably needs some black liner, but sometimes I like not-too-done, slightly hazy looks....


In context:

natural light

Other products used:
Shu Stage Performer Instant Glow
Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer EX-01
KATE brow gel BR-3
Lipstick Queen Oxymoron Matte Gloss in Free Ride on lips and cheeks

Lavshuca Dramatic Memory Liquid Rouge swatches

These are Lavshuca's take on liquid lipsticks -- somewhere between a gloss and a lipstick in terms of pigment, shine and lasting power. Unlike the Balloon Rouge glosses, these use a standard fuzzy doefoot applicator and swatched effortlessly. Having owned three, I can say they apply equally well, do a good job at covering up my pigmented lips and dry lip-lines, and manage to be unsticky yet moisturising and long-lasting.

There are 8 permanent shades, and they cost HK$76 for 2.7g each. All shades have varying degrees of subtle micro-shimmer, except PK-2 which is a totally shimmer-free cream :)

All swatches on bare arm, one swipe

Bright white store lighting -- pretty true to colour

Just a quick note: I apologise for the lack of natural light swatches but a. my schedule and b. the perpetual sturm&drang weather here make store lighting the best option for now. If things improve, I will add more swatches in different lighting conditions. Hopefully these should be better than nothing though -- I've done my fair share of ordering Asian DS makeup blindly from the internet...

Lavshuca Full Balloon Rouge swatches

Lavshuca is a drugstore brand owned by Kanebo, and they make my favourite drugstore lip products, hands down.

See here for a handy chart of the various formulas. The horizontal axis goes from Matte (L) to Glossy (R) and the vertical goes from Opaque (top) to Sheer (bottom).

These Full Balloon Rouge glosses come in a click pen with a weird long, bendy spatula applicator at the end. IMO the click is fun (it's a button you press, rather than turning), but the spatula is pure gimmick. It was very difficult to spread this thickish, somewhat sticky (not MAC lipglass or Illamasqua intense sticky but still...) gloss evenly with it, and the formula is not opaque enough to be forgiving. I kept getting streaks and having to go over each swatch 5-6 times to make them as even as possible. In gen, I'd say these are sheer-medium with varying degrees of micro-shimmer, with PK-4 being the problem child: the sheerest and packed with glitter.

You also get a tiny 1.6g per pen for HK$90.

There are 15 permanent shades... of which I swatched 14. D'OH! Totally failed to notice that empty niche where PK-1 should've been and my Sasa had sneakily confiscated the tester for it as they were out of stock. Will try to remedy in future.

Also, swatching glosses is HARD. Stupid shiny. hate shiny. must kill shiny.

Store lighting (but very GOOD store lighting -- pretty true to shade XD)

Different angle to show the shades a bit better

Kanebo Media blush swatches

Media is one of the cheapest drugstore lines from Kanebo, and unusually, is targeted at mature women rather than teenagers. Textures tend to be creamy, shades neutral for 'no makeup makeup' looks and according to the website, their USP is fragrance-free, elegant makeup, with collagen as a key ingredient.

The blushes caught my attention because there was an unusually wide range of shades (10! Most Japanese drugstore brands have 4 max) and I couldn't see giant chunks of glitter winking at me in the pan (ahem, Canmake, Lavshuca, Visee and all your ilk).

On touching them I was even more impressed. These are seriously silky, almost creamy, powders. Pigmentation varies a bit between the shades but they're far above average for drugstore -- more pigmented than Bourjois or Revlon, less so than Sleek. Because of the creaminess, I think they would work well applied with fingers if you wanted full opacity (you can blend out the edges with a brush). None of the shades are matte, the finishes vary from sheeny/glowy to full-on shimmer -- but the shimmer is always finely milled.

Packaging is sleek and no-nonsense: dark navy shimmery plastic cases with clear lids. At HK$49 for 3.5g, they are definitely worth trying if you don't mind some shimmer in your blushes.

All swatches done on bare arm: I swiped my finger all the way across the blush pan and then down my arm once. They will be sheerer if you use a brush.

Natural light, cloudy (this is most colour-accurate)

Yellow store lighting (this gives a better idea of the diff. finishes)

Close-up to show textures