Holiday 2011 swatch blitz part 1: Addiction, Lunasol, Shu Uemura

Hello my loves! Sorry for the lack of posts/keeping up with comments lately -- frivolity as usual will resume from next week.

However I have managed to sneak some depaato/drugstore visits and swatch-sessions, so here are the first fruits.

Addiction Sleepless Nights Collection (released Nov 11th in Japan, ¥9765)
A cool-toned, smoky, sexy collection that is right up my street :D
I swatched the palette (two complex eyeshadows and a beautiful cool dusty mauve blush) and mini lip gloss (cool sheer pink with lilac iridescence). The set also includes a tiny pot of holographic white glitter, an automatic pencil liner (black with purple and pink sparkles) and a slightly grungy purple nail polish.

artificial light

artificial light + flash

Not sure what's going on with my jaundiced inner arm there, but I hope you can see the differently-sized shimmer particles in the eyeshadows...


Check out the Addiction site for more details and the always-inspiring visuals and vids. 


Lunasol Tender Glow Collection (released Nov 11th in Japan)
I only managed to swatch these items from the limited-edition coffret (¥6825, HK$ tba)
Party Eyes TG quad EX01: the palest and darkest shades in this are split triple pans like the 3-D Eyes. I swatched all the shades together but you can definitely get a less sparkly effect.
Cream Cheeks EX04 (bright neutral pink, micro-shimmer)
Full Glamour Gloss N EX19 (no shimmer, palest milky pink)
The set also includes a mini Skin Contrast Face Powder (01 Glow) and an adorable furry pouch which I spent a goodly amount of time feeling up.

natural light

full sun

Lunasol's Japanese site has information about the rest of the holiday collection.


Shu Uemura Wong Kar Wai Collection palettes (already out, ¥7140 or HK$495 each)
Each palette contains 4 eyeshadows, a cream blush and a powder highlighter (which you probably can't see too well. I iz pasty, sorry.)

Drowning in Flame

natural light

 

full sun

Burning in Water

natural light

natural light+flash (sun stopped cooperating)

As you can see, the three non-glitter eyeshadows in Burning in Water are rather more shimmery than Drowning in Flames (which features three satins). In any case, I found the textures of all the shades in both palettes to be harder than Shu Uemura singles -- all swatches are two heavy swipes.
The legendary Karla has swatched the rest of the collection here.

Sonia Rykiel reviews and FOTD -- part 2

As promised, today I will be reviewing the Sonia Rykiel Teint Hydra Eclat Treatment Cream Foundation SPF20 PA++ in shade 10, received as a very generous gift from a certain beauty.

You get 23ml in a nice hefty frosted glass pot with an inner plastic separator and a cool-toned gold lid (great incorporation of the SR stripes again, no?)

The consistency is a bouncy gel-cream; it's highly spreadable so you only need a little. Coverage is surprisingly light but it layers excellently (I did 4 as an experiment without experiencing caking or balling-up) and it is buildable to medium-full. On my dry skin, it feels lightweight and sets by itself to a demi-matte finish that develops into a more natural satin finish throughout the day, without moving around, sinking into expression-lines, or drying me out.

Onto the bad: the shade is very yellow-toned, and it's a warm yellow to boot (see here for a brilliant post on undertones, and no, you don't have to be Asian). In photos this undertone disparity isn't too obvious, but in real life, even civilians noticed something 'off' about my face. I've swatched it between Shu Uemura Nobara 784 (neutral-yellow) and Nars Sheer Glow Siberia (very yellow, cool) here:

Actually, the swatches conveniently also go from glowiest (Shu -- a natural skin-finish on me) to most matte (Nars -- should be renamed Medium-Coverage-Extremely-Matte).

FOTD 1 with Sonia Rykiel cream foundation 10, sublime lipstick 02 built up to full opacity and eyeshadow quad 03 (both swatched here). I used the silver as a base, olive over the upper lid into the crease, charcoal to liner the upper lashline and mint green to line the lower lashline.
Other products: Majomajo LEFP, Chantecaille Total concealer Alabaster, RBR Starina blush, KATE eyebrow gel BK-3, and erm... my latest magazine freebie.

I have no shame. But at least I didn't bling it out further with the gold stickers also included...

FOTD 2 with Sonia Rykiel cream foundation 10 and eyeshadow quad 03 -- mint green on the lid, olive in the crease, charcoal smudged along both lashlines, silver in the inner corner.
Other products: Koji Linequeen liquid liner, Majomajo LEFP, Dior Addict Tokyo lipstick, Kevyn Aucoin SSE SX-01, Shu Uemura M365 blush, KATE eyebrow gel BK-3.

The mint-green took some building up -- it's really more of an accent colour -- but once packed-on, it stayed put all day. I'm still in love with these products, and may have picked up another sublime lipstick already....

Unfortuately the cream foundation has just been discontinued and replaced by the Fluide Teint Parfait Perfect Finish Fluid Finish SPF20 PA++, which despite its name, is also halfway between a liquid and a cream in consistency. I won't be able to review that one as the palest shade 10 is far too dark for me (around MAC NC15) but based on swatching at the counter, it seemed to have a satin-matte finish and medium-full coverage.
However, you can still find the cream foundation for sale at Asian cosmetics e-shops such as ichibankao (based in Japan) and facial-shop (Hong Kong).