1. New Becca Beach Tints
2. Bite Beauty High Pigment Matte Pencils
3. YSL Christmas 2012 Northern Lights Collection
More UK PSAs:
- Suqqu is offering a base makeup kit with every purchase of foundation until October 28th, which includes a 10g tube of Face Protector SPF50, a 5g pot of Nuancing Loose Powder in Glow and a nice leather/satin pouch.
- Burberry Lip Velvets (which I'd been anticipating ever since Diabolus in Cosmetica's excellent posts) will be released nationwide on October 14th.
- Selfridges has testers for the Guerlain Holiday 2012 Liu collection right now; but the Dragon meteorites (both loose and pressed) won't be available for purchase from next week.
- Chanel Holiday 2012 will be launched on November 4th.
- On November 7th, we'll be getting seven new shades of Glossy Stain as part of YSL's New Vintage winter collection.
- Finally, on 3-for-2 in Boots and seriously awesome: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shines (swatches).
On to the swatches!
1. Becca Beach Tints (£20) are some of my favourite multipurpose products. Reliably waterproof yet easily removed, matte without being drying, each tube contains a ridiculously blendable siliconey gel-cream which works beautifully on lips and cheeks. Only caveat: revolting synthetic 'fruity' scents that thankfully do fade soon after application.
The new shades are Lychee (light, bright cool pink), Dragonfruit (vivid pink-red, the best and most pigmented texture of the line) and Papaya (warm mid-tone orange).
Some comparisons with pre-existing Beach Tint shades: Payapa is brighter and more definitely orange than Peach, but warmer and less red than Strawberry. And Lychee is peeeeenk. Sorry, cropping fail.
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| natural light |
Lychee is much cooler and brighter than the coral-pink Guava, and less pastel (has less white pigment). Raspberry is cooler still, but in a more muted way. Watermelon is a much softer pink-red to Dragonfruit's brighter red-pink. See how warm Papaya looks grouped with this batch?
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| natural light |
My counter did not have testers for Fig (browned nude) or Grapefruit (muted light warm peach).
2. Bite Beauty High Pigment Matte Pencils (£24) are twist-up lipsticks in chubby pencil form. They are high-pigment but aren't particularly matte, more of a satin-cream finish, and are very comfortable to wear, even on my dry lips. The darker and brighter colours last for hours and fade evenly into a good stain after a heavy meal.
Their display in Selfridges' new beauty workshop doesn't have all the shades currently listed on Sephora (for $24 I might add) but here are the ones I caught (one swipe each):
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| natural light, shade (they retain a bit of sheeniness even so) |
PS here's a picture from April I took for a friend and never meant to blog, but then I realised it's the only picture of Pomegrante I have to hand. A rare example of me doing the bare-face-red-lips thing (so unbalanced, so American-Francophile cliché, so myfaceissopinkack! >.< Please to scroll past like the wind.)
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| yeah, I still curled my lashes :P |
3. YSL Northern Lights Collection is one of the first Christmas releases to hit our shores and if this is a harbinger of things to come, my finances are in serious trouble... I admit to having a bit of a thing for Aurora-themed makeup-themed makeup but GUYS. These pigments. They are so complex I don't even.
Swatches made with fingertips, patted on dry.
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| natural light + sun |
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| ditto, deliberate fuzziness |
#07 Eyeliner Effet Faux Cils Etoile Dorée (limited edition) is a smooth metallic ochre. As with all these liners, flawless pigmentation and texture. This swatch wouldn't smear or flake even after a good scrubbing with a makeup remover wipe, but came off easily with cleansing oil.
#12 Pure Chromatics quad (permanent) is a stunning neutral/smokey palette with a kick. In particular, I love the red duochrome running through the charcoal satin (leftmost shade) and the complex sparkly champagne taupe (third from left).
Nuit Artique is a limited edition Pure Chromatics quad (these are designed to be used wet and dry) and the standout for me is the leftmost metallic burgundy scattered with blue glitter, nestled among three gradational blue sparkles. I LOVE red-blue combinations and was sorely tempted by this. The dud in the palette is the cornflower (far right) which had a tendency to shed its gritty silver dandruff.
Barely visible on the bottom left is the limited edition Boréal highlighter compact, Lumière Polaire, which reads as a hint of pink iridescence on my skin, without visible shimmer.
I womanfully braved the melon stench of the two limited edition Golden Glosses, #55 Bleu Artique (palest yellow base with larger blue and smaller green sparkles) and #56 Rose Polaire (milky pink base with larger purple and smaller gold and green sparkles).
There is one more limited edition standout of this collection, and that's the delicate nail polish topcoat in 33 Première Neige. Of which more later, as (ahem) it seems to be twinkling at me from my desk right now.
Great. Now I'm covered in drool. Thanks a lot.
ReplyDeleteGlad to know I'm not the only one who gags on the YSL melon scent. That eye liner and the #12 quad are really tempting.
And I really must try those Bite lip pencils. I've liked what I've tried from the brand thus far (mostly) and both Bramble and Amarone are right up my alley...
I am really pleased with the Bite goodies I've tried, but those pencils are the best imo. Can't wait to check out their liquid lipsticks :D
DeleteI am SO glad you swatched the new beach tints. I am so torn as to which to order sill.. I think Lychee may be too pale/cool for me. Thoughts? (This is kaykre from MUA btw :) )
ReplyDeleteI don't think it will be too pale (it's actually more of a bright on the skin, much less pastel than Guava). Maybe too cool though.... hmm. It probably would be a winter-ish shade for you, not the most versatile of the BTs :)
Deletethat #12 quad made me lose my socks
ReplyDeleteI would love to see it on you. Colours are pure xiao but the glitter is all kinds of obnoxious >:D
DeleteThe beach tints are so pretty, but I stopped buying after Watermelon was used up. Mine had to be shaken very vigorously in order to be used. I want the Burberry velvety, like all of them! Military Red is so going to come home with me. The swatches of the YSL chromatids are gorgeous, I just bought no 6 yesterday, I can see why the fuss over them. I just can't wait for the new collections to come out.
ReplyDeleteaw, I'm nearly at the end of my second Watermelon. They can be a bit temperamental especially in hot weather, but worth it for me :)
DeleteHave I ever told you that your swatches are amazing? No? Okay, well they are ;-)
ReplyDeleteand my kindergarten teacher dissed my fingerpainting skills! Well joke's on YOU, Mrs Bernard!
DeleteI hope this doesn't mean I lack taste, but I dig the naked face/red lips thing. No, it's not quite balanced, but it has a lot of impact. Or else it's because you're so purdy, I dunno.
ReplyDeleteOR it's cos you so full of quirky brilliance. This is the kind of look I tend to love on a very few models and women over 60 *wills self to age faster*
DeleteThe Bite colors are amazing and I can't wait to see YSL in person. The preview of your swatches is quite enticing.
ReplyDeleteBite is such a breath of fresh air -- I love that their 'clean' formulas come in truly vibrant shades.
DeleteEverything must be mine! I hope we get this YSL collection here- we only just got the spring one?><
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
oh no! I bet NEXT spring's collection is already out in America, lol
DeleteOoooh Papaya and Dragonfruit looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see all the holiday LE! The colours of this YSL palette looks beautiful!
I love Dragonfruit so much I made partner hide it so I'd wear another blush today.
DeleteRats - I should have picked up papaya and peach, along with the strawberry at Becca's last F&F Sale. Great vibrant color swatches for these!
ReplyDeleteOf the three Strawberry is the only one I can wear :D So you picked the best to start with IMO
DeleteI just ordered the three new Becca Beach Tints after they finally showed up on Zuneta. They all look so pretty! Thanks for the swatches of the YSL quad and glosses, I think you've helped to strike them off my lemming list. And 7 new Glossy Stains to come?! *squeals*
ReplyDeleteIKR? :D They look like great dramatic shades too
DeleteOoh wow! I love all the Becca beach tints! Excellent post! xx
ReplyDeletehttp://beauty-and-the-best.blogspot.co.uk/
Same here! I'd been waiting for these since Becca tweeted a pic waaaay back in June.
DeleteThose Bite pencils :O The three reds there - nom nom. The becca beach tints are all so bright and nice. I had one YSL chromatics and was disappointed, I never stop swatching though, maybe there is a good one among all those LE, we never know / Claire
ReplyDeleteHah, that's how they keep us coming back XD I have made friends with a dangerous YSL MA now (thanks to glossy stain addiction) and it may just be a matter of time before I buy a quad....
DeleteI was at the Bite stand at Selfridges last week and bought the slim tubed sheer lipstick in violet. It's not violet but a cool toned light pink. I saw they had only a few of each lip product. They all had a lovely texture.
ReplyDeleteOh I am so with you on the bare face, red lips thing. As though some red lips will dress up an entire boring casual outfit! (That and the pretentious francophiles!) It only looks good on a very few women and like you said, the elderly - they sure have an elegant way about it, don't they? Oh I sound so mean now, don't I? I really don't mean to be.
ReplyDeleteOK, mini rant over, I do love your swatches, they are some of the best around, but my favourite thing about them is the extensive comparisons you do.
The Becca Beach Tints look lovely, I particularly like Lychee and Dragonfruit. They are yummy in the summer too ^-^
Oh finally, thank you so much for the release dates on the Burberry Lip Velvets and Chanel winter collection. I have been looking for UK specific information for a few weeks now and it seems no one online had this information at all.
Leila