Jill Stuart Mix Blush Compact Swatches

Jill Stuart is that rare brand which makes even a bonbon-nibbling, frilly-chiffon-wearing bit o' fluff like me want to run screaming from their Stepford-pink counters to shave all my hair off (and possibly my left boob) before rolling in a dung-heap en route to the filthy cave by a stinking cesspool which I shall henceforth call home.

It's really pink, yeah? 

Aesthetics aside, the products are generally meh -- I wanted to say lacklustre but as they are generally 99 parts chunky glitter : 1 part pigment, that seems misleading....

The Mix Blush Compacts are the exception, and the only reason I would brave a counter, risking aforementioned one-boobed cesspool cave scenario. Yes, the packaging is pure fairyfarts, but it is also functional -- the compacts are hefty, with a secure magnetised closure. Each blush comes with a very good quality rounded goat-hair retractable brush (which can be detached from the palette), big enough to swirl around all four pans and apply, and if half-retracted, precise enough to pick up colour from one pan alone -- though not all the pans are equally pigmented, so some are less usable solo than others. And the product itself is good-to-great depending on shade, the best ones being pigmented, blendable, versatile and famously long-lasting even in humid weather. 'Worst' is trickier -- but I personally would warn against 1 Baby Blush, 6 Fresh Apricot and 12 Candy Orange... the shades are not so unique that you couldn't find a superior dupe from another brand.
Candied-rose scent, which dissipates quickly once applied.

Currently there are 9 permanent shades in the lineup, with 2 limited edition ones for this spring/summer. I've split the swatches into 3 rough colour groupings -- these are all swirled swatches (all 4 shades together), 1 swipe made with the included brush.
Mix Blush Compacts (Made in Japan, 8g) retail for HK$370 or ¥4725.

Pinks

14 Lantana Honey (LE for SS2012) -- pigmented warm pink, sparse shimmer
11 Rose Fairy -- pigmented bright pink, sparse shimmer
7 Lovely Tulip -- cool, clear pink, medium pigment, very shimmery
1 Baby Blush -- soft pink, sheer, shimmery

Peachier Pinks

15 Strolling Bee (LE for SS2012), warm rosy coral, medium pigment and shimmer
12 Candy Orange -- medium pigment and shimmer, difficult to swirl evenly but very close to Strolling Bee though slightly warmer
9 Little Bouquet -- pigmented peachy pink with very sparse shimmer
6 Fresh Apricot -- sheer and very shimmery warm apricot-pink

Uh... the rest

13 Milky Strawberry -- pigmented soft neutral pink, very sparse shimmer
10 Sweet Biscuit -- pigmented warm browned rose, shimmery
8 Romantic Poppy -- pigmented muted coral rose, very shimmery


Official pan pics -- these bushes mix up pretty intuitively, so these give a better idea of the nuances within the different pinks or peaches, and also the four individual shades you would potentially be buying.

Chanel Rivière Look #3

Now this is the kind of cool lip I'm much more at home in -- Burberry Lip Cover in Bright Plum is the perfect example of the saturated deep-bright fairytale roses I swoon over in Once Upon A Time. Lip Covers rank among my favourite lipstick formulas of all time, rose-scented, creamy, just the right amount of slip, moisturising and pigmented (you all know my keywords by now); deeper shades like this one leave a pretty stain after a meal.

For those still counting who've ended up way past their twelfth finger -- bah! I have some more wagon-falling planned this weekend -- this replaces Guerlain Rouge G Gigolo in my wardrobe. Well, 'cos! lookit!

Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Matte RD178M (DC)

Burberry Lip Cover Bright Plum

Guerlain Rouge G Gigolo

Okay, I also prefer the decidedly cream-based pigment of the Lip Covers to the more slippy gel-based Rouge G's. And good god, the packaging. Whatever your issues with Burberry check (I won't string you up on a lamppost if you can't help finding it tacky) it at least has a nifty magnetic closure, and I think it is a truth universally acknowledged that nothing sucks harder than Rouge G's space dumbbell tampon applicator. Of doom.

vacant...

or constipated-smirky... ah my range, it is so broad

Eyes: Rouge Bunny Rouge Eye Gloss Angel's Play as a base, Estee Lauder DoubleWear Cream Eyeshadow Vintage Violet framing Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Rivière
Mascara: Lancôme Hypnôse Drama WP
Brows: Shu Uemura H9 Stone Grey
Lips: Burberry Lip Cover Bright Plum 
Cheeks: Ladurée Pressed Cheek Colour 11 (review) -- which doesn't really go with this eye in hindsight
Base: Helena Rubinstein Colourclone Liquid 00 (Japanese version), Burberry click pen concealer 01

 now... does decapitation make me look fat?

silk slip maxi: Pure&Good // waistcoat: All Saints // necklace: HK market find :D // shoes: Clarks, nicked from mum

I'm running about a week behind on my posting, so hey, last week my mum visited me in Hong Kong and in return for feeding and watering her, I commandeered about half the clothes she'd packed. She wondered sweetly if I was perhaps a wee bit old to be raiding her wardrobe still, and I wondered just as sweetly if she wasn't perhaps a wee bit old to be buying the same kind of stuff as me. :D Just a little vision of the future there for all you mothers-with-young-daughters out there. Happy belated mother's day!

necklace closeup