Jill Stuart Mix Blush Compact #9 Little Bouquet

You may have already seen my swatches of the complete line-up of Jill Stuart Mix Blushes, but I thought it would be a good idea to show as well as tell you how versatile the best of these can be -- scroll on for swatches of all four separate shades in the prettiest of these dangerously pretty quads, No.9 Little Bouquet.

Jill Stuart Mix Blush Compacts are made in Japan and retail for HK$370 for 8g.They are scented with the signature JS candied roses (sweeter, lighter and less powdery than the Chanel Joues Contraste scent, also quicker to fade) and each blush comes with a retractable goat hair brush.

Spam

Little Bouquet consists of:

• top left: light pink satin with very sparse silver microshimmer (sheer-medium pigmentation) 
• top right: soft apricot matte (medium+ pigmentation) 
• bottom left: bright, clear pink-coral-red matte (another one of those Orpheline/Hussy-a-likes I adore, pigmented)
• bottom right: demi-matte magenta with tonal sheen (no shimmer, pigmented)

The textures are uniformly smooth, finely-milled and balanced evenly between creamy and silky, probably how they combine blendability and lasting-power. They feel closest to the current Shiseido Luminizing Satin Face Colours, but are less tightly-pressed -- I believe this is by design, as they are designed to be swirled and mixed in various patterns.

Swatches

The mixed swatch is made with the included brush, the separate stripes are each one swipe with a sponge applicator, except for the rightmost (palest) shade which is two swipes. It is still, like the others, easily wearable as a blush on its own.

Brush

Is perfectly usable and I enjoy the decadence of having a coordinated brush solely dedicated to one blush; I actively seek out small brushes and short handles anyway, so the portable size suits me fine. Made from densely-packed white goat hair, it is extremely efficient at picking up pigment, swirling colours evenly across the different pans. For me, its main weakness is blending -- its hairs are so short and so dense that it's essentially a mini-kabuki, and suits buffing-out more than blending. My sensitive skin doesn't like being buffed, so I usually reach for a separate clean brush (or, in a pinch, fingers) to soften any edges.

Here it is compared with the Hakuhodo Medium Pointed Yachiyo and Illamasqua Highlighter Brush:

From left to right they go from:

least dense ---> most dense/tightly packed

longest hair ---> shortest

most pointed ---> most rounded

Shown on the Hakuhodo Yachiyo is the colour of the lightest pink shade from this quad, which I wore on its own recently. You can also see how evenly corally-pink the JS brush (which I use for swirling) looks, while leaving the four shades still very neatly demarcated in the pan:

After about 15(?) uses

'Favourites' Look

Combining this new favourite with some enduring loves: Suqqu 01 Kakitsubata quad (just discontinued, WHY WHY WHY much wailing and gnashing of teeth) and Chanel Rouge Allure Genial (limited edition, why etc.)

The only frontal pic I could get was in even dodgier lighting, sorry

OOTD with an early birthday present :D Dress from Reiss. Cobalt Clarks wedges, as before, nicked from my mother.

Yeah, still not worked out how NOT to make sulky constipated bitchface in outfit shots. I'm leaving it undecapitated because this pic conveys how awesomely searingly bright that lipstick is (why etc.). And as a testament to my terrible lighting which makes it seem like I very precisely fake-tanned half my body.

Lavshuca Dramatic Memory Rouge Swatches

This is a do-over of one of my first swatch posts, with far better pictures (in natural light and with my posh camera). I prioritised these because they are still my favourite drugstore lipsticks of all time, and are far superior to most high-end lipsticks out there too.

DM Rouge are surprisingly pigmented (medium+) while being absolutely weightless on the lips, and are a sheeny cream finish -- the perfect middle ground between glossy and matte. There is micro-glitter visible in the tube, but on the lips it's less visible than that in Chantecaille Lip Chics, so tolerable even for a shimmerphobe like me.
Despite being less glossy than Dior Addicts, these are far more moisturising -- my extremely dry lips do not need a balm with these, and that's not something I can say of any other drugstore lipstick. They also apply with the perfect amount of slip: so smoothly that you don't need a lipbrush or mirror, without being a liquefying texture like Chanel Rouge Coco Shine or Cle de Peau Extra Silky (both of which I find too messy and short-lived).

12 permanent shades
HK$90 for 2.5g, packaging is your standard twist-up bullet, with a very girly Lavshuca twist. (The plastic cakedish thing at the top may look fragile but I've been throwing these lipsticks around for years and have never had a breakage yet.)

natural light

full sun

white paper, natural light

angled paper to show the creaminess -- NOT colour-accurate

Lavshuca Dramatic Memory Rouge
PK-1  bright yellow-based medium pink
PK-2  warm peachy pink
PK-3  clearer peachy pink with more beige than PK-2
PK-4  soft yellow-based beige with a hint of pink
RS-1  cool mauve rose
RD-1  neutral clear, bright watermelon
RD-2  warm browned rosy red
RD-3  deeper browned rose (sheerer than the others)
OR-1  bright pastel coral
BR-1 neutral brown with hints of plum and red
BE-1 beige with yellow and grey base
BE-2 peachy-pink nude

Saturday at Sogo

SOGO is a Japanese department store with two locations in Hong Kong, and more pertinently for this blog, paradoxically bi-annual "anniversary" sales during which all the beauty counters offer cosmetics 'bundles' at hefty discounts. And all oddly delicious Japanese snacky things are 10% off. And of course every single department on each of of the twenty-something floors also had offers on. But I didn't get to witness those personally, because, well, here are some phone pics of what the ground floor beauty hall looked like:

Shiseido, Cosme Decorte and Lancôme counters -- the orderly sea of heads at the back in the upper left hand corner are lining up for the MAC store

Estee Lauder, Dior and Clarins -- this part of the beauty hall was particularly mad, as it was surrounded by various designer bag concessions, each with their own line (you can see Gucci there at the back). Also check out the scary ghostly blurs in the foreground, closing up the tiny gap that opened up just long enough for me to take this.

Sofina, Ipsa,  Kanebo, Burberry. Estee Lauder again.

Sofina may look abandoned but that's simply because it was by far the most popular sale (no-one left it without buying at least 6 full sets of skincare), and had a specially cordoned-off queue of military precision prepared:

This is less than halfway down the Sofina queue -- the tiny red+white sign in the distance is where the line starts.

These aren't even the most crowded scenes -- in those I was borne along by the wave o' humanity and couldn't even lift my arms to take pictures.

See those colourful pamphletty things people are studying?

Here's one full unfolded page out of eight:

It details the best weekly deals and the rotating daily specials for each brand in every sub-department; for further info on particular brands you'll have to contrive to be borne past the concession in question, all of which are womanned by ultra-efficient SA's handing out more detailed flyers:

flyers from YSL, Burberry, Shu Uemura, Sofina, Kanebo, Ipsa, SK-II, Shiseido and Helena Rubinstein

....yeah, I think I have PTSD.

I thought I was prepared! I'm a Londoner, ferchrissakes, not exactly unused to consumerist crowds. *sigh* Lesson learned (again): DO NOT MESS WITH ASIANS DURING A SALE.

The first entrants to last Christmas' Selfridges sale from The Grauniad. If you spotted non-Asians in this picture --  they're Selfridges staff XD

So what did I leave with? Sets from Lunasol, Burberry, Shu and Ipsa for friends. And for myself:

Burberry Earthy blush, Hibiscus lip cover, and a black canvas and leather makeup bag for HK$490, and Midnight Brown eyeshadow thrown in for an extra $178.

For the record (comparison swatches to come in review):

Earthy replaces MAC Strada

Hibiscus replaces Shu RD 178M

Midnight Brown is a legit breaking of the low-buy -- I'll be curious to see if I have any dupes lurking in my stash back home

I was also very tempted by (but womanfully resisted) another Burberry set containing an eyeshadow, eyeliner pencil, no.9 socket brush and a compact mirror for $440 (!), and the Lunasol 'starter kit' consisting of the decade-long bestseller Skin Modelling Eyes Beige Beige, a lipgloss, a cream blush and a choice of liquid or jelly single eyeshadow, in a makeup pouch for $620.

The best thing about this sale for me was the ability to make your own 'collection' by choosing the shades that go into your set. Don't think it'd be enough to tempt me back a second time, though. Overall the most therapeutic part of my haul (after a particularly draining week) was this:

Yakult soda ice cream float :D Aint nothing like brain freeze from friendly bacteria, sugar and fat. (That garnish totally counts as one of my five-a-day, right?)