CHANEL VARIATION EYESHADOW QUAD SWATCHES

THE NEW COLOUR COLLECTION FOR EYES
Eyes speak volumes with elegant eyeshadow harmonies, created to accentuate the dramatic new lash look of LE VOLUME DE CHANEL Mascara. Offered in coral, plum and brown expressions.

CHANEL LES 4 OMBRES QUADRA VARIATION EYE SHADOW consists of a light rose, a silver-grey, a deep purple, and a light shimmering plum. This quad is part of the LES EXPRESSIONS DE CHANEL collection (you can read more about it HERE). It currently retails for $58.00 and can be purchased on the Chanel.com website, at Chanel counters, or at Chanel Boutiques. You can see from my swatches below that with little to no effort on my part when swatching the eyeshadows they were extremely pigmented and seemed to have excellent color pay-off with a velvety smooth texture. Variation will be part of Chanel's permanent line of eyeshadow quads so there is no need to rush out and purchase this right away, however, the colors are too beautiful to not have this in your collection.

ALLURE HOLIDAY BEAUTY BOX - STILL AVAILABLE

Attention Allure Beauty Enthusiasts: (you can Subscribe Here) it's time for the Allure Holiday Beauty Box! On sale November 23rd, this box of goodies (you can get Yours Here) is still available. I've ordered the Allure Beauty Boxes before and I have always found a lot of great useful items. Many of the items I share with family and friends but some of the products are just too amazing to part with. The Beauty Boxes tend to sell out within the first few days so you might want to hurry and get yours while you still can.

The cost is $29.99 plus $10.00 shipping / handling and keep in mind that $5.00 from each purchase will be donated to the Laura Mercier Ovarian Cancer fund. Also, there is a max limit of no more than 5 per purchase. Here is a list of everything that you can expect to receive with your Beauty Box:

69 FLEUR DE LOTUS CHANEL JOUES CONTRASTE POWDER BLUSH - SWATCHES AND REVIEW

CHANEL JOUES CONTRASTE POWDER BLUSH in #69 FLEUR DE LOTUS is a delicate peachy coral blush. I bought this near the end of the Nordstrom's Anniversary sale back in August but I haven't had time to post about it until now. I did however, post earlier about the whole collection which you can check out here: CHANEL FLEUR DE LOTUS collection. Even if you missed out on this collection back in July / August it is still available on the Nordstrom.com website.

SEPHORA HAUL / SHOP SPREE - VIB ANNIVERSARY SPLURGE

I recently qualified for VIB status for the next year and for my VIB ANNIVERSARY I received a 10% coupon off on any purchase. How you qualify for VIB status is first you must sign up to be a Beauty Insider at Sephora (you can do this online or in-store and its free to join!). You will receive coupons and /or discounts plus you will be invited to special Beauty related events as well. All qualifying purchases (I have yet to find out what doesn't qualify) will earn you beauty insider points that can be used towards 100, 200, and 500 point gifts. Once you hit the threshold of $350 (per year) you will qualify for VIB status - Very Important Beauty Insider for the remaining of the current year throughout the next year. A coupon will be sent out as well for 10% off your entire purchase (it expires 30 days after the issue date) to be used on anything in-store or online. Another perk of being a VIB and why you should maintain this status are the rewards that you will receive. Periodically Sephora will hold special events or issue special discounts just for their VIB's as a way of saying "Thanks for being so loyal to our brand!" which are really nice. I usually wait for those types of events to stock up on all my "must have" beauty items and I typically repurchase back-ups of products that I really like so I don't run out.

Check below for pics, swatches, and general beauty related ramblings!

I had read on Twitter that Tarina Taratino products were either going to be repackaged / reformulated or they were no longer going to be carried in Sephora stores. When I went to Sephora and asked a SA she said the brand as a whole was undergoing a complete redesign. I'm not exactly sure what that means but I do know it means a huge savings for right now as everything has been marked down to ridiculous prices.

I'm relatively new to this brand so I have no clue as to whether or not these are good quality eyeliner products but for the discounted price it was too good of a deal to pass up. I purchased three eyeliners for about $8-9 ea. There wasn't much of a color range left as most of the eyeliners had already sold out but I was happy with these three. I picked the plum colored eyeliner because it really enhances my green eyes. I bought the black eyeliner because I like to use this color to line my upper lash line. The third eyeliner was a brown with micro-flecks of gold and I thought this would look really nice on my bottom lash line.

(L to R) ULTRAVIOLET, TOMMY JET, AND PUPPETEER

The next set of beauty products I purchased from this line were two blushes. The pink blush is Carved Rose and the peach blush is Neapolitan Lane. I think these were marked down to $12-15 ea. Carved Rose is a very vibrant pink that is build-able to achieve such a pink flush of color. Neapolitan Lane is a soft muted peach blush that looks darker in the pan than it really is. Overall both blushes have good color payoff and give a solid 8 hours wear time.

CARVED ROSE BLUSH

NEAPOLITAN LANE BLUSH

The last item that I purchased from this line was the EYEDREAM HIGHLIGHT duo in Iris Plume and Moon Opal. These creamy pearlized metallic eyeshadows are supposed to highlight the eye area and soften up the eye by diffusing harsh lines and shadows to create an almost ethereal glow. I believe there are four duos available and they are currently priced at $12 each.

The Nars Larger Than Life lip glosses are part of the Nars Andy Warhol collection which are available on Sephora.com and on the Nars.com website. They are currently priced at $26.00 USD for approximately .19 oz of product and there are a total of five full size lip glosses for sale. Out of the five my favorite was, Candy Says. According to the Nars website this gloss was "named for a sweet, sad and sentimental track about Candy Darling from the Velvet Underground’s legendary self titled album".

The lipgloss, Candy Says, is a beautiful strawberry pink with lots of shimmer and shine. The only drawback to the gloss is the applicator. I prefer lipgloss wands with the doe-foot applicator because it is so much easier to apply than this little tiny brush which takes FOREVER! Overall though, the gloss is long-lasting and the formula is not as sticky as some of the other Nars lipglosses.

Tarte Amazonian blushes are some of the most popular blushes right now with the beauty community. I have one from the "Gifts From The Lipstick Tree Achiote" color collection and it actually does have fairly decent color payoff. Mainly I wear the blush during the summer after my face has a slight tan. The main reason is the Achiote blush has more of a coral peach-pink color which tends to compliment my skin coloring the best during the warm summer months when my face isn't so pale.

With the exception of a few blushes that I own, I almost always gravitate towards plum, rose, and mauve colored blushes. One thing to keep in mind with the Amazonian blushes, they are at times a "hit or miss" with them. They are either too chalky, or there's not enough color payoff, or they are too peachy-orange. However, there are a few gems in this line of blushes and one of them is Blushing Bride. It's a plummy rose colored blush with a slight gold sparkle / sheen that can be blended out and is not really as noticeable as it looks in the pan. The Amazonian blushes are currently priced at $25 USD for approx. .2 oz of product.

Sorry for the bad swatch of this blush. I went through all of my photos and the blush kept coming out orange-ish looking. It is a far cry from being an orange blush - ITS PINK for heaven's sake! For an excellent swatch of this blush please check out Karla Sugar's blog. She has some excellent swatches of the entire collection. Here is a link to her blog post: KARLA SUGAR - TARTE SWATCHES.

One of my ALL-TIME favorite fragrances is Taj Sunset by Escada. It has a sweet fruity scent that I absolutely adore!! Unfortunately for me, it was discontinued so ever since then I have been on the hunt for something similar. I came across the Ralph Lauren Big Pony #2 fragrance in a sample from Sephora. The #2 fragrance has the same sweet fruity scent as Taj Sunset but it also has some underlying musky notes as well. The musky notes don't overpower the fragrance but they are noticeable. This is why I decided to only purchase a small bottle of the fragrance seeing as how this is an "okay" replacement for Taj Sunset, but I know if I keep searching I can find something better.

This last item I purchased mainly because I had seen @Lisasz09 (her twitter user name) feature it in her September Haul video. (Here is a link to the video: September Haul ). You should definitely check out her YouTube channel. She posts video reviews of all kinds of makeup products and I love watching her haul videos as well. I'll post links to her blog and twitter along with her main YouTube page below. 

Here is a link to her YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Lisasz09
Here is a link to her blog: http://beautybylisasz09.blogspot.com/
Here is a link to her Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/Lisasz09

I find this Too Faced 3-way eyeliner truly fascinating. I don't really have any expectations other than I hope it doesn't dry out too quickly. According to the Sephora website the 3 way liner (or triple-tipped eyeliner) is supposed to "emphasize" the lashes by making them thicker looking, help to create a smoother tight lining application, and provide a better overall eye lining experience. I'm so excited and I really can't wait to try this. The eyeliner is available on Sephora.com and it's currently priced at $22.00 USD for .02 oz. of product. At this time it is only available in black. One important tidbit I forgot to mention is most Sephora stores are sold out of this eyeliner and can't keep it in stock. So you might have better luck purchasing it online.

Well this concludes my VIB Anniversary splurge post. Depending on my work schedule I hope to post in the coming days/weeks my Chanel Holiday splurges, my Sephora Friends and Family haul and my Sephora VIB haul as well. So keep checking back or subscribe to my blog so you can see what all I got. Thanks and I hope your having a great November so far!

88 ABSTRACTION CHANEL ILLUSION D'OMBRE EYESHADOW - SWATCHES AND REVIEW

The intense shimmer of CHANEL ILLUSION D'OMBRE Long Wear Luminous Eyeshadows debuts dramatic new hues, to highlight eyes with beautiful contrast and bold glow.

ILLUSION D'OMBRE Long Wear Luminous EyeShadow - $36.00 USD
There are three shades being released with the LES EXPRESSIONS DE CHANEL collection and they are: Abstraction - which is permanent, Vision - which is permanent, and Illusoire - which is a repromote.

ABSTRACTION - Peach Rose

VISION - Gold

ILLUSOIRE - Purple (repromote)

Yesterday I posted about the new Chanel liquid eyeliners (you can read more about it here: CHANEL LIGNE GRAPHIQUE LIQUID EYELINERS ). Just like the Chanel liquid eyeliners, these items as well, will not be available until the week of Thanksgiving.

CHANEL ABSTRACTION Illusion D'Ombre long wear luminous eyeshadow is part of the LES EXPRESSIONS DE CHANEL collection which I posted about earlier this year at the end of July. To learn more about the whole collection you can read my previous post here: CHANEL LES EXPRESSIONS DE CHANEL.

I have to be totally honest with you. These pictures DO NOT even begin to capture how beautiful this cream eyeshadow, Abstraction, really is. I saw the display and it was nice. I glanced at the different products mentally tallying up in my head what items I might want to buy and how much each of them was going to cost me which was already causing me to get a little faint! Next I slowly started inspecting each of the items for its "worthiness factor" - meaning if I only had X-amount of dollars to spend what are going to be my "MUST HAVE" items that I can't live without. Then as I picked up Abstraction and slowly opened the little round pot......

Yep, that is when all brain activity ceased to function for me. I was smitten, head over heels in LOVE with this cream eyeshadow color. The SA, Adrienne, just started laughing at me because all I kept repeating over and over was: OMG!, OMG!, OMG! I love this color - Abstraction is just plain gorgeous!

When I first swatched Abstraction, it seemed rather sheer but it is easily buildable to achieve a more intense color or look. As a matter of fact, Adrienne and I were already discussing the different looks you could create with this cream eyeshadow; either by wearing it over or under a powder eyeshadow or just wearing it alone on the lid. To me, Abstraction seemed to have more of a pearlized sheen than heavy bits of glitter like Illusoire, which has full on glitter throughout. It is important to note the pearlized sheen in Abstraction reacts nicely to varying levels of light. It can warm the color up and bring out more of the peachier tones or it can soften the color and bring out the cooler, pinkier aspect of this eyeshadow.

In closing, if you only pick up one or two items from the Les Expressions collection be sure to check out the cream eyeshadows because Abstraction is a sure winner to add to your must have list. There are also two new eyeshadow quads with this collection and I hope to have swatches posted either tomorrow morning or later that afternoon so be on the lookout for that.