Marc Jacobs F/W 2013 Lacquered Red Lip (An Intro to Shiseido's F/W 2013 Makeup!)

To my mind, Shiseido is more known for their top-notch skincare and those incredible sunblocks. (To my knowledge, they put the "lightweight" in sunblocks long before the rest of the world did.)

Only during 2 periods did the brand seem to cast more of a spotlight on "color", and that was during Serge Lutens' time (1980s), and now with Dick Page at the helm. 

Dick Page applying Lacquer Rouge in Sanguine, backstage at Marc Jacobs' F/W 2013 show.

They brought out those incredible Lacquer Rouges a while back, and this season they're bringing out 6 new colors. I'm really into a red lip right now, so my pick of the lot HAD to be that warm red RD413 "Sanguine", which was used at the Marc Jacobs show this season. 

The Red Runway Lip

To achieve that red "Japanese lacquer" effect, the makeup team piled on layers upon layers of the lacquer right up to the moment before the models went onstage, just to get that dripping-wet shine.

For real life, it's more practical (and economical) to just layer it over a red lip pencil or lipstick of your choice. (I layered it over Clinique's Flamenco.) This is between a gloss and lipstick, so it doesn't smear all over or cause your lip color to bleed.

If you don't want such a strong sheen, try a regular red lipstick like "Showgirl", one of the 10 new lipstick shades created for the season.

The Smart Foundation

 Now THIS I'm even more excited about. (Well I am Foundation Fanatic #1.)

Shiseido has come up with the new Sheer and Perfect Foundation to deal with the modern woman's - quite frankly - insane-sounding demands:

• don't want to see unevenness, spots, dullness, pores, redness, etc, BUT we also don't like the look of heavy, obvious, full-coverage foundation. 
• want to moisturize dry spots and look youthful and glowing, BUT don't want other spots to look and feel greasy.
• want something lightweight and fresh, but that lasts all day.
• want makeup to instantly improve our appearance but also have longer-term skincare benefits.

Did they succeed? Well, read on to see if this intrigues you as much as it does me!

Sheer and Perfect uses a blend of color-correcting spherical particles to cancel out what Shiseido calls the visual "noise" on our skin. The objective is to even out your skin and blur the appearance of imperfections without masking the natural glow and texture of your skin.

A foundation that comes in lightweight aqua gel texture, masks imperfections but looks like dewy skin, moisturizes AND reduces oil where needed, normalizes melanin production to prevent dark spots, contains SPF, and lasts all day? I'm so there.

But I'd really need to put it to the test for a few weeks of course.

For you to see the immediate results, I took a snapshot of my moisturized face above, with all my dark circles, pores, old acne marks, and a spot, then applied one single coat of Sheer and Perfect using fingers and took another snapshot. No change in lighting or photo-editing of flaws! 

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty dang impressed so far.

1. I'd say the biggest difference I can see is on "brown" cancellation. Dark circles, plus dark marks on my chin and cheek where I had a spots previously. They're not completely gone, but definitely evened out a lot. And I can certainly use a lot less concealer now. 
2. I don't have many active spots now, just one single little bump by my nose near my left eye (right side of image) so this foundation does mask red, but isn't matte enough to hide contours.
3. The finish is dewy/satiny but that might be because I had on a good few layers of moisturizer underneath.  I have to say, it looks like I have no makeup on and my skin just looks better.
4. It feels very fresh and comfortable. Not sticky or greasy. Still, if you like a very matte and powdery finish, you won't like this. 

Sheer and Perfect comes in a 1 oz shaker bottle similar to Chanel's Vitalumiere Aqua, and I have to say the feel and overall texture is quite similar as well.

I'd recommend it for women (and men) who have to deal with combination to dry skin, dark spots and occasional blemishes to even out, and who don't like their foundations to LOOK like makeup. I'd say if you have very oily skin or a lot of active acne to cover, this won't be adequate even though it has a bit of oil-regulating properties.

P.S. Shiseido also launched 3 new eyeshadow trios AND their Zen Sun perfume, but this post is getting way to long so I'll talk about these and show swatches of the LIDO palette another time!