Tom Ford’s Complexion Enhancing Primer and Skin Illuminating Powder Duo

2 products that I was super excited to see this season were Tom Ford’s new “illuminating” skin products, the Complexion Enhancing Primer, and the gorgeous Skin Illuminating Powder Duo.

They offer different intensities of dewiness on the skin, so it’s really up to you what sort of effect you want. But both products are not very obvious, metallic products that look like noticeable makeup. The pearl pigments are so fine that even quite close-up, it just looks like you have a healthy glow. 

Complexion Enhancing Primer 01 Pink Glow

This is a pearlescent shell-pink beige which is quite subtle and will not go on very metallic on the skin, so I personally prefer to apply it AFTER foundation, even though it’s a “primer”. I never see the point of applying illuminating primers before foundation cos you have to use a lot for it to show up under makeup, and applying it all over just emphasizes pores in areas you don’t want.

What I do is rub half a pump on the back of my hand so I have an even coating on my fingers, and then press it on over my cheekbones, on the cupid’s bow, and in the center of my nose-bridge.

Skin Illuminating Powder Duo

 This baby is a must-try for those of you who are addicted to high-end highlighting or illuminating powders. How it differs from other powders we find from MAC, Lauder, etc is in how fine-grained the powder pigments are and the multi-dimensional tones. Once it’s on the skin, it doesn’t look sparkly, doesn’t catch easily on fine lines, and doesn’t make the skin look leathery.

Most days I'll just tap my brush in both shades for a soft beige highlight that goes with any look, but if you want a little extra something, you can use the chai shade just across the top parts of your blush, and then the ivory a little higher, right above the peaks of your cheekbones so it catches the light more.

It’s actually a fantastic highlighter for mature women, even though it would look beautiful on everyone. On first look you get an ivory and a soft chai latte color. But once swatched you’ll see they are both multi-dimensional. The ivory has subtle gold and opal pink tones, and the creamy chai shade has bronze tones. And they go on translucent so even if you have very dark skin, the pale shade does not go on chalky. You just get a beautifully natural look, like great skin.

And here are both products in side by side comparisons so you can see the difference intensity.

I personally consider the powder duo a must-have in my collection, and the liquid primer good for those who want a softer glow that isn’t detectable even on HD camera.

Makeup notes:

• Eyes: MAC Julia Petit Eyeshadows x 2 in Sagu (Druzy Luster shadow and Black Plum Matte shadow)

• Physicians’ Formula Nudewear Blush in Natural

• MAC Velvet Teddy lipstick

Shade Highlight: TKB Trading Luna Blue Pigment

I love pigments. And I've been trying and collecting them since before I started blogging. TKB Trading is my default place to go for pigments, and some of my faves in recent years have been the multidimensional synthetic fluorophylogopite formulas. 

Don't be scared off by the name. These are synthetic pigments which have a slight edge over natural mica in the sense that they have stronger shine, beautiful translucence, and can be shaped in a spherical way to give holographic effects in nail polishes and eye shadows. They're also used in lots of glosses. Natural mica pigments are unable to throw off so much shine and color when blended with other pigments. They often get muddy and dull. But not these synthetic ones.

Which makes them FANTASTIC for layering over other shadows or mixing into other loose shadows. And they are also great mixed into top coats and applied over other polishes. It's magic - try it.

It's hard to capture on camera; these look so much cooler in real life or when suspended in nail polish formulas. In real life, Luna Blue shifts from rosy-violet to blue to teal. I couldn't capture that on camera swatched on the skin, but I did manage to get a shot below where Luna Blue is throwing off 2 shades (blue and green) at least. You can probably see all 3 colors by looking at the sacket above; rose (center), green (bottom), and blue (top) tones.

This is what makes them different from natural duochrome/interference mica, which can only reflect 1 different color.

Synthetic Mica is more expensive than natural mica. It's $15 for a 1oz bag, compared to other pigments which can cost only a few dollars. But most people will typically only need to get a sample size sachet, which costs $2.95 and will last you ages and ages. Highly recommend you check it out if you love playing with fairy dust.

This type of sparkly mica will dust off your skin easily, so especially if you're layering it over other shadows I suggest dampening your finger in something like an alcohol-free toner, then dabbing it in a small amount of pigment, and gently rubbing and pressing it onto your lid. This helps the pigment to adhere instead of all falling off onto your cheeks, and also helps you get a more intense shine right where you need it.

In this look, I actually have a deep dark brown shadow on most of my lids and a bronze gold around the socket and inner corners.

I rubbed Luna Blue around just the center of my lids and along my lower lash line (I love the dewy sparkly gleam below the eyes), and left my inner and outer corners alone.

This gives a very unique, hard to describe effect, because you have a warm smoky eye, but depending on the angle of the light, your shadow will suddenly shift to blue, then back to bronze, then to teal, then sometimes violet.

Absolute magic.

There are 5 shades in the Moon Dust collection, and I love all of them. You can go on the site to search for individual colors but I recommend getting a whole set of sachets for just USD$12.

Dior Fall 2015 Cosmopolite Collection Eye Product Swatches plus Addict Fluid Shadow Review

Dior's launched 6 Fluid Shadows with their latest Autumn 2015 Cosmopolité Collection. The items that took my attention immediately were obviously the Fluid Shadows, which are something new to the brand.

These six shades come in the usual Dior Addict tubes with the Dior button on the top, and often get mistaken for lipglosses because of the 3 rosy tones (petal, burgundy, and violet) in the collection.

Dior Addict Fluid Shadows in 275, 875, 825, 655, 025, 545

Now there are different ways you can use this. If you dab it on with your finger, you get a very sheer translucent sheen. But if you want intensity, stroke it on straight from the tube using the brush, and then lightly tap and blend out the edges. You have a reasonable amount of time to pat and blend before they set, but they do go to a powder finish so don't work too slowly.

If you want to layer, wait until the first layer is completely dry first, then dab on a second coat, but be careful to dab instead of rubbing when blending the second coat or you can end up dissolving and shifting the bottom layer.

You can layer shadows on top of these, but I think it's a bit of a waste to buy something so shiny just to cover it up. I would recommend just applying a deeper shadow (like the matte brown I used below) along the socket line to add some definition and transition, but to leave the liquid shadows to shine.

For the finished look below, I applied the 825, the pale pink liquid shadow, then a matte brown powder shadow along the socket line, before dabbing 875, the deep wine-red shade to the outer corners. Then finally, I used a small liner brush to apply more of the deep red along the lash line as a subtle liner.

I've worn these out an entire day with no creasing, but then I don't have oily lids, so I can't speak to its lasting power for those who do. It did hold up rather well for me in any case. I would never consider these ultra-longwear products though. They are relatively easy to remove with makeup remover so I'd consider these more special occasion makeup than all-day every-day products. 

I do recommend these worn opaque rather than sheer, because there's not much point to investing in something like this and not getting the full effect from it. You can use it as a base, but do note that these set to a powder finish and will not grab onto shadows extremely well after that, so if you want them to hold your powder shadows in place, you need to apply your powders before the liquids set too much.

But if you ask me, I wouldn't see these as a base at all. These give plenty of drama to your lids, and powders blend well over and around them, so I would use them as accent colors when you want your lids to really glimmer and sparkle.

The Autumn Winter 2015 Cosmopolité Collection features the above eye products; 6 Dior Addict Fluid Shadows (SGD$53) and two 5 Couleur Palettes ($104), which have an intensity and pigmentation that is actually much higher even than the regular 5 Couleur palettes. I have to admit I prefer the usual quilted embossing but when I swatched these I was quite impressed.

 I did end up picking up 766 Exuberante from the collection. The mix of neutrals and a pop of intense royal blue really appeals to me. There are more options for day and night looks with this palette, versus 866. You can get softer looks with the plum toned palette, but the options are a bit more limited because you wouldn't be able to create any warm-toned looks with it.

NARS Christopher Kane Collection

Here's a quick overview of and first impressions of some products from the NARS x Christopher Kane collection, which launches in Singapore in June. 

First off, the packaging is gorgeous, with the NARS logo in metallic fuchsia.

And the collection is filled with sparkly colors that sort of remind me of Northern Lights. Glowy duochrome violets and greens, beiges and corals. All these colors might look really intense in the packaging, but are designed to just give you a veil of translucnet color and texture. 

Here are the items that I received for review and the swatches for your reference.

I do have to point out that I like the Parallel Universe duo a lot more than the mono shadow, Outer Limits, which was a bit of a disappointment for me.

In the pan, it looks like it would be almost a creamy, intense sparkle shade, but it really has a dry, coarse texture that will just dust right off your skin. You can use it on top of other shadows as an over-coat but I find the best overcoats have silicone binders in them to make them adhere on top of other dry shadows. This one is just dry, so it does not want to stay on top of other powders. My recommendation is to apply it damp, like below, as that gives you more of a sheen and you can better control where the shimmer goes. Otherwise, it all just ends up on your cheeks after an hour.

Another item that was somewhat disappointing was the Multiple in Violet Atom. This is a lavender shade that looks SO beautiful in the tube, and I love the formulation of the newer Multiples (more silky, less sticky and greasy than the older versions). But it's so subtle that it almost can't be seen once it's blended into the skin.

Below, it looks visible, but that's straight from the tube, before blending out. Once you rub out the edges, it kinda melds into your skin. Which is good if you like an ultra-subtle look. But then it's so subtle that you won't be able to see ANY of that lavender-green duochrome color. You just get a very, very soft glow. It's still pretty of course. But I kinda feel that for the price, it should not look that subtle.

But overall, you can see from my swatches that everything is very ethereal and soft. These products work best layered lightly over other products and bases.

In my look below, I applied a tiny layer of grey cream shadow to the outer corners of the eyes and used Parallel Universe on top of it, with the beige-green over the grey, and the lavender on the inner half of the lids. On the cheeks and down my nose, I have the Multiple in Violet Atom (it's barely visible), as well as Adoration from the Dual Intensity blush range, which I - adore.
On the lips I have Nebulous lipgloss.

I did have to apply a grey cream base to portions of my lid and then apply the shadows on top of it for the shading and definition I want. Like a lot of the NARS duos, there is no "definer/highlight" shade. Which isn't a problem for me because I tend to treat all the shades in my duos and palettes as individual shadows that I can mix and match with other stuff, not necessarily with the other colors in the same palette. But I know some of you hate that and want palettes and duos to be a "complete" look.

What do you think of the products? Love em or leave em?

Romantic Contoured Lavender

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Lavender is a universally-flattering color for most eye and skin colors, and I always consider it one of those shades that functions like a neutral because it goes with everything and everyone. A contoured, pearlescent lavender eye like this one can look sultry and dreamy at the same time (as seen on Jessica Rabbit), AND you can change the entire look just by switching out your lip color.

Some tips:

• What you want to be careful of, if you have uneven skin tone or a lot of red/pink in your skin, is to pick purples that lean more silver or blue. 
• If you have mature lids, go with slightly less metallic/shimmery shadows than I used because a high-sheen can emphasize lines.
• If you have very dark skin, pick a purple that is richer and stronger as a soft pastel can look chalky
• If you are layering it over a grey/silver base like I did here (See below), remember that you need to go with a slightly more pink-toned shade than you want because the blue undertones in the grey base will make a purple look blue. 

I used the 88 Shimmer palette, but you can find soft pinks and purples EVERYWHERE so don't feel you need to purchase a brand new palette for this.

Step 1: Apply your base all over the lid up to the socket line, but don't wing it out at the outer corners. You want to keep the eye shape quite round and doe-like for this.

Then use a small brush to run the grey cream shadow along the outer half of the lower lash line as well. (I used Maybelline Color Tattoo in Audacious Asphalt.)

Step 2: From the 88 Shimmer palette, I picked a lavender and cool pink in the 2 center columns and mixed them together on a brush.

Then I applied this mixture onto the outer half of the lids, below. As you can see the mixture goes on a straight lavender because the grey cancels out the pink/red tones. If I'd used just the purple, my shadow would look almost blue.

 

Step 3: Next I picked a warm-toned paler pink and applied that onto the inner half of the lids, blending into the pink-purple from earlier. Bring this down the inner corners to the lower lid as well. This creates a brightness at the inner corners of your eye, and is great if you have close-set eyes.

Step 4: To finish the shadow, just apply a little charcoal or black shadow right to the outer corners. I did not bother to sweep it upwards along the socket line but if you have hooded or mono-lids and want to emphasize your socket a bit more, you can do that.

Step 5: For extra definition at the lash line, I applied a thin line of black pencil to the outer half of the lids and then used the same shadow brush from earlier to soften and blend it out.

Then I finished with black mascara.

Step 6: Because I'm going with a cooler toned lip for this look, I chose a raspberry pink blush. Try something like Nyx Pinky which looks like a super-bright fuchsia, but goes on quite pretty. If you want you can apply just a little matte bronzer around the edges of your face and temples, jawline to add some dimension back to your face.

Step 7: For the lips, you have the option of using a soft pastel blue-based pink like Revlon's Strawberry Shortcake Lip Butter, OR you can apply a deep dark liver-red (MAC Diva). The dark lip instantly turns the look into a rather "Noir" one, and I didn't touch the eyeshadow or the blush at all.