YSL Rouge Pur Couture Glossy Stain paper swatches

Remember how I love these? (Still do, and I can now report that a few day's wear doesn't worsen the condition of my picky lips.) They are now available to buy from Sephora.com for those in the US, and have also been released in several European countries (Ireland, Germany and Denmark for sure). In the UK they will remain exclusive to Selfridges until Feburary.

To help you early adopters and online shoppers (my brethren and sistren!), here are the paper swatches I was kindly allowed to make at my counter... which didn't receive a tester of #19. But huzzah the blogosphere, you can see that one on beautIE, which also reports that shades #2 and #20 are limited edition.

paper swatches, natural light

Purple: #1 Violet Edition is a cool, vampy plum. #4 Mauve Pigmente is a wamer, more muted berry. #16 Poupre Preview a bright, cool pinky orchid-purple.

Brown: #2 Brun Glace is a dark warm brick red, #3 Brun Cachemire a cooler browned rose.

Pink/Rose: #5 Rouge Vintage is a deep romantic rose, #17 Encre Rose a blue-based bubblegum rose and #18 Rose Pastelle a soft rosy nude.
#11 Rouge Philtre is a bright reddish fuchsia and #14 Fuchsia Dore is cooler, more muted and more purple.
#12 Corail Fauve is an fluoro-bright coral pink, #13 Rose Tempera a bright coolish rosy pink, #15 Rose Vinyl a warmer and clearer watermelon pink.

Orange/Coral: #6 Camel Croisiere is the warmest, a brownish rust. #7 Corail Aquatique a muted, slightly dusty orange. #8 Orange de Chine is a no-holds-barred, juicy clear orange.

Red: #9 Rouge Lacque is bright, clear, and warm. #10 Rouge Philtre is bright, clear and cool. #20 Rouge Enamel is neutral and more muted than the other two.

A closer look at the reds (what? you all know my ways by now...)

natural light with flash -- a much better representation of the texture. They're all this lacquered.

For my Violet Edition lipswatch and FOTD, click here.

Highlighters -- rambles and swatches

To bring a little light into your Friday the thirteenths, highlighters to complete this series of RBR swatches and to supplement my earlier post about base makeup.

I was born with very dry skin with absolutely no natural glow, and a perverse and stubborn nature. This means that I've been trying to fake a glow for over a decade -- coupled with my extreme pickiness and absolute intolerance of any visible shimmer on my face (in direct sunlight, viewed in a magnifying mirror), this means in fact that I've also been failing to fake a glow for over a decade.

You name the illuminating product, and I'll bet you a lipstick I've tried it and found fault with it.

Then, with a suitably fairytale twist, came Rouge Bunny Rouge Seas of Illumination highlighters. And they are simply perfect. Extremely blendable cucumbers-and-roses-scented light liquids, they offer a wide range of finishes and effects used alone and mix very well with foundations/primers or with eyeshadows. Fellow tinkerers and makeup 'rules' breakers may like to know that they layer excellently OVER as well as under powders.

I own Sea of Clouds and Sea of Tranquility (two on the left), and the liquid bronzer As If It Were Summer Still (on the right). The two pots in the middle are Sea of Showers and Sea of Nectar, free samples (!) ordered from zuneta.

Paper swatches, natural light with flash

I found these beauties impossible to swatch realistically without becoming totally invisible to my camera, so first up we have some moderately heavy swatches:

natural light with flash

dark with flash

And then, some extremely heavy swatches, using about ten times my usual amount. Seriously, a faint breeze would leave ripples in these stripes.

natural light with flash

dark with flash

Notice how the bronzer texture is even more refined than that of the highlighters? And its total lack of orange/ruddy tones even in the stupidly heavy swatch? Even at my wintry palest, I can use this ALL OVER MY FACE, yo. I know people from NW5 to NC40 who love it equally. Magic.

It's taken me over a year of using these highlighters almost daily to decide, but I now think the RBR Seas are uniquely effective because of the refinement, variety and complexity of the shimmer particles within, and the way they're integrated into the opalescent bases. Most highlighters rely on:

1. all-out bling through glitter (Nars multiples, Lunasol illuminating powders and most of the MUFE uplights and Armani fluid sheers)
2. densely-packed, finely-milled metallic frost (Laura Mercier Rose Rendezvous, Dior Amber/Rose Diamond, Bobbi Brown Shimmerbricks)
3. a shimmer-free glossy 'wet' look or sheen (MAC cream colour bases or strobe, Benefit Moon Beam, other Armani fluid sheers, Illamasqua Lies).

The first two finishes don't work for me because I'm a shimmerphobe (except for eyes) and my skin texture is not up to having every bump, flake, pore and hair magnified. The third, while superficially the most attractive option, doesn't work either, because:

1. I'm not vapid/fabulous enough to walk around with my face angled precisely just so that they catch the light (I save that for FOTDs, ahem)
2. highlighting down the centre of my face is more flattering than tops-of-cheekbones-and-browbones. A 'sexy' glossy effect usually just translates as 'greasy' when it's manifesting down someone's nose, forehead and inner cheeks.
3. this one also took ages to work out, but for a highlighter to actually highlight (add dimension as well as glow), it needs to be noticeably paler than my skin. Most sheeny products blend out to a clear glossiness -- great for photography, when that contrast will translate as dimension, but not enough for real life (especially subject to the vagaries of London sun, flourescent supermarket/office lighting etc.)

My collection is subsequently very highly edited. Firstly, whites.

Rouge Bunny Rouge Sea of Clouds (refined shimmer)

MAC Cream Colour Base Luna (sheen)*

Illamasqua powder blush Intrigue (matte)

Shiseido Luminizing Satin Face Colour WT905 High Beam White (satin)

natural light

dark with flash

You may have to do some monitor angling to see these -- sorry! MAC Luna is starred because it didn't make the final cut -- too similar to Shiseido HB White which I prefer. It is however hopefully useful to see how the sheen of Luna throws back light in a more solid way than the delicate shimmer of RBR, which is much more flattering on imperfections (like the complex light-reflecting particles in such cult undereye illuminators like Touche Eclat). Illamasqua Intrigue looks a little chalky here, and honestly it kind of is, but you need so little of this pigmented stark white that the chalkiness doesn't really translate on to the face.

Next, pinks:

RBR Sea of Tranquility (refined shimmer)

Guerlain Parure de Nuit LE holiday 2011 (satin)

Shiseido Luminzing Satin Face Colour PK107 Medusa (satin)*

natural light

dark with flash

Guerlain is the palest and subtlest once the overspray has been thoroughly swept off (it looks just off-white here, but is a very pale pink in reality), and the only one I use as a highlighter. As I've said before, Shiseido Medusa functions more like a blush topcoat/mixer for me, while RBR Tranquility is mainly a foundation-mixer/colour-correcting primer, enabling me to wear more pink- and red-based shades.

Long post is long. But hopefully somewhat helpful.

Post script down under:
My favourite highlighters before discovering RBR were by Becca. I completely agree with this excellent review on visionarybeauty -- the finer microglitter particles in Becca Shimmering Skin Perfectors are more densely packed and uniform, so while they swatch 'better', they look less refined and flattering than RBR in practice.

Stash Swatch: Rouge Bunny Rouge Eyes Part 2

Now for my less-complete collections of RBR cream eyeshadows, loose pigments and pencil liners, neatly composed of three of each.

I've also owned and loved their Quartz liquid liner/eyeshadow in Tiger Eye Essence (blackened old gold shimmer) but at £27 for a dainty pot I blazed through in about three months (admittedly used profligately, Liz-Taylor-Cleopatraly even...) they proved too rich for my blood. Perhaps if you were an occasional liquid liner wearer after something unusual and of RBR's usual stellar quality...

Pencil Liners

These come in two formulas, the sharpenable pencil Eye Kohls and automatic twist-up (but not back down) Long-Lasting Eye Pencils. Both formulas are extremely creamy (so that they apply with no tugging and blend smoothly for use as cream bases even on my dry eyelids) and offer exceptionally long wear once set; the Long-Lasting Eye Pencils are on par with KATE gel liner, the Eye Kohls are only slightly less impressive, and last longer than any other pencil formula on my allergy-ridden, contact-wearing waterline. The operative difference is that the kohls are waterline-safe and the automatics are not.

Swatches, from left to right:
Long-Lasting Eye Pencil Calypso inky black with cool blue and white shimmer
Long-Lasting Eye Pencil Lola rich but cool(!) brown with brighter copper shimmer
Eye Kohl Vera smooth metallic iris on a blackened base

Paper swatches, flash

Arm swatches, natural light

Arm swatches, flash

The natural light swatches are most true-to-life -- the shimmer in these usually read as a subtle sheen (the ultimate work-appropriate neutrals-with-a-kick).

Loose Glitter Pigments

Unlike every other species of loose pigment in my experience (MAC pigments, Barry M Dazzle Dusts, Fyrinnae shadows, MUFE Diamond Dust, Bare Escentuals and other mineral brands), these paradoxically creamy, finely-milled loose shadows apply and stay all day on the lids without any kind of base or special technique. Even with my dry skin, I experience no fallout from these applied onto a bare lid.

As many other reviewers have mentioned, you should probably disregard the word 'glitter' as well as the word 'loose' in the title... these are ultra-refined shimmers on skin, less sparkly than some of RBR's pressed shadows.

Swatches from left to right:
Caress of Mink cool taupe base with warm copper and burgundy shimmer
Night-Wind Sailing cool steel grey base slightly warmed by silver and pink shimmer
Wishing for Wings neutral silver-mauve-taupe

Arm swatches, natural light (most colour-accurate)

Arm swatches, flash (showing how complex they can look)

Cream Eyeshadows

are a fairly substantial sub-addiction of mine; as with red lipsticks, violet perfumes, or pale foundations, a new formula usually ends up on my arm before the end of release week.

It's been a year since RBR came out with their Silk Aether creams, packaged with fuzzy doefoot applicators in airtight black plastic tubes. Having tried all the shades and finished two tubes since, they remain absolutely unique in my experience -- weightless, blendable satin-mattes with the subtlest microshimmer that works, oddly, to refract light away from imperfections rather than attract attention.

Swatches from left to right:
Batiste Grayling neutral mid-tone grey satin, gets warmer with more layers
Velvet Fritillary muted grey-khaki, gets warmer and more yellow/green with more layers
Atlas Swallowtail rosy taupe, gets cooler and more pewter with more layers

Paper swatches, flash

Sheer swatch, natural light

Heavier swatch, flash

I no longer own Chiffon Ringlet (rich copper-mauve brown) as it was too dark for a lid shade and I prefer my liners glossier and more pigmented in one swipe. I finished my tube of Brocade Skipper (neutral yellow-beige) as it was excellent for evening out any redness on my eyelids; however, that shade was not unique enough to repurchase, unlike Atlas Swallowtail -- its pewter flash is more evident on my eyes than my arm and it's one of the few neutrals I find complex enough to wear alone as a wash with some liner.

The three shades I've kept are all on the murky side, and work better as crease shades for me, so  it's especially nice that these layer flawlessly over powder eyeshadows as well as under them.

Stash Swatch: Rouge Bunny Rouge Eyes Part 1

I adore RBR eyeshadows (pressed, cream and loose), and have recently fallen for their liners too, so decided to split these swatches into two parts.

First up, pressed eyeshadows. There are some variations in finish and pigmentation across the shades but what does not vary is the richly creamy texture, smooth true-to-pan application and comfortable wear these offer. Versatility too: each shade provides a range of effects, applying equally well with fingers, firm/fluffy/natural/synthetic brushes, and mixed with water (you can dip damp brushes straight into the pan without harm), highlighters or mattifying primers. (More on this in future.)

As always, click to enlarge pics.

Solstice Halcyon was my first attempt at depotting RBR (er, not that can you tell, readers of exquisite tact that you are...) The rest went far more smoothly. If you want to depot these, I'd recommend the candle+poking method and absolutely on no account the alcohol+jimmying method.

Paper swatches, natural light

Grey Go-Away Lourie, Chestnut-Napped Apalis and Papyrus Canary are all mattes. You all know I like glitter, but honestly my magpiedom extends to all the pretty makeups, it's just harder to find mattes that flatter my dry skin. RBR make my favourite formula: ultra-pigmented, creamy (yeah, that word again) powders which are both blendable and buildable for a variety of effects. They kick Shu, Addiction, Edward Bess, MAC Matte2 and Urban Decay to the curb. Unfortunately the shade range currently consists solely of workhorse neutrals.

Solstice Halcyon is a satin taupe, one of those subtle, complex chameleon neutrals that make beauty devotees swoon'n'stampede and leave casual makeup wearers utterly bemused.

Abyssinian Catbird, Angelic Cockatiels and Unforgettable Oriole are metallics, not a finish I'm too fond of, as the usual 'foiled' look (think Urban Decay or Dior) tends to make my hooded eyes look puffy and tired. However, RBR seem to have mastered the trick of Asian brands like Shu or Addiction in injecting enough complexity and shimmery light-refraction along with metallic reflection to obviate this.

The rest are shimmers, Delicate Hummingbird and Mysterious Tinamou are as pigmented as the metallics; Mountain Bluebird, Resplendant Quetzal and Periwinkle Cardinal somewhat sheerer.

Arm swatches, natural light (more colour-accurate)

Arm swatches, flash (better representation of texture)

RBR's own shade descriptions are usually spot-on and far better than other brands' offerings, but I've added some notes along with the abbreviation key as to how these wear on me.
Delicate Hummingbird alternately dusty-and-jewelled neutral purple
Solstice Halcyon plummy taupe with a balanced base of yellow and pink
Mysterious Tinamou deep jewelled blue on a blackened green base
Mountain Bluebird clear sky blue with gold and silver shimmer
Periwinkle Cardinal cool dusty sage green with gold and silver shimmer
Resplendent Quetzal RBR calls this "delicate" and it is indeed a clear pastel green between lime and grass; do not go in expecting an acid bright
Abyssinian Catbird cool bronze with green and gold patina
Angelic Cockatiels rich honeyed peach with cooler gold reflects
Unforgettable Oriole balanced neutral white gold
Grey Go-Away Lourie warm smoky grey with a hint of plum
Chestnut-Napped Apalis neutral yellow-based mid-tone brown (slightly cooler and deeper than MAC Wedge or Urban Decay Naked)
Papyrus Canary neutral yellow-based beige