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Thursday, 2 February 2012

Heresy

Those of a sensitive disposition should probably look away now.

I wonder what these holes do?

Repeat seven times....

Left to Right (all are from the permanent Blend Colour Eyeshadow quad range):
01 Kakitsubata
02 Kokedama
07 Komorebi

(And yeah, I picked my klassiest Z-palette.)

Worry not, the whole process took less than five minutes and no heat, and these can be repotted at any time:

But it IS cool to see at a glance the differences between the base shades, or the various purples.

Now to work out what to do with the five older quads, with their peskily uneven pan sizes...
(Blend quad 10 Sakuragi, discontinued)

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Suqqu Blend Eyeshadow Quad 08 Mizuaoi

Released for Autumn 2011, 08 Mizuaoi (along with 07 Komorebi) joined the permanent line-up of Suqqu palettes but contains a slightly tweaked set of finishes from quads 01-06. The top left shade is a moderately pigmented iridescent shimmer, and the top right is a sheerer iridescent shimmer. The bottom left 'lining' shade is no longer a matte but a very pigmented satin, with very fine multi-tonal micro-shimmer. The bottom right is still the standard matte primer/base.
Overall, they give a more translucent, shimmery and complex look than the first six quads.

08 Mizuaoi 水葵 is named for the aquatic plant Monochoria korsakowii.
image from なごみの花屋さん blog, which has more.

In typical Suqqu fashion, the eyeshadows manage to convey not just the dusty purple shade of the flowers but also their aquatic setting, and how the play of light on water (the theme of a previous Suqqu collection, kirari) can refract the purple into shimmering facets of blue and pink.

Er... anyway. Swatches. As always, one swipe with a sponge applicator.
Natural light, sunny
angled to bring out multi-hued shimmer
natural light, shade
The purple is a pigmented satin with extremely fine pink and blue microshimmer scattered throughout. The blue has equally fine microshimmer, in various iridescent hues of blue and grey, with the occasional hint of pink. The pink has the largest shimmer particles (which are still very refined and completely undetectable by feel), distributed more sparsely within the oyster pink base, of yellow, green, copper and (very occasionally) blue. Each shade contains aspects of the others, and the play of light on water ripples back and forth between them.

Layered swatches, from left to right:
  1. all shades
  2. blue + pink
  3. purple + blue
  4. purple + pink
natural light with flash
natural light, shade

Looks
1. White as base, pink lightly all over the lid with purple to line. Blue very lightly in the inner corner and more heavily (with a firm brush) to line the bottom lashline. Basically, just like they did it in the ad.
Other products: Suqqu Cream Glow lipstick 02 Kyoganoko, Balancing Cheeks 01 Momozoe and Nuancing Loose Powder Natural. Helena Rubinstein Fatal Blacks wp mascara.
Usual base products: Shu SP, KA SSE, EF concealer, KATE brow gel.

2. A hazy look with all the shades smudged together all over the lid and taken under the eye, slightly more of the pink in the crease, and slightly more of the blue at the outer corner.
Other products: Suqqu Creamy Glow lipstick 06 Umegasumi, RBR Gracilis blush, Shiseido High Beam White highlighter, Helena Rubinstein Fatal Blacks wp mascara. Usual base.

3. A sharper look, going against the grain of the watercolour dreaminess of the quad -- I know this isn't ideal on my face/eyeshape (and I was deciding whether the keep/purge the blush and lip) but it does show how warm a look you can pull out of the quad, even when arbitrarily using all the shades for the purposes of a blog review...
Pink all over the lid, applied more heavily than in look #1 and brought higher up, with purple to line. Blue lightly in the middle of the lid and lower lashline.
(I promise the inner liner doesn't stop totally randomly, it fades into my crease with my eyes fully open.)
Other products: Addiction Suspicious cheekstick on lips and cheeks, RBR Sea of Tranquility highlighter, Helena Rubinstein Feline Blacks wp mascara. Usual base.

Monday, 30 January 2012

Linklings of spring

Could be just a case of the grass-is-always greener, but I've found myself uninspired by all of the new releases I've been able to see and swatch in real life, and trawling the net for reports of Japan-exclusive pretties instead.

Of Addiction's new offerings the dusty, washed-out pastel eyeshadows caught my attention early on. Birkingbeautybag has an excellent review and swatches of 059P Tiny Shell.
@Cosme user emo8 posted swatches of 061P Midnight Drive and 063P Sand Martin here, both of which seem on the shimmery rather than satin side of Addiction's Pearl formula.
Another @Cosme member, *♪ゆうこ♪* (er... sic) has swatches of (from top to bottom): 059P Tiny Shell, 061P Midnight Drive, 062P Mariage, and Silent Scream here.
From other reviews, it seems that Mariage is a very sheer topcoat, with large glitter flecks set in a clear (and cream? or creamy powder) base.

Based on these swatches, none of these shades seem tempting enough to make up one of my twelve products this year. I would love to hear from any eagle-eyed readers who've seen other pictures though...

The more lemmings fall, the larger the few remaining ones loom. Currently dwarfing all others are the (admittedly ridiculous, I care not, la!) Ladurée blushes.
A Blissful Living has an excellent launch-day report (how I miss the East Asian openness to new and shiny trends and inordinately long queues for them -- waiting for the replacement bus after your tube train spits you out at a random stop aint quite the same somehow...). I'm also incredibly envious of those, like Hana-san, who also attended, and scored two of the three limited edition miniature rose-petal blushes (they look pigmented! yay!)
The official site is live, and has pictures of the different shades. And if you click a swatch, it will provide you with the individual ingredients list for that colour, très moderne. Unfortunately the cream eggs (what?) seem to be sheer blush bases rather than cream blushes proper, but the shade range of the cameos is truly swoon-worthy and I can't decide between:


Finally, the Suqqu Spring micro-site is up, with product pics and the obligatory making-of video and random downloadables. According to the sales associate I spoke to today, the collection won't be launching in the UK until March. (In my shock I blurted, "but surely you can't be serious..." but no "don't call me Shirley" was forthcoming. So I think she was. Woecake.)