Shu Uemura Prestigious Bordeaux Liberation and Comparisons

Firstly, darkly depotting Dora. Thanks to a comment from Stephanie, I set to without the aid of heat and was done in all of half a minute. All you need is a sanitised pair of tweezers. :)

1. Push down gently on the metal pan at one corner of your victim cruelly imprisoned pigment longing to be free.

2. The glue is so weak this should tilt the opposite angle up:

3. Pinch that exposed pan edge at the tilted-up corner between your tweezers and pull up and out:

4. Repeat.

These pans are tiny, by the way, two-thirds the size of the Colour Atelier singles.

Comparisons

Random grab-bag of swatches: each pan against the closest / vaguely similar ones in the rest of my collection. Overall I was very pleased to find I didn't really have 'dupes' for any of these colours, and the closest whole palette I own to this -- THREE 4D Eye Palette in 04 Art of Parties -- isn't very similar at all.

On to the single comparisons!

Top Left (Purple)

natural light, full sun

Fyrinnae Cuddlefish and Shinigami

Prestigious Bordeaux

Sonia Rykiel Mousse Eyeshadow 04 (also swatched here)

Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Illusoire

Paul&Joe Eye Gloss Duo B 03 Depth (limited edition)

THREE Flash Performance Liner 04 Eye Belong (also here) 

Top Right (Bronze)

Rouge Bunny Rouge Automatic Pencil Lola (also here)

Fyrinnae STFU

Prestigious Bordeaux

Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Ebloui

Middle Left (Pink)

Fyrinnae Cupcake Frosting and Meerkat

Shu Uemura G Pink 135

Suqqu Blend 08 Mizuaoi top left (review/swatch)

Prestigious Bordeaux

KATE Deep Trap Eyes PK-1 far right (also here)

RBR Sleeping Under A Mandarin Tree and Capricious Nightingale

Middle Right (Rosy Brown)

natural light, sunny

RBR Bohemian Waxwing (also here)

Suqqu Blend 07 Komorebi top left

Fyrinnae Kurisumasu!

Prestigious Bordeaux

NYX Jumbo Pencil Yoghurt

Bottom Left (Gold)

Prestigious Bordeaux

RMK SH-01 Shiny Brown Gold

Barry M Dazzle Dust 101 Buff

RBR Sleeping Under A Mandarin Tree and Eaten All the Cherries

Shu Uemura G Orange 251

THREE Shimmering Colour Veil 20 Ziggy

Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions, Gilded Wings and Bastet

Bottom Right (Red)

natural light, angled

Shiseido RD103 Petal [the most shimmery of all of these]

RBR Florita (also here and here)

Prestigious Bordeaux

Dolce and Gabbana Sole (review)

Flappy Halloween

This is very small beer compared to the plight of those in Sandyland -- may you and your loved ones stay safe, warm and online -- but my personal woecake is that I'm spending Halloween at home this year D: owing a little bit to inclement weather but mostly to incompetent friends who couldn't throw a party if they had a Fisher Price grenade launcher. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

Although the grumpy old woman within me is secretly kind of glad since a) it is wet, windy and cold, b) I haz far too many treats and like to stay close for embezzling convenience, and c) getting done up in an ambitious costume is a wee bit less appealing after a long work day than it used to be after a school day....

But Halloween is still my second favourite holiday (obvs Guy Fawkes' is the depotter's holiday) so I cobbled something together in which to open the door, from random bits I had in the closet...

...but mainly from Shu Uemura Prestigious Bordeaux -- oh yes, for we are still in a proper torrid death-shall-not-us-part clinch. (Which is much less scary now that I've freed the delicious pans from Vampire Dora's pernicious grip -- more on that later.)

Pot: Barry M Dazzle Dust 84 Cherry Red
Pans all Shu: Top two and bottom right pans from Prestigious Bordeaux, ME 786, G745
Tubes: Rouge Bunny Rouge Lola automatic eye pencil, Angels' Play eye gloss, YSL Glossy Stain 9 Rouge Lacque

Turban, brooch and pearls are all cheapy charity shop toys.

Inspiration: Moon of My Delight (Henry Clive, 1934) via captainspaceburger

Look

My camera freaked out a bit over all the glitter so I couldn't get a proper eye close-up -- this is the most in-focus eye shot I managed:

PRODUCTS

Angel's Play as base to get a little of that oil-slickness from HC's brushstrokes.
Prestigious Bordeaux purple on the inner and outer v, blended out with ME786, brought higher up at the inner corner for that partly rounded '30s shape.
Lola smudged along lashline and outer v, and blended out with the Prestigious Bordeaux bronze.
Lower lashline: PB bronze from outside in and ME786 from the inside out.
Dab of Cherry Red in inner corner, and G745 on centre of mobile lid.
PB red blush on the very upper edge of cheekbones.
Rouge Lacque on lips (1 coat).


Obviously I didn't bother with period brows or falsies :P So just used my usual Browlash EX Natural Brown pencil to curve the ends of my brows down a bit more, and L'Oreal Telescopic False Lash WP mascara applied at an angle to pull my lashes towards the outer corners.

Base: Laura Mercier Silk Creme Soft Ivory + Suki CC Cream Purple mix, RBR Sea of Clouds. I skipped undereye concealer because lazy ghoulish!


I may be handing out E-number-filled crap, but be assured I will be regaling all unfortunate children with a lecture on 1920s/30s makeup, which is, like, totally brain food :P

New and Notorious

This is a very similar look to yesterday's, but with glossy textures instead of mattes -- I've been in a bit of a neutral-eye-rosy/berry-lip rut of late, and am going to post this right on the heels of the last both to illustrate said rut [er...again], and also because people have asked to see the specific products I used in action.

Because two are new and shiny:

Lunasol Sheer Glossy Eyes EX-01 Nuance Grey (limited edition)

and YSL Glossy Stain #25 Fuchsia Neo-Classic, one of the six new shades (swatched by Rouge Deluxe)

....and t'other is Notorious. Aka Chanel's Joue Zombie. Recently Miss Lizzie of Glossed in Translation has complained that pigments look unrealistically pretty on my skin...well I call LIES because this powder looks so much better on her. As on Xiao of Messy Wands.
There may be a future blogpost in this if/when I acquire actual Knowledges, but it does seem to be true that my skin is some kind of cosmetic Switzerland, dry, clear and neutral, on which the vast majority of colours and textures read true.

if you can't see the shimmer, click to enlarge

See that microshimmer in the pan? It's very fine, but my, it's plentiful. Every rave blog review has sworn it doesn't translate onto their skin; well, it shows up clearly on mine. Even if you don't share my personal bias against visible shimmer in face products, I think it's pretty widely accepted as a bad plan to have face contour that sparkles like a tinsel-miniskirted starlet desperate for attention...

The other major selling point of this Joue Contraste [uh, assuming we are bein Rational Consumers and putting aside stuff like "new thing" or "limited edition zomg" or "TAUPE"] is the colour: a warm grey. About which I have no bad things to say. A too-cool grey would really read as zombielicious on most, a too-warm taupe would easily tip into orange territory for those of us who already find shadowing shades tricky to shop for; this is an excellent balance, and in Chanel's dryish, sheerish, blendable powder, relatively beginner-friendly.

Here it is against some of my other contouring options:
Burberry Earthy (original review)
Catrice Starlight Espresso and Grey's Philosophy (original swatches), which I mix together
Illamasqua Primal (discontinued holy grail D:)

natural light, shade

Okay, obviously Earthy no longer works on me now that my tan has faded and I'm back in cold London winter light :P Texture-wise, Notorious is the only product to make my arm look were-hairy and patchy and freakishly goose-pimply. And that, my friends, is what a dry texture and visible shimmer does to my dry skin.

To make the Chanel shimmer, visible to my naked eye, register on camera, I used flash:

dark room, direct flash

and cunning angling:

natural light, indirect sun

...so I hope you can see what I mean. Because I nearly fell down the stairs getting that last shot.

Sure, it's not Nars-Multiple obvious. I don't think most people would register it as shimmer, they'd probably just think I was rocking some killer porous sideburns with that red lipstick.... But it bugs me. A lot. And I can get a similar shade by mixing 6Euros' worth of eyeshadows with a finer texture, when my beloved Illamasqua finally runs out :'( Which is possibly kind of never, because despite meaning to get all skilled and stuff, I hardly ever bother to contour, so don't improve, so rarely bother....

In case the subtext isn't coming across clearly: despite all this, I STILL WANT THE DAMN ZOMBIE BLUSH. It looks awesome as eyeshadow. Also, TAUPE.

Chanel Notorious under cheekbones and on eyes (outer v and socket), unblended

Blended....ish. I rarely contour, okay.

EYES Lunasol Sheer Glossy Eyes EX01 Nuance Grey over lid and onto lower lashline -- please note this is layered underneath Notorious on my outer v, pulling it greyer. Notorious is on its own in my socket, and looks more taupe, as it does under my cheekbone. L'Oreal Telescopic False Lash WP mascara. GOSH White eye kohl.
LIPS YSL Glossy Stain 25 Fuchsia Neo-Classic (2 coats)
CHEEKS Kjaer Weiss Cream Blush Lovely
BASICS Laura Mercier Silk Cream Soft Ivory mixed with Yuki CC Cream Purple, Burberry Concealer 01. Browlash EX Natural Brown brow pencil.

Boring look is boring :P This is about the products, remember?

More boring things:
Nuance Grey was a present from a lovely friend.
Notorious was a temporary loan from another delicious friend.
Fuchsia Neo-Classic was an actual purchase, thanks to the SA who put these out early by mistake :P

Matte on Matte FOTD

Hmm, drop an E or two and that title might attract a different crowd....

Anyway, belated Becca Raspberry look, paired with an all-matte daytime smokey eye courtesy of my beloved Rouge Bunny Rouge...s. Rouge Bunnies Rouge?

Consisting of:

Automatic Pencil in Salome to line

Blackpepper Jay closest to the lashline,

Sweet Dust Seriema above that, fading into

Chestnut-Napped Apalis,

and edges blended with Bashful Flamingo 

With Becca Raspberry Beach Tint on lips and cheeks:

Other products: 

Burberry Sheer Concealer 01 under eyes

L'Oreal False Lash Telescopic WP mascara

Browlash EX Natural Brown pencil through brows

Note on Beach Tint application:

1. Shake it like a polaroid picture.
2. Squeeze out a risotto-rice-grain-sized blob onto each cheek, and on to centres of upper and lower lip.
3. Do eye makeup.
4. Blend out the cheek blobs with Illamasqua Highlighter brush, and either add a little extra dot as needed OR sheer out edges further with a clean synthetic foundation brush.
5. Work the lip-blobs into the lips in an even, thin layer using any handy clean lipbrush. Allow to set without smooshing lips together. If needed, add another thin layer over the top of the first and/or clean up edges with concealer brush.