Saturday 20 August 2011

Lancome Color Design Palette Pink Envy

This week, I've been playing with the Lancome Color Design 5 Shadow & Liner Palette in Pink Envy. I'm not usually a fan of pink eyeshadows but the inclusion of the gunmetal grey, royal purple and silvery white made the combination appealing to me.

The fives shades all look very shimmery, especially under the bright counter lights, but when applied, they actually have varying degrees of shine and sparkle. The silvery white highlighter shade is the most sparkly of the lot while the medium pink and purple shades apply with more of a satin finish. The pic above shows the palette in brand new condition, while the pic below was taken after I used the palette. The surface rubs off to reveal a less shimmery finish, as you can see from the centre of each shade where the applicator had touched.

Aside from the liner shade running across the bottom in a narrow strip, the individual pans are quite generously sized which makes for easy access. The net weight is 4g/0.141oz. The palette comes with two sponge applicators, which are functional. However, it would have been more useful to include double-ended applicators with a brush end, especially since there are five shades in the palette. I do like how chic and slim the palettes are, which makes them very travel-friendly. They are very light, but they do not feel flimsy.

For the first look, I used Too Faced Shadow Insurance as a base all over the lid and then applied the purple shade along the upper lashline, the medium pink shade in the crease and the light pink shade over the browbone area and along the lower lashline.

For the second look, I used Shiseido Shimmering Cream Eye Color WT901 Mist as the base. I applied the medium pink shade at the inner corner, the purple shade in the centre and the grey shade at the outer corner of the upper eyelid. I brushed the light pink shade over the browbone area and the shimmery white shade lightly over the upper lid and along the lower lashline. For both looks, I used Stila Sparkle Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Sequins along the upper lashline and Etude House Henna Fix Proof 10 Mascara 01 Volume.

The eyeshadows all wore well over more than 10 hours without fading or creasing. They applied smoothly but both the grey and purple shades applied sheer and required some layering. There was a bit of fallout on my cheeks with the grey shade during the application process but it was easily cleaned up. I was disappointed though that the purple shade had a greyish tone to it and didn't look like the royal purple that I had hoped for. The light pink shade has a lovely rose gold tint, but it can look too frosty on the browbone area if applied too heavily. The white shade is lovely for adding a touch of luminescence to the inner corners and lower lashline.

Overall, while I was disappointed with the darker shades in Pink Envy, I still like the combination of shades. It's a pity that these Color Design series seem to be available only in the US and Canada. There are currently 14 palettes in the series, with the newest being Golden Frenzy and Gris Fatale from the 29 St Honoré fall collection.

4 comments:

Tess said...

how is the shadow insurance compared to UDPP?

Haru said...

hi Tess,
Both Shadow Insurance and UDPP work well for me so I don't have a preference for one over the other. I think Shadow Insurance has a slightly thinner consistency than UDPP. One major drawback that UDPP used to have was the packaging but it now comes in a squeeze tube, just like Shadow Insurance.

Noniek said...

I like the color. Can you have the swatches?


http://summer-noniek.blogspot.com

Haru said...

hi Noniek,
You can see swatches by Karlasugar here:
http://karlasugar.net/2011/03/lancome-color-design-eyeshadow-quints/