Style Folder

Hello beauties!!!

As a new season is on the way, I have quite a lot of posts lined up for you for the final quarter of this month and the upcoming Spring months… Hopefully I will have time to publish them all here.. fingers crossed 🙂

Starting the spring lineup, today I’m writing about the latest addition to my small but growing makeup collection- Lancôme’s Limited Edition Spring 2015 eyeshadow palette- My French Palette

This palette was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT to me.. Ever since Spring 2015 makeup collections started popping up on the internet, I’ve been checking which ones to buy this year, and this particular palette caught my eye and kept me restless until I got my hands on it!

My French Palette is priced at US$ 58.00 on Lancôme USA site but since they don’t deliver to Sri Lanka, I had to pay approximately around US$ 93.00 to get this down here (this is including delivery charges, etc…) The amount I paid is a little too much, but this was one palette that haunted me until I bought it. So in order to keep the inner peace of my mind, I was like, I need this in my life and you live only once, so…

Anyway, I’m not disappointed!

I’ve never been a huge fan of Lancôme products, mainly because their formulas didn’t agree with my skin, but this Spring 2015 collection did such a beautiful job in their packaging and overall marketing that I was obliged to buy at least one piece from the range.

I was actually looking for pink-hues and rose-gold eyeshadows for quite sometime, because they look great on brown eyes… I know there’s always the infamous Naked 3 palette… but I just didn’t have the mindset to buy all 12 shades of rose tones… I would be bored with that, and Naked 3 is a little bulky for travelling… besides I will have to carry other colours too, especially soft blacks and navy shades as I love opting for shadow liner instead of gel for a softer look… Well, finally it was worth the wait!

Here are my first impressions of My French Palette…

Upon delivery, I was a little amazed to see how small this palette actually is… Though I like this travel-friendly size (this fits nicely into my cosmetic pouch), I did expect a little more product for the price I paid. But then, for its actual retail price at the counters, this size does justice. It’s just that I had to pay a lot extra I feel a little weird… It’s not Lancôme’s fault, I believe…

The packing is the first thing that would attract anyone and Lancôme did GREAT packaging on this one… It’s so unique, girly and beautiful… I’ve never seen them do packaging like this before… Surely this must be a big hit on their sales…

The whole container is mirrored and there’s this beautiful sketch of a girl in a Parisian street on the top of the lid in black and pale pink… It looks and feels expensive. Turning it over I noticed that this can be used up to 24 months after opening… I always check this, eventhough I hardly dispose any makeup on time, I feel better when I see I can use this for longer than 6-12 months… It’s just a good feeling…

This comes with a double ended synthetic brush, but as I started applying product with the brush, I noticed there was a lot of fallout which didn’t happen when I applied with my fingertips. I use only the angle brush to line my eyes (no fallouts with the angled brush). For shadows, I would continue to apply with my fingers as they also give better pigmentation…

As you open, there’re six pink/rose shades; three mattes & 3 shimmers. They look absolutely gorgeous on the pan…

(from left to right)
(Matte) pale cool-toned pink
(Matte) cool-toned mauve-y nude
(Matte) warm-toned pale salmon pink
(Shimmer) cool-toned champagne
(Shimmer) warm-toned pinky-nude
(Shimmer) neutral deep pinky-taupe

Next to the deep pinky-taupe is a little closed compartment that opened to give the real twist to the whole palette… These three shades are what make this palette absolutely unique…

A shimmery teal shadow
A shimmery greenish deep-blue (liner)
A shimmery soft black with blue undertone (liner)

The last two shades are named as liners, but these are well pigmented and buttery (teeny bit drier than the rest) that these can be doubled up as shadow too…

Here are the swatches of all shadows under artificial light:

Under natural light:

As you can see, all the colours are quite pigmented, specifically the champagne and pinky-nude shades… These are finely milled and super soft & smooth and apply like a dream… I recommend you to use an eye-primer so that colours look brighter. All swatches were done in just one stroke and all colours are build-able and blend-able…

Numbers 4 & 5 have the best performance. The shimmer content is just the right amount, giving a stunning well-balanced sheen and colour on the lids

I haven’t tried applying these wet yet… I’m happy with their dry performance 🙂

On to the looks…

This is not just a pretty package… This is the most versatile eyeshadow palette I own giving endless number of looks ideal for work, school, college, parties, night-outs, dates (So perfect for DATES!) from day to night, whether you want subtlety, glam, romantic, girly, pretty or bold… It’s a fun palette to play around with…

On the large mirror inside is a sticker (which I kept until I can remember the looks) that has two different looks you can try out.. One is for daytime and the other is for night…

Here’s the daytime look I tried on me:

I love this day look so much… It has that no make-up makeup look on the eyes except for the nice little accent given by the teal and deep blue colours on the lower lash line… It’s such a fresh accent on the eyes! For this look I used a soft black mascara from Lancôme Hypnôse range with MAC Viva Glam V lipstick… This is a great look for everyday whether you’re going to work or college or even to just hangout with friends… it’s super girly with a little twist of colour

Here’s the night look: (I’ve never used teal shadows on my eyes before, simply because I couldn’t find a good formula that looked rich and beautiful. The teal shade on this palette is a real winner though)

For some of you who feel like bright accents like teal would be too daring and wondering how to utilise those kind of colours, I tried this other look today… It’s simply understated with using only the first 6 shades on the lid and subtly blending a tiny bit of teal into the soft black shade on the lower lash line.. this gives a freshness to the usual black liner without making big drama on the eyes…

There’re plenty of looks you can try with this palette… I’m trying a different look every day 🙂 If you’re lucky enough to have a Lancôme counter in your country, I would say go for this piece of beauty… It will make it to your everyday list of makeup for sure…

Price is the only issue for those who are like me, who has to order online or through someone who brings down cosmetics… Otherwise, I’m 100% satisfied with the product…

I hope this review helped you…

Do tag your pics on instagram @nmstylefolder

See you soon!

Xx

Neth Mi