Chanel Spring 2011 Review

From this collection was my first makeup purchases from Chanel. The collection is about enhancing a woman's natural beauty by using the radiance of pearlised colours in the same way that real pearls create luminosity to the skin. I picked up one of their nail polishes in Black Pearl and their eyeshadow palette which has 5 colours in it.

Firstly, the nail polish, Black Pearl. This is gorgeous. The finish is lovely, like a real black/grey pearl. It changes colour giving a kind of oil on water effect with greys, blues, teal and greens in the colour and shot through with a metallic silver. It feels incredibly smooth on the nail but you can see the brush strokes in it so need to be careful with the application if it is something that bothers you. Two coats was enough for opacity so this colour is very pigmented. It cost me £17 from a Chanel counter, quite pricey but considering that as soon as I saw it on Temptalia I loved the colour and was excited for it's release knowing I'd not seen another colour like it I thought I'd treat myself to it. Since then, some 'dupes' have been created - brands I can think of are Model's Own and Leighton Denny but I don't think they are real dupes, instead being on the same colour spectrum.

Black Pearl

Chanel Ombres Perlees de Eyeshadow Palette: This is a new and limited edition palette for the spring containing five pearlised shades - a golden white, bronzy pink, blackened mauve, dirty green and a charcoal blue. All colours are pigmented, the mauve is less so however and they are all metallics. When swatched they are gorgeous and buttery but I did find them difficult to apply onto my eyelid. They seemed to sheer out too much and I didn't get much colour payoff with them. This seems very strange as they were so nice when swatched with my finger. I am wondering if they are better used with a finger or sponge applicator instead but I haven't tried it yet, only with a brush. My other problem was their staying power, I did use Urban Decay Primer Potion under them and they still migrated into creases. I don't understand why and lately these haven't been the only eyeshadows doing it to me even with primer so it is possible that my eyelids have become oilier recently but even so, these colours crease the most for me. I hope I can get these to work for me either with a different base product to applying them differently because if not, they were a lot of money at £39 to spend on an annoying to use product.

- Jennifer