Spectral Loveliness: Attempting to Look at Shiseido Ghost

Tonight I attempted the impossible: I tried to take pictures of Shiseido VI720 Ghost. Folly. All of these use flash because everyone knows ghosts can only be photographed using high flash, patience and the loss thereof, and the threatening to sic my dear friend Harry-the-theatre-ghost on them if they failed to cooperate. (He fell a long time ago. Very sad. Some say you can still see him on the catwalk at my alma mater. Oooooo.)

Shiseido shadows are annoying because they are so dusty that the pans always look messy. It's a small complaint. I love me some Shiseido. But they are not pretty to take pictures of in the pan.

Ghost has unrelentingly gorgeous but subtle microshimmers that are best seen in real life and second-best seen in pan pictures.

And the phantasm well-nigh disappears in these swatch pics, which may have been taken in not-the-best-of-lights, thank you, rain!

But those tricksy microshimmers are there, I promise! Blue and pink! Can't you see? No?! (@$)*#$.@#$$%*(=!!!

As you can see here, the base is quite greyed. It's a foggy grey which makes the sultry beauty of the lavender all the more surprising. Like most Shiseido eyeshadows, the complex satiny finish looks luxe on the lids. The shadows are soft, very soft, and it's easy to rub them off. So don't.

And some comparisons for your time:

As you can see, Novalei is the most metallic and the darkest. Both Lilac Reef and Concrete Jungle have a soft satin finish and are very nearly matte.

Oh, Shiseido Ghost. What a pretty apparition.

I have never ever bought remotely similar colors ever.
Side note: also should have swatched Liquid Diamond with these. It's not similar. It's silvery. But I shoulda.

Ghost is the oldest and most loved of the shadows pictured. You can see the little dip where the spectre is starting to succumb to wear.

*pets*

Edward Bess Blush Extraordinaire in Secret Affair

My most recent nearly-blind purchase, Edward Bess Blush Extraordinaire in Secret Affair, was born from my fear that my most coveted pinky-coral blush (Rosebud) wasn't going to be restocked before Sephora's recent sale was over.

Crazy, nu? 

I ended up getting both. Whoops.

Fortunately, I ended up really, really liking Rosebud and Secret Affair. The two are not similar to each other, but Secret Affair does belong in a small core group of deeper, more vibrant sheeny corals.

Secret Affair is a yummy coral; the powder is quite finely milled and silky-smooth. It's hard to pin down the texture: it's not as creamy as Burberry or Dolce & Gabbana, but it's not as dry-satin as Shiseido. It glows with a pink essence. 

Admit it. You want to lick this picture. I know I do.
Blushblushblush.

I took this picture and then I realized Burberry Blossom was much, much closer than either of these two. Whoopsie. I rock at color.

No flash; wobbly hand

Flash; sparklayyy!

Though Blossom is closer, it's not a dupe; it is more shimmery and it pulls both more red and more orange than the decidedly coral-pink Secret Affair. Secret Affair also has an almost clandestine duality: it looks coral but mysteriously also looks pink in certain lights. It's not duochrome, by any means, but it is very successfully complex and alluring.

Smooooooove

Finish-wise, it's not unlike watercolery Shiseido

This is my first Edward Bess purchase and that lithe Rembrandt painting of a man had me pining inconsolably after his light pink blush, the aptly-named Filled with Desire, in less than no time.

Fun fact: I went back to edit this entry and found that I'd titled it "Edward Bess Blush Extraordinaire in Filled with Desire," so it was obviously on the brain.

Did I succomb? Stay tuned.

Our Little World: Purples and Near-Purples

Recently I showed off my greens and mentioned that purple is my other pretend-neutral eyeshadow, in terms of colors I find ridiculously easy to wear and appropriately versatile. Here are my precious babies.

I have a few more purply-tinged shadows but deemed them too taupe, too grey, etc to be featured here. Addiction Concrete Jungle danced around the line but finally didn't make the cut, being out-lilacked by Rouge Bunny Rouge Lilac Reef Curassow (side note: Rouge Bunny Rouge has taught me so many bird names! I'm gauche. I'd never heard of a curassow before! It brings me comfort to know that neither has my spell-check.)

I Gave Peach a Chance

It simply cannot be said that I have never fallen prey to hype or sale goggles. My mad purchase of Dolce & Gabbana Peach and Rosebud during Sephora Chic Week (auspiciously coinciding with my tax rebate) is a testament to this. 

I've been thinking, often, about my aesthetic (and a post is forthcoming about this) and the colors and textures I am drawn to like a moth to flame. Knowing the difference between what I love and what I merely like has curbed many a craving. It's lovely to have ideals of wearing an interesting color, but, too often, I don't, so often it's not really worth it.

Dolce & Gabbana blush in Rosebud, I knew I wanted. That elusive bright, light rose color--a blending of peach and pink, dancing around coral but never truly bright enough-- I had to have it. I had to. For most of the week, it was out of stock, so I decided to try Peach instead; I'd heard good things and the scant swatches made it seem harmless and pretty darn close to Rosebud. Wouldn't you know it, not one half hour later, Rosebud was back online. It's a timing thing. Had Rosebud been available, I probably never would have gotten Peach, but I did and here is another picture of  the two of them:

You can see how shadowed Peach is here. It was hard to get a good picture at the time of day and with the sharp 90 degree angle that the compact opens. 

This is a bit more true. You can see it's not what I would call a true peach; it looks a bit muted, even nude-y. Colors are so hard to define rigidly, I feel. Peach, coral, fuchsia, all of these can mean so many different things to different people. Anyway, I would call this a nude ruddy peach.

And my lovely Rosebud...

A coral-pink, shyer than Illamasqua Tremble.

And some comparisons:

Taking pictures was wildly frustrating. Taking pictures of Tremble always is. It's just too neon to really show well. But I think you can see even here that both Dolce & Gabbana blushes have lovely textures. They're creamy and soft; a matte without any chalkiness at all.

Sadly, very sadly, I knew pretty instantly that I had no strong love for Dolce & Gabbana Peach. It's funny, because it's not entirely unlike Shiseido Petal in depth, but Petal has more pink in it and that makes all the difference. Petal looks so harmonious on me and this, well...

I can't lay my hands on my camera at the mo so you get webcam shots of my Farewell-to-Peach FOTD.

You can see it's quite a bit less brown on my skin (which pulls things pinker anyway) than it appears in the pan, but it's still warmer than my personal preference. I don't hate it but at this point I'm scaling back to what is optimally flattering on my pasty-pink self and this blush just doesn't cut it, especially when I have Rosebud to settle my hunger for Dolce & Gabbana. I'm still experimenting with peach-as-a-color, but for the moment Vincent Longo Dew Drop Radiant Blush in Sandalwood is my go-to, as it is lighter and more pastel (though I'm not keen on the powder fallout.) More on that one later. 

Products I've Purged: Shiseido neutrals, how I wanted to love you...

Of late, I've been feeling motivated to streamline my stash. Fortunately, I have found excellent and well-deserving homes for my castoffs. It's a bittersweet process but I know I'll only be left with things I love.

The two latest palettes to get the boot are Shiseido BR209 Strata and BR307 Voyage trios. I love love Shiseido eyeshadows (and many Shiseido products in general) but I never reach for these two. I wanted to swatch them before I send them to their new families because I commonly see these two mislabeled on the Internet.

As you can see, they're really not altogether bad eyeshadows: the pigmentation is good, they feel silky, and they have lovely fine colored microshimmer, which was impossible to capture.

Voyage has a tawny gold, a bright orangey gold, and a pale white gold. I'm not feeling Voyage because I don't love golds. As a trio, however, it works, and I can see someone who likes golds more than I do really enjoying this palette.

Strata is another issue entirely. Strata is a bit of a challenge as a trio. Shiseido trios are either tonally cohesive, with variations of one color, or interestingly clashy. Strata straddles those two lines, with a pale cool beige, a medium camel color with warm undertones, and a neutral espresso. The undertones of the three shades aren't strikingly different, but they don't seem to work together seamlessly. And the palest shadow simply disappears on my fair skin.

I slapped both colors on my lids so you can see them in action. They blend much better in real life but I am not great at taking pictures at this point.

Our Little World: My Greens

My eyeshadow collection consists mainly of neutrals and two colors that I consider "pretend neutrals" since they are so easy to wear: green and purple.

Here are most of my greens:

It's not like I have a thing for seafoam and olive or anything...

Just a little bit of Shiseido love: Alchemy

Ignore the dust; I suggest looking instead at the multicolored  microshimmer.

It is no secret that I am a HUGE fan of Shiseido's aesthetic and many of their powder products. I love Dick Page's work and I think he has done a great job as artistic director. The eyeshadow color stories are to die for. The products themselves are super soft and they give this delicate watercolor effect on the lids. They have the complex shimmer of many higher-end Japanese brands without skimping on pigment.



While the colors are intriguingly complex and many are quite wearable, even surprisingly so, Shiseido doesn't offer many neutrals. One of the few browns in the line is this luscious single, RD 709 Alchemy.

I want to go to there.

Alchemy is a light ruddy brown. I spy with my naked eye glasslike hot pink, gold, green, and blue microshimmer. I find reddened browns quite challenging to wear but Alchemy is an exception. There's something just slightly greyed about it--not enough to make it a taupe, but enough to keep it from just being a basic, one-note color. It's a great lid color for an easy wash that's not boring.
  

I don't have anything like Alchemy in my stash, so here's swatches of Serendipity, a complex copper, Bronzed Taupe, and Nutty, which is by no means a dupe, though its base is warmer than the other two. You can see that Nutty almost looks orange and Alchemy has a purple cast. So weird.