Best Things in Beauty : Estee Lauder Violet Underground Pure Color Five Color Eyeshadow Palette

For this fall, Estee Lauder goes boldly glam rock with Violet Underground with saturated tones of fuchsia and violet, designed by Tom Pecheaux. The star product is the Pure Color Five Color Eyeshadow Palette in Violet Underground (US$48), featuring the same powder gelée formula as the Bronze Sands palette in the earlier summer collection.

These can be used either dry or wet for a lustrous metallic finish but I find the finish is already amazingly pigmented and shimmery when applied dry. Violet Underground consists of a sooty matte black, rose fuschia, rich deep brown, midnight blue and pearl beige, embossed in an undulating lightning bolt zigzag pattern reminiscent of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust.

The case is Estee Lauder's standard deep violet blue, unlike the gold case of Bronze Sands. Two dual-ended sponge/brush applicators are included. I usually use the sponge applicators to lay down the shades, followed by the brush to blend and smudge.

I purchased Violet Underground during the Nordstrom's recent Anniversary sale, in order to take advantage of the generous gift with purchase offer, which included two credit-card sized palettes of the Pure Color Eyeshadow and Pure Color Long Lasting Lipstick, plus Advanced Night Repair, Sumptuous Mascara and Re-Nutriv Ultimate Lift Age-Correcting Creme. The accompanying pouch feels extremely cheap and flimsy though.

For this look, I used Too Faced Shadow Insurance as the base and layered the brown shade from the inner two-third of the upper lid, the blue shade in the outer one-third, the beige shade over the browbone area, inner corners and lower lashline, and the black shade along the upper lashline. I used the brush to blend the brown shade in the crease and the outer corner of the lower lashline.

I found all the shades to be well-pigmented and easy to apply, with the brown being the most richly pigmented with a lovely gleam. The beige shade has a soft satin finish, and zero frostiness.

The other products used for this look: Lancome Blush Subtil Palette 158 Peche Savvy and L'Absolu Creme de Mat 100 Potion D'Amour, Dior Diorskin Forever Compact 023 over Paul & Joe Protective Foundation Primer UV, Maybelline Great Lash Lots of Lashes in Blackest Black, Lunasol Under Eyes Base, K-Palette Lasting 2Way Eyebrow and Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen No. 1 Black Noir.

For the second look, I applied the blue shade along the upper lashline, the pink in the inner half of the crease, the brown in the outer half of the crease and the lower lashline, the beige over the browbone area and along the lower lashline.

There was a bit of creasing at the inner corners after eight hours, but otherwise the eyeshadows held up quite nicely. Violet Underground feels incredibly modern and chic, an interesting breakaway from Estee Lauder's usual conservative image and truly outstanding in the sea of fall collections. I don't know if this collection will be available in Singapore. It will be released on 10 August in Japan where the palette will retail at 6615yen (US$84).