By Terry Ombre Blackstar Blue Obsession and Ombre Mercure

Enabled by a 20% discount voucher from Sephora France, I splurged on a few items from the By Terry and Guerlain holiday collections.

Densiliss Wrinkle Control Serum Foundation is the latest foundation offering from By Terry. Priced significantly higher than Sheer Expert and Cover Expert, I was intrigued after reading rave reviews online. The Beauty Professor has helpfully posted swatches of all 10 shades. The shades have varying undertones so it can be tricky to figure out which is the most suitable shade. For example, #1 Fresh Fair was pink-toned whereas #2 Cream Ivory and #3 Vanilla Beige lean more neutral, and #4 Natural Beige is more beige-toned. When I swatched these four shades in the store, the shade difference was very subtle. I eventually settled on #3 Vanilla Beige. I'm still experimenting with it, but can't really say that it has knocked my socks off enough to warrant the €85/US$115 price tag, so I'm glad that I didn't pay full price for it.

I fell much more quickly in love with the two new Ombre Blackstar in #14 Blue Obsession and #15 Ombre Mercure (€30/US$43). These have excellent color payoff and a smooth creamy texture that allows for sufficient blending time, far superior to Charlotte Tilbury's Eye Shadow Pencils which set virtually immediately and were impossible to blend out. The Ombre Blackstars also have the most elegant and chic packaging, compared to similar stick eyeshadows by Bobbi Brown, Kiko and Laura Mercier which come in plastic packaging.


Blue Obsession is a blackened midnight navy with purple and blue micro sparkles.

Ombre Mercure is an antique olive-toned pewter with gold and green holographic micro sparkles. I found this more unique than Blue Obsession. It's the perfect crease shade and blends easily upwards for a wash of soft glimmer over the browbone area without any frostiness or crass chunky glitter.

The swatches below were two swipes each on bare skin without any primer. Compared to Kiko Long Lasting Stick Eyeshadow #17 Slate Blue, Blue Obsession is richer in intensity and sparkle factor. Slate Blue lacks the blue micro sparkles of Blue Obsession.


I also picked up Crayon Kohl Terrybly in #10 Festive Gold, which is more amber-toned than gold. This glides on smoothly without any tugging, laying down a solid coat of color in a single pass.

In the pic below, I used Festive Gold on the lower lashline, Blue Obsession from the upper lashline to the crease and Ombre Mercure in the crease and blended upwards. When applied without any primer, Blue Obsession did crease after some time and there was some fading and separation, whereas Ombre Mercure did not. The lasting power was improved when I used Too Faced Shadow Insurance as the base.

The pics below show a slightly different look without the use of Festive Gold. I used Ombre Mercure along the lower lashline and Three Flash Performance Eyeliner in Eye Rock along the upper lashline.

The Ombre Blackstars are perfect for people who are perpetually short of time, as one can just swipe, blend and go without the need to fuss around with brushes. While they are certainly pricey, their superb quality and unique shades make these a worthwhile indulgence once in a while.