Addiction Aurora Reflection Review and Swatches

Inspired by the aurora lights of Scandinavia, Addiction's Aurora Reflection collection stood out like a luminous goddess amidst the sea of fall makeup collections. Thanks to a friend, I was able to snag four of the seven new eyeshadows and two of the six new lipglosses.

Blue Moon is a stunning mid-toned blue with pale blue shimmer. This is a truly unique shade that I can't think of a dupe for by other brands.

Deep Forest is a mysterious deep forest green with green and gold shimmer.

Poetic is a pale icy mint with a blue/green luminescence reminiscent of an insect's wings.

Horizon is a pale lavender with silver shimmer and glitter. This is the only shade out of the four that contained chunky glitter particles, which tended to get all over the case.

The eyeshadows apply sheer on their own but with the help of a primer, their aurora-like luminescence comes into full glory with a mesmerizing glow. The pic below shows swatches done with a MAC #228 brush applied over Too Faced Shadow Insurance. These are all permanent. Another positive aspect of Addiction is that they rarely do limited edition shades, like NARS, except for the annual holiday coffret. The ingredients list is only in Japanese and it includes talc and mineral oil, so ladies who are sensitive to these ingredients may wish to avoid these.

Do also check out Makeup Stash for her review and swatches.

Addiction's eyeshadows come in sleek black plastic compacts and retail at 2100yen (about S$34) for 1.2g. It's not cheap but their stellar array of complex shades are well worth hunting down if you are ever in Japan. The brand is growing slowly but steadily with eleven counters in Japan currently, including four in Tokyo alone (Isetan in Shinjuku, Seibu in Shibuya, Mitsukoshi in Ginza and Daimaru in Tokyo station). The products are made in Japan by Kose which also owns Jill Stuart, Visee, Cosme Decorte, Magie Deco, Fasio and Esprique.

Addiction also sells Custom Cases in two sizes for creating your own palette. The larger Custom Case II (1575yen) fits 6 eyeshadow singles or 4 eyeshadows and one blush.

Using Too Faced Shadow Insurance in Candlelight as the base, I applied Blue Moon along the upper lashline, Black Forest at the outer corner of the upper and lower lashlines, Poetic over the browbone area and Horizon in the middle of the upper eyelid and along the lower lashline. I also used Ettusais Bitaba mascara and Stila Sparkle Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner in Royal along the upper lashline.

The eyeshadows all applied very smoothly with only Horizon causing some fallout with its sliver glitter bits. My camera wasn't able to fully capture the subtle nuances of the shades. Also, I think the Shadow Insurance in Candlelight doesn't make the shades show up as well as the original Shadow Insurance.



Other products used for this look include: Addiction Miss You More lipgloss, Pore Putty BB Cream, RMK Super Basic Concealer EX-01 and Za Ever Brows BR21.

My collection of Addiction lipglosses: (from left to right): Miss You More, Jealousys, Azalea, Dear Liar and Cry Baby.

Shu Uemura Website Update

The Shu Uemura website has been updated with the new Vintage Collection, including 13 new Pressed Eye Shadows (1890yen).

Rouge Unlimited (3150yen)

Rouge Unlimited Supreme Matte (3150yen) in Angelic Pink, Evil Pink and Darling Beige.

Twinkle Glitter lashes (3150yen)

Pink Gold Fish lashes (2100yen)

Shu Uemura Vintage Collection

Shu Uemura will launch its Vintage Collection of 13 new Pressed Eyeshadows on 30 September in Japan. The official website has not listed the individual shade numbers yet.

There will also be a Rouge Unlimited Vintage Pastel Collection of limited edition lipsticks, plus a new Red:juvenus Eye Roller (3990yen, 10ml) and Stretch Mask (7350yen for 6 sheets, each containing 24ml of serum).

COVERMagazine.hk's Facebook page has a behind-the-scenes video on the shooting of the ad visual for the upcoming holiday collection by Wong Kar Wai and featuring Chinese-French actress Sandrine Pinna.

YSL Ombres 5 Lumiéres #11 Midnight Garden

Over the past few days, I've been wearing the Yves St Laurent Ombres 5 Lumieres #11 palette (US$56) from their Jardin de Minuit (Midnight Garden) collection for fall. I purchased this earlier at Bergdorf Goodman in New York back in July.

I hardly ever purchase anything from YSL but this collection caught my eye with the gorgeous ad visual. Ombres 5 Lumieres #11 features a striking combination of purple and green shades. It is rare to find a palette in which I actually liked all the shades and felt that they could not be that easily duplicated.

In particular, I loved the deep forest green with teal shimmer and the unusual mint shade with light blue shimmer. The palette includes two double-ended sponge applicators that work quite well. The sleek gold metal compact is a fingerprint magnet though.


For this look, I used Too Faced Shadow Insurance as the base. I applied the deep green shade along the upper lashline, the mint shade over the browbone area and along the lower lashline, the pale lilac shade in the crease and the deep purple shade in the outer half of the crease.

Stila Sparkle Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner in Emerald was also used to line the upper lashline.

The three darker shades in the palette are very well-pigmented whereas the pale lilac shade takes a bit more layering to show up well. The mint shade applies as more of a wash of micro-fine shimmer. I like to use it at the inner corners and along the lower lashline for an illuminating effect. The eyeshadows are easy to apply and blend. Only a few stray particles fell on the under eye area during the application process and they were easy to clean up.

Thanks to Shadow Insurance, the eyeshadows lasted amazingly well on me today for over 15 hours with just the tiniest bit of creasing at the inner corners.


For the second look, I used primarily the purple shades, plus the mint shade to highlight the lower lashline and Stila Sparkle Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner in Royal to line the upper lashline.


I simply adore this palette and can see myself reaching for it frequently. I'm not sure if it is available at DFS or the airport dutyfree in Singapore but it is still available online at various US-based retailers like Sephora.com.

Paul & Joe Manhattan Collection Launch at Takashimaya

Paul & Joe will be launching its Manhattan fall makeup collection in Singapore in the first week of September.





You can see swatches of the lipsticks in these earlier posts here and here.

Aube Couture Fall 2011

For this fall, Aube Couture will release a limited edition series of Designing Compact palettes (5250yen), each containing 5 eyeshadows and 3 lip colours.



There are two palette cases and four shade combinations to choose from: 01 Platinum Purple (with pink lip shades), 02 Platinum Brown (with rose lip shades), 03 Platinum Orange (with red lip shades) and 04 Platinum Beige (with beige lip shades). You can see a preview pic of the four combinations on Iroha and here. These will be released on 4 October in Japan.





The ad visuals feature Japanese actresses Esumi Makiko (for the black compacts) and Kanno Miho (for the white compacts). Pics and info from Biteki.com.

Guerlain Écrin 4 Couleurs - Swatches

For this fall, Guerlain has launched a new series of Écrin 4 Couleurs palettes, replacing their previous quads. The new quads retail at US$59 in the US, which is a hefty chunk of change but quite a bit easier on the pocket compared to the Écrin 6 Couleurs (US$84). I'm not sure of the price for Singapore but the previous quads retailed at around S$82.



There are 9 new quads in total, each containing eyeshadows in matte, satin, metallic and iridescent finishes. My first impression is that the Écrin 4 Couleurs are definitely an improvement over the previous range, which tended to be of uneven quality. The wider, flat pans make it easier to pick up the shades. They also offer a much more interesting range of shade combinations than the Écrin 6 Couleurs (which were dominated by neutrals, taupes, beiges and greys) while remaining very wearable and more portable, thanks to the sleek gold compact packaging.



The pic above was taken in direct sunlight, while the pic below was taken in the shade so the eyeshadows look more muted. (Do click on the pics to view them in full size.)



The texture of the metallic shades was truly impressive, with an almost molten velvety feel. Think MAC Veluxe Pearl but even more rich and luxurious. The mattes, for the most part, swatched quite smoothly. The level of colour payoff does vary amongst the shades, with the iridescent shades tending to be the most sheer.



01 Les Violets



02 Les Bleus and 09 Les Noirs



03 Les Verts



04 Les Bois de Rose (under direct sunlight)



Taken in the shade.



05 Les Gris and 02 Les Bleus. See a great review of Les Gris on the Beauty Look Book.



07 Les Cuirs





08 Les Perles





Of the nine quads, I liked 09 Les Noirs and 05 Les Gris, which will appeal to smoky eye lovers. 04 Les Bois de Rose looks prettier and more interesting than the brown-themed 07 Les Cuirs, but the medium rose shade may be tricky for some skin tones to pull off. 08 Les Perles has three pale, frosty shades which I think will look indistinguishable from one another when applied.



You can also view swatches of all nine quads on the fabulous Karlasugar. I neglected to swatch 06 Les Fumes, which you can read about on The Beauty Look Book. Makeup & Beauty Blog has also reviewed Les Noirs and Les Bleus, while Best Things in Beauty has reviewed Les Verts, Les Gris and Les Cuirs.