Organic Skin Care Blog – Product Reviews & Healthy Skin

Chantecaille's Summer 2018 makeup collection has launched, and here are swatches of the entire collection! And close up product photos! I know these aren't exactly the earliest swatches, but I thought better late than never.

The collection is inspired by vacation and beaches, and has an appropriately themed colour selection with limited edition packaging (for the bronzers and eyeshadows). The rest of the collection (Lip Sleeks, Mermaid Eye Matte cream eyeshadows, Les Perles Metallic Eye Liner) are all permanent.


Let's take a closer look at the collection.
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Recently, I've been seeing lots of "anti-haul" posts on Youtube and elsewhere. Basically, in a nutshell, an "anti-haul" is just a list of things you didn't/aren't planning to buy - as opposed to a "haul" which is list of things you bought. From the posts I've seen, it seems to have been partly borne out of a bit of a backlash against Youtubers and "influencers" shilling all sorts of dubious makeup trends and products, so this trend helps people to articulate how they are saving money by highlighting what they are not buying, and what trends they're not buying into.

I'm all for it. I mean, as a beauty junkie and beauty blogger of 7+ years, of course I've hauled many a haul (and have the haul posts to prove it too! But I do agree with the general anti-haul sentiment that not every trend is worth getting into, and not every makeup product is for everyone - after all, not every "must-have" palette is suitable for every type of skintone, undertone, and colour preferences. And while I'm not about to stop hauling (oh no, not at all!), I do agree that I do enjoy my makeup stash best when my makeup purchases are thoughtful and curated, and when I don't just jump on every hype bandwagon. And, I get to save money! So for me, anti-hauling isn't at all "OMG DON'T EVER WEAR MAKEUP!!!111!!!11!", but more of "hey, not every makeup product/colour/trend is going to work for you, and you'll enjoy makeup more if you buy what you're happy wearing, and what looks good on you".


So, with that said, let's get into one of the recent makeup trends that just haven't been doing it for me - warm, orange eyeshadow! There have been a ton of warm and/or orange-y eyeshadow palettes released this season, and the orange eyeshadow was pretty much the "it" item of the summer, and still going strong. But for me, since I have an olive, neutral-cool undertone, the orange eyeshadow trend really just became the "swollen eye" trend. I do love some of these brands (and do indeed have other products from some of these brands here), but here are some of the recently-popular orange/warm/rust-toned eyeshadow palettes that just didn't do it for me.Continue Reading . . .

Benefit They're Real Double The Lip and They're Real Duo Eyeshadow Blender are the latest products from the brand, and have been out in the market for about a month now. And, I have swatches of both the Double The Lip Lipsticks and Duo Shadow Blenders!

As you can guess from the name, the Double The Lip Lipsticks are a two-in-one product - there is a complementary darker and lighter shade in the same tube, with the darker shade serving as an in-built lipliner, and the lighter shade serving as the filled-in lipstick colour. The They're Real Duo Shadow Blenders also operate on a similar principle - there are two shades, one light and one dark, in a tray, and you use a sponge applicator to swipe and apply both shades at once.


Anyway, if you're wondering how all this works, and what the shades look like, well, here are swatches of both, along with my quick thoughts!
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L'Oreal's Super Liner V-Sculptor eyeshadow sticks were launched last month, and yes, I'm only just getting around to swatching them. I wanted to blog about these because they're pretty interesting as far as eyeshadows go. These are powder eyeshadows, but instead of being in a pan and coming with a brush, these are actually in a pen form, with a cushion tip, as you can see below. The idea behind the cushion tip is that it's easier to blend the eyeshadow out to get a natural-looking application. As for the eyeshadow powder, it's stored inside the cap of the pen.


If these look a bit familiar, it's because these are basically the eyeshadow version of the L'Oreal Tint Caresse that was launched last year. Pretty much everything is the same - the pen format, the cushion tip (right down to the cushion material), the storage of the powder product in the cap. So if you've ever looked at the Tint Caresse and thought, "I'd like this in eyeshadow form", well, here we are!
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RMK's Spring/Summer 2017 Color Change makeup collection is officially launched, and I come bearing swatches! This makeup collection also coincides with RMK's 20th anniversary, and RMK's Creative Director, Kaori, selected the two shades of pink and beige to head up the Color Change collection, as they are integral to any make up look. The number of products in this collection is also pretty large - there are 6 eyeshadow duos, 6 lipgloss duos, 7 lipstick shades, and 7 blush shades, and 6 nail polish shades. So you can imagine my arm after all that swatching!


RMK isn't kidding when they say the collection is made up of pinks and beiges - literally every product here is in pink and/or beige, and basically pinks and beiges make up like 95% of the collection. RMK also has a nice quality of makeup, with generally soft textures, and buildable pigmentation, allowing the products to be applied sheerly or packed on for more colour, and this collection does fall quite nicely in line with the quality in the standard RMK products.
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In addition to the skincare empties that I blogged about, I've also actually emptied some makeup! I'm particularly happy about my makeup empties, because it typically takes me longer to use up a makeup item than a skincare item. Anyway,


This time round I've got some staples - like my Coastal Scents loose powders - as well as some new appearances! Most of these are products I love and would totally use again, and as we go through each of these items, I'll explain why.


Makeup empties: Lipstick, liptint, eyeshadow, eyeliner, and powder!
Without further ado, let's get started!
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Shu Uemura has launched over 40 new eyeshadow shades, and I've finally swatched all these new shades at last! If you've seen my a previous Shu uemura eyeshadow swatch post,, then you've seen part 1 of the swatches, and today we'll be finishing up with part 2! In part 1, we swatched mostly colours, so now we're moving onto the neutral shades. So, if you liked browns, beiges, and greys, the swatches for those shades are all here!


For those who aren't familiar with the shade names, the shade finishes are denoted by their names - M stands for Matte, ME for Metallic, IR for Iridescent, P for Pearl, and S for Satin. Generally ME shades have the most shimmery finish, followed by P shades and IR shades, followed by S shades (which are pretty close to matte, in my opinion), and lastly, with no shimmer at all, the M shades.


Anyway without further ado, let's move on to the swatches!
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Shu Uemura is launching 41 new eyeshadow shades as part of their "Colour Atelier" campaign in July. Yes, you heard it right, 41! This will give a total of almost 100 shades of eyeshadow for you to choose from, depending on your location - I believe Singapore gets 41 out of 43 new shades, to give a total of just under 100, but other countries may get the full 100 shades. Of course, Shu Uemura's eyeshadows are something of a makeup cult product, so this is pretty exciting news. Even back when I first got into beauty, they were already touted as one of the brands of eyeshadow that were a must-try for their great pigmentation, multiple finishes, and smooth textures. So, with that in mind, I knew I absolutely had to swatch the new shades being launched!


So, being the obsessive swatcher I am, I basically spent two hours swatching all the 41 shades that were launching here in Singapore, both for myself, as well as for you guys! (You might have seen some of this on my snapchat - I'm musicalhouses there too.) I'm told the eyeshadows are reformulated as well, although to be honest during the swatching session, I couldn't really tell that much of a difference. Which is just as well, because the old textures were already great as they were.


I'm swatching the first 3 rows of the shades laid out above, and the last 3 rows will be in part 2. So, if you're into bright shades, these are all swatched in this post! I swatched these in indoor lighting, and I've done my best to get them as colour-accurate as can be, and I do think the swatches turned out decently! Anyway, without further ado, let's get down to swatching!
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This is a pretty major empties post, because the last time I blogged about my empties was half a year ago in December last year (it was also a pretty large post, that I split into two parts, part 1 and part 2). This time around, I have even more stuff!


The nice thing about empties is that, for me, using a product up comes with a sense of accomplishment (as in, hey, I actually stuck to something long enough to use it up!) and also a sense of permission (as in, hey, I've used up a lipstick, now I can buy another lipstick)! So for a beauty junkie like me, it's both gratifying and enabling!



Obviously, there's a lot to go through, so without further ado, let's jump right in!
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Laneige recently released their Two Tone Collection, consisting of 4 shades of Two Tone Shadow Bar and Two Tone Lip Bar. If this sounds familiar it's because these are an extension of the existing Two Tone Lip Bar shades (which I've previously swatched here), so essentially, this is an addition of 4 more Two Tone Lip Bar shades, as well as 4 Two Tone Shadow Bar shades. The "Shadow Bar" concept is new, but basically pretty much similar to the Lip Bar except for eyes, and is intended to give a nice gradient effect on eyes.


At a recent event, I was able to get a chance to swatch the new Two Tone Shadow Bars and Two Tone Lip Bars, so without further ado, let's get to the swatches, along with my commentary and first impressions! These are actually in natural daylight, so they should be pretty colour-accurate, hopefully!
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The MAC Flamingo Park Collection is the brand's first Spring 2016 makeup launch, and it was recently launched here. I happened to be at the store during the launch, and I managed to get swatches of the products for you! It was quite an ordeal swatching the products, because it was very crowded in the store, with people buzzing around and swarming around the collection testers, so I'm happy to have swatched everything I could!


But before we move on to the swatches proper, I'd like to mention that the lighting in the swatches might be a bit lacking due to the fact that these were all swatched in-store.

Also, as you can see from the above photo of the Flamingo Park setup, it seems like for some reason the collection differs slightly here in Singapore. Not all the "official USA" shades were displayed in the Flamingo Park Collection display, and some permanent shades were put in the display as part of the Flamingo Park Collection although they didn't appear in the US version of the shade lineup. I'm not too sure why this is the case, but in any case, I've just done my best to swatch everything that was on display, so any incongruency with what was launched in the US is just due to whatever was in the display in the store.
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Too Faced's Melted Chocolate collection, consisting of the Chocolate Bon Bons Eyeshadow Palette and 6 shades of Melted Lipstick, is coming to Singapore in March. In the run up to that, I've got swatches of both the eyeshadow palette as well as the Melted Lipstick, and I'm so excited!


The "Melted Chocolate" theme is pretty obvious with the products - the Melted Lipsticks are all varying shades of brown, in a very Kylie Jenner lips-esque sort of way, and the palette smells of chocolate, which is to say, it smells very yummy. In general, the quality of the collection also holds up very well for Too Faced - it's pretty similar quality-wise to their existing Melted Lipsticks and eyeshadow palettes, which is to say, it's pretty good.
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Urban Decay's Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette is probably one of the Holiday 2015 makeup items. Urban Decay's Vice Palettes have always been popular, starting with the original Vice Palette launched in 2012, the following iterations on the Vice themed (named Vice 2 and Vice 3) were also really popular, and tend to sell out pretty fast. If you're an eyeshadow lover, you probably already have Vice 4 on your radar - if you haven't already gotten it!


The Vice 4 Palette has a whopping 20 eyeshadows, like the 3 other Vice Palettes before it. And according to Sephora, the palette "is formulated with Urban Decay’s own Pigment Infusion System™, a proprietary blend of ingredients that deliver rich, velvety, blendable color that lasts and sparkle that stays in place". Urban Decay's eyeshadows are famous for their pigmentation and good texture, so I'm happy to hear that!


Urban Decay Vice 4 Palette: A great complement to the existing Vice Palettes
Anyway, without further ado, let's move on to the swatches!
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Too Faced's Le Grande Palais is one of the key items in the brand's Holiday 2015 collection. It's basically a set, with a palette of 18 eyeshadows, two blushes, a bronzer, and a highlighter. It also has minis of the Melted Lipstick in Peony, the Better Than Sex Mascara, and the Shadow Insurance Eye Primer. I've gotten a lot of interest ever since I posted about this on my Instagram (and one person even bought it when it came out on account of the Instagram pic), so I figure I'd better get around to swatching this!


Le Grand Palais is a Sephora exclusive, so if you want it, you know where to get it! Also, this is limited time only since it's a Christmas item. So I wouldn't wait too long to get it if you're interested! Swatches of the other Too Faced Holiday 2015 makeup items will be up soon too - I've just been busy, and there are a ton of Christmas collections out now!

Too Faced Le Grand Palais: 18 eyesahdows and 4 face colours are the highlight of the set
Without further ado, let's move on to the swatches! Before we start the swatches proper, though, let me apologize for any lack in quality of the swatches. These were made over lunch indoors in a restaurant, so I had the ultimate first-world-beauty-blogger-cum-foodie problem of eating and swatching makeup at the same time! Obviously it was a good problem to have, so I'm not complaining! I've tried my best with these swatches, so I hope they help somebody!
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Urban Decay's Naked Smoky Palette is the latest eyeshadow palette addition to Urban Decay's Naked range of palettes, and the fourth in the range (after the original Naked, Naked 2, and Naked 3). Urban Decay traditionally has been known for its bright and bold eyeshadow shades, but the addition of the Naked Palettes has helped to really establish the brand as not just for neon lovers, and brought the brand to a whole new audience.


I'm a pretty big fan of Urban Decay's eyeshadows, I have some in the really old packaging with the old logo and in the tin packaging, and the quality of the eyeshadows now is just as good as it was then. Of course, the brand image has gotten a bit more glamorous and a bit less grungy over the years, but the quality is still pretty great.


Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette: The shade range consists of both smokey and everyday shades.
Anyway, without further ado, let's move on to the review and swatches!
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Etude House's Bling Me Prism collection has just been released here in September, and these are very summery bright pops of colour! Two of the products that seem to be getting a lot of attention are the Bling Me Prism Eyes, which are cream eyeshadows, as well as the Bling Me Prism Color in Liquid Lips, which are a lipgloss-liptint hybrid.


As is always the case with Etude House, the packaging for this is uber-cute, and super girly and princess-y to boot. I'm not sure if the shades are added to the permanent collection, but the packaging is usually a limited edition thing. So if you're eyeing any of the items for the packaging, you probably might want to get them earlier, rather than later.


Etude House Bling Me Prism Eyes: A cream eyeshadow in 5 shades
Anyway, enough of my chatter - let's get to the swatches!
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MUFE, or Make Up For Ever, has released two Artist Shadow Palettes for Fall 2015. The two Artist Shadow Palettes are Artist Shadow Palette 1, which is a neutrals palette, and Artist Shadow Palette 2, which has bright shades. These are definitely one of the Fall items I was looking forward to, because MUFE usually has very good quality products, and their palettes usually have the same quality as their single eyeshadows, too.


As you can imagine, my penchant for neutrals means that I absolutely had to check out the Artist shadow Palette 1 - I mean, a collection of 9 top-notch neutrals in a pretty palette is not something I would pass up! I've actually swatched some of the MUFE Artist Shadows before (here and here and another palette here), and I've been playing around with the existing shades I have and these are really pretty good.


Anyway, without further ado, let's move on to the swatches and the other good stuff!
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Etude House's Dreaming Swan collection just launched here in Singapore, and like most Etude House makeup collections, it's as cute as can be, with a very girly ballerina theme, too! I saw it, and I knew I just had to swatch it for you guys. After all, you can't look at a limited edition collection (yes, it is limited edition) without swatching a few things!


The collection is not a large one - there are 5 shades of Dreaming Swan Dear My Wish Lips Talk Lipstick, 5 shades of Dreaming Swan Eye and Cheek, which are products that double both as a blush and eyeshadow, and 1 shade of Dreaming Swan Veiling Pact, which is basically compact powder. There are also 5 limited edition Any Cushion cases, which are cases for the Etude House Any Cushion range of BB cushions. The cases are empty, and you pop a refill for their BB cushion into the case. The collection is also seriously pretty, packaging-wise. I mean, look at the Dreaming Swan Eye and Cheek Blush/Shadow and the Dear My Wish Lips Talk Lipsticks!


Etude House Dreaming Swan Dear My Wish Lips Talk Lipsticks
Anyway, enough of me blabbering about the packaging. Let's move on to swatches! These were taken indoors at Etude House's new store at Vivocity, which has the collection, so the lighting isn't that great, but I think it's good enough to get a sense of the individual shades.
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I've always been eyeing some of the lovely Too Faced products, and recently actually bought some of their lip products, as seen on my Instagram). In addition to those two lip products I bought, I also finally got one of their famed eyeshadow palettes - the Cat Eyes Eyeshadow Palette!


I got the Too Faced Cat Eyes Eyeshadow Palette from Beauty Bridge, an online retailer that is based in the US, but ships overseas. They have a ton of products, from niche brands to mainstream ones, and from skincare to makeup to fragrance. I'm glad to say my package arrived on time, and that nothing was broken, which is good (shipping eyeshadows overseas always makes me a little worried). So yay for well-packed international parcels!


Too Faced Cat Eyes Eyeshadow Palette: I received mine from BeautyBridge
Anyway, now that I've gotten my hands on the palette, I figured it's a good time for me to give you guys a review of the palette!
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MUFE's Summer 2015 collection includes new additions to its AquaMatic line of waterproof eyeshadow crayons, in a total of 5 shades in addition to the current 10, as well as 2 additions to its Aqua Rouge line, which already has 16 shades. The new shades will launch this month, and they're pretty exciting! And MUFE's summer shades are also gorgeous. Look at all of those bright rainbow colours, perfect for hot weather and summer!


MUFE's AquaMatic isn't a new product, and as you may know, it's essentially an eyeshadow crayon, but waterproof. There are 5 finishes of AquaMatic shades - Diamond (where the colour names start with D), Matte (names start with M), Iridescent (start with I), Satin (start with S), and Metallic (names start with ME). Diamond finishes tend to be sparkly and have visible glitter, Metallic finishes have a very obvious shimmery metallic finish, that look almost foiled, while Iridescent and Satin have more of a sheen rather than a shimmer. Between the S-shades and I-shades, I feel like the Satin shades have more shimmer than the Iridescent shades.



The AquaMatic crayons come with a retractable crayon tip (shown here is colour I-30):



The AquaMatic crayons also come with a sharpener embedded into the end of the product, in case you want to sharpen the tip.



Anyway, you didn't come to see photos of the product, you came to see swatches, so without further ado, let's move on to the business at hand!
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