making faces :: why i'll be spending hot summer nights with chanel

you made me love you

we've all had the experience: you're standing in a group of people, excitedly talking about the same general subject, but the somehow you're the only person who seems able to see something really important. like you're being stalked by a crazed killer and you need to get help and people start saying "we should all split up so that we can go and look for help in as many different places as  possible" and you're all like "hey, has anyone here ever seen a movie? just me?" the point is that the larger group is missing out. this is kind of like that. except no one kills you in the end.

first of all, my apologies for being late with a "summer collection" review, because we all know that, in cosmetic terms, summer starts around the middle of march. i'm not exaggerating. when i first started seeing reviews of chanel's summer collection on line, the forecast high temperatures were still below freezing here. it felt like they were making fun of me.

now that the blistering heat has arrived, of course, it's all about autumn. no one cares about summer anymore. which is sort of too bad, since it feels like summer just started a couple of weeks ago.

natural light

i'd had my eye on a couple of items from the chanel summer collection, like the always thrilling polishes, or the juicy orange glossimer "calypso" and i may end up picking them up [although i suppose it's a bit gauche to be buying from summer collections this late]. but when i was ready to lay down some cash, i was surprised to find that what caught my eye was the rather unassuming-looking eye shadow duo called "sable emouvante".

i mean, it looked nice and all, with its warm, rich shades of neutral-peach and roasted-spice brown, but it also looked like the kind of thing that a lot of people had done before. [in fact, i thought it bore an uncanny resemblance to the hourglass shadow duo "gypsy"- both shades.] but still, i swatched the shades on my hand and it was game over. yes, it seems that even people had been much more excited about other items in the collection, i'd stumbled upon something that was really, really special.

well, it's not like i'm the only person who noticed. there are other reviews of it floating around. but with all the hype about this year's polishes and glosses and bronzers, this one kind of slipped by, which is just a crime against cosmetics. because this, ladies [and gentlemen, if you're interested] is special. even by the standards of chanel. even by the standards of someone who has seen as many variations on eye makeup as i have, this stands out.

with flash

the duo consists of a golden peach-beige and a rich, warm brown. both are quite satiny- they certainly don't have a frost finish, but there's a rich sheen that's always visible. the lighter shade would probably work as a highlighter on women of colour, but on me, it's too deep. it does, however, look lovely on my lids. the consistency of both is incredible. they apply smoothly and deposit a lot of pigment- so if you're a fan of sheerer colour, these might not be for you. the colour is true to what you see in the pans, which i really appreciate, since it's comparatively rare and lasts with only a slight bit of fading on the darker shade for eight hours or more [over a primer]. and it's great for people who are lazy or, like me, prone to oversleeping, because the colours almost blend themselves.

because both shades lean quite warm, the duo probably won't look its best on very cool skin tones, but since a lot of us tend to pick up a bit of a golden hint to our skin over the summer, i think there are a lot of people who could pull this off.



i can't really speak as to the originality of the individual colours. well, i can say that i didn't have a match, in my collection. the first shade seemed like it might have matches within the mac line up [grain comes to mind], but it didn't match the shades that i actually own. rouge bunny rouge "angelic cockatiels" looked similar in the pan, but is much darker, more coppery and a lot more shimmery. again, i was pretty sure that the brown shade was going to look a lot like mac "twinks", but the chanel shade is darker and has a lot less red. it's quite possible that there are browns that come close to this, but nothing that i own. [that would include hourglass "gypsy", but i purposely went back and swatched that one in store again and i think it's a few shades cooler than "sable emouvante".]

l to r :: rbr angelic cockatiels, sable emouvante, mac twinks

i could gush about this duo for a long time, but it would be repetitive, a bit silly and ultimately pretty boring. i still want to gush, because i feel like in the excitement over everything else, this gem is getting overlooked. and that's a cosmetic tragedy, because, no kidding, it's one of the nicest items in my collection. the colours are luscious, the quality incredible and it's easy to get a flawless look. also, gushing about this would be a way of reminding everyone that, as much as it's my favourite season, autumn is still months away and it would be nice if we all just slowed down and enjoyed the moment a little.

here's a look at this beauty in action. this is probably the simplest possible application- the lighter colour on the inside of my lids and the darker colour on the outer "v" and in the crease. i still find that it looks pretty polished. i'll also take this opportunity to apologise for my brows. i was trying to see if filling them with a bit of bronzer would make them a better match to my still golden-toned hair, but clearly the experiment didn't work. i assure you, the colour wasn't obvious under natural light, but stick a hi res camera in the mix and, well...

the base ::
marcelle beauty balm "light/ medium"
smashbox high definition liquid concealer "fair/ light"
lush colour supplement "jackie oates"
marcelle pressed powder "translucent"

eyes ::
chanel e/s duo "sable emouvante" [peach-beige/ warm deep brown]
mac e/s "dazzlelight" [neutral highlight]
armani eyes to kill mascara

cheeks ::
nars blush "torrid" [shimmery apricot]

lips ::
mac l/g "prrr" [light pinkish peach neutral]

did i just manage to do a look without any limited edition products? well, to be fair, i've heard mixed things about sable emouvante itself. i believe it's joining the permanent line of chanel shadow duos, but in case i'm wrong, you might want to go and grab one sooner rather than later. [especially since permanent for chanel doesn't necessarily mean permanent in all countries.] besides, it's such a wonderfully appropriate mix for summer, you'd be mad not to have it on hand.