Face of the Day : Creme de Couture Collection

This is a FOTD and a continuation of the first impressions post yesterday. I used the eye shadows from the Crème de Couture palette for the first time today, so I have a few thoughts about them now. Scroll down to read more.

(p.s. I have no idea why there is an orange cast under my eyes. It's not there in real life!)

For my eye look today, I used Apricot Flower, Passion Fruit, and Café au Lait; Apricot flower is all over the lid, Passion Fruit in the crease, and Café au Lait in the outer corner and under the eye. I used NARS Smudgeproof primer with NYX Milk over that and then applied the shadow. Since Apricot Flower is one of the lighter shades in the palette, it did take a bit of patience to build up the color, but it stayed and smooth and not chalky through multiple layers of application. I only used Passion Fruit to blend the edges out a bit and to give a little depth to the crease; it makes a great, warm-toned blending shade that I can see my self using for a lot of looks. Café au Lait is much more pigmented and it only took a light application to darken the outer corner of my eye and only one brush stroke under the eye.

I used Cherry Apple on my cheeks, with a much lighter touch this time, and am a lot happier with the application. I applied several light layers of it to build it up to the shade that I wanted.

Questions, comments? Let me know!

Sigma Crème de Couture Collection : First Impressions and Swatches

I ordered this about a week and a half ago and after being bounced around at the post office for 3 additional days, they finally delivered it late last week. I have never used any Sigma products, but the Crème de Couture collection really caught my eye. It's a collection of three blushes and a palette of 16 matte eye shadows. I've really been getting into matte eyeshadow, but it's insanely stupid how hard it is to find fun colors in a matte finish. Well, say hello to this palette. I also ordered a brush, but I will review that at a separate time.

The blushes each come in their own little packaging and are .12 oz (each). I wasn't sure about Blackberry Essence since I've never owned a purple blush before... and I'm still not sure about it. I'm going to have to spend some time with that shade and figure out how to wear it in the most flattering way. If it comes down to it, I can always use it as a shadow rather than a blush. Cherry Apple is a very flattering, warm shade that falls somewhere between red and pink on the color spectrum. I've worn this shade and I was surprised at how pigmented it was on my face; I loaded my brush with product when I should have applied a little more sparingly. The blush is very soft feeling on the face, but not so soft that it's going to crumble in the pan. If you notice, I didn't swatch Stawberry Ambrosia and the reason I didn't is because I'm thinking of putting it in a giveaway... thinking of it.

For the record, I haven't used any of these shadows yet, they've only been swatched for the purpose of this post, so I can't report on how they wear. However, just like the blushes, they are incredibly soft on the skin, but not so soft that they'll crumble in the pan (if you don't know what I'm talking about, buy Kitten from Stila and you'll understand). I'm not too excited for the colors on the bottom row but that's only because I don't wear a lot of blue or green shadow, not because they aren't gorgeous. I see so much potential for all of these colors and I cannot wait to put them on my face! Some of the lighter shades aren't as pigmented as I might like, but they're still seem pretty solid.

As you can see, these bad boys swatch about a thousand times better on top of NYX's Milk Jumbo Pencil than they do on bare skin. I always wear a base or a primer when I wear shadow, so I'm confident that I'll get nice color payoff from these. Violet Whip and Cherry Blossom are the only two shades that seem to have a bit of trouble showing up, but I think that when applied to the eyelid, that they'll be very nice and subtle; probably great for blending like colors.

This whole collection retails for $55 (if purchased together) or $32 for the palette and $12 for each blush. You can check it all out at www.sigmabeauty.com if you're interested. If you have any questions about the collection, please let me know!