Too Faced Le Grand Palais Swatches and First Impressions

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!

Too Faced Le Grand Palais: One of the stars of the Holiday 2015 collection

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!

Too Faced Love Flush Blush Swatches

Too Faced's Love Flush Blush is the new release from the brand, and these seem to be all over my Instagram account - I keep seeing all these pretty previews on my Instagram page, and I managed to actually swatch these at an event, so here are the swatches!

The Too Faced Love Flush Blush comes in 6 shades, that cover both light pinks, nudes, and deep intense plums, and the shade range accommodates deeper-skinned ladies as well as fairer girls. The shades are decently soft, and really pigmented - I think these are best applied with a stippling brush or some brush with less dense bristles in order to avoid a colour overdose! The packaging is also really pretty - each of these comes in a heart-shaped case, with really pretty embossing, too.

Anyway, without further ado, let's look at the swatches! Apologies for the indoors lighting!

Etude House Dreaming Swan Swatches and First Impressions

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!

Etude House Dreaming Swan Eye and Cheek duo blush and eyeshadow

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.

Ettusais Heart Cheek Color and Creamy Lip Crayon Valentine's Day 2015 Swatches

Ettusais has launched two shades of blusher and two lip pencils for Valentine's Day, and as might be expected, both are limited edition.This consists of two blushes, the Heart Cheek Color, as well as two shades of Creamy Lip Crayon, both in shades of pink and orange.

Ettusais Heart Cheek Color and Creamy Lip Crayon

Let's go on to the swatches and my quick thoughts on them!

Pantone Colour of the Year 2015 Marsala: Shopping My Makeup Stash

Marsala is Pantone's Colour of the Year 2015, and unlike some previous years' Colour of the Years, I'm actually pretty excited for this, because as a makeup junkie, I feel like Marsala is pretty versatile on lips and cheeks. (I wouldn't be keen to wear it on my eyes, though.) Naturally, you can expect lots of commercialization with the Colour of the Year - like the Sephora X Pantone collections, and to be honest, the whole "Colour of the Year" thing always feels a bit enforced/commercialized to me - for one, the colour of the year is a decision that is made a year in advance by a small number of people in the industry, as Wiki helpfully points out: "Twice a year the company hosts...a secret meeting of representatives from various nations' color standards groups. After two days of presentations and debate, they choose a color for the following year...the color for summer 2013 was chosen in London in the spring of 2012." So yes, for some reason, people we don't know choose a colour for us a year in advance, and deem it the "Colour of the Year". It sounds arbitrary and a tad bizarre to me, but there it is.

My Marsala-ish coloured makeup stash!

At least, this year's Colour of the Year looks pretty good to me. Unliek 2013's Emerald, which I found a tad unwearable makeup-wise (emerald eyes just aren't my thing, let alone lips or cheeks, although I did rock an Emerald eye look in 2013!), and 2014's Radiant Orchid, which I liked personally but can imagine how some people with warmer skintones might find unwearable, Marsala looks pretty universally flattering, and actually wearable when it comes to makeup.

The closest things I have to Pantone's 2015 Colour of the Year

I'm definitely eyeing some of the items in the Sephora X Pantone collection this year, but I thought, as an excercise in frugality (don't look at me like you're not convinced - I said frugality, not futility!), I should attempt to dig through my makeup stash to see what Marsala-coloured products I already have in my stash, to see whether I am already all up to my eyes in Marsala products, or whether I still have room for a few more!