Chantecaille Summer 2018 Swatches: Bronzer, Eyeshadows, Lipgloss, Eyeliner

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.

Anti-Haul Blogpost: "Not My Colours" Orange Eyeshadow Edition

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.

Benefit They're Real Double The Lip & Duo Eyeshadow Blender Swatches

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.

Benefit They're Real Double The Lip

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!

L'Oreal Super Liner V-Sculptor Swatches and First Impressions

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.

L'Oreal Super Liner V-Sculptor: A powder eyeshadow with a cushion applicator for better blending

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!

RMK Makeup Spring/Summer 2017 Swatches: Color Change Collection

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!

This isn't even half of RMK's Spring/Summer makeup!

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.