Kanebo Lunasol spring 2011 Shading Cheeks 01 Natural Beige

 When Lunasol released the promotion images of the spring 2011 line, I was quite sure I wanted one of their adorable palettes. Well, you know I already bought the super-gorgeous 05 Colorful ocean. So I decided to go for something in their Base Makeup line.

I have been on the lookout for a really suitable shader/bronzer for a while. There are plenty of products available in the standard/Western cosmetic lines, for example Illamasqua and Mac, but I often find myself overdoing these products and looking a bit too 80s sculped instead of optically enhanced. Also, paler skintones have more difficulty finding a believable shader/bronzer that is not too dark or pigmented

After seeing pictures of Lunasol's older version of the Modelling version EX 1 in modeling Bronze, I was quite convinced that Lunasol could offer the right dose of pigment and colour. Still, when I saw that Lunasol released a new version of a shading powder in their spring 2011 line, I know I had to try that one.

I had been looking for swatch-pictures before I bought it. Yuki's lazy channel had most swatch pictures up of the Lunasol 2011 line, however, she had not swatched the bronzing powder (neither the two highlighting powders). I liked it even without seeing the swatch pictures, because the colours looked suitable enough for N 15/20/25 type of skin-colour. Plus, I saw a tiny shimmer in the pan that I liked. I believe a bronzer should neither be too matte (because healthy skin does not look flat and matte either) nor to shimmery.

I was absolutely delighted when it arrived. The colours looked suitable and has that tiny shimmer that makes the skin look healthy and slightly glowing. Click on the picture for a close up, and you will see the shimmer.

Lunasol spring 2011 Shading Cheeks 01 Natural Beige (natural light)

I was cheapskate enough to buy the bronzer only (without the palette). I just put it in another Lunasol palette that I had around.

Lunasol spring 2011 Shading Cheeks 01 Natural Beige

Now I understand why Yuki did not make any swatch pictures, because it is terribly difficult to make pictures of the colour differences. Well, my photo making qualities are not too impressive either ;) but the only colour really visible is the one that is on the right.

You can see them a bit better on a piece of white paper.

Lunasol Shading Cheeks 01 Natural Beige- swatch

Although they are not that visible on the skin, that actually makes it quite believable as a shader/bronzer. When you blend the three of them together, you get that tiny bit of warm shader colour that makes it suitable for shading or bronzing purposes.

It is wonderfully suitable for people who are not trained makeup-artists or quite skilled with makeup. The pigmentation is light enough to apply without overdoing it. And, as I said before, it is visible (although subtily) on N 15/20/25 skin. I am not sure how it would look on darker skintones, though. It will probably be too light.

The colours are on the warmer side, so skintones that are really cool might opt for a cooler tone with a more taupe-like colour.

(oh, bought mine @ adambeauty again, but unfortunately they are out of stock. Other options are gooddealer.com  , bobodave.com or ichibankao.com)  

Lavshuca Star Glow Rouge in RD-2

It seems I am making up for my lack of post of the last couple of months. Haven't I been making 6 posts in a week? Mmm, well done.

So today I am doing a quick review on a wonderful lipstick I purchases. Yeh, a short one, because I have been blogging and 'talking' too much this week. However, I promised a review in my last post, so here it goes.

I already have plenty of lipsticks, so I kept a low buy strategy on the lipstick front. However, after seeing the various swatches on Yuki's blog and Lotuspalace complete thumbs up, I decided I wanted one of those.

I absolutely love the way most Japanese companies make the most flattering natural lipsticks, without compromising on the beauty aspect. In other words: they make you look polished, more beautiful, without that makeup-armour feeling. How much I like the look of Christian Dior, Lancome, YSL and other Western brands, they sometimes have colours that absolutely are too bright for my liking.

Ok, so I checked out Yuki and Lotuspalace for the perfect colour. I noticed that they had not swatched RD-2...ha ha, guess to which one I was most drawn: ?? (still no clue?)

Yeh, I wanted to see that one for myself. I also liked the kind of shade between RD-1 and RD-3, duh, that is RD-2. It looked like the perfect blend of mauvy pink and beige.

Lavshuca amped up a bit on the luxury factor with a sort of plastic gemstone in pink on top. I do like the look of the soft metal pink (and matte) cast. The lipstick looks cute and is in a better and sturdier (and prettier) cast than the previous Lavshuca editions. I might say it is even sturdier than its expensive sibling from Shiseido Maquillage: that one is almost $30 and still has that plastic-like packaging that goes murky after a couple of uses.

So I like the packaging around the lipstick. Was I right about the colour?

Ohhh, I love the colour! It is the perfect mauve/pink/beige blend that makes my lips glow and look a bit more pouty.

The next photo shows the lipstick in a different light, so you can see the shimmers that are embedded in the base. These shimmers are not obtrusive in any way, and result in a glowy, more voluptious (but still mature and office appropriate) colour.

As for the texture and moisturizing properties? I love it. I just have to agree with lotuspalace on this one: it gets my full thumbs up as well.

The price was quite affordable, I purchased it for $13 on Adambeauty. The dollar rate was really low at that time being, so that would make a 10 euros. L'oreal is more expensive over here, and I have never found a L'oreal lipstick I enjoyed half as much as this one.