Chanel Holiday 2009: Golden Cage

Chanel holiday is here! Chanel was one of the last holiday collections to arrive at my counters, but this weekend it finally made an appearance. Collection Cage Doree de Chanel is a rather surprising holiday collection — it looks awfully springy — but I think “resort” is what Mr. Lagerfield, et al, had in mind.

The collection features a new eyeshadow quad: 15 Bird of Paradise ($56). There’s also a covetable new peach-gold highlighter called Les Tissages Lames de Chanel (with the same tweed pattern as the Les Tissages blushes). —What holiday collection is complete without a highlighter? I believe this one retails for $60.

The holiday collection also brings the introduction of a third shade of La Ligne de Chanel (Chanel’s cake liner, a pressed cake of powder that you dampen with your [wet] brush, to make a paste that performs like liquid liner). I’m delighted to report that Celadon-Lame is just as pigmented and smooth as its black and brown predecessors — and for the first time, the two shades are distinct from one another! The lighter green shade looks sparkly in the pan; you’ll lose those sparkles as soon as you dampen it. But as you can see from the smudgy line next to the swatches, you really can’t use it dry. Chanel’s cake liner is $45.

There are also three polishes in this collection: Mica Rose and Orange Fizz are repromotes; Trapeze is a new shade, a blond silver. (I took a close-up pic to give you a clearer look.) Chanel polishes are $23 each.
Collection Cage Doree also includes a handful of suitably resort-y lipsticks and glosses. The lipsticks are Aqualumieres; the glosses are Aqualumiere Glosses — and even though I prefer Rouge Allures and Glossimers, the colors are so pretty I might be persuaded.

98 Grenada reminds me of a more pigmented version of MAC’s Popster from Hello Kitty. 99 Tasmania has a touch of purple to it. I know you’re shocked to hear that I’m interested in both 101 Galapagos and 102 Maldives. Aqualumiere lipsticks are $28.50 and contain SPF 15.

The three Aqualumiere Glosses are named after birds (I think that’s where the Golden Cage comes in. Apparently Coco was fond of birds): Hirondelle is a swallow, Canari is a canary, and Colibri is a hummingbird. I swatched these once heavily and then once in a single stroke to show you both color and pigmentation. Aqualumiere Glosses are $27 each.
Chanel Holiday: Collection Cage Doree de Chanel, 15, Bird of Paradise, Les Tissages Lames de Chanel, La Ligne de Chanel, Celadon-Lame, 495, Mica Rose, 307, Orange Fizz, 367, Trapeze, 98, Grenada, 99, Tasmania, 101, Galapagos, 102, Maldives, 687, Hirondelle, 697, Canari, 707, Colibri