I recently had my first-ever makeover with Chantecaille’s charming, adorable, extremely knowledgeable, and sublimely talented Fernando Cadavid. Yes, readers, I might, maybe, have a crush on him. He just made me look so good.

Mr. Cadavid was an architect who found his real passion as a makeup artist. He also spent years trying product after product to clear up his own problem skin. His relationship with the Chantecaille brand began — as a customer — after a few friends and celebrity clients recommended their skincare products, which he now swears by. He subsequently met the Chantecailles and, a few years down the road, when they were looking to create a Global Makeup Artist position, the stars aligned and he joined the brand professionally.

Mr. Cadavid is the artist who does Olivia Chantecaille’s makeup in all the promotional photos. She always looks great, so my only request was that we use the current collection. “I’ll give you the same look I did for her,” he said.

I tend to do my makeup in a rather complicated way: lid color, crease color, outer V, inner corner, contouring, etc. —Probably because I know how, so I feel obligated to use all my tricks, every time. Fernando’s makeover was amazingly simple, and served as a great reminder that looking pretty can be easy.

Fernando started with a bit of foundation as eyeshadow base (lids only, from lashline to crease). Then he applied Pink Pearl from the Coral Reefs palette from lashline to brow. Then he applied Reef on the lid (from lashline to crease, light hand, relatively fluffy brush for a soft application).

I sometimes apply my shadow with a light hand or a fluffier brush, but then I worry that I can’t see it, so I go back and add more. This was a good reminder to have faith: by the time I have liner and mascara on, it’s going to look good.

Fernando applied Espresso Gel Liner Pencil on the top lid, keeping close to the lashline. Then he set the liner with Driftwood eyeshadow, blending with an angled eyeliner brush. He swept the eyeshadow up into a really subtle cat-eye type flick at the outer corner, which was much softer than a similar maneuver with eyeliner (and was a really soft look for me, compared to my normal technique). This face chart was digitally colored in by me; click here to see a similar breakdown on Chantecaille’s website.

He used Chantecaille’s new Faux Cils Longest Lash Mascara (which is supposed to give you a 25% increase in volume and length within two weeks of use). Everyone I’ve talked to who’s tried this mascara adores it, but I’m still suffering sticker shock: it’s $70.

He used FutureSkin foundation in Porcelain (my favorite!). I’d never really played with their brush before, but the Chantecaille foundation brush is surprisingly small — approximately the width of your thumb. I asked about that (wouldn’t it make application slower/more difficult?), but Fernando said he likes the smaller head. He said a bigger brush soaks up (and wastes) more product.

He also used Total Concealer in Alabaster under my eyes (Total Concealer has more coverage, but no treatment. Chantecaille’s BioDynamic Lifting Concealer contains anti-aging ingredients, but offers a little less coverage).

He swept Coral blush from the Coral Reefs palette onto my cheeks. Then he lined my lips with Natural lipliner, then applied Sunrise Lip Chic and Lucky gloss. Click here to see the breakdown on Chantecaille’s website.

The most striking thing (after he was done, and I was admiring myself in every reflective surface in Neiman Marcus’s cosmetics department): I couldn’t believe how much I really looked like the promo photo. It often seems so difficult to get an honest/accurate answer as to what products were used to achieve a particular look. But this time I have no doubts.

If you get a chance to meet (or get your makeup done by) Mr. Cadavid, I highly recommend it. I’ll definitely be trying this look again at home.

The last few Chantecaille collections have centered around a four-pan palette, so let’s start with that. The limited edition Coral Reefs palette is $79, and includes three full-sized eyeshadows and a blush. When you finish a shade, there’s a pinhole in the back of the compact to help you push out the pan, so you can pop something else in there (which is nice, because empty palettes from Chantecaille are pretty expensive).

For the past several years the Chantecailles have donated a portion of the proceeds of these palettes to various environmental charities. When you buy a Coral Reefs palette, 5% ($3.95) will go to the Marine Conservation Institute. I guess 5% is better than nothing, but I think you buy a Chantecaille palette because their powders are exquisite and you love the colors, not because they’re making a donation.

The powders feature a gold overspray (which disappears quickly) and the embossed image of coral. The first shade (Pink Pearl) is a soft satin beige-pink with a very subtle, pearly tinge of gold shimmer. The second shade (Reef, also referred to as Sand on Chantecaille’s website) is a satin warm fawn-sand with very subtle, tiny gold shimmers. The third shade (Driftwood) is a satin, warm brown, redwood, mulch color with a few tiny bronze shimmers.

The blush is simply called Coral, and it’s a beautiful satin warm pink with tiny, subtle, glowy sparkles. Oh how I love a warm/coral blush.

There are three lip products in the collection, which I thought were all permanent additions to the line… though NeimanMarcus.com designates the Lip Chic and Gloss as limited edition.

Sunrise Lip Chic is a warm, tropical guava pink ($33). Lucky Brilliant Lip Gloss is a light, warm, sheer pink with gold shimmers ($32). Coral Lip Definer is a bright coral, a very orange pink ($24).

There’s one new Gel Liner Pencil, Espresso. But I was pretty sure I hadn’t yet swatched Hematite (which launched this past fall), so I did that one, too. These eyeliner pencils are $32 each. I believe Espresso is limited edition (but why?). It’s a dark cool brown, pretty much my perfect color for an eyeliner. Hematite is a sheeny, Batman-charcoal black-grey.

If you’re shopping online, this collection is available on NeimanMarcus.com (free shipping with code SPRINGFS), Nordstrom.com (free shipping), and Chantecaille.com (free shipping at $75).

I’ve swatched several of these palettes now, and I’m starting to see a rhythm to the Chantecaille shade selection. I think of this palette as “the purple palette,” even though that’s delivered in a very subtle way. Revisit: Sylvie’s Personal Palette, Tigers in the Wild, and Sea Turtles. (And even though it’s not precisely the same mold as the others, Les Dauphins/Dolphins.)

The New Classic palette is $85 (slightly higher than recent releases). Valerian is a pale, champagne-pink satin. Thistle is a neutral-purple rose-ash-sand (also satin finish). Lavender (how could they call this shade lavender?) is a dark, blue-purple charcoal (black plum?) with ultra-fine iridescent shimmer. Rose is a shimmery, warm pink blush — but there’s no reason why you couldn’t wear it as an eyeshadow, so I swatched it that way, too. The pans are embossed with Chantecaille Cs, and, as with other palettes of this type, the back of the compact has pinholes, so when you finish a shade you can push out the empty pan and reuse/refill.

Fall also sees the launch of a new Gel Liner Pencil. The idea is to deliver the finish and wear-time of a gel in a faster, more convenient pencil form. The Gel Liner Pencil will actually come in two shades: black Jet and gunmetal Hematite. These are $32 each (and have an angled liner brush on the back end). I haven’t seen Hematite yet, but I used Jet to mark off my blush swatches.

There are also two new Lip Chics for fall ($32). I’m a huge fan of the Lip Chics; they have a wonderful, soothing, “heavy jelly” feeling that my usually-dry lips just love. Calla Lily is cranberry-rose. Violetta is raspberry-berry.

And there wouldn’t have been much point in swatching it, but Chantecaille is launching a new treatment mascara, Faux Cils Longest Lash Mascara. It’s essentially Chantecaille’s Faux Cils mascara with a lash-growth peptide called SymPeptide 17™. It’s $70, and you’re supposed to see results in two weeks of use.

The Lip Chics are already up on Chantecaille’s website; the palette and eyeliners say “coming soon.” And if you’re lucky enough to have a local Chantecaille counter, check with them — this stuff should be available for sale any day now.

The Sea Turtles palette includes eyeshadows in a shimmery beige, a shimmery warm, soft cocoa brown, and a shimmery blue-green charcoal (intended to be used as a liner, I think). I swatched the blush both lightly and heavily; it is pink with gold shimmer.

The palette is $79 (of which 5% goes to eco-charity WIDECAST, which works to protect sea turtles in the Caribbean), and once the pans are used up, the compact itself is refillable. The contrasting shade you see in the product image is just overspray; the pans are monochromatic under that top layer.

With all the hubbub over the Sea Turtles palette, you may not have known that Chantecaille also released three new shades of their Hydra Chic lipstick for spring.

Hydra Chics are medium-to-full coverage lipsticks said to provide 6 hours of moisturizing wear. They’re $30 each, and come in a skinny silver tube. Click here to see the original four shades.

Canna is coral; Aster is a warm pinky rose-red; Willow is mauvey.

Despite the similarity in name and price ($30), Hydra Chic lipsticks don’t have much in common with Chantecaille’s Lip Chics. Hydra Chics are fuller coverage, and come in a skinny silver tube. They’re supposed to provide 6 hours of moisturizing wear, and though I didn’t test them on my lips, they felt good on my arm.

According to my sales associate, Trillium and Water Lily are the best-sellers so far (but both shades are too purple for my tastes).

Les Delices de Rose ($52) is a mirrored silver palette, which contains large round pans of three glosses: a very sheer, light, warm pink with gold sparkles, a warm pink with gold sparkles, and a warm peach-pink with gold sparkles. The shades don’t have individual names.

As a result, Chantecaille’s new face palette makes me a little hungry.

Les Macarons is a funny palette. I turned it over, but the back label offers no explanation of the contents.

So I swatched the first three powders with my sponge-tipped eyeshadow applicators, then commented to the sales associate how unusual the pink eyeshadow was for Chantecaille.  ”Oh, that’s a blush,” she said. A blush? Right next to a cream highlighter? Hm.

So Les Macarons contains two eyeshadows (purple-brown and shimmery ballerina white-pink), a pink blush, a shimmery pink cream highlighter, and a pink-with-gold-shimmer lipgloss. It is $68.

The Chantecaille website also suggests one way to wear the palette: the lighter eyeshadow all over your lid, the darker shade as eyeliner. Blush on the cheeks; highlighter on the cheekbones and browbones, and then finish with gloss.

What do you think? The perfect all-in-one travel palette, or too limiting in its options?

The promotional photo of the Tiger in the Wild palette is very misleading. It looks like you’re getting a slate blue eyeshadow and a very orange blush (the blush is called Persimmon and the promo pic really looks like a persimmon). Actually, the shades are satin beige, gently shimmery grey-fawn, and matte near-black. The blush is a beautiful warm pink. When you buy a compact, the shades have a shimmery overspray. This disappears on first use, and won’t affect the way the product applies at all.

The palette is $78 (of which 5% will go to a charity to save tigers), and like the Dolphins palette, the pans are removable. So you can swap out a shade at your leisure, and keep using the compact after you’ve used everything in it. (That’s a very good thing, because Chantecaille’s palettes are extremely expensive.)

There are two new Lip Chics: Capucine and Anais. Putting on a Lip Chic is like putting on the nicest, most heavenly balm you’ve ever felt. Capucine is a bright coral; Anais is a sheer peach (less orange than Geranium; less pink than Camellia). The sheer lipsticks are $30 each.

Classic lipgloss is a warm pink, and surprisingly opaque for a Chantecaille Brilliant gloss. It is $28.

There’s also a new Le Stylo (liquid, felt-tipped-pen-style eyeliner, $26): Indigo (black-blue). And there’s a new shade of Faux Cils mascara, blackened blue-purple Viola ($38).

The mirrored compact contains four powder duos: a highlighting eyeshadow duo (white pink and very pale pink), a brown eyeshadow duo, a grey (or very cool brown) eyeshadow duo, and a two-toned blush meant to be swirled together. I also tried swirling together the lightest eyeshadow pan as a potential highlighter.

The palette is also refillable. Turn it over and you’ll see a pinhole under each pan, to push out and replace empties (or swap shades) with ease. And 5% of the purchase price will be donated to an organization working to protect Greece’s dolphins.

And here’s what a well loved tester looks like:

There are also two new Lip Chics for spring: China Rose and Bourbon Rose. At $30 apiece, Lip Chics are definitely a luxury, but the formula is delightful. These lipsticks are unscented, sheer shades that feel like a deliciously heavy balm on your lips. I swatched the two newcomers next to two familiar shades for comparison; click here to see the other Lip Chic shades, except for Heirloom, which is here.

Chantecaille Spring 2010: Les Dauphins, dolphin palette, China Rose, Bourbon Rose

The promotional images look like gold compacts, but the three testers that appeared at my counter this past weekend were brown metal. I don’t like or dislike them; they’re just rather different from what I was expecting. [EDIT: it seems the testers are packaged differently from the product for sale.] Lumiere de Rose is a pink highlighter — more subtle than it looks in this swatch. As always, I swatched heavily to convey the color. Voile de Rose is a translucent finishing powder (also swatched here heavily), and I believe it’s the same product as appeared in the Butterfly collection a few years ago (Les Papillons Poudre Delicate in Veil).

I think Reve de Rose is the winner of the trio; it’s a really gorgeous rose lipgloss that will be amazing on the majority of the lipgloss-wearing population. I know, it’s in a pot. But the color might just be worth it. If you like this one, don’t wait to buy it.

Chantecaille Holiday 2009: Les Petales, Reve de Rose Lip Gloss SPF 15, Voile de Rose Poudre Delicate, Lumiere de Rose Highlight

In general, I would say the Chantecaille brand is subtle, luxuriously made, and focused on “naturally radiant” beauty (with the exception of their lipsticks, which range from the demure to the wildly pigmented).
Laughter is a very softly shimmery pink with peach. Delight is peachy. Joy is pink; Cheer is peach-brown. Ecstasy reminds me of MAC Tippy — perhaps providing a pop of color on the apples of the cheeks. The Chantecaille SA assures me it blends beautifully, and I’m inclined to believe her. Chantecaille products are, in general, extremely blendable (I once speculated that I could pull off their darkest foundation shade as a bronzer).