The eye quad features three shadows and a cream liner (fortunately, all the palettes zip shut, which should minimize dry-out). The eyeshadow shades are frosty, light, warm, blond-brown golden cocoa; frosty warm (slightly reddish) wood brown; and pearly, slightly iridescent, shimmery, sparkly golden white. The cream liner is dark, cool brown.

The lip quad includes a clear balm; a bright, cool fuchsia-rose (with super tiny, very subtle sparkles); a warm, happy (coral) pink with super tiny, subtle sparkles; and a sheerer peach-strawberry-pink with slightly more noticeable gold sparkle. Both quads are $46. Some sites refer to these as the “Backstage Expert” palettes. Sephora calls them “Celebration Collection” — they don’t really have official names.

The deluxe travel palette features a three-color powder, three shadows, a cream liner, a gloss (left), a lipstick (right), Creme de Rose lip balm (bottom left), little brushes, and DiorShow Iconic mascara.

I didn’t really know how to swatch the powder, having never used the full-size item (DiorSkin Nude Natural Glow Sculpting Powder Makeup SPF 10). I swatched each of the three shades separately with eyeshadow applicators. Then I thought maybe it was supposed to work like the Guerlain quad blushes, where you run your brush over the colors horizontally and apply to your cheek for instant contour.

I emailed my favorite Dior sales associate as soon as I got home. She said the shade in the palette is #020 (Beige Praline), and that in its full size, the stripes are wide enough to be used individually (“even out,” “sculpt,” “illuminate”) — plus the product comes with a thin, rectangular brush. In its mini travel edition, however, she said most people just blend the colors together and use it as powder foundation or bronzer (depending on your skintone).

The eyeshadows are gently shimmery pale pink, shimmery freesia grey-purple, and shimmery black violet. The cream liner is black-plum. The gloss is sheer pale pink, and the lipstick is a very pretty warm rose (red-pink). The travel palette is $77, and it’s up for sale in our BeautyBloggers.org charity auction.

The brush set is $62, and it’s also in the charity auction.

There’s a new, limited edition eyeshadow quint, 554 Couture Golds ($59). The palette includes a shimmery white; a shimmery muted pumpkin/peach; a sparkly very pale gold; a sheer, dark, grey-brown-black matte; and a shimmery golden cocoa. This photo was taken on a partly cloudy day and I think that washed out the palette just a bit.

There are also four Rouge Dior lipsticks (each $32). I LOVE 841 Belle de Nuit. It’s a warm, hot red-orange-pink (hot coral) with gold shimmer. Winter makes me feel washed out (something about the angle of the light), and I love a pop of color on my lips to make me look alive/awake. Belle de Nuit is really perfect.

961 Nocturne is a lovely magenta-violet-pink with gold shimmers. 527 Versailles is visually confusing. It’s a berry-pink that reflects orange-gold shimmer… so the resulting swatch is warm. 217 Or Etoile is a sheer, shimmering, sparkling pale yellow (a topper for other lipsticks).

Because Dior’s display unit is modular, each counter had to fill some empty slots — and each counter I visited used something different. The Dillards counter decided to display the Shimmering Face Powder in Amber Diamond, which seems like an excellent choice for holiday (who can resist a highlighter at this time of year?).

Knowing how popular Amber Diamond is (and since I haven’t swatched it before), I included it with the collection — even though it’s a regular, permanent item.

DiorSkin Poudre Shimmer (Ultra Shimmering All Over Face Powder) comes in two shades: 001 Rose Diamond and 002 Amber Diamond (each $44). Amber Diamond is a peach-bronze-gold shimmer — and this is a heavy swatch.

The holiday nail polishes are $22, all limited edition. 651 Merveille is a warm, juicy, cherry red with subtle gold shimmer (counterpart to Belle de Nuit). 221 Or Divin is a frosty pale gold that reminds me of NARS Versailles. 871 Apparat is burgundy with gold shimmer. And 611 Exquis is fascinating: grey-green-brown with gold shimmer.

781 Smoky Brown offers a satin cool walnut brown, a shimmering chestnut, and a pearly, oystery beige satin.

571 Smoky Nude gives you a warm leather brown satin, a shimmering copper-bronze, and a pearly warm golden-white.

291 Smoky Navy was the most difficult to swatch — I don’t know if this was just an abused tester. Its shades are a blackened blue satin, a low-shimmer denim blue with blue, green, and silver sparkles, and an ice blue satin.

I think of 481 Smoky Khaki as the safari trio. It includes a deep olive green satin, a complex olive-brown shimmer, and a muted gold shimmer.

051 Smoky Pink includes a slightly purpled-grey matte, a purple-grey silver shimmer, and an opalescent whisper-pink satin.

These eyeshadow trios are $48 each.

So I set off for Sephora (because more swatches are always better).

The Mitzah eyeshadow quint (753) is $60. The palette includes a rich, satin, almost purple brown. The color reminds me of coffee grounds. There’s a satin crema/caramel with tiny gold shimmers, and a matte yellow-ginger-peach. There’s a softly shimmery ivory and a matte cool earth-brown (taupe).

The nail polishes are interesting. Camel is very true to its name, a yellow-tan that dries slightly darker than it looks in the bottle. In one coat, Ebony is a cool grey-brown — a lovely color, but nothing like its two-coat self. The glossy black-brown polish references ebony wood perfectly (ebony piano keys aren’t actually black). The polishes are $22 each.

And since it was there, I thought I might as well also swatch the Mitzah Golden Brown DiorShow Mascara (598). It’s a very dark brown with tiny golden iridescent shimmers. It looks like it would be subtle and very pretty. (It’s $24.50.)

Everything in this collection is limited edition.

Dior’s limited edition Mitzah collection (named for Christian Dior’s friend-and-muse, Mitzah Bricard) is ONLY available at Sephora.com, and while I thought the promotional photos looked pretty (you know how I love my neutrals), I don’t think it was a full-on must-have for me until I saw Disneytwinmom’s photos.

One note: Sephora.com is calling these “Panther” palettes, and that’s a mistake. Panthers are all black. This collection is about leopard.

Here are Disneytwinmom’s thoughts on the quint:

Earlier this summer, news of the Dior Mitzah collection surfaced — with scant details and few photos of items in the collection. Focus was mostly on the leopard-print eyeshadow trio, though there was mention of an eyeshadow quint as well.

Lack of details and photos of this mystery quint intrigued me, and when I happened upon it on the Sephora website last week I pounced! The Sephora website describes the quint as a “fashion-forward palette featuring five eye shadows in brown and beige tones, embossed with Dior’s jungle print.”

The quint is indeed luxurious, the embossing is beautifully done, and the shades have wonderful pigmentation (without being frosty). The shades include chocolate brown satin, golden tan satin, camel satin, ivory-beige shimmer/satin, and deep steel-gray satin.

When I swatched the palette, four of the shades had immediate color payoff. The ivory beige has a very delicate sheen.  If you do not have these particular shades in your beauty arsenal or are a collector of limited edition/ unusual palettes then I recommend picking up this quint.

In the swatch pic, the shades are (left to right) Tan, Ivory, Gray, Camel, Chocolate.

For more information on the items in this collection, please revisit this post.

Dior also didn’t make the decision easy on would-be shoppers; no store I visited had testers of the palette or the polish.

Still, Blue Denim looked so friendly in the bottle I felt compelled to get it. It’s a pretty, playful, happy, Crayola-(slightly-purpled)-blue creme. Dior polishes are $21 each.

The Nordstrom anniversary sale ends tomorrow, July 31, so if you have any last-minute shopping to do, don’t wait any longer!

The signature piece in this collection is the Blue Tie palette in Smoking Blue (non-U.S. markets got a second version of this palette called Smoking White). It’s $70 and contains four shadows and a lipstick/gloss.

While this compact looks fantastic on the model, but I wasn’t instantly won over by swatching. The colors are sheer blue-black with very tiny sparkles, a satin blackened-indigo, a sheer black with silver sparkles, and a shimmery cool, dark, blue-grey silver. The eyeshadows felt chalky and weren’t very pigmented. The pink lipstick/gloss is subtle.

Nail polish 219 Safari Beige is a versatile, professional, pretty, pale pink. It’s permanent (but not available in Sephora), and is also included in the Dior 10-polish display appearing on counters. 908 Tuxedo is the shade used on the model. On her it almost looks like a cream, but swatching reveals it’s actually a low-shimmer, really dark, mysterious-midnight sapphire blue. Both polishes are $21.

There are four new Rouge Dior lipsticks. Generally speaking, Rouge Diors are fuller coverage than Dior Addict. Rouge Diors also have a flowery scent.

314 Angelique Beige is a sheer, beigey warm pink. 428 Pisanelle Pink is muted mauvey pink. 651 Tourbillon Pink is bright. 741 Allegro Pink is a brighter, more saturated, more violet mauve. These are $30 each; Angelique Beige and Allegro Pink will not be available in Sephora.

Dior is also rolling out six shades of a new lipstick called Rouge Serum Crystal. These lipsticks are closely related to the Rouge Serum lipsticks: the packaging is the same, they’re both SPF 20, and they’re both $32. The Rouge Serum Crystal shades are more sheer than the Rouge Serum, and they contain ten times the skincare ingredients.

215 Primrose Crystal is sheer warm beige-pink. 345 Coral Crystal is sheer peach. 455 Tea Rose Crystal is sheer pink. 645 Sweet Pink Crystal is sheer violet-red. 675 Passionate Pink Crystal is sheer watermelon pink. 855 Carmine Crystal is sheer orange-red.

There are two fall blushes, and Linda astutely observed that 839 Vintage Pink is actually the same shade from the spring 2010 Dentelle (Lace) collection.

I swatched these lightly, then heavily. 839 Vintage Pink is a glowy, slightly shimmery pink (and this shade is not available in Sephora). 889 Pink In Love is a less glowy red-pink. Both shades are $40.

And in case you were curious (because each blush is two-toned), I also swatched the shades individually. I guess you could alter the color of your blush slightly by focusing more on one color or the other.

Does this collection speak to you? (Is it too hot and too early to even think of fall makeup?)

And what do you think of the promotional image for this collection? (Hilary Duff was the first name on my lips.)

These 10 polishes are all repromotes, and the colors are permanent. 219 Safari Beige is actually one of the fall shades, so I didn’t swatch it here (partly because I couldn’t fit 10 pieces of tape on my arm, and partly because Dior’s fall collection will be Monday’s post).

804 Perfecto was previously part of the Nordstrom-only collection that contained Rock Coat grey/sheer-black topcoat.

When I saw 886 New World Purple, I thought it MIGHT be that old Nordstrom exclusive, Lemon Balm, renamed. It’s not. It IS Aztec Chocolate (which, for some reason, was named Violet Nouveau Monde in French, and Aztec Chocolate in English the first time it came out. Now they’ve aligned the French and English names).

253 Dauphine Pink is sheer, cotton candy pink with tiny silver shimmers. 483 Pink Kimono is bright, cool, flamingo pink creme. 545 Psychedelic Orange is coral creme. 999 Red Royalty is vibrant cherry red creme. 671 Graphic Berry is bougainvillea-red-fuchsia. 804 Perfecto is a dark, blackened, desaturated navy (not the same as my beloved Bond Street). 853 Masai Red is (deeper than Red Royalty) berry red creme. 886 New World Purple is a silver-purple shimmer-frost. 906 Purple Revolution is an uber-dark plum creme (almost black). SO sexy for fall. Dior polishes are $21.

Anyway, I have an OLD picture of Lemon Balm (not sure why I never published it before). If I had Lemon Balm to paint my nails today, this is not the picture I would have taken. Sure, the close-up detail is seductive, but I find further-away pictures (with a little more context) actually more useful in deciding whether I want to buy something. Hindsight, 20-20.


Anyway, I tried to take the same kind of picture of New World Purple, so you can see how it’s different. New World Purple is less gritty/foil-finish. It’s more of a frost (you can see brushstrokes if you’re not careful, though it still has some shimmer to it). It’s also more silver-purple, with less brown and less gold than Lemon Balm had. I find New World Purple looks kalamata-olive-dark indoors, and quite purple in sun.

Luckily, the ever-amazing Kristina volunteered to share her swatches of Aloha. Here are her notes and photo:

Paradise refused to photograph accurately, but check out this random picture I found on Google, searching “neon coral” — this is the EXACT color of the polish on my nails.

I used one coat of Gelous base coat followed by three coats of each polish, and then topped both with the Dior topcoat that comes with the polishes. Both applied wonderfully (I love the paddle brush that Dior polishes have now!) and it’s clear to me that Dior has improved its nail polish formula — the older polishes used to chip terribly on me, but Aloha looked freshly applied for four full days. On the fifth day I saw a little bit of cracking in the polish, but that’s also happened to me with other polishes (using Seche Vite and Poshe), so I think that’s probably just a side-effect of using quick-dry topcoats and working with one’s hands/using hand sanitizer as much as I do.

I also want to mention how much I LOVE the Dior top coat. It’s actually even quicker to dry than Seche Vite or Poshe, and the formula is far thinner, so it’s much easier to work with. I hope they release it on its own — I’d use it with everything! I also used it over an Essence polish last week and had similarly good results, so I don’t think it only works well with other Dior polishes.

Thirsty for more? Check out photos from Beauty Look Book and Cafe Makeup.

Cue Dior’s sexy and sweltering Electric Tropics, arriving on counters now (though you’ll notice that my display was missing a few pieces. Hopefully I’ll be able to track them down and we can discuss them in another post).

Electric Tropics contains two eyeshadow quints: 754 Rosy Tan and 534 Rosy Nude. Each quint is $58; Rosy Nude will not be available in Sephora. The two quints seem conceptually similar, and the other pieces of this collection makes me think that Rosy Nude is the “fair” quint and Rosy Tan is the “deeper skintone” quint. (Though, as always, wear what you feel.)

Rosy Tan contains a bubblegum pink satin, a red-brown shimmer, a white-pink shimmer (it looks white; there’s a hint of pink), a golden brown shimmer (too warm to be called taupe), and a very slightly pinked tan satin.

Rosy Nude includes a white-pink frost, a pale peach frost, a carnation pink shimmer, a golden tan satin, and an iridescent pale shimmery pink with gold sparkles.

One of the most anticipated items of the summer collection is the “basketweave” Nude Healthy Glow Powder. This limited edition blush/bronzer comes in two shades: 001 Aurora and 002 Sunset (each $46). Aurora is a beautiful slightly pinked peach with subtle gold sparkles. Sunset is deeper, more yellow/orange peach with subtle gold sparkles. The texture is lovely and both powders are beautiful.

There’s also Nude Healthy Glow Summer Fluid. My sales associate explained that this product is not exactly a foundation, but a light tinted liquid, for use over makeup or alone (instead of foundation), meant to impart a bronzed glow. She explained that it’s lightweight and won’t run or crack on those hot days when you just don’t feel like putting on foundation.

Nude Healthy Glow Summer Fluid is $46, and comes in more pink 001 Rosy Nude and more yellow 002 Honey Nude.

There are four “Ultra Gloss Crystal Nude” lipglosses ($27, brush wand applicator).  No joke: these are clear and effectively identical to one another. They feel nice enough; not at all sticky on my arm.

037 is Luminescent Peach (not available in Sephora). 047 is Sweet Peach. 077 is Luminescent Rose (not available in Sephora). 087 is Sweet Rose (not available in Sephora).

There’s also one limited edition Dior Addict Lipstick, super sexy, sheer red-orange 545 Fire (no pun intended, but dang, that’s hot).

The other “gotta have it” element of the collection are two electric nail polishes, bright orange 638 Aloha and bright pink 558 Paradise Pink. Paradise Pink is exclusive to Saks; Aloha is available everywhere.

Best of all, each polish is bundled with a top coat, and the two-packs go for $26 (a steal, since Dior polishes are regularly $21 apiece). I hope to find and swatch these soon.