Immortal Flower is a matte warm pink (even though it’s a Satin finish). Modern Mandarin is a satin tangerine-persimmon with a silver sheen/shimmer. Lovecloud is a satin strawberry-candy pink with a silver sheen (very subtle shimmer).

Here are light and heavy swatches:


Full of Joy is a shimmery pale lilac (pinky purple, though it looks especially purple next to Peony Petal) with a silver shimmer/sheen. Peony Petal is a satin (near-matte, but glowy) cool pink. Pink Tea is a satin rose-pink, and if I’d realized how similar it was going to look to Lovecloud, I would have swatched them side by side. I think Pink Tea is a little bit dustier and a little bit mauvier than Lovecloud.


These blushes are $20 each, and all six shades are still available (with free shipping, natch) from Nordstrom.com.

Eyeshadow duos are back, though they’re $27.50 now. As with last summer’s duos, MAC doesn’t identify individual shade names or finishes.

Dynamic Duo 1 features a warm candy pink with gold duochrome shimmer, paired with a slightly chalky matte magenta berry (really the only shade that disappointed me at all in terms of smooth delivery of pigment). Dynamic Duo 2 includes a softly shimmery blue-silver and a vibrant matte cerulean.

Dynamic Duo 3 offers a shimmery blue-purple-steel grey and a matte teal (yowsers). Dynamic Duo 4 has a matte Pepto/Barbie pale blue-pink and a super-dark matte eggplant purple. All in all, the texture and color payoff of the duos is excellent.

The collection also features a few face powders. Pink Cult blush (repromoted from Jeanius) is a dusty bubblegum pink (Matte). I thought — from its name — that Magenta, a matte red-violet, process magenta, was a permanent, pro color (products with simple color names are often pro shades)… but I was mistaken; it’s limited edition. The blushes are $20 each.

Lightscapade Mineralize Skinfinish was originally released in 2006; recently repromoted in the Cindy Sherman collection of fall 2011. It’s a pearly warm-white shimmery highlight, $29.

I swatched the powders first lightly, then heavily.

The collection also includes three nail polishes (each $16). Vivid Effect is a red-pink coral, an intense hibiscus creme. In the Dark… Purple is grape. Screening Room is a green teal.

There are also four Eye Kohl (non-mechanical pencil) eyeliners ($15 each). Heirloom is a shimmery metallic dishwater blue-purple silver grey. Hyacinth is a satin (low shimmer) justice blue. Resort is a satin grape. Smolder (a permanent shade) is black.

The lips are probably my favorite part of the collection. I’d been vaguely regretting not buying Watch Me Simmer from February’s Shop MAC Cook MAC collection, but it’s already being repromoted, so I got my second chance.

Reel Sexy is a light coral pink Amplified Creme. Watch Me Simmer is a deeper warm pink. Pink Popcorn (Lustre) looks really lavender in the tube, but swatches on surprisingly pink. It’s a very sheer pink lilac with microscopic blue shimmers.

Wag of the finger to MAC for naming the fourth lipstick in this collection Heroine. MAC fans surely remember that there was a Heroine lipstick in MAC’s recent Wonder Woman collection. It was a Frost finish, and a completely different color (frosty red-brown). This Heroine is a grape creme Matte. The lipsticks are each $14.50.

There are also four Cremesheen Glass lipglosses ($19.50). Private Screening is a light warm pink. Star Quality is a bright red-pink coral, a color that J.Crew would probably call “melon.” Cinestyle is periwinkle, pale blue-purple. Colour Saturation is berry.

Reel Sexy is available on Nordstrom.com, Dillards.com, Bloomingdales.com, and MACcosmetics.com — happy shopping!

Pantone was a commercial printing company that became famous for their color standards. To make a long story short, they created books of color swatches and a system by which any of these colors could be consistently created. Some colors are created with the standard printing mix of CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). Others are “spot” colors, created from some combination of Pantone’s 13 inks plus white and black. What this means is a graphic designer in Phoenix can create a corporate logo in PMS 78 (Pantone Matching System), and it can be printed correctly in Iceland, India, or New Zealand, without calibrating it to another printed sample. The system is so pervasive that even national flags are described by PMS color.

And since 2000, for the prestige of the brand, Pantone has named a “color of the year.” I don’t always agree with their predictions; I wasn’t feeling “Honeysuckle” last year. Orange was pretty hot last summer — I think it hasn’t yet gone out of vogue. Regardless, I love orange, so I was very excited about the collaboration.

I originally expected to buy the collector’s set, $68. It includes everything I thought I would want: eyeshadow quad, lipstick, the blush duo, and single blush. The lipgloss and eyeliner were just a bonus! But the eyeshadow quad kind of talked me out of it. The texture was nice, but not, as Camel cigarettes used to say, pure swatching pleasure. The shades are all a little sheer (I built them up).

Scallop Shell is a sheer, satin, beige ballet pink. Carnelian is a satin coral with a few pink-gold shimmers. Sparrow is a cool, matte, slightly purpled bark-brown. Pavement is a sheer black satin with a few tiny sparkles. The eyeshadow quad is $28, if you buy it individually.

Tangerine Tango Cream lipstick ($18) is the flagship piece of the collection, and Sephora, you got me good. I love it. It’s a semi-sheer coral orange — and because it’s sheer, it goes completely warm-strawberry red-pink on me. Also because it’s sheer, it doesn’t last THAT long on my lips. The texture is glossy-jelly, not drying at all. It also has a sweet scent (gummi bears?) that I notice only when I’m applying.

Then there’s the lipgloss set, $20 (which is nothing when you consider you’re getting 4 glosses). But in what will become a recurring theme for this collection, I kind of wish they’d done individual products instead of a set.

The lipglosses are a nod to Pantone’s different finishes. Vivid is probably the truest representation of what “Tangerine Tango” is supposed to be. It’s the most opaque and the most red. Tangerine Tango Luminous is a little lighter, a little more sheer, and has gold sparkles. Tangerine Tango Opal is a little more sheer and a little lighter, with dense pink sparkles. But as you can see from the swatches, it almost seems like you’re buying three tubes of the same gloss. Tangerine Tango Glaze is a nice surprise. It’s a sheer, warm, grapefruit pink with pink and gold sparkles.

There are two blush options, a blush duo ($26) and a Prisma Chrome Blush ($16). The blush duo consists of Desert Flower (a matte, warm guava pink) and Coral (a deeper, more intense, watermelon pink with gold shimmer). The Prisma Chrome Blush was REALLY sparkly; I felt like there was nearly as much sparkle as color/pigment. It’s apricot with dense gold sparkles.

Not loving Apricot Brandy confirmed my decision not to buy the collector’s set.

I found the Tangerine Tango nail polishes to be surprisingly nifty… but I wished I could buy just one of them for $6, rather than all four for $24. Like the lipglosses, the nail polishes are an exploration of finish. The set contains Tangerine Tango Matte, Creme, Shimmer (sheer with tiny orange and pink shimmers), and Glitter (intense, autumn-leaf orange glitter in a clear base).

There’s also a trio of mechanical eyeliners ($22). Though these pencils were very soft and creamy, I was concerned about staying power. (Anyone own these and care to weigh in?) Meteorite is black, Tangerine Tango Twist is a sheeny satin bittersweet red-orange with pink and silver shimmers. Chestnut is dark brown.

The collection also contains a number of makeup accessories: “Tangerine Tango” brush sets ($68), false lashes ($28), eyelash curlers ($18), a makeup bag ($28). None of these made my have-to-have list.

Also, I do have to ding Sephora for their packaging on this collection: the outer packaging is absurdly wasteful (perhaps to discourage in-store shoplifting of what was sure to be a popular collection). I also disliked the translucent, non-attaching, magnetized lids on the eyeshadow quad and blush duo.

Are you an orange-lover? A Pantone-groupie? What did you love (and not love) about this collection?

The Extra Dimension Eyeshadows are $20 each (larger size pans) — and yes, I swatched these dry, with no base or primer. Young Venus is a pale, sparkling frosty ice-pink. Blue Orbit is sparkling frosty periwinkle. Lunar is blackened sapphire — a black base with sparkly/frosty blue shimmer. Grand Galaxy is a sparkling/frosty blue-purple grape. Rich Core is more of a red-purple (also sparkling/frosty). Sweet Heat is a high shimmer, very frosty rosy copper. Havana is a satin/frost warm tobacco brown with no sparkle. Modern Pewter is a frosty shimmery green-silver-gold metallic. Warm Thunder is a sparkly/frosty cool, steely, almost bluish silver. Dark Dare is satin/matte black with a few tiny sparkles.

The three Extra Dimension Skinfinishes are $28 each, and — surprisingly — they’re eye- and lip-safe. Superb is beige-pink with silver multicolored sparkles (click here to compare it to Estee Lauder’s first — and unnamed — powder gelee from fall 2011). Whisper of Gilt is warm pale gold with silver shimmer, and doesn’t really have a counterpart from Estee Lauder. Glorify is burnished copper (click here to compare it to Estee Lauder’s spring 2012 Topaz Chameleon).

I swatched these first lightly (because they can be so intense), then heavily (to show the color):


This collection also repromotes two of the “split-personality” brushes from the Semi-Precious collection (photos here): the 128 split-fibre cheek brush ($32) and the 234 split-fibre eye blending brush ($22.50).

Products are available at every MAC counter and free-standing store, though if that’s inconvenient (or your local counter is sold out of something) I’d recommend Nordstrom.com (free shipping at any price!).

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).

Anyway, Estee Lauder’s summer collection (which gives me a bit of a 70s vibe) is on counters. The timing feels right — I think (in Texas) February was our spring.

For the past few years, Lauder has used the summer collection to reimagine a seasonal ideal they call “Bronze Goddess.” This year’s goddess is inspired by the Italian isle of Capri.

Estee Lauder is definitely still exploring the possibilities of their powder gelee formula: the summer collection contains an “all-gelee” eyeshadow quint called Bronze Sands ($45).

If this collection, as a whole, is meant to evoke the mountains, sandy beaches, and water of Capri, the eyeshadow palette does it very succinctly. The quint includes a frosty, shimmery, intense, carroty copper; a warm, iridescent, shimmery golden pearl white; a muted green-blue ocean shimmer; a tawny safari-gold shimmer/frost with a few silver sparkles; and a warm, sparkling satin rich-rust red-brown.

They say you can use the Illuminating Gelee formula wet or dry, but the pigments are already so potent, dry… does anyone use them wet?

Building on the success of the Intense Kajal Eye Crayons from the spring/Topaz collection, Capri contains one dual-ended Intense Kajal Eye Crayon Duo: Molten Lava/White Sands. I was excited to see a dark brown option in this formula, but in my limited testing thus far, the brown seems to produce more fallout than the black. The eye crayon duo is $24.

There’s also a Molten Lava nail polish ($19). It’s a deep, dark brown with tiny, subtle warm shimmers.

There’s a new Illuminating Powder Gelee for face, and I have to think this one is intended as cheek color (what do you think? How are you wearing it?). Shimmering Sands is $42, a bronze-rose with multicolored shimmer and tiny silver sparkles.

There are two Pure Color lipsticks ($25), both repromotes from the permanent line. Urban Auburn is a wine-red-brown. Tiger Eye is a shimmery, frosty, metallic, warm, iridescent bronze rose (similar to a heavy swatch of the Shimmering Sands powder, actually).

These lip colors seemed very “fall” to me, but didn’t Tom Ford also see spring/summer 2012 with a similar lip palette? Maybe we’re saying goodbye to “traditional” lip seasons. Maybe deeper hues look better on the deep (hopefully faux) tans of summer in Capri.

There’s also a new lipgloss: Shimmering Mirage ($22.50). It’s a super pale sheer yellow with gold shimmer and silver sparkles.

The return of Bronze Goddess also means the annual re-release of Bronze Goddess fragrance, as well as the launch of a new and limited edition Bronze Goddess incarnation.

Bronze Goddess smells like 70s coconut oil tanning lotion. Though it has been lovingly reviewed by many a fragrance blogger, it’s not my cup of tea. Robin of Now Smell This wrote a really excellent review and explanation of the history of this scent: in a nutshell, it was released as a body oil in 2006, then as an eau fraiche in 2007 when Mr. Ford did his infamous collaboration with the brand. It has been making an appearance every year since then, accompanied by “companion fragrance” since 2011.

I really do like Bronze Goddess Capri, though. Estee Lauder fragrances often have a very blended quality that makes it difficult for me to pick out individual notes, so all I can really say is that Capri smells very warm to me. I think it could lend an air of leisurely European-riviera-vacation to even a summer spent at home, so I’m really looking forward to making it one of my scents of this summer.

The notes of Capri, according to Estee Lauder, are cassis, mandarin, and lemon leaves (top notes), jasmine sambac, muguet, and peony (heart), and vanilla, amberwood, patchouli, and musk (base).

Both fragrances are $57 and should be considered limited. (The original Bronze Goddess won’t be back until next summer, and you never know when it might be permanently retired.)

The summer collection also repromotes Estee Lauder’s excellent (and under-appreciated, in my opinion) powder bronzers. Forgive me for not reswatching them, but you can see last year’s swatches of Soft Matte Bronzer, Soft Shimmer Bronzer, and Soft Duo Bronzer here. They are each $32. Bronze Goddess Luminous Liquid Bronzer is also back; it is $28.50.

The Bronze Goddess collection is available everywhere, but if you’re shopping online, you can get free shipping from NeimanMarcus.com (code FSMAR), Nordstrom.com, and EsteeLauder.com.

I fell in love with the idea of this collection, and now that I have the products in hand, the shades are even more beautiful than I had imagined. But we should talk about what to expect when you open the box.

The Creme Rouge ($40) is a little smaller than you might expect for a product of its type — though I don’t really think I have cause to complain. The blush is a reasonable size, the case feels solid (even heavy), and the catch to open and close the compact is satisfying.

The lipstick, however, is small. Very small. When you pull it out of its leatherette bag, you may be tempted to compare it to GWP lipsticks from Guerlain, Chanel, or Dior. And that makes the $25 price tag feel steep.

On the left: Estee Lauder for Mad Men Cherry lipstick, .07 oz. On the right: Estee Lauder Signature Lipstick, .13 oz.

Larger than a GWP but smaller than a breadbox. Left: Guerlain Rouge Automatique GWP. Center: Estee Lauder Mad Men lipstick in Cherry. Right: Chanel GWP.

I can think of two plausible reasons for the size of these products — and the truth may be some combination of the two: (1) Estee Lauder might have had to pay major licensing fees to AMC for the rights to create a Mad Men collection, and (2) vintage cosmetics are sometimes on the small side (e.g., Besame), so maybe they were going for accuracy.

Evening Rose is a fabulous watermelon-rose-pink cream blush that delivers sheer, buildable, dewy color. Cherry lipstick is a bright, saturated, watermelon red-pink.

I was a little bit worried (based on the names, based on the preview images of the products) that these colors might prove too cool for my tastes, but I really like them both — and I think they’d suit a wide variety of skintones.

These products were provided for swatching purposes.

The Terracotta blushes are $41 each, and come in two colors: Spicy Coral and Sunny Pink.

Spicy Coral is a brown-peach with iridescent gold sparkle (the sparkle is more iridescent). Sunny Pink is a warm pink with iridescent gold sparkle (the sparkle is more gold and maybe a bit more noticeable). By virtue of the cream formula (and that iridescent sparkle), they both give the most gorgeous, dewy finish. As one Guerlain fan said, “[wearing Sunny Pink] is like having rose petals on your cheeks.”

Don’t wait too long to make your purchase; I am sure Sunny Pink will sell out. Nordstrom.com still has both shades in stock (and they offer free shipping at any price).

I tweeted a photo and asked if anyone had tried them; a few folks responded that the blushes were sheer but buildable (not a bad thing for my skintone). But which color(s) to get? In an amazing stroke of good fortune, Maybelline offered to let me swatch the whole range.

The Dream Bouncy blushes are incredibly malleable. They have a consistency like Play-Doh; if you attack the dome too vigorously, you can shift it, or cause cracks to appear… but the blush is just as easily patted back into shape. Maybelline currently offers ten shades (all satin/sheeny), and because they’re so soft, fingers are probably your best application tool.

05 Fresh Pink is a pale, cool, bubblegum blue-pink with a silvery shimmer. 10 Pink Frosting is ruddier, a red-violet rose pink. 15 Rose Petal is the lightest and sheerest, a pale warm pink. 20 Peach Satin is a ruddy coral. 30 Candy Coral is actually more peachy.

40 Pink Plum is petal pink. 45 Orchid Hush is lavender-lilac. 50 Plum Wine is a wine/apple red. 60 Coffee Cake is peach-brown. 70 Hot Tamale is hot flamingo pink at first, but builds to a bright red-pink.

As is often the case with drugstore products, prices vary widely. At Target, these are $6.49 apiece. At the “good” CVS, they’re $7.49. On Ulta.com, they’re $7.99. At the expensive CVS, they’re $8.39. Just something to think about before you check out.

There are two new, limited edition eyeshadow quints. They’re $59 each, embossed with a rose pattern.

441 Garden Pastels features a shimmery yellow lime, a shimmery barely-grey white, a shimmery pale pink, a shimmery pale yellow, and a shimmery pale sea golden-green-blue.

841 Garden Roses features a shimmery pale bubblegum/peony pink, a shimmery barely-pink white, a shimmery violet with blue reflect, a shimmery warm taupe-silver, and a shimmery lilac.

There are also two posh, limited edition, decorative palettes, the “Garden Clutches.” These are $75 each, with three eyeshadows and two lip balm/glosses. The closure is a two-rose snap.

001 Milly Garden is a Nordstrom (and Holt Renfrew) exclusive. It features a dark, shimmery indigo-denim shadow, a frosty ice-blue shadow, and a shimmery soft white with pink reflects. The glosses (or lip balms?) are milky white-pink and pale warm pink.

002 Granville Garden is available everywhere else. It includes a frosty golden brown, a pale frosty white that’s thinking about pink, and a pale, pale, shimmery, magical, sparkly, pale phosphorescent barely-green. The two lip balms (glosses?) are nearly identical: sheer pale warm pink and sheer coral pink.

There are two Rouge Dior lipsticks ($32): 363 Corolle Pink and 448 Tulip Pink. Corolle Pink is not available at Sephora. It’s a blue-pink with a slight shimmer/sheen. Tulip Pink is a warm rose pink.

There are also two Dior Addict Glosses ($28). 396 Party Lilac is a Pearl formula, a sheer/clear lilac with multicolored (blue, green, silver) pastel sparkles. 452 Pretty Rose is a Glow formula, a sheer, warm coral pink.

There are also two scented-when-dry nail polishes ($23). 694 Forget-Me-Not is an artificial-grape creme; 504 Waterlily is creme de menthe with tiny shimmers, for a satin-ribbon finish.

There’s also a Sephora-exclusive blush, the DiorSkin Rosy Glow Healthy Glow Awakening Blush in 001 Petal ($44). In the pan, this product is bright pink, but it’s not so vivid on the skin.

I swatched Petal both lightly and heavily, and was surprised by how demure it looked — the light swatch blended into my skin so much I wondered if it was more highlighter than blush. In the name of science, I borrowed a blush brush and tried it on my cheeks.

The Healthy Glow Awakening Blush is one of those products that “adjusts to the skin’s chemistry” to create a slightly different shade on everyone. I’m not sure exactly what it’s reacting to (moisture? Oil? pH?).  On my cheeks it was more pigmented than I would have thought… but you know me; I don’t like pink blushes.

Click here to see it on Xiao of Messy Wands. Click here to see her comparison with NARS Gaiety.

Between Nordstrom.com, NeimanMarcus.com, and Sephora.com, all these items are still in stock (Nordstrom and Neimans offer free shipping at any price; Sephora at $50. Use code SHIPNM on Neimans). And if you can wait ’til the 20th, NeimanMarcus.com starts their beauty event, when you’ll be able to pick up a cute tote full of samples with your $100 purchase.