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 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).

In 2007, Tom Ford collaborated with Estee Lauder on a summer collection that gave rise to Estee Lauder’s annual Bronze Goddess tradition. I think that collection deeply affected Mr. Ford as well — his spring/summer season also celebrates that bronzed, smoldering sexpot in a white swimsuit on a beach on the Riviera.

Mr. Ford’s collection is fairly straightforward: four cream eyeshadows and four corresponding nail polishes. There’s also a sheer golden lipgloss. All nine products are limited edition.

The collection also repromotes permanent blushes Savage and Love Lust, which I didn’t reswatch (I’m still happy with these swatches of them).

I was surprised by how much I love the cream shadows. They’re quite pigmented, with a very soft, mousse-like texture — they’re really easy to use. One quick swipe over the lids (using your fingers) and you’ve got that perfect, effortless summer look. Add eyeliner and mascara and you’re a Tom Ford dream girl.

Guilt is a sparkly yellow gold. Platinum is fawn brown with silver shimmer. Spice is a warm, golden brown with golden shimmer. Illicit is red brown shimmer with gold sparkle. The shadows are $40 each.

One word of advice: be careful traveling with these. I had one in my purse (wanted to show a friend). The top unscrewed itself, and the product made the most amazing mess. I’m not sure whether I’m more upset about losing the product, or the fact that cream shadow is now ground into everything I own. Oy. I think if I wanted to take these on the road, I might secure the top with painters tape.

The polishes are all frosts or frost/foils, which isn’t my favorite finish, though the colors are pretty. Gold Haze is a dull, beaten gold. Silver Smoke is a pale, cool gold. Burnt Topaz is a golden brown. Burnished Rouge is a dull burgundy, theatre-seat red. The polishes are $30 each.

In the regular line, Tom Ford’s lipglosses are cream finish and $45 — except for Lip Lacquer Vinyl, which is a clear, shimmery/sparkly gloss (for anytime you want to add shimmer). Gold Dust is that product’s golden counterpart, a shimmery yellow gold that slightly mutes the color of Mr. Ford’s very vibrant lipsticks, and gives them a gold finish and a wet look. Gold Dust Lip Lacquer is $30 (as is Lip Lacquer Vinyl).

The collection is available at NeimanMarcus.com (free shipping with code SPRINGFS).

I swatched the eyeshadows shade-by-shade, and then couches de couleur style. General operating instructions for a Kaleidoscope eye kit are to layer shades 1-3 on the lid (from lashline to crease) without blending, then use the fourth shade as a liner. The result is an anyone-can-do-it smoky eye.

I like to be surprised by the combined color of a kaleidoscope, but I could not believe that shades 1 + 2 + 3 turned out to be a satin dusty beige-pink.

It seems the shades in these kits do have individual names, so I’ll use those names (though you won’t see them anywhere on the packaging). Ionic is a warm, dusty pale pink. Sky is a shimmery/satin ice blue. Magnetic is a shimmery copper. And Equinox is a blurple (blue-purple) satin.

Lip Kaleidoscopes are truly an “owner’s choice” type product. I swatched the shades individually, then layered all four to combine that color on the end — but you could use the colors singly, in pairs, or as a trio to make the color you desire. Again, using LMdB’s “secret” shade names: Illuminate is a bright, warm flamingo pink with sparkles. Voltaic is a muted warm mauve-rose. Dynamos is a sheer strawberry coral with gold and silver sparkles (it reminds me of limited-edition-Dallas-lipgloss Nadine). And Eos is an opaque, cream-finish, cool, Barbie blue-pink.

The nail polishes didn’t speak to me right away (I’m still obsessing over neons), but once I swatched them, I really wanted them. Solar Flare is a magenta rose creme. Faraday is a purple grey with tiny silver shimmers. This is SO understated-gorgeous on the nails, and I think you could wear it year-round. Aurora is a bright, turquoise blue creme (and blues are having a major moment right now). The polishes are $18 each.

This collection is available everywhere that sells Le Metier. If you’re ordering online, you can get free shipping at any price at Nordstrom (no code necessary) and Neiman Marcus (code SPRINGFS).

I mentioned that the glossy stains deepen and “develop” on the lips. The change can be quite substantial from the color as it comes out of the tube. When contemplating my own online order, I had worried that some of the lighter colors might be too light… actually, the lightest colors (by and large) actually turned out to be my favorites.

Some of the shades I thought I would like (spoiler alert: 9 Rouge Laque) pulled surprisingly cool on me. So I wanted to give you a couple of lip swatches (in addition to the arm swatches) to illustrate those discoveries. Some of the photos may look a little similar; forgive the photo conditions. I’ll describe each color for accuracy.

I think I’d better post these in the order I photographed them (generally from lighter shades to darker), so you can make sense of the changing light. These were photographed on a cloudy day.

I tried on 19 Beige Aquarelle because I was curious how the two lightest colors (18 and 19) would look on the lips… and warm Beige Aquarelle seemed like a better choice for me than cool Rose Pastelle.

Beige Aquarelle provided pretty good coverage, and — while pale pink lips aren’t usually in my wheelhouse — I quite liked this one. I’d say it’s more “Kristin Chenoweth light pink” than “Kim Kardashian nude,” and I put it on my “buy someday” list.

7 Corail Aquatique turned out to be one of my two favorite shades. It looks like a light, warm pink on the arm, and deepens into a warm rose pink on the lips.

6 Camel Croisiere is my other favorite shade. It doesn’t necessarily look amazing in an arm-swatch; its “dirty” orange probably means folks will think they can pass it by. But it’s incredible on the lips. So many of my favorite lip colors are some version of a sheer orange (which builds into the perfect warm pink/warm red on the lips). I love Camel Croisiere’s tomato-persimmon-coral.

5 Rouge Vintage was another “maybe” shade online that I didn’t love when I finally tried it on. It turned into a surprisingly deep raspberry/cherry color.

12 Corail Fauve is another one I liked. It’s like a deeper version of 7 Corail Aquatique: a warm not-quite-red rose-pink.

I think 8 Orange de Chine is actually my favorite “red.” Its vibrant orange (darker than 6 Camel Croisiere) deepens on my lips to create a perfect warm red.

I had thought I would like 9 Rouge Laque (warm red in an arm swatch). On my lips it pulled surprisingly cool (and surprisingly pink). Not a personal must-have.

Ahh, running out of daylight. 20 Rouge Enamel was an even deeper cool red than 9 Rouge Laque. Not a personal favorite.

I wish I’d had time to also photograph 15 Rose Vinyl. On my lips it was a very blue-rose pink. Not a color I love for myself, but it garnered several compliments.

The glossy stains are available at Nordstrom.com (exclusive provider of shade 13; free shipping at any price), Sephora.com (exclusive provider of shade 20; free shipping at $50), and NeimanMarcus.com (free shipping at any price with code FSMAR).

You paint the first coat, and let it sit for a minute. Then you paint a second coat for more gloss, more coverage, and a deeper color. Resist the temptation to press your lips together. Nothing terrible will happen if you do, but for the first few minutes, the product is sticky. And then, magically, the consistency changes. Imagine you took the thinnest possible slice of a gummi bear, and put that on your lips. The final texture is gummy, but not at all sticky.

After the five minutes, you can press your lips together, lick them, drink water — the product is no longer the slightest bit sticky. If you drink coffee, you will transfer product to the mug, but these are totally unlike other lipglosses (which thin and disappear over time). Four hours later, they still look freshly applied, and they do not move or migrate.

YSL says you can eat with these on, and I guess you can. I tried eating (a salad), but I didn’t like the sensation of eating the gummy product, so I wiped it off and reapplied after lunch. On a separate occasion I tried eating a cookie, but something about getting crumbs in my gloss and then licking my lips made the product sticky again, so I wiped off and reapplied.

The glossy stains have a hexagon doe’s foot applicator. This is important because you can paint the product very precisely onto your cupid’s bow. They should be applied directly to bare lips, not on top of lipstick, lipliner, or primer.

I also mentioned that these aren’t as staining as a stain. When I swatched these on my arm (which is more prone to staining than lips), I used Shiseido cleanse-off oil, followed by water and sometimes soap (I painted these on so many times, on days that turned out to be completely cloudy). Some colors did leave a stain, but that stain faded in minutes. (Never seen a product do that before, either.)

The colors also deepen (a lot) on the lips. The “bottle” color is not the final lip color. It’s a bit like developing film by hand: the color develops (in those first minutes, as the consistency changes). So how to swatch these? One coat? (Because it’s a bit easier to tell the differences between the colors?) Two coats? (To show how they deepen, and to give a more accurate portrayal of how they look on my lips?)

I wanted — want — to swatch them both ways. And I wanted to swatch the reds together so you can better compare them. Crummy weather in Dallas has kept me from getting good-enough photos, but I didn’t want to wait any longer to start talking about these. Accept these photos as my first submission; I intend to keep playing with them.

1 Violet Edition is a plum purple. 2 Brun Glace is a rosy raisin brown. 3 Brun Cachemire is also red brown, but much less red (more brown) than Brun Glace. 4 Mauve Pigmente is a red-purple wine. 5 Rouge Vintage is red-rose. 6 Camel Croisiere is a muted, slightly dirty orange (persimmon). 7 Corail Aquatique is warm pink. 8 Orange de Chine is blazing, saturated orange. 9 Rouge Laque is warm red. 10 Rouge Philtre first goes on as a pink-red/fuchsia, but develops into a deeper red than Rouge Laque.

11 Rouge Gouache is pink-red/rose red. 12 Corail Fauve is a warm, very saturated coral-pink. 13 Rose Tempera (for now at least, a Nordstrom-exclusive) is a red-violet fuchsia-pink. 14 Fuchsia Dore is red-plum. 15 Rose Vinyl is a medium rose pink. 16 Pourpre Preview is an orchid pink-purple (an artificial grape color). 17 Encre Rose is a lilac pink purple (lighter than Pourpre Preview). 18 Rose Pastelle is a cool white-pink. 19 Beige Aquarelle is a pale warm pink. 20 Rouge Enamel (for now, a Sephora exclusive) is a warm red with subtle sparkles. It actually looks quite similar to 10 Rouge Philtre.

The glossy stains are available at Nordstrom.com (exclusive provider of shade 13; free shipping at any price), Sephora.com (exclusive provider of shade 20; free shipping at $50), and NeimanMarcus.com (free shipping at any price with code FSMAR).

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.

Don’t you like how Nordstrom positioned a spotlight to fall exactly on the powder?

The powder is the centerpiece of the collection. It’s a Brightening Finishing Powder, and the shade is Brightening Nudes. (Asia gets an additional/alternate powder called Porcelain Pearl.) The six shades blend into a glowy, subtle, pale, dusty beige-lilac-blue-pink with a satin finish (there are a very few tiny sparkles).

Brightening Nudes is $50, and comes in a silver compact with a magnetic closure. The biggest surprise? It’s not limited edition. It’s the only piece of this collection that isn’t.

There are four limited edition Sparkle eyeshadows — and Sparkle isn’t a formula Bobbi pulls out very often. I went looking for past Sparkle shadows, and found: Crushed Granite (holiday 2011), Gold Bar and Gold Nugget (Tortoiseshell, 2011), Star (holiday 2010), Pink Granite and Denim (Denim Rose, 2010), Orchid, Lightning, and Cafe Cream (Color Strips palettes, 2010), and Storm Cloud and Moonlight (holiday 2009). The point of my reminiscing is to observe that the Sparkle formula is not as clearly defined as some of Bobbi’s other formulas (eyeshadow, shimmerwash, etc.).

These four shadows are glitter in a clear base. Apply them lightly and you get a glittery accent, a sparkly topcoat. Apply them heavily and you achieve a finish like lamé fabric, like sunlight rippling off a running stream. Silver Moon is a pale, cool, white-silver (with a suggestion of purple?). Mica is darker charcoal-grey at an oblique angle, but reflects bright silver head-on. It also has a few pink sparkles. Ballet is silver and pink with a few gold sparkles. Sunlight is pale yellow with a few silver sparkles. These shadows are $28 each.

There are three new, limited edition Brightening lipglosses in this collection, but since Nordstrom displayed them with the rest of the Brightening glosses, I thought this was as good a time as any to swatch the whole family.

The three shades in this collection are Pink Opal, Pink Lilac, and Lilac Pearl. Feel like you’ve seen Pink Lilac before? You have.

Pink Opal is a milky lilac-pink gloss with deepset pink shimmer. Pink Lilac is an opalescent pale pink with dense silver iridescent shimmer. Lilac Pearl is a milky lilac gloss with purple-pink shimmer. Pink is a pearlescent white-pink with silvery shimmer. Popsicle is a cool rose with shimmer (not to be confused with Popsicle Sheer Color gloss). Nectar is a warm pink with shimmer. Peach is a beige peach with dense shimmer. White is a sheer white with no shimmer. These are $23 each.

There’s one more gloss in this collection. You know Bobbi’s Crystal gloss? The clear gloss in the squeeze tube? Well, for a limited time you can buy Crystal Glitter Lipgloss. It’s a clear gloss with a medium number of round, iridescent, holographic sparkles. It’s $18.

The Brightening Nudes collection is available everywhere. Nordstrom.com offers free shipping at any price, plus if you spend $150, you’ll get the Heather Neutrals mini eight-shade eyeshadow palette, mini Extreme Party Mascara, and a sample of Extra Eye Repair Cream (no code required — this is the same gift from Neiman Marcus’s recent Beauty Week).

Neiman Marcus also offers free shipping at any price with code FSMAR. Plus you’ll get a free mini Extreme Party Mascara with any Bobbi Brown purchase, no code required.

And BobbiBrownCosmetics.com has a whole bunch of code options. Get free shipping on any order (plus a free mini Lash Glamour mascara and a free mini original Crystal gloss) with code PRETTY12 (expires March 9). Or, if you’re ordering at least $65, use code PLUM11 for a free full-size Treatment Lip Shine SPF 15 in Plumberry. Or code GLOSS12 for a free full-size lipgloss in Nougat (these two expire April 13, but can only be used once per account).

Happy shopping!

The stars of this release are two limited edition Shimmer Bricks (five-shade compacts which can be worn as eyeshadow, or blended together as highlighter). They are $39 each.

Swatched individually, the shades of Rose Gold are a shimmery peony pink, a beige shimmer with super-strong, pale, iridescent pink duochrome (you can see the beige in the photo, but the swatch looked almost totally pink in person), a shimmery rose-pink/rose-gold pink, a frosty rose-bronze, and a red-rose-copper frost.

Blended together, Rose Gold makes a very shimmery cheek color/highlighter. It builds to a surprisingly peachy/beigey sparkly pink. Here’s the light swatch of the blended shade:

And here’s a heavy swatch:

Wild Rose Shimmerbrick is more pink. The individual shades are shimmery lilac-mauve (with silver shimmer), warm (peachy) shimmery pink, a sparkly rose-violet pink, a shimmery violet-pink, and a shimmery cotton-candy-pink. They combine to create a surprisingly warm pink. Here’s the light swatch of the blended color:

And here’s a heavy swatch:

This collection also brings Rich Lip Color SPF 12 back into the spotlight. This “soft matte” lipstick formula debuted in spring 2011 and I’ve been loving it ever since. Of the six shades shown here, all are new except Lilac (which made a limited appearance a year ago), and all are permanent except Miami Coral (you know how Bobbi feels about corals). They are $23 each.

29 Beige Gold is a sheer beige pink. 30 Miami Coral is a light peach-pink. 28 Pink Peony is rose-pink. 27 Nude Rose is brown-pink. 26 Wild Rose is a cool violet-pink. 17 Lilac is a mauve pink.

The lipglosses are all the Rich Color Gloss formula ($23). Rose Gold is a repromote; the rest are new and permanent.

16 Pink Gold is a chewing-gum pink with gold shimmer. 9 Pink Sorbet is a slightly mauvey, blue pink with deep/subtle silver shimmer/sparkles. 10 Angel Pink is brighter and warmer, without shimmer or sparkle. 11 Rose Gold is a shimmery golden caramel. 12 Pink Cocoa is a brown/rose-purple duochrome with a subtle shimmer.

This collection repromotes Rose Gold shimmer wash eyeshadow and Caviar gel eyeliner (example 2), and though I’ve swatched them before, I thought I might as well swatch them again.

Rose Gold is a metallic rose shimmer. I may have previously described Caviar Ink liner as a very dark brown-black, but I think it’s almost more accurate to call it a “soft black.” It goes on dark, so if you don’t usually wear black eyeliner, this one may take you by surprise.

Bobbi eyeshadows are $24, her gel eyeliners are $22.

Bobbi’s Rose Gold collection is available everywhere, but BobbiBrown.com has a pretty nice GWP with $100 purchase: a little eyeshadow palette containing Navajo, Slate, Heather Mauve shimmerwash, Steel, and Caviar, plus a deluxe bottle of Instant Long-Wear Makeup Remover (valid Feb. 28 – Mar. 2) with code BBTOGO1.

Neiman Marcus is also in gift, and you can get the department gift with $100 purchase; the Bobbi gift with $150 purchase. Free shipping can be had at Neiman Marcus (at any price) with code SHIPNM.