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Time flies, and I can't believe the Holidays are already just around the corner! It feels like we've been seeing Holiday beauty collections pop out in stores as early as late summer this year, did you notice? I found that mildly annoying: can we please get to enjoy the end of summer and beginning of fall in peace without having to jump onto limited edition Holiday sets that sell out by mid-September??
Anyways, now feels like a more sensible time to start talking about Holiday shopping, and today's #FrenchFriday post is all about what French beauty brands have in store for the merry season. Because I have so many pics of sparkly Holiday goodies to share with you, I've had to split this in two posts, and we're starting today with the stars of the department stores: Dior, Chanel and Guerlain. Look out for part II coming soon. Let's take a look!
Dior
This year's Holiday collection by Dior, State Of Gold, is all about... gold. How surprising and new - oh it's just the 3rd year in a row, at least, that their Holiday collection is called "Blabla Gold"!
Now I may sound "a little" bored about the general theme, but this year the individual products actually look pretty good, much better than last year's dusty palettes and gimmicky lipsticks (and I'm not even talking about the highlighter disaster). The palettes have interesting color combinations and the shadow textures appear decent to good (see swatches/reviews by Tracy here and Karen here), and the lipsticks look like a nice contribution to the almighty matte lip trend (look here for Tracy's swatches). The ornament-like Diorific nail polishes are back in 3 new shades, plus a gold-flecked top coat.
Beyond the color collection, Dior has a few sets and palettes to offer, with a mix of shadows and lip products in beautiful packaging. I've bought a few of these Holiday and travel palettes over the years, and I quite like them: as long as you realize that Dior's eyeshadows are typically not super saturated but rather subtle, you'll likely enjoy them.
Chanel
You've probably noticed that despite my native... Frenchness, I'm not a Chanel girl. I've reviewed a grand total of zero products by the brand (I've only owned a handful), and I'm generally not excited about their new releases.
This year though, I have to say that Chanel's Holiday collection is refreshing amongst all the gold hysteria. What they did is capitalize on their cult Rouge Noir nail lacquer shade, created in 1994 (and now called Vamp in English??) and build a whole color collection around it. Clever, elegant and delightfully dark.
Now, while Rouge Noir is a gorgeous vampy shade to wear on one's nails, I don't think that it's necessarily that easy to pull off on the eyes for everyone. Plums, especially when rich in red undertones, tend to make me look sick, so I'm not going to stay away from some of these pretty products, especially the hybrid mono shadow Illusion d'Ombre. As for the eyeshadow quad Signe Particulier, I think the color combination is really stunning, but I've read mixed reviews about the performance of shadows (see Christine's here). Other than that, the collection includes eye pencils, nail polishes with a top coat, an interesting highlighting blush, a deep bordeaux colored mascara and a bunch of lip products.
In terms of gifts, Chanel also released a handful of little sets, from mini brushes to a huge nail polish and lipstick vault.
Guerlain
If there's something Guerlain does better than anyone else, it's really creating a unique and evocatice Holiday collection. This year's edition, Neiges & Merveilles (snow and wonders, but often called Winter Fairytale in English), is maybe their most beautiful yet, with accents of gold and gorgeous packaging adorned with snowflakes. The centerpiece of the collection is of course the limited edition Météorites Perle des Neiges finishing powder, a mix of delicate pearls and stars of brightening powder housed in a stunning snow globe like round box. Other products include a eye and cheek palette, a luxurious Rouge G lipstick in limited edition packaging, a matte liquid lipstick, a sparkly gloss, a matte illuminating powder, a collector Terracotta bronzer and a shimmery purple nail polish.
Where to buy? Click on the images for an online retailer.
I received no compensation to write this post, which only reflects my personal opinion. This post contains affiliate links.
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