Affiliate Links
Happy Friday everyone! For today's #FrenchFriday post, I want to take a closer look at the Spring makeup collections being launched by French beauty brands. We discussed it a couple days ago: big brands tend to ignore winter completely and jump from the Holiday limited editions right into spring, coming up with pastels and flower-inspired collections very early in the winter. Maybe it's because many people hate winter and long for the rebirth of spring during the cold season? Anyways, most of these collections are already available, and I have so many to show you that I've had to break this post in two. Let's take a look at Dior, Guerlain and Lancôme today!
Dior: Glowing Gardens
Dior's Spring makeup collection this year is very classic, with, you guessed it, a lot of pastels and soft shades inspired by flower blossoms. It's actually a huge collection with: 2 eyeshadow palettes, 2 highlighters and a blush embossed with a flower pattern; a new shadow stick and liner duo in 5 shades (the Diorshow Colour & Contour Eyeshadow & Eyeliner Duo); a bunch of new shades in the Rouge Brilliant, Rouge Baume and Rouge Dior lip formulas; 4 shades of nail lacquer; a new shade of the popular Lip Glow, Lilac, as well as a Lip Glow Liner and Lip Glow Pomade. Phew!
Some of these products had limited releases (I never found some of the nail colors or lippies that are supposed to be part of the collection) and others are already sold out, such as the 2 highlighters, Glowing Pink and Glowing Nude. They were gone from major retailers' websites within a few days! I suppose it means that the collection was well received by the brand's customers. Personally I think that it's very pretty and feminine but maybe lacks originality.
As if it wasn't enough, Dior has also released a collection of new base products, centered around the reformulated Diorskin Forever Foundation Perfect Makeup Everlasting Wear Pore-Refining Effect with Sunscreen (and I thought I had a long name...). Besides the foundation itself, the collection features a makeup base, a sponge applicator, a loose powder, and the interesting Sculpt Professional Contouring Blush that comes in 4 shades.
A few things to note about the foundation sponge: it's the same price as the Beauty Blender, but shaped more like the Real Technique version, with a flat side. Dior had already released an egg-shaped sponge blender a couple years ago with their Star foundation, but it was black then while this version is white.
Guerlain: Spring Glow
Glowing skin is a common theme to many makeup collections this spring, and of course Guerlain is jumping in with new variations around their cult Météorites. This season's release features a Perfecting Primer filled with little pink pearls and a new pressed version of the Météorites powder in a refillable compact (the full price is $179 with the compact, but only $59 for the refill, so if you can use a standard magnetic palette to house it, it's not even that pricey - although not as classy either).
More surprising are the two limited edition products that come with inspirational words carved in the powder: the Spring Glow Blush Duo and the pale yellow Spring Glow Buttercup Eyeshadow. What I find really puzzling is the font that Guerlain chose for their positive calls to "smile" and "enjoy". It is reminiscent of low definition computer screens from last century, and it seems to be coming right out of the early 90s. It really reminds me of games I used to play on my brother's Atari when I was in middle school! While it's fun and really unexpected, I think it doesn't fit Guerlain's elegant and timeless image at all. The only font I associate with Guerlain is the intricate cursive they use in their logo, so this feels really out of place to me.
On top of that, the brand released 2 new shades of their recently reformulated KissKiss lipstick and a new eyeliner, the Kohl Contour Eye Pencil, that comes in 5 shades.
Guerlain is also set to release a lip and nail collection inspired by their best-selling La Petite Robe Noire fragrance later this spring. Here's a sneak peek:
Lancôme: From Lancôme With Love
Lancôme's Spring collection this year looks fresh and playful, with pastel balloons floating in the breeze over Paris. The star of the show is definitely My Parisian Pastels Shimmer Cubes, a unique and versatile box containing nine cubes of shimmering colors. While it reminds me of The Body Shop's shimmer cubes, this set can be used on the eyes, face and even lips. The first row contains correcting shades, the second blush shades, and the last highlighters. You can sweep a brush over several cubes, use your fingers or even take them out of the box and apply them directly to your face. This is a new, unexpected take on the spring pastels, and I really like the artsy feel of this product: it looks like an artist's box of colorful chalks.
Beyond the Shimmer Cubes, the collection also features a new cream blush in a cute tin (2 shades, I bought it in Corail de Ville!), 2 eyeshadow palettes, 4 nail colors (the yellow Jaune Grands Boulevards is only available at lancome.com as far as I can tell, but you should ask your local counter), a light blue eyeliner, and 2 Color Design lip shades. I also read that the collection would include 3 new shades of Lip Lover and Rouge In Love, but I have yet to see them online (they're not even on French websites).
Some time this spring, Lancôme will also launch a new and innovative lip product called Juicy Shaker, a bi-phase lip oil with intense pigment. I don't know much about it at this time, except that it should be available in 20 shades in March. Here's a sneak peek:
What are your favorite Spring makeup collections so far? Have you purchased anything for spring yet?
Where to buy? Click the images in the post for online retailers.
I received no compensation to write this post, which only reflects my personal opinion. This post contains affiliate links.
No comments
Unfortunately the comment system does not work on mobile phones at this time :( If you see this message and leave a comment, I will be unable to approve it, I'm really sorry about this issue!