NARS Spring 2012: Paramaribo Eye Shadow Duo

NARS kicks off spring with the beyond gorgeous Paramaribo eye shadow duo. Described as "metallic brass/metallic bronze", Paramaribo delivers intense, rich, metallic colour (LE $39.00 CA/US).

NARS Paramaribo taken with flash.

NARS Paramaribo taken without flash.

The shade on the left is a rich tarnished brassy gold. Colour payoff is excellent and the texture is buttery and smooth. The right hand shade is a golden khaki brown that is similarly excellent in pigmentation and texture. 

NC 35/40 skin, no flash.

Both shades are interesting as they are both cool versions of "warm" colours (ie: green cast gold and green cast brown). I would be interested to see how these mix with warmer shades like copper or yellow toned golds. 

I love this eye shadow duo. NARS has in the past two years put out some great pairings (Rajasthan, Dogon, Grand Palais etc...), and this is definitely one of them. I think these shades are a natural for any yellow or golden toned skin, but I can see them being very striking on pink toned skins as well. Besides that, I don't have much to say for these except that if they interest you I would run out and grab them!

J

Dior Spring 2012: Garden Pastels Eye Shadow Palette

If there's one thing that Dior makes that gets me every time it's their eye shadow palettes. This spring, it's no different with their Garden Party collection. The first item of this collection I picked up was the Garden Pastels palette #441 (LE, $60 CA/$59 US).

If there's one thing Dior does do very well is make their products very visually appealing. Similar to the Lace Collection (spring 2010), Dior has embossed this palette with a delicate designs: lace and roses. Photos taken without flash, artificial light, NC 35 skin.

The colours in this palette are very spring-like. The pigmentation is generally good, and the texture though creamy is a bit on the dry side. The shadows apply well but are all a high shimmer finish, so some of the lighter shades apply sheerer than the darker shades.

From top right going clockwise we have a high frost white, a light teal with golden shimmer, a pale butter yellow white, a high frost chartreuse, and lastly in the center a pale white pink. Of the five shades the chartreuse and the pale yellow have the best pigmentation and colour density.

I like this palette - I think the colour combination is unique, fun and shouts "spring". And while I'm not usually won over by fancy appearances - for instance I dislike the current trend of metallic over sprays on powders - this palette is really very beautiful to look at. And though I liked this enough to buy it, I do have some reservations about it. My first reservation about this palette is it's exclusion of textures other than high shimmers. I'm actually a huge fan of shimmery eye shadows (and Dior's in particular), but I think a whole palette of high shimmer limits it's practicality and day wear. The other bone I have to pick with Dior, and this contention has come up before in some of my other reviews of their palettes, is the lack of a darker anchor shade to give enough tonal contrast to the eye. I don't know why but Dior tends to make quints where 50-60% of the shades are ones I would qualify as highlighters. Can you imagine how much more complete this quint would seem if there was a darker shade thrown in - perhaps a medium dark grey or gunmetal taupe shade? As it is, I feel like to make this quint work in the regular eye makeup tradition of contouring and highlighting you would need to supplement with another darker shadow.

J