Laura Mercier

Laura Mercier Joie de Vivre Collection Spring 2017 Colour Powder in Windflush, and Lipsticks in Happy, Smile and Joy

March 3rd, 2017 by Karen 7 Comments

Normally, I wouldn’t wear a bold green/blue eye look like this one with such bright lips, but I was feeling the joie de vivre today from the lipsticks and blush in the Laura Mercier Joie de Vivre spring 2017 collection, so I figured, why not? Life is short. Wear that bold color combo, girlfriend!

laura mercier joie de vivre smile — Windflush Blush and Smile Lipstick

Limited edition Joie de Vivre has been on counters for a while, with some lip pencils, a mascara, a cake liner, a blush and three lipsticks, and of course I’ve been wanting to try the colorful products (you know me) — Windflush Color Powder for Cheeks & Eyes ($40 and the three Joie de Vivre Lipsticks, Smile, Joy and Happy ($28 each).

Beautifully baked Windflush Blush is a peachy pink with a matte finish and a bananas wear time. I mean, I wore it one day last weekend for 12 hours (!), and it didn’t fade a bit. There’s something about those baked formulas, man… They hang on and won’t let go. If you have oily cheeks and blush usually scoots right off your skin, I bet it’ll work really well for you.

Incidentally, I think it’s also gorgeous as an eyeshadow. I like it as a wash all over the lid with a navy liner on my upper lash line.

laura mercier joie de vivre happy — Happy Lipstick

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Laura Mercier Master Class Colour Essentials Collection Palette (2nd Edition) for Holiday 2016

November 4th, 2016 by Karen 3 Comments

I’m smiling in this picture out of sheer relief at having gotten one usable photo after doing my makeup today with the 2nd Edition Laura Mercier Master Class Colour Essentials Collection palette.

I don’t know, dude… This look was rough. I am so out of practice with makeup that requires more than 15 minutes and two brushes — like, I’m talking base color, transition shades, gradients… If you don’t use it, you lose it. At least that’s how it’s been for me.

It wasn’t the palette’s fault at all, though. It was just classic user error, but one thing that made this look slightly easier was the fact that — oh, my gosh — there are so many mattes, specifically workhorse shades.

The Laura Mercier Master Class Colour Essentials Collection/palette (2nd Edition)
$125, limited edition, available now online and at Laura Mercier counters

“This incredible collection is filled with some of my favorite shades, finishes and liners to create endless looks. You can transform your eyes from classic to cat eye with just a few easy steps. Get creative!”

— Laura Mercier, from lauramercier.com

The palette comes with…

12 Eye Colours (1.5g / 0.05 oz each): Etoile, Bronze Glow, Minx, Pewter Dust, Gilded Pines, Vanilla Nuts, Café Au Lait, Espresso Bean, Poison Ivory, Stone Taupe, Noir, Stellar
Second Skin Cheek Colour (3g / 0.1 oz): Riche Nectar
Face Highlighter (3g / 0.1 oz): Pink Haze
Bronzing Pressed Powder (3g / 0.1 oz): Soleil Bronze
Tightline Cake Eyeliner (1.5g / 0.05 oz each): Black Ebony, Mahogany Brown
Longwear Creme Eye Pencil (0.8 g / 0.02 oz): Noir
Double Ended Eyeliner Brush
Double Ended Eye Colour Brush

* A $429 value

The palette, which is $125, limited edition and available now at Laura Mercier counters, is referred to as a collection (even though it’s a palette), and it contains 12 eyeshadows, a blush, bronzer, highlighter, pencil eyeliner, two cake eyeliners and two brushes.

Six of those 12 eyeshadows are mattes, which is great because, as you know, I’m always bitchin’ and moaning about eye palettes that don’t have enough workhorse mattes. 🙂 This one, thankfully, has lots of delicious browns and beiges and even a dark black.

It’s part of Laura’s holiday 2016 collection and a followup to last year’s Master Class Collection palette from holiday 2015. Like last year’s, it also comes in what looks like a cute clutch and has the same layout.

The eye look I’m wearing here is on the cooler side. I’m wearing cool-toned and neutral browns with some shimmery, neutral olive, and everything I have on my eyes and cheeks is from this palette.

Because the bronzer, blush and highlighter are all warm toned, I assumed that the eyeshadows would be as well, but they aren’t. They’re generally cooler, which seems unusual to me — the contrasting color temps. The bronzer, blush and highlighter are all very warm. I don’t know if the palette is intended for cool-toned gals or warm-toned gals, or if Laura just wanted to cover all of her bases, but it’s kind of different.

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Laura Mercier Double Impact Eye Colour Collection | Cool Gray Smoky Eyes and Smoky Pants!

October 28th, 2016 by Karen 12 Comments

laura mercier double impact eye colour collection swatches — Smoky eyes and smoky pants!

Who wouldn’t want to wear eye makeup that matches their smoky pants??

The first thing I saw when I opened this $58 Laura Mercier Double Impact Eye Colour Collection palette was that bottom row of cool-toned greys. Some of ’em looked a little blue, and I thought, “These totally look like the crazy pants my mom got me from Costco.”

Girl, these pants are everywhere! I am not kidding. Shortly after my mom got them for me, El Hub and I were driving through China Town in the city, and I saw this cute older Chinese lady walking through the crowd with a big bag of vegetables. “Look!” I said to El Hub. “She’s wearing my smoky pants!”

And then last month at our hotel in Tahoe while we were waiting in the lobby to check in, I saw a lady walking away from me with her roller bag and her cute little butt clad in these smoky pants.

I whispered, “She’s wearing my smoky pants…”

They’re freaking everywhere.

They’re grey with a sort of a blue tinge, but I don’t know. I can’t always tell with my eyes. Note to self: Make an appointment with the optometrist.

So I think I see a little blue in the pants, and I was hoping that the bottom row of colors in this palette would have a bluish tint, too, because I love bluish greys.

But when I got the shadows on my lids, they looked straight-up cool-toned grey, which is also fine…’cause I also love cool-toned greys, especially in smoky looks.

So…I think I might be spoiled for life by the super pigmented Victoria Beckham X Estée Lauder palette because a layer or two with it and I’m done, but these shadows are sheerer than that.

I have to pat some on, buff it out, then pat some more, then buff that out, then pat even more, and then buff that out again.

I admit that I’m out of practice with slightly complicated, moderately intense looks, but it still seem like I’m piling a lot of this makeup on. Just an FYI.

And the fallout is fairly intense. I had a lot under my eyes when I did this look, especially when I used that dark navy blue shade. If you do your eyes first, then clean up, you’ll be fine.

Laura Mercier Double Impact Eye Colour Collection
$58, limited edition from the holiday 2016 collection, available now
12 shades

“The mirrored palette features 9 matte and 3 sateen-shimmer eye shadow shades in a range from light to dark. The versatile palette can take eyes from neutral day to sultry night. Universally flattering, light reflecting sateen-shimmer shades add dimension and enhance brightness. A value of $96.”

— lauramercier.com

Shades:

9 Matte (1g / 0.03 oz each) — Dune, Wind, Earth, Bone, Love Potion, Venemous, Poison, Hypnotic, Voodoo

True Matte shades (Classic Matte) that are best applied with Eye Colour Brush: Dune, Wind, Earth, Bone

NEW Sateen Matte shades (Matte with hidden pearl) that are best applied with Eye Colour Brush: Love Potion, Venomous, Poison, Hypnotic,Voodoo

1 Crushed Pearl (all pearl, creamy to the touch that is best applied with both fingers and Eye Colour Brush) (1g / 0.03 oz): Spirit

2 Discrete Pearl (refined shimmer, creamy to the touch that is best applied with both fingers and Eye Colour Brush) (0.8g / 0.028 oz each): Rock (to use for boost of smoke), Dust (to blend finishing lines or highlight)

ADDITIONAL MAKEUP WORN IN THIS LOOK
CHEEKS: Cheeks MAC Studio Quicktriks Stick in Ginger Spiked/Counterpoint ($32)

LIPS: theBalm Pickup Liners in Acute One ($17.50), MAC Big Baby Plushglass ($21), Victoria Beckham X Estee Lauder Moroccan Heat Lip Gloss ($36)

FACE: Hourglass Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation Stick in Beige ($46), MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium Golden ($33)

The Laura Mecier Double Impact Colour Collection Palette packaging — Inside the palette

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With Laura Mercier Colour Dots and Baked Blush Illuminé, You Get the Glowing Cheeks of a Girl From an Impressionist Painting

May 25th, 2016 by Jessica Revitte 9 Comments

I’m often inspired by art when I get ready in the morning — and not always modern art, à la Andy Warhol or iconic images of Twiggy — but sometimes, like during the deepest and darkest parts of winter, I’ll think of a novel or a particular Renaissance painting and try to recreate the spirit of the work or, if it’s a portrait, the glow surrounding the subject.

Sometimes with Laura Mercier I think of impressionist paintings, and it’s not hard to see similarities between some of Laura Mercier’s muted greens, steel blues and rich sienna browns and a color palette used by Claude Monet, right?

That’s perfect for me, as I love that romantic flush on the faces of so many impressionistic heroines. If you gaze at a Renior, you’re sure to see a glowing rose pink, and when my skin is at its most sallow or pale during the winter months, that’s the look I most like to create with my blush.

Thanks to the new Laura Mercier Colour Dots ($32) and Baked Blush Illuminé in Rose ($42), I’ll be glowing like a painting for months.

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Caught in the Rain With Laura Mercier: The Laura Mercier Spring 2016 Collection, “Paris After the Rain”

March 4th, 2016 by Anna Oh 34 Comments

beauty illustration of the laura mercier lip parfait by anna oh spring 2016 — Illustration of the new SP16 shades of Laura Mercier Lip Parfait

Here’s a look at the new Laura Mercier Spring 2016 Collection, starting with the “Paris After The Rain Eye Colour Collection (a $55 palette). While most spring collections would rather distract us from the winter blues, “Paris After the Rain” imagines a world “inspired by the reflection of lights on cobblestone streets and the dance of colours on zinc rooftops in Paris after the rain.”

Sounds like something out of a Nicholas Sparks novel, right?

laura mercier paris in the rain palette spring 2016 — The palette is housed in thick matte plastic (4″ x 3.75″ — smaller than my hand!)

Now, I should mention that I think Laura Mercier can do just about no wrong, and while every product isn’t always for me, I can usually imagine who would like and use them and how.

The Eye Colour palette was a surprise favorite of mine. With four super creamy matte shades (0.05 oz. each) and four soft glittery toppers (0.035 oz. each), it’s a versatile palette with lots of options for day and night.

laura mercier paris in the rain palette swatches spring 2016 — Matte eyeshadows in Champs Elysee, Saint Germain, Tour Eiffel, Le Marais + Multi Chrome Pearl Topper Formula (L-R) La Madeleine, Arc de Triomphe, Rue de Vivoli, Montmarte

lauramercier-paris-in-the-rain-swatches2 — A better look at the Multi Chrome Pearl Topper formula

Laura Mercier calls the baked lid colors “Multi Chrome Pearl Toppers” and suggests patting them on the lid after smudging the matte shades along the lash line. In the swatches above, it took two or three passes to build up the intensity. I think this would give a beautiful soft focus effect, but when swatched over a cream base, they really come to life!

laura mercier paris in the rain palette swatches — Swatches on top of a cream base

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