Last week, Lancome at Isetan KLCC organised workshops to introduce customers to their Ultra Lavande Spring Collection. There was no charge for joining the 2 hour workshops. The workshops were presented by Lancome Malaysia’s Chief Make-Up Artist, Zamri Zainol.
This is the 2nd time I’ve joined a free beauty workshop where more than half of the confirmed attendees failed to turn up. To Zamri’s credit, he started the presentation/makeup demo quite punctually as he didn’t feel it was fair to those of us who turned up on time.
Unfortunately, when workshops are free, this happens as people just don’t bother to call if they aren’t turning up. Hopefully, this will not deter brands from holding free workshops.
The highlights of the Ultra Lavande Collection are the 2 eyeshadow quads, the butterfly themed blusher palette and the 3 lipsticks. There are more products in the collection but I’ll just focus on these 3 for the purpose of this post.
Ultra Lavande Collection
Although I swatched the Butterflies Fever Blush (RM110) on the back of my hand, the picture didn’t show the color well at all due to the lighting in the room. It is a pretty blush with the predominant colors of lavender, violet, pink and peach.
Butterflies Forever Blush (Glowy Ballerine)
The blush colors are very soft and can be swirled together or used individually. The shimmer isn’t so intense as to be off putting. The peach color is beautiful to highlight the apples of the cheeks and to give the effect of high(er) and more sculpted cheekbones.
As for the two eyeshadow quads (RM140), they are Warm Harmony (with silver highlighter on top right of palette) and Cold Harmony (with gold highlighter on top right of palette).
Eyeshadow Quad Cover
Warm Harmony & Cold Harmony
Zamri used the Warm Harmony quad on the right side of the model’s face as he wanted her to finish off the look herself on the left side. The steps are actually rather simple and similar whether you’re using the Warm or Cold palette.
Start by applying the lighter shade of the two from the bottom row of the palettes on the inner corner of the eyes using fingers. Apply upwards towards the middle of the eyes.
Then apply the darkest shade (bottom row of palettes) on the outer corner of the eyes also in an upwards motion. Lightly blend the lighter shade from inner corner of the eyes to meet the darker shade.
The gold or silver highlighter shades are used lightly on the browbone area starting from the inner corner of the eyes to give a 3-D effect.The lightest shade of the palettes (top left corner of the palettes) are optional, use them to line the lower eyelids from inner corner to middle of the eyes.
Finish off the look with eyeliner, mascara and lipstick. While I found the colors of the quads very appropriate for a spring look, they’re colors I already have in some other brand’s palettes so I wasn’t exactly tempted enough to get either palette.
Warm Harmony Palette Used
The Finished Look
Warm Harmony
Cold Harmony
While I don’t think there’s anything in the collection that are must-haves, they are nice-to-haves if you don’t have similar eyeshadow colors already or if you just love the pattern of the blush.
A point to note is that the blush contains 86% mineral powders and is priced on www.lancome-usa.com at US$40 but is only RM110 whereas the eyeshadow quads are priced at US$42 but are RM140!
The blush is versatile enough to be used as an all over face powder (used very sparingly) and blusher so it does have a dual function. The lipsticks (RM75) are also quite lovely especially for those who are partial towards rosy shades.
Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, the 30 year old daughter of French Vogue’s Editor (till end of Jan 2011), Carine Roitfeld, is the face of the Ultra Lavande Collection.
