Lavshuca: My Inner Princess

I haven't really ventured much into the world of Japanese makeup products in my blog entries yet, but it really is a totally different world. For one thing, Japanese makeup products tend to put a greater emphasis on packaging, which I see less with most American and European brands. More specifically, there is a sector of Japanese makeup that caters to girly girls who love princessy or cute packaging. Such brands include Shiseido's Majolica Majorca, Kanebo's Lavshuca, and Sony CP's Love Clover, just to name a few.

Lavshuca is a fairly new brand (about 4-5 years old) that challenged the reign of the long-standing drugstore queen of girly packaging, Majolica Majorca. Particularly adorable are their Eye Color Select Quads that was all the rage when it came out. This eye palette series is what I will be discussing today, and is also the only Lavshuca products that I currently own. I used to have one of their lipsticks (the long thin one in a gold tube), and I would have repurchased the lipstick in other colors if it weren't for the fact that the lipstick went bad just a couple of months after I bought it (which could have been a quality control problem by Lavshuca or a problem with how long the online vendor I bought it from has had it storage). But I digress.


Lavshuca's eyeshadow quads are very different from what I'm used to with Western products. I've found that many Japanese eyeshadows, if not all, focus more on the shimmer (amount & quality), whereas Western products like to focus more on pigmentation. Along the same lines, Lavshuca's Eye Color Select Quads are big on shimmer and not particularly pigmented, which I would say goes along with the whole princess image. The powder of the eyeshadows are very fine and not at all chalky. With UDPP, the shadows don't crease at all on my lids, and without, they only crease after 7-8 hours. Like most Japanese shadows, all of the shadows have a layer of overlay on top that's a little lighter than the actual shadows. You can see the difference between the overlay and the actual shadows in the picture of the purple quad below, which was the only quad out of the three that I had used prior to taking these pictures. Each quad consists of three shadow shades plus a sparkle color in the top right. Also, each quad contains a double-ended applicator with a wider end for shadow application and a thinner end for lining.

PK-1 (the pink quad) contains an extremely pale pink (A), a taupey purplish dark pink (B), a light pink sparkle color (D), and a hot pink (C). The finished look is actually pretty neutral, unless you play up the hot pink liner color. Sorry if the "numbering" seems kind of erratic, but I listed them in the order in which they were swatched, but numbered them in the order in which the shadows are supposed to applied according to the instructions on the back of the box. In any case, if that explanation was too confusing, just refer to the letters when comparing the text with the pictures.


BU-1 (the blue quad) contains a pale blue with a green cast (A), a medium sky blue (B), a light silvery blue sparkle color (D), and a pewter with blue shimmer (C). BU-1 is not very flattering on warm-toned skin like mine because of the coolness of all the colors, particularly B, so it can easily make me look garish. I am still working on how I can make the shadows look better on me, but most likely, I'll have to break up the colors and use them with other shadows to make them work.


Finally, PU-2 (the purple quad) contains a pale champagne gold (A), a light lilac (B), a medium brown sparkle color (D), and a black with purple shimmer (C). The finished look of PU-2 is very neutral with a small hint of lilac. Because this quad was released as part of a fall collection, the colors are more grown up and serious than the other two palettes, which were released as part of a spring collection. D in this quad is also the darkest sparkle color out of the three palettes. With the other two quads, I usually apply a little bit of D over the other colors, but because the D color in PU-2 is so dark, you should be careful not to mix B with D (or put them next to each other) since it will make your eye makeup look dirty.


Also, a note about application. At first I was a bit skeptical of the quads because D contains a lot of glitter. However, once I got a hang of how to prevent the glitter from falling all over my face, I was very happy with the product. Btw, I don't have any problems with fall outs from any of the other colors in the palettes. When applying D, applying it wet with a brush or layering it on little by little will help immensely with preventing fall out. Also, you should always pat on the shadow instead of rub. Be gentle. I've included the instructions for the suggested way of using the quad for those of you who can read Japanese.


Other colors in the Eye Color Select Quad series that I didn't purchase are BR-1 and BR-2. BR-1 contains peachy, orangey, warmer browns, whereas BR-2 contains gold and neutral browns.

All photos in this entry were taken under natural light.

In short: I love the Lavshuca Eye Color Select Quads for their fine powder, sheer wash of color and abundant shimmer. However, all of these quads have little quirks that can make them hard to work with. Namely, PK-1 has a hot pink liner that's hard to use, BU-1 can look garish on warm-toned skin, and PU-2 has a crease color and a sparkle color that don't quite mesh well together.