Chanel Winter Nights

If you asked me a year ago, I probably would've said that there's no way I would ever become a department store makeup snob. I was just as happy with drugstore makeup as I was with department store makeup. Unfortunately for my bank account, that has changed, and Chanel is one of the culprits. I don't even bother going to the drugstore to check out their new collections anymore; Chanel is my new love and no brand can supplant Chanel's position in my heart. With that said, late last year, I bought a Chanel palette that's been out for quite a while, though I didn't fall in love with this palette until this past May when I took a trip to NYC. I don't know how I've overlooked this palette in the past, but I'm glad that I decided to stop at the Chanel counter at the NYC Bloomingdale's for this fateful encounter with Winter Nights.

There's not much to be said about Chanel packaging. It's been the same for years and years and it's become a classic. It's not exactly the prettiest or cutest packaging ever, but it's classy and it's very Chanel so I don't have any complaints.


As usual, the inside contains a very sturdy plastic separator and two very crappy eyeshadow applicators. Chanel quads would be completely flawless in my heart if they had more decent applicators. Seriously, even some drugstore applicators are better than these.


No complaints about the powder quality. In fact, the powder quality is one of the reasons why I love Chanel so much. You may want to refer to my previous post on Chanel's Mystics Eyes to see why, but suffice it to say that Chanel's eyeshadows are super finely-milled.

The colors in this palette are a medium neutral-warm brown, a light beigey yellow, a pale pink, and a dark blackish olive with gold shimmers. All of the colors are shimmery or at least have a subtle sheen. Another reason why I love Chanel quads is the beauty of the fine shimmers in their shadows. There is nothing garish or loud here, but a sprinkling of shimmer in the colors like stars in the sky. As my swatch really does not do the shadows justice, please check out the palette at Chanel counters to see what I mean.

Overall, Chanel Winter Nights is a sophisticated yet fun palette. The color combination is not boring, but the effect is understated and elegant when the colors are combined on my eyelids. From the promotional pictures of the spring Chanel palette, it seems that Winter Nights is similar to the new palette Regard Perle. However, the brown and dark olive in Winter Nights is replaced by a vanilla and forest green in Regard Perle, respectively. I haven't checked out Regard Perle in person yet, but it seems like a lovely palette as well.

It's been a while since I took the pictures, but all pictures should have been taken under natural light.

In short: A worthy purchase if you like elegant, understated colors, and don't mind the price!

Inspiration - Chanel Inimitable Promo

During the past year or so, I have slowly developed into a devoted Chanel fan. I used to love Dior and Guerlain and think that Chanel is boring and for old people, but my attitude has changed 180 degrees. Now, I am in love with the texture of Chanel eyeshadows and blushes (haven't bought one of their blushes yet though) and am curious to try Chanel lipsticks (though I don't really want to spend $30+ on a lipstick since I don't use them very often). In any case, I guess my love for Chanel extends to their promo pics because I am totally in love with their promo pic for the recently released Inimitable Mascara. Though honestly, the foundation/powder on the model's face looks too thick to me when you see a larger version of the picture, but her eye, blush, lips, and hair are just gorgeous. I wouldn't be surprised if her eye had some help from false lashes, but I think half the beauty is in the color of her eyes, which has nothing to do with makeup, of course. I guess it helps that Chanel finds pretty models 'cause this makeup look can make a normal person look like a ghost =P (...it sounds like I'm not really giving much credit to the makeup artists at Chanel...)

Inspiration - Chanel Fall 2010

I've become a HUGE fan of Chanel ever since getting the Mystic Eyes quad a few months ago. I'm also usually not drawn to the promotional pictures for Western makeup brands, but Chanel has been putting out some good ones for the past few seasons. The latest promo pic I saw of Chanel's Fall 2010 collection caught my eyes due to its cleanness and simplicity. The palette consists of too many dark colors for it to be practical for me, but I must say that it looks great on the model. It's strange how even with the smoky eyes, the model can still look so girl-next-door and not overly dramatic. Wish I could pull that off...

Inspiration - Chanel Bird of Paradise

As I've mentioned in my review of Chanel's Mystic Eyes quad, the promotional picture of Chanel's 2009 winter release really caught my eyes. Out of all of the department store brands, I would say Chanel stood out the most to me, mostly because they chose to use springy resort colors for a winter release instead of the standard smoky and/or silvery/gold colors. Another reason I really liked the promotional picture was that I've always loved multicolored eye looks but have rarely ever seen it done well. Most of the time, multicolored looks can be overly makeupy and not at all like the spring goddess image I want to see. Chanel, however, succeeded in making the model look ethereal, kind of like a tropical rainforest goddess ^^

Chanel Mystic Eyes (It's CHANEL!)

Chanel has always been one of those god-like brands to me. To buy anything Chanel is to take the first step into the world of fashion. Of course, not everything Chanel is perfect, but it seems like even the imperfections are god-like. You can never go wrong with Chanel. (I mean just look at this paper box! If it wasn't Chanel then it would be boring, but because it is Chanel, the box automatically becomes classy.)


Since I don't really want to spend a month's salary on a Chanel bag just yet, a Chanel's makeup item seems like a good alternative. Thus, when I saw the beautiful promotional picture for Chanel's winter 2009 eyeshadow palette, my mind went *ding* time to pick up a Chanel quad. The minute I swatched Bird of Paradise from Chanel winter 2009 on the back of my hand, I absolutely fell in love with the shimmer quality. There is one downfall, Bird of Paradise is really colorful, and as I've (recently?) learned, my colorful eyeshadows mostly just sit in my drawers and are almost never used. Thankfully, as I swatched a few more of Chanel's quads, I found that a number of Chanel eyeshadow quads have the same beautiful shimmer, including spring 2009's Mystic Eyes. And that is how I ended up with Chanel's Quadra Eyeshadow in Mystic Eyes ^^


Back when Mystic Eyes just came out, I read a number of rave reviews on the insanely gorgeous taupey palette. Unfortunately, I was only working part time at the time so I refrained from making any expensive ($20+) makeup purchases. I'm very glad then that the Bird of Paradise promotional picture eventually led me to Mystic Eyes again because as the other reviewers say, Mystic Eyes is truly an INSANELY gorgeous taupey palette ^_^


The packaging for Chanel eyeshadow quads is not particularly exciting, but it looks very classy and Chanel-esque to me. As with other high-end brands, Chanel's quads come with a velvet pouch to protect the palette (see above). I always keep the velvet pouch because it looks nice, but the pouch also annoys the hell out of me because it attracts dust like crazy. The quads also come with a sturdy plastic protective covering and two sponge-tip applicators that are so-so in quality.


The eyeshadows in the Mystic Eyes quad are incredibly silky and finely-milled (as are all of the Chanel eyeshadows that I played with at Nordstrom). The lasting power is great, no complaints yet, and the shimmer that I previously mentioned is just out-of-this-world amazing. The shimmer here does not scream party girl but instead oozes sophistication from every little speck. The reason why I love it so much is due to the mix of very fine to fine shimmer that provides a spectrum of reflectivity and gives depth and dimension to each color. Unfortunately, my camera was not able to capture the shimmers well in any of the pictures, so you will just have to take my word for it until you are able to check out the quad in person at your local department store! I chose to provide two product photos below because the left picture (taken partly in the shade) is closer to the actual color, but the right picture (taken in indirect sunlight) shows the level of reflectivity based on the amount of shimmer in each color.

The four colors in Mystic Eyes are a very very pale vanilla pink (A), a slightly coppery medium brown (B), a silvery taupe (C), and a blackened chocolate brown (D). A and C are both on the sheer side but B and D are both very pigmented. There is some level of shimmeriness in all colors but I would say that D is more than 50% matte and A and C are the most shimmery of the bunch. These colors applied together creates a very (surprise surprise) sophisticated and classy look appropriate for both the office and weekends. I haven't tried to use this quad to create a smoky eye look yet, but I think it would also look beautiful (I imagine something like Marion Cotillard on the red carpet).


All pictures in this post were taken under natural light.

In short: A stunning quad worth every penny.

Inspiration - Chanel Fall Image Ad

This is long overdue, but I love this picture from Chanel's fall campaign! The eyegloss looks absolutely amazing, though I would never actually use it in real life since I'm sure it would crease on me in 10 minutes. Not to mention my complexion probably would not work as well with the red color. I find that I'm usually drawn to ads that have models wearing neutral colors, so this is really one of very few boldly colored looks that I like and I think would be wearble for people with pale skin for evening events.

Inspiration - Hamasaki Ayumi in Days PV

It's been a while since Hamasaki Ayumi came out with Days, but I remember the first time I saw the PV, I immediately fell in love with Hamasaki Ayumi's nail polish color. I admit that that is pretty random, especially since her nails only appear for like 2 seconds in the entire video. Of course, other than her nails, her outfits were also amazingly cute, though I don't think I would ever wear anything like that on the streets. For one thing, the Japanese/Asian fashion seen in this case is too different from American fashion, which means that if I were to wear Hamasaki Ayumi's outfit in the video on the streets, people would probably think I'm weird.

Anyhow, back to the subject. Ever since I watched the Days PV, I've been looking for an off-white nail polish with silver/pink shimmer/glitter a la Ms. Hamasaki. Then, a week or so ago, I saw this post on Taiwanese blogger Yuki's site about Chanel's fall collection and fell in love with the new Chanel polish 501 Intermezzo. (Please click on the above link to the post to take a look at the beautiful color.) However, now that I've re-watched the Days video, I realized that Hamasaki Ayumi's polish color is not really like that of Intermezzo, though I actually like Intermezzo better Hamasaki's polish color. So I dedicate this new lemming to Ms. Hamasaki. It is highly unlikely that I'll actually go out and buy the color though, since I rarely put nail polish on my fingernails since I'm lazy, and the Chanel polish is just too expensive for me to justify my purchase.

Here's is the PV for Days. If you're interested, the nail polish color I liked appears at 2:04.

EDIT: Because AVEX is iffy and removes any and all videos (or at least the audio tracks) of Hamasaki Ayumi, the originally linked video is no longer available on YouTube. If you're interested, you can still search for the video on a search engine and another video of Days may have been uploaded (but not yet removed). I guess Hamasaki Ayumi doesn't need to rely on YouTube for publicity since she's already very famous, but I cannot understand for the life of me what the problem is with having her PV on YouTube. Is AVEX being paid for high viewership ratings when Ayu's videos play on TV? Do they realize it's very annoying for people who don't live in Japan or want to watch old videos for them to remove everything? Grrr....