Beauty: Best Autumn/Winter Makeup Palettes
Urban Decay’s greatest hits include the Naked and Naked2 Eyeshadow Palettes, two industry bestsellers, as well as the more recent Naked Smoky.
All three contain very wearable, flattering shades in a variety of finishes. The brand’s Vice palettes are less accessible but very glamorous.
The new Vice4 Palette offers a choice of 20 limited-edition jewel shades. This is a fun, youthful selection that includes 11 shadows infused with micro-glitter and one more in a sparkly satin. The colours are also thoroughly modern, especially ‘Beat Down,’ metallic violet with fine blue glitter, and ‘Harlot,’ an icy lavender foil. Most remind me of the more experimental, pro-adolescent brand Urban Decay was in the Early Aughts.
The most iridescent shadows are somewhat loose in texture and wear best over a primer. Urban Decay’s own Ultimate Ozone Multi-Purpose Primer Pencil, €19, is excellent.
Hourglass founder Carisa Janes grew up with an elegant mother who avoided harsh lighting and bought only pink bulbs for their home in Orange County. Now she creates fragrance-free makeup that “lights” the skin with similarly flattering results. Her Ambient Lighting products are reportedly worn by Jennifer Aniston, Margot Robbie and other stars that look like they sleep lots and avoid sugar. The Ambient Lighting Edit is a flaw-blurring, radiance-boosting prep kit for your everyday close-ups.
The Ambient Lighting Bronzer, Ambient Lighting Finishing Powder, and Ambient Lighting Blush are all second skin-textured products that neutralise pigmentation issues and don’t cake as the day progresses. Their finish gives you a soft, non-glittery glow. The brand has chosen the bestselling (read most flattering) shades of bronzer, blush and face powder for this “edit,” as well as the new Ambient Strobe Lighting Powder in pearl pink for more intense, party-worthy highlighting.
They suit all skin types and fair-to-medium complexions. Six large pillow-shaped sections add up to a hefty price tag but a little of any one of them goes a long way. Properly maintained, you can expect powder makeup this securely packaged to look great for well over a year. Now that the contouring makeup trend is finally petering out, cheekbones shaped with a sheer blush or subtle highlighter are the look to perfect for spring 2016.
Artists’ favourite Make Up For Ever has composed a foolproof palette for those who prefer classic nude, smoky or green eye-makeup. It offers nine shadows, three of the French brand’s bestselling shades from each of these colour families. A comfortable gel-powder formula makes each shadow flake-proof and easy to blend.
Tutorials enclosed help you get your look right every time. A swipe from the mini Smoky Extravagant Mascara and one of Mufe’s impressively long-wearing Aqua Eyes eyeliner pencils (both included) are the perfect finish. Presented in a black case with sparkly fuchsia lid, this palette makes a lovely gift.
YSL is early to market with their holiday offering this year, having debuted this palette, four shades of Rouge Pur Couture Lipstick, €33, and a kiss-printed edition of Touche Éclat, €35, at Brown Thomas this month.
We often resent the retail community prodding us towards premature Christmas spending, and rightly so, but this lipstick-y kiss covered compact isn’t exclusively festive.
It has the look of a fashionably-corrupted Moleskine diary, actually, with eye, lip and cheek colours replacing the pages. A powder blush in universally-flattering soft peach and lipstick in easy-to-wear light pink and true red make it a lovely gift for any lady. The eye shadows are silver, champagne, gold, and iridescent chocolate, all of which can highlight fine lines.
Still, eyes of any age look more open with a light dab of metallic colour at the centre of the lids.
The Essentials is a palette of suit-everyone shades that benefit the skin and the planet! Clever Clarins took their most covetable autumn eye-colours (nudes, blues, greys, and pink), infused them with soothing antioxidant extracts and milled the ingredients to silky perfection. The selection suits all skin types and includes both satin and matte finishes.
They added a double-ended shadow brush. This palette also comes with a code for online registration to have a tree planted in your name as part of the ‘Povos de Floresta’ reforestation project, which helps to preserve and protect the Amazon ecosystem of various Indian tribes.
Philips Sonicare DiamondClean, the nonpareil of electric toothbrushes, is now available in limited-edition amethyst.
Philips seems to go to great pains to distinguish itself from the competition visually as well as effectively.
This new “galaxy-inspired” shade has the same quick-whitening features as the black, white and pink models. Diamond-shaped bristles remove stains and scrape away plaque, creating a brighter smile after a week of use.
The bristles also reach deep between teeth and drive fluid between them, boosting gum health. It has five modes (sensitive, whitening, cleaning, gum care, polish), and an interval timer to ensure each quadrant of your mouth gets equal attention. You can charge it via the USB-compatible glass or travel case provided, both of which look pretty cute.
A toothbrush probably isn’t the accessory you’re most keen to splurge on but with the capacity to remove seven times more plaque than manual brushing, a
DiamondClean makes pearls you flash every day of the week.
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