Laduréé cosmetics (haul + review)

Ladurée, named after the original founder Louis-Ernest Ladurée, is a luxury cakes and pastries brand based in Paris, France since 1862.

The inventor of the famous double-decker macaron has now come up with their own cosmetic line "The Merveilleuses de Ladurée" (or 'The Wonders of Ladurée') in a collaboration with Albion (who is also the manufacturer of the Anna Sui, Jill Stuart and Paul & Joe cosmetics).

It was set to debut first in Japan in February 2012 before being released in Europe, USA and the rest of Asia later on this year.

No need to say that I was thrilled to be able to try some of their products and I thought I would share my experience.
Since it has only been released in Japan, I had some help from a lovely girl in Japan who was able to purchase these Laduree products for me.

The products I will be reviewing are the pressed cheek blush in #01 and the Rose Petals #02.

Laduree pressed cheek blush #01.

The pressed cheek blush is, as the name already mentionned, a powder blush. Each blush is a refill so you have to purchase the case seperately.

The Laduree pressed blush case- outside packaging

Laduree pressed powder case opened

The Laduree case also comes with a brush.

I chose the color # 01 which is a gorgeous mauve/purple color. I don't have a color like that in my collection hence why my eye was drawn to that particular shade. The logo is very feminine and it suits the brand's image.

Laduree pressed cheek blush #01

The texture is kind of dry and hard and the pigmentation is only adequate. I can definitely see people with dry skin having issues with this blush because it will probably dissappear by the end of the day.

Personally it didn't find it to last too well on my combo/oily skin compared to Illamasqua blushes. By the end of the day most of it has faded. That being said I think most of the appeal lays in the packaging. The color range isn't that unique and most of the colors are very dupeable in my humble opinion.

Do I think it's worth the price tag? No but if you're a collector I suggest to look into these blushes merely because of the gorgeous packaging.

 Laduree Rose Petals #02.
I was most excited about the Rose Petals. They come in 3 different colors and I got #02 which is a very pretty warm pink color.

Simular to the pressed powder cheek blush, the case come seperately and is not included with the petals.
The packaging I got is the clear one (which I prefer) but apparently there is also a white case too that comes with a powder puff.

Laduree case for the rose petals (¥3150)

The rose petals came in plastic round box that was wrapped in a silk pouch. The refill rose petals cost ¥7350.

The rose petals are not made entirely out of make up. The make up has been put around a paper skeleton that has been made in the form of a rose petal.

I was sceptical about the pigmentation and the performance at first but I was pleasantly surprised by the smooth silky texture and the pigmenation is better than the pressed powder blushes. It lasted on my skin pretty well too during the day so overall, I'm very pleased with these petals.

This is definitely a luxury product and a collectors items. Is it worth the heavy price tag? Probably not but it sure is a must if you like luxurious and unique products and have a weak spot for pretty packaging (like I do).
The only (and obvious) thing is that these petals are not travel friendly. Although they are not extremely fragile, I would not suggest taking them with you when you travel because they will break or chip in your suitcase. I was surprised mine didn't get crushed during the shipping at all.

                              

I thought it would be helpfull to do some swatches so you can see the pigmentation of them yourself.

I took the liberty to swatch Shu Uemura P 14 Red as well side by side because I first thought that the Shu Uemura blush and the Rose Petals were very simular but they are not. The Shu Uemura P 14 Red is warmer and redder compared to the Laduree petals.

As you can see on the picture, the pressed powder blush #01 has the least pigmentation of them all. I had to swatch it a few times before it shows up at all on my skin and I'm not pale to begin with.

For me, the rose petals are definitely the winner here. If you have money to spend, I would highly suggest to try the rose petals. You can always put the rose petals in some other packaging in case you don't like the original Laduree case.

Finally I just want to say that I'm glad I had the chance to try these out and I want to thank the person again who was able to get these products for me.

Addiction haul + swatches

Addiction by Kosé is a fairly new brand in Asia and has been created by makeup artist Ayako Yoshimura in 2009.

The line, which is targeted at careerdriven, urban women, was unveiled at retailer Isetan in Shinjuku, Tokyo, before entering stores in Kobe and Osaka. Kosé also has created a website for this new line at http://www.addiction-beauty.com/.

The name Addiction is quite an accurate name for this brand because I was hooked ever since I got my first Addiction product awhile back. Last month I decided to haul some more Addiction and I thought it would be helpful to do some swatches as well to give you an idea of the colors and how the products apply.

                        

If you never tried this brand before I highly recommand to try their eyeshadows. There are 3 different eyeshadow finishes: Matte (M), Pearl (P), Metalic (ME) and Sparkle (S).
Some of the metalic finishes can feel a little gritty and can have a bit of fall out like for example Mariage. Most of them are very smooth, almost buttery and very pigmented.

Although there have some lovely browns and taupes in their collection, neutrals are not their strength so I would definitely check out the brighter and bolder colors because they are more unique compared to the other shades.

Here are the eyeshadows that I got in close up followed by the swatches of each colors.

Another stand out in their collection are their blushes and cheek sticks. The powder blushes are very finely milled and not too powdery so it applies very smoothly and evenly. Addiction powder blushes are probably one of my favorite blush textures. I already have Revenge blush so I only swatched it side by side with Rose Bar and Sometime for reference.

The cheek sticks are creamy and you need to blend it into the skin very well because it's so pigmented. It last all day on my combo-oily skin and that says something about this product. I got Amazing (a gorgeous cool tone hot pink) and Suspicous (a dark berry color). The best part is that they can double up as a lipstick, which I already tried. It feels like nothing on your lips but they do dry out your lips a little so if you have dry lips and need something more moisturizing these are not for you.

Addiction also released new eye glosses in May so I immediately jumped at it and got 6 of them. Can you tell how excited I was?

I will do an indepth review soon, comparing them to the Paul & Joe eye glosses since I heard they were very simular.

I also got 2 empty compacts (#2) that fits 6 eyeshadow or 4 eyeshadows + 1 blush or 2 eyeshadows + 2 blushes or 3 blushes. You can mix and match as you like to customize your own palette, which makes it very interesting and fun.

Last but not least I bought their tinted moisturizer as well and will review that one as well in the near future. All I can say now is that the finish is matte (which I like) and it covers quite well, more like a BB cream than a regular tinited moisturizer.

I think I covered everything for now and I hope this what somewhat helpful. If you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask me.

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

Many years I have followed and read beauty blogs about the all the amazing cosmetics brands out there and all the reviews about them which is one of the many reasons why I became a beauty addict.

It never crossed my mind to start my own blog since there are so many other amazing beauty blogs already but I'm going to try my best and see how it goes. Hopefully this blog will still exist a year from now on.

I want my blog to be somewhat helpful for everyone so you can expect reviews, swatches, infos about upcoming collections etc.. here. And I'm always open for suggestions too of course. :-)
Maybe in the near future I will expand to other topics as well but for now let's start with cosmetics, shall we?

For future reference: if companies send me prodcuts to review, I will mention it and this will definitely not effect my opinion on it. Unless stated otherwise, all the products have been bought with my own money. I do this for fun and have absolutely no intention to make any profit out of this.

Hope you will all enjoy it and don't hesitate to contact me if you have suggestions/remarks or questions about beauty products.


C.

xoxo