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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Lancôme Spring 2016 My Parisian Pastels Shimmer Cube Eyeshadows and Highlighters Palette




This is my one and only concession to the pastel trend of spring 2016. It's all the pinks and ice cream colors I can handle, and they come in a cute little tin that would have equally appealed to my seven year old niece. I'm not entirely sure that Lancôme My Parisian Pastels Shimmer Cube Eyeshadows and Highlighters Palette is dripping with Chic Parisienne. It's more like a certain type of fashion(ish) illustrations that accompanies magazine articles about how young Parisian women don't get fat/ never wear the wrong eye shadow/ avoid the mall/ can talk about Sartre while eating escargot. Whatever. Would these magical creatures buy and wear Lancôme's  My Parisian Pastels Shimmer Cube Eyeshadows and Highlighters Palette? I don't know. I'm just Gaia, a middle aged blogger from New Jersey, and bought this thing kind of against my better judgment.







Let's start with figuring out what is this thing and why does it look so much like The Body Shop Shimmer Cubes? The answer to the second part might be easier, since I seem to recall Lisa Eldridge, the creative director at Lancôme being a fan of that product (available at Ulta, by the way). As for exactly what is this product, I'd say it is whatever you want it to be, as long as your vision includes shimmer. For colored cubes of pressed powder in colors ranging from greenish yellow to lavender. The pigments are sheer and almost all of them are decidedly pastel. But it's that sheerness that allows them to be used on top of other makeup colors to add a mostly refined shimmer to one's look. I admit that I'm fond of the idea, because I love playing, mixing, and layering, while giving a new life to old staples.

Basically, a touch of any of the palette's cubes over your blush or eye shadow gives it another (shiny) dimension). Speaking of the shine, it is mostly high shimmer, but without any glitter particles. In theory, you may be able to use the colors on their own if you're so inclined, but the cubes were not formulated with high pigmentation in mind, and the only colors with any survival rate are the darkest ones. They perform much better over cream shadows, pencils, and blushes, and also look decent over intensely pigmented powder products (or directly over a cream foundation, but application can be patchy). I use a fluffy brush to get them on, something like a MAC 217, or a finger for just a dab in the middle of the eye lid.


The packaging has numbers and tells which ones are recommended for face and for eyes, but I'm pretty sure that I've mangled the original setting, so I no longer know which is which. I'll go out on a limb and say that a greenish yellow was probably not meant for the cheeks, but who knows? Another word about packaging: each cube is independently ensconced in a small plastic box with a lid, which prevents a mess and any breakage. The thing is, that it's kind of annoying fumbling with the lids (you have to take the cubes out of the tin in most cases) as you're trying to be creative and do an interesting makeup look. My advice would be to keep the thing for an at-home use, remove (but keep) the individual lids, so the product is ready for you as you open the tin.

Bottom Line: girls just wanna have fun (but can probably find better ways to do it).

Lancôme Spring 2016 My Parisian Pastels Shimmer Cube Eyeshadows and Highlighters Palette ($59) is available wherever Lancôme  products are sold.

26 comments:

  1. First of all, I hope you all are OK. I saw some photographs of N.J. and worried! I had this little set in my Neiman Marcus basket for a while, but finally decided I really didn't need it, especially since I couldn't quite figure out what I would use it for. Your description makes me feel that I made the right decision in deleting it. It is "cute" though...

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    1. Cute, but far from essential. It's cold here. Very very cold. The snow amount this year has been minimal, but the temepratures in the last couple of weeks have plummeted into snot-freezing territory.

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    2. Heaven help me, the cute factor finally won out. What can I say? When I remember to use it, though, I have lots of fun with it. Some of the pinks suit my coloring pretty well. It's still chilly here in the South, so I'll bet you all are still freezing. Summer can't be too far off.

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  2. God help me, I know I would never wear any of these colors ever. Just not me. But upon seeing that box and those beautifully colored cubes, my entire being went into "WANT" mode. As in, immediately. I can't help it. They are pretty in the best possible simple and straightforward way and right now I am absolutely craving anything that is uncomplicatedly pretty and spring like. I want to have this to sit on my desk (not the top, just open so I can see the cubes and those colors) - a lovely desk accessory that will make me smile.
    Anna

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    1. Anna, it's more wearable than one would think, but so superfluous you're better off saving your money. I couldn't resist and I've been using it lately (there's a video on Lancome's YT channel where Lisa E shows what it can do). Still, it's more about the packaging.

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  3. I saw this and was so tempted to buy it because it's pretty but...I just would not use it. It would probably sit around until I figured out how to drop it to destroy the cubes. I like Lancome but I haven't found anything lately that says "bring me home" yet.

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    1. Same here. Chanel has had a couple of great makeup collections recently that I would actually use.

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    2. The pretty factor slayed me. I just need to keep the cubes away from the cats.

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    3. I'm trying to think what else I've got from Lancome recently. Just the eyeliners, I think. And repurchased mascaras.

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  4. Thank goodness you bought these and reviewed them! I was intrigued by them, but couldn't figure out what they were for. Were they like Bobbi Brown's Shimmer Brick? Guerlain's Meteorites? A set of four white duo-chrome shadows from Chanel that I had a long time ago to use on top of other colors?

    Now that I see what they are, and more important, how much they cost, I think I'll pass. You just saved me BANK.

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  5. They look just like shimmer cubes! I'm glad that you noted that because I remember thinking the exact same thing when I first saw these come online. I have one those shimmer cubes from the Body Shop that I must have bought sometime in the 1990s because I was young and in college or something and I saved them to this day but never use them. The sales pitch I remember when I bought them, was that since they're individually packaged, you could just pop one color into your gym kit if you wanted. Maybe I'll go pick out that greenish yellow one and use that when I get out of the gym. Not! LOL.

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    1. The resemblance to the shimmer cubes slayed me. Lisa just repackaged it and took it to another level. But it's still kind of the same thing.

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  6. I love the tin but what is inside is a different matter!!

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    1. And it's too expensive to buy *just* for the tin. Thankfully it is kind of usable.

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  7. The first time I saw these I thought of the fragranced, fizzy bath cubes that were so popular years ago :-) They look fun, but more like a delightful novelty you'd give to a very young woman rather than someone who knows their way around makeup. Personally, I prefer my shadows firmly anchored and so I didn't even bother to test these.

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    1. Eileen, I have a feeling that once the novelty wears off these cubes will find their way to my niece's play makeup box.

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  8. I am totally scared of all of those pastel colors! Not with my coloring, it's be a recipe for disaster.
    My inner crow is definitely lemming that tin!

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    1. The pastels are brightening, and with the right brush it actually works, but I can't see you wearing these. I wish they'd just sell cute tins.

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  9. Maybe its just me but when I saw them I thought the shades look like they are about to fall out of the box.

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    1. I think that's why the cubes are individually packaged within the tin. Not cat-proof, for sure.

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  10. Had a gigglefit over the first paragraph!

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    1. Thanks! You can also add "have a capsule wardrobe that is all black, beige, and navy".

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  11. Actually I like both the colors and the finish and I would wear them! Well, not less than other hundreds of myeyeshadow :) if these would be in natural nude colors and would not need an individual unpacking of each tube, this would be a brilliant product! My only concern - what formula do they have? Do you think they will dry out as cream shadows do or are these just dry pressed pigments like Mac?

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    1. The cubes are pressed soft powder, so I doubt they'll ever dry out.

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  12. The cubes are pressed powder, and feel like semi-soft textured eye shadows. I don't think they can dry up, and at this point I've lost most of the lids to overenthusiastic kittens (I think Gemma is keeping them stashed somewhere).

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