Advent calendars, Black Friday looming, or those huge makeup collections from high-end brands (and a few from the up-and-comers) – where the heck should you spend your money? Don’t worry, we’re here to help with our Holiday collections 2018 round-up!
Chanel – Collection Libre
So very basic, yet so very pretty. Lucia Pica doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but throws together a small collection that screams Chanel. Red lipstick, named No. 5? Check. Lion embossed powders? Check. Interesting nail polishes? Check. I could’ve lived without the lip palettes, but there must be people out there who like them?
All powder products look stunning, including the four single eye shadows in gold, bronze, khaki and black, and the goldish highlighter. (Swatches of some products on this YouTube vid by Michele Wang. Also on Temptalia.) The red-copper duochrome adjacent nail polish is the most interesting one in a while, and my mom will love the sheer gold-copper lipgloss for a bit of holiday sparkle.
Dior – Midnight Wish
Peter Philips, sadly, (formerly of Chanel) didn’t go all out at Dior. Part of me likes that (I think Dior’s humongous collections of yore are terribly out-dated), but where’s the oomph, Peter?!
All we get is a weird hodgepodge mix of holiday palettes and sets (duty free associations galore – pics of the sets on thecanadianbeautyaddict), the annual gold Diorific lipsticks and nail polishes (always remind me of bar-bells) (pics and swatches at 8ights18) and a mini ‘colour collection’. In this, there’re two rather neutral eye shadow quints (swatches at Temptalia), a goldish highlighter (detecting a theme here), and new lipstick formula called Rouge Dior Bijoux in five shades of red. (Yawn.)
YSL – Gold Attraction
Tom Pecheux also lacks… something (a lot of that). The official release warbles about clashing silver and gold (how… daring?) and ‘bringing radiance to the whole face’. Yet the promo pic tells a sad tale of bronzing gone wrong and a look in which eyeliner and a pink lip manage to overpower everything with not a iota of radiance in sight. And where’s the silver and clashing gold, Tom?!
Oh, the collection: Let’s not mention the Multi-Use Makeup Palette (you know my hatred of those!). The Rouge Couture Pur are their standard lipsticks in special packaging. The nail polishes in glittery gold and red are nice, but beware the duo-colour highlighting stick – nothing good ever comes from those duos. Just have a look at the promo pic.
Guerlain
This year it’s Guerlain’s 190th anniversary, and the holiday collection seems a bit inspired by the brand’s history. Guerlain will release parts of it later than others, but never fear – that huge eye shadow palette (sneak peek at ReallyRee) that doesn’t exactly scream Guerlain, but that you see all over social media? It’s not the star of the show (pics of the whole collection at Kosmetista).
Unsurprisingly, we get a few KissKiss and Rouge G lipsticks (swatches at 1beautynewsru), but wait for the lovely gold-looking Electric Pearl Meteorites (pics at Maria Taranenko) and a setting/finishing powder called Ladies at all Climates that was apparently first released in 1987. There’ll also be three metallic liquid lipsticks – a dusky lilac one intrigues me. Festive, shiny and rather Guerlain.
MAC – Shiny Pretty Things
As always, I’ll only talk about the colour collection called Shiny Pretty Things, but not the gift sets (see them at Chicprofile), otherwise we’d be here until tomorrow. So. We had so much glitter last year, and we have. So. Much. Glitter. This year. Imaginative much, MAC?!
The measly colour collection includes glittery lipglasses, two Extra Dimension Highlighters (and one is a repromote, no less!), five lipsticks (three out of the five include shimmer/glitter), and some glittery eye liners. Oh yeah, and five glittery eye shadows. Sorry MAC, you lost me somewhere in the glitter. On top of that, the packaging, something that MAC usually excels in? Mirrored silver. Hmpf.
NARS Holiday 2018
SO GOOD. Nars manages to end my Holiday ennui with a punk inspired collection that combines great packaging with promising products. As with MAC, we overlook the various sets that make up the Gifting Collection (pics and swatches at butterfly0901), and concentrate on the Color Collection.
Earlier this year, NARS introduced the Powermatte lipsticks that now come out as liquid matte metallics in a wide range of colours that I rather enjoy. Three new Audacious Lipsticks, and two eye shadow palettes (swatches at Temptalia – together with a lot of the collection) that I would adopt in a heartbeat (one’s mainly blue, the other one plays with earthy tones). (Swatches of the face and eye palettes at 1beautynewsru.) A six-colour cheek palette looks delectable as well, and if I could spend a lot of money on one collection, this would be it, no doubt.
Tl, dr – Holiday collections 2018 round-up
If you’re on the lookout for a traditional red and gold holiday collection, you can’t go wrong with Chanel. Guerlain’s Meteorites look pretty – especially if you have a warmer skintone. If you’re a glitter-lover, Mac is exactly the thing for you. Nars has you covered if your makeup stash is large and you’re looking for something different.
