Oh god is it November already? Feels like I can’t walk in to a shop with out a wee bit of Mariah and someone spraying some over sweet perfume in my general direction. However when my friend Laura invited me in to have a creep at the new Shu holiday collection designed by acclaimed director Wong Kar-Wai I totally found myself getting in to the seaon. I’ve already pretty much decided that Santa’s bringing me the mini brush set for Christmas – and when Laura asked me if I fancied trialing the “Drowning in Flames” palette I was ecstatic. Until I saw the colours.
Don’t get me wrong – I have quite the penchant for a very dark purple, but I’m fair as they come by (pale blonde hair, blue eyes) so approaching this very pink palette had me worried if I was going to come away looking like I had the sorest eyes ever.
That said, I’ve known Laura for a while now – and she’s yet to steer me wrong yet – and hell something has to pull me out of my makeup rut of nudes, heavy liner and a red lip so why not start here?
First of all the packaging is gorgeous. Wong Kar-wai is known for being heavily stylised in his direction and you can see this coming through here in the design. The palette feels sturdy and has a decent sized mirror. I’ve got a soft spot for holographic packaing – they’re just the right sort of kitch for me and the yellow and gold colours with glitter is festive without being too heavily seasonal. Snaps for Shu. Also…the name “Drowning in Flames” – it’s a bit dark, a bit sexy…it’s something that I can get on board with.
The actual product – colour wise you get 4 eye shadows, 1 cream blush and a highlighter. The eye shadows include a very rich royal purple, a lilac pink, a pearlesent baby pink and a gold glitter. The cream blush is a deep red and the highlighter a very very pale almost white yellow. It’s very much in essence a party palette.
The eye shadows all apply really well, with a decent coverage and I found that they blend really well. The staying power ain’t half bad (your face will last your work night out) – I was particularly impressed by how well the glitter went on, although I did have a little fall down. The pigmentation of the shadows is great and all the colours do compliment each other well. I wore all four at once for funsies, but can imagine using the gold frequently on the inner corners of my eye for party season and the plummy purple makes a nice alternative to black for my smoke. The slighter pink shades I feel I do need to wear them with other colours to avoid looking a bit sore – but I think this is the sort of palette that would definitely compliment someone with warmer colourings – a bit of a tan and/or brown eyes and you’re laughing.
The cream blush is quite a berry red, it’s a nice colour and again quite festive. It’s a bit dark for me, and definitely my least favourite part of the palette. It does have a nice velvety texture, but the brush to apply it with is for it’s texture a bit rubbish and you are better off using you’re fingers. The highlighter is gorgeous – great for highlighting cheekbones and brow bones and lacks any shimmer so can easily be integrated in my daily make up.
Colour wise this is so far from my usual colours. I didn’t find them as harsh as I thought they’d be and was really nice getting a change. The purple and gold are my favourites without a doubt. The colours are very warm and feminine and the palette does pretty much give you what you need for a party eye.
It’s not something I would turn my nose up at if this guy was to land in my stocking this Christmas, but at £39, I feel I’d much prefer the “Burning in Water” palette – which more suits my skin tone with lots of blues and silvers. It’s great value for money and the shadows are great – and it was nice to try Shu as a make up brand opposed to it’s skincare – which I’ve been sold on for ages. For me, my main issues for this seem to be the colour match, so for my warm skinned beauts – get this on your Christmas list.
You can pick up the Wong Kar-Wai for Shu Uemura in House of Frasers Glasgow or via the Shu site.
Scottish writer based in Glasgow