Let me show you one of the most beautiful collections of this holiday season. Do you like nudes? Understated elegance? Do you want to look gorgeous on all the happy festive days in front of us? Then look here. Luxe Is so much More with this collection by Giorgio Armani.
I can’t even say I’m a big fan of nudes in makeup. But this collection… wow.
Let me start by saying just how great Armani makeup quality is. The more I use it, the more I wonder, how they manage nailing those formulae. Given even they have their pits and falls, which is only natural, but most of the time their products are truly superb. And it definitely refers to all products featured in this stunning collection.
It includes four Lip Maestro shades, three Eye Tint shades and a face and eye palette with a miniature lip gloss. Beauty, your name is Luxe Is More this season for sure 🙂
We’ll start with lip colour.
Lip Maestro
Intense Velvet Color
which is basically a liquid lip colour product with a velvet, that is, mainly, matt finish, comes in four shades for holidays 2015.
508 pearly nude
The packaging is classically Lip Maestro. If you love those red caps, they are all here.
Now, I have to tell you, I was initially thrown off by the name of the shade. When I heard ‘pearly nude’, I pictured pearly beige or something, well, you know, but then I pulled it out of the box and saw this.
Pink. I mean, doesn’t this look pink to you? Looks very much like pearly pink to me.
Before we go on, let’s quickly look at the brush here.
It’s a spongy applicator flattened to allow easier and smoother coverage.
Works just fine for me.
Getting back to the shade here. Remember? Pearly nude, pink… Well, once I swatched it, I thought there’s more sense to the name. When applied, the shade does reveal a sort of nude beige undertone to it. Still, there’s a lot of pink there too.
As it often happens in Giorgio Armani makeup world, there’s an initial short chemical kind of whiff to Lip Maestro, that disappears in a matter of seconds and doesn’t come back. No scent whatsoever on the lips.
The second shade is
507 boudoir.
It’s a purple shade. Medium purple. On seeing it in the tube, I thought it didn’t look like a shade that will flatter many people out there.
Once swatched though the shade didn’t disappoint. It’s more lilac than purple. It will look good on us. And different. If you like purples, look into this shade. You might want it for your collection. If you’ve never worn purple but are eager to try, go for boudoir.
Here’s the third shade
ruby nude 509
If the two shades above were all kind of romantic and cute, this one here is different. It’s hot. Ever so hot.
Looks kind of cherry like in the tube, but then I try it out, and I see the strong raspberry undertone to it that actually makes it very ruby. It’s beautiful, it’s vibrant, it’s everything you want from a red lip shade. And it’s not a classic red you might be just a little tired of.
The fourth and last shade is
414 red blood.
For starters, we’ve already seen this shade is one of Giorgio Armani limited edition collections this year. So, it’s not really new.
It’s so great though 🙂 Another sultry shade. Vampy even. A classic red. Very well put together. Bright and vibrant, still not dark. Old Hollywood like. Diva like. It’s the kind of red you have to try just once, because it’s such a classic. If you don’t like it, you can just drop it afterwards, but you’ll know you’ve done it 🙂 The truth is, there’s something womanly about this shade, deeply so. It’s a totally different feel than other lip shades, that’s for sure.
Please, see the four lip maestro shades swatched side by side. Left to right: 508 pearly nude, 507 boudoir, ruby nude 509, red blood 414.
Next we have three shades of Eye Tint.
I love this formula. I’ve written a post about it already, when it just came out. You can look it up for more details, it’s called Giorgio Armani Eye Tint 3 Jade swatched. I’m just going to say here real quick, that liquid eye shadow formula is somehow a tough one to pull, but Armani tackled it. It’s great, easy to use. And I like it for its shine and being soft on our lids, that are ever so sensitive to begin with.
Now, does this flattened spongy applicator ring a bell? 🙂
Yes, I know.
And just look at these shades. I mean, just look at them.
eye tint
rose platinum
16
So-o beautiful. So muted and sophisticated with a delicate shine to it.
My only comment here is – how come it’s rose platinum? It’s more of a silvery greige. So appealing. Done right for sure.
eye tint
hollywood
17
Another beige and nude like shade. Only this one is warm.
It’s beige charged with golden glow. Just glow, no sparkle or shine. Medium or even lighter beige. Just looking at this shade makes me want to celebrate.
Next.
eye tint
silver mirage
18
Silver mirage. How beautiful is that? And super Christmasy and holiday like.
It’s a darker greige shade with a strong grey side to it. It’s the darkest of the batch. Not too dark though. Smoky eyes with this shade is a great option for a party eye makeup.
All three shades of eye tint are absolutely beautiful. Love them.
Please, see left to right 16 rose platinum, 17 hollywood, 18 silver mirage.
We’re getting here to the palette that is no doubt the star product of this collection. It’s called Luxe Is More. Just like the collection itself.
It comes in this rather big – especially compared to the compact size of the palette itself – velvety black purse like thing, that can be used for storing makeup. I tell you I can use some of that – stuff to keep makeup in 🙂
The purse is pretty. The only catch is, as it’s velvety, everything will cling to it – dust specks, hair, well, you know how it goes.
Anyway, out of this purse I pull out two products wrapped in tissue paper. One is the palette proper, but I’ll hold off on it. Let’s first look at the mini size lip gloss.
It’s red. Oh, the joy. My favourite kind of red. Bright and vibrant and happy and warm with an orange undertone.
To me this here is the best red in the whole world.
It’s shiny too. Armani gloss provides the mirror shine you thought could only be achieved by means of Photoshop in those promo pictures 🙂
If you like lip gloss and like it in red, you’ll love it. You’ll be sorry though it’s only a miniature. You’ll so want more.
Back to Luxe Is More Palette here. It’s also wrapped in tissue paper and then packed in this black velvety soft case.
Once you open it, you see two spongy eyeshadow applicators. I like that they have their own place here, or else I’d lose them 🙂
And then I like that the stems here are longer than sponge applicator stems generally are. They’ll be more comfortable to use.
The palette packaging is gold, not over the top kind of gold, a nice gold. It has Armani autograph sort of on it. I like that. Classy.
It has two levels to it. The upper one has eight eye shades.
The lower level has face contouring shades in it.
That’s what is says in the back of the palette here.
We’ll start with the top level. Eyeshadow. Or is it really? Let’s look into it right now.
At the first glance this black thing in the middle, for one, looks to me more of an eyeliner shade than eyeshadow. Wouldn’t you agree?
Here we go. Top row first.
Let’s see the shades up close.
Ok, so, this one is an off white base shade. Nothing new here.
Then there’s this pink beige shade with just a touch of purple to it, maybe. Very nice. This shade is ever so flattering.
Orangey or bronzey beige. Not my personal favourite, but it’s well done, subtle. And there are a lot of fans out there, I know.
And what looks golden beige proves to be more of a cool light beige with a handful of golden sparkle.
Now those two in the middle.
I think I’m proved right here. Armani is too 🙂 This matt black shade can be used as an eyeliner or as a blackout smoky eye shade.
And then we have this light silver with gentle sparkle to it. I love it. It’s so much more becoming than heavier silver eye shades.
Going to get into the bottom row now.
And see all the shades.
As much as I was afraid this white is another base shade, it’s not. It’s this snowy matt base and sparkle kind of shade. Wintery. And Christmasy for sure.
Two shades to follow don’t really look plumy or purpley, but see what happens here. Oh, and before you see it, they both have some pretty golden sparkle in them.
This one is a cool beige with sparkle giving off a distant memory of purple when swatched. Where is it coming from? I have no idea. It’s beautiful though, so, I’m all for it.
Another one. It’s a touch warmer and brighter. Darker beige. And behold, purple mist is back to turn it into this holiday wonder.
Well, no surprises here. This one does look kind of purple. But for once it’s a nice purple shade, not the one that looks like black eye action movie special effects makeup.
Put these last three shades together in one look, and you’ll own any holiday event out there.
This eyeshadow is so great. So soft and satin to the touch. So easy to apply. Love Armani textures.
Ready to see all the shades swatched together?
On the bottom I find three face products and two powder sponges.
The sponges are small, but it’s nice that they are there.
On top here we have compact powder. The shade is pretty light. Not too light though. And it’s this awesome Armani texture, so it’s like it makes your skin tone better and disappears. You can’t tell you’re powdered. It’s great.
And then there are two cream foundation shades that can be used for contouring, as stated on this palette.
One is darker beige. Pinkish. Kind of.
The other one is a lighter beige.
You name it. Whatever contouring you need, you got it. Once again, the texture is so good, it’s a pleasure to even just touch it.
Please, see a swatch of all three face products:
powder, a darker creamy foundation and a lighter creamy foundation.
I’m so impressed. This holiday season is obviously rewarding me after all the disappointments I’ve suffered this fall in makeup. This collection calls for red carpet, evening gowns, high heels, perfume and looking your best. You don’t have to do any of that though. You can just celebrate Christmas with your friends and family and feel elated, happy inside, feel beauty and warmth and glow in your heart. You’ll look that too with Luxe Is More collection by Armani, even if you’re in your jeans and T shirt.
Sometimes there comes a collection that just clicks. This one did for me.
P.S. One question. No nail polish? None? Really?
