Summer in Italy sounds nice. Especially now that it’s the end of summer and we can go to places like Italy to hang onto summer, hold it a little longer, grab it by the tail and ride with it for a couple more weeks. Summer in Italy is colourful, bright and vibrant. Just like this makeup collection by Dolce & Gabbana. It’s an explosion of colour, a burst of colour, a shower of colour. The first thing that comes to mind is that if you put all this colour together in one collection, it’s going to be almost too bright. At the same time, such bright spots of colour woven into your look and your makeup here and there can light it up and make it special. Not only in summer, but all year round. And this collection by all means stands out, looks fun, looks happy, looks artsy, winks at you playfully, it’s full of sunshine and is very much in tune with Dolce & Gabbana brand and its DNA. Let’s see it.

 

Talk about colour. We dive right in here with this bronzer. Just look at this boxing. Wow.

 

The Sicilian Bronzer  Glow Bronzing Powder

 

I’ll tell you one thing. They got me right here and at this very moment. This design alone makes it worth it for me. It’s spectacular. I wonder what the shade is like 🙂

 

It’s called sunshine 30. Sunshine is such an appropriate name for anything that comes in this box 🙂

 

After the first wave of admiration that washes all over me I relax a little on seeing this typical black velvet case…

 

…that has a pocket on it for this mini face brush…

 

And then – after I relaxed for a beat – I exalt again and marvel at this beautiful bronzer box. Boy, it’s great.

 

The shade is pretty dark. Tan like. And super appealing due to this pink undertone it has in it. Not orange, not golden, not yellow – pink. It makes all the difference.

 

This shade is special and very interesting. You know why? Because usually this pink undertone shows up in lighter to medium beige tone shades. While this bronzer is on the darker side, tan like side, still it’s pinkish. Very rare and very nice.

 

I like the idea of having and wearing this shade now. At the end of summer and then into fall. With Sicilian Bronzer sunkissed complexion can last, just like summer can last if it’s summer in Italy 🙂 And if I don’t want to have an all over tan look, I can always do sculpting. This shade is great for sculpting. It’s like a darker blush colour that can make all the difference and help you get those higher than life cheekbones. This bronzer is beautiful – inside out.

 

Here’s another face shade that’s like totally different and equally great.

 

It’s shimmer powder.

Duo Creamy Powder Cheeks and Eyes

 

This multi purpose product showed up first in a holiday collection by Dolce & Gabbana. The good news about it is that it’s one of the few things of this kind that actually works efficiently in both directions – face and eyes. The thing you need to know about this product is that it’s ve-e-ery shimmery. Super sparkly, that is.

 

The shade in this collection is called Star Shine 5.

 

Star Shine is a cute name. I like it.

 

This Duo Creamy Powder comes in the same kind of glass jar that Dolce & Gabbana cream eyeshadow comes in. That is, there’s not much creamy powder in there 🙂

 

When I see the shade, it’s like I got in a different season all of a sudden. I mean, after that darker tan like languid bronzer, I feel a cool breeze on my face. This shade looks crispy, it looks whitish, it looks silvery. It’s a pleasant distraction from all the summer heat.

 

And then I swatch is and I freeze in awe, because now it’s not just a cool breeze I’m feeling. What I’m feeling is a gust of fresh cool wind and then a blast of snowflakes on my cheeks – and eyelids, I guess 🙂 – given that this product is duo purpose.

 

Boy, this shade is beautiful. It’s awesome. On top of all the silvery and whitish beauty here, there’s a whole bunch of light golden sparkle. All in all, this shade is a splendid highlighting shade. Just a touch of it on your cheeks will get you all the good things – energy, high spirits and a special occasion feel and look. And yes, I love such sparkly light shades on the lids. They help us look rested, always, even when we are not, look lush and sophisticated, when we want it, look like there’s a special occasion any day, every day, if that’s what we want our days to be. Gorgeous.

 

And the last face product of this collection. The Blush.

 

Luminous Cheek Colour

Orange 17

 

It’s always nice to have a blush in makeup collection.

 

Especially if it’s by Dolce & Gabbana.

 

Ok, they weren’t kidding when they said orange. This is orange. Very orange.

 

Here’s a little mini blush brush.

 

And here’s the shade. It’s not coral and not peach, it’s blazing hot like a flame. If you like corals, hot corals, you can dive right in.

 

If looking at this shade, even if you like corals, you’re going – what? How can one apply this crazy bright colour on one’s cheeks? – think about it this way: it’s all about texture in blush. In this blush in particular texture is very good, so you can dilute the colour as much as you want. You can use just a touch of it. You can apply it under your tone, so that it shines right through, glows from within, brightens up your complexion. You can mix a highlighter shade to this blush to soften up the colour. You can do anything you want, you can play with it and find your way to wear it.

 

The bottom line is that such an uncompromising orange doesn’t get released too often in face makeup world, so why not try it, at least? As much as I’m not a fan of corals, this orange here piques my interest and makes me wonder whether I could pull it. I bet I could. I bet you could pull it too.

 

We’re going to move on here to eyes and eye makeup. The first item on our list of stuff to see is eyeliner.

 

Or else, glam liner, as Dolce & Gabbana call it.

 

The shade is called Cyclamen 9. Hm. I wonder what the shade is going to be like. When I had cyclamens – you know, pot flowers 🙂 – they were white. Something’s tell me though, this eyeliner is so not going to be white, given what the rest of the shades in the collection are.

 

Glam liner formula by Dolce & Gabbana is a classic liquid eyeliner formula with this thin little brush. I’ll tell you one thing. If your hand isn’t super steady, it’s going to be tough for you to draw a straight or curvy line on your lids with this liner. You’ll have to practice some first.

 

Ok, so the shade is… pink. Bright and cooler. Or else, you could say it’s fuchsia. Fuchsia or bright pink eyeliner? Wow. Talk about artsy. I like the idea though. I think this eyeliner shade will look nice and not too crazy with brown eyes. Green, blue, grey eyes – you’ll have to play with it and with eyeshadow and clothes to make this pink colour work for you. It’s possible though. Usually I prefer eye pencil to make it easier on me when drawing those arrows, but this shade is so awesome, I don’t mind trying a little extra hard. Wear this shade with your favourite pink or fuchsia or purple dress. You’ll see how this eyeliner will bring out the best in that outfit of yours, and how that outfit will bring out the best in this eyeliner.

 

Now let’s see eye colour.

 

This summer Dolce & Gabbana offer two cream eyeshadow colours. Good. I like cream eyeshadow. It’s soft and nice and easy to layer.

 

Dolce & Gabbana   Perfect Mono   Cream Eye Colour

 

The first shade is called Turquoise 113

 

When I see it in the glass jar though, it looks more green than turquoise or aqua. We’ll see though.

 

Yep. Definitely looks green. Ok, blue green, I’ll give Dolce & Gabbana that.

 

First things first. This shade is matt, pretty much. Well, maybe, just a touch satiny. There’s no shine, no sparkle in it, nothing of the kind. It’s a deep and pretty cooler green with a bunch of blue in it, yes. If you ask me, I’ say it’s aqua. You could say turquoise too. If you like bolder green eye shades, you’ll probably like this shade here. In fact, it’s not too artsy, it’s classic taken to a new level and modernized. If your eyes are blue or green, I say, you have to try it. It will open new depths in your eyes and your look. If your eyes are brown, you can try it too. Just be sure to wear something blue or green with it, if you want it to be a safe bet. This shade is gorgeous and easy enough to pull, it only masquerades itself as being out there and edgy, in its core it’s actually elegant, womanly and lush. Check it out.

 

Let’s move on and see the second cream eyeshadow colour.

 

It’s called Lemon 116.

 

Ok, we had orange in blush, now we have lemon in eyeshadow, it all makes sense so far. Fruit and more fruit 🙂 A cute little jar.

 

 

It’s kind of the same way as that orange blush is. When they say citrus, they really mean it.

 

Look how yellow this shade is. Bright yellow.

 

Maybe, there’s something diluting this colour? Softening it up? Making it glowy? Nope. Nothing. It’s matt too. Or just a touch satiny. And ever so yellow. I actually like yellow eyeshadow. But for me to like it it should be on the pale side and have some glow, shine and sparkle in it. This shade is so intense and so vibrant, it’s a tough makeup call. There are not that many people out there who could wear this shade and say it’s flattering. Is it possible to make it work? Yeah, like everything, or almost everything, but you’ll have to take effort, a lot of effort, to make it work for you. This yellow eyeshadow has to be like the highlight of your look. If you like it enough to do that and build your look around it, go ahead. You’ve got to be careful with it though, if there’s any sallow in your skin tone.

 

Let’s talk lips now.

 

For starters, Dolce & Gabbana went kind of against the sheer and shine flow here. Tat is, instead of releasing lip gloss in their summer collection they released classic cream lipstick formula shades. It makes perfect sense if we look back at the rest of the shades in the collection. This collection is all about vibrant colour. So, no sheer compromise here. Colour it is.

 

The shades are pretty predictable too. And it’s not a bad thing. It means, they fit in nicely with all the other products we’ve seen so far.

 

Dolce & Gabbana

The Lipstick Classic Cream Lipstick

 

The first shade is called Cyclamen 258. We’ve see that Cyclamen eyeliner, so we pretty much know what it means. It means, the lipstick is going to be bright pink/fuchsia like.

 

Yes, it’s exactly that. And if in eyeliner this shade is artsy, edgy and not everyone will dare wear it, lipstick of this colour is common and loved all around the world. It’s a cool bright medium pink with a strong purple undertone to it, which pretty much brings us back to the whole fuchsia thing. Or cyclamen, I guess 🙂

 

This colour is bright, it’s pretty, it’s becoming, almost universally so. If you like bright purples or bright cooler pinks, this shade is right up your alley. The shade is very grounded, classic almost, we all wear versions of it at some point. It’s womanly. Still, it’s not red and not classically pink, so, it’s summery, radiant and happy. A good lip shade for summer and early fall.

 

Next lipstick shade by Dolce & Gabbana.

 

Orange 440

 

Of course 🙂 orange. It’s no surprise. The connection between this shade and that orange blush is the same as the connection between cyclamen eyeliner and lipstick. Orange blush is artsy. Orange lipstick is quite common and very wearable. Especially as this orange here is not dead on orange, it’s subdued in a way.

 

It’s still bright in an orange, not coral way, but it’s a little darker and has golden sparkle in it. It’s no coral that so many of us like to wear, it’s brighter than that, but it’s summer now, you know, and if we get lucky enough to have golden fall this year, this orange lip colour is a great thing to wear. It’s full of life and full of energy, it’s perky and sweet and intense. It’s a magic wand bringing good spirits with it in one swipe over your lips.

 

The last thing to round up our Sicilian Summer look is nail polish. It’s more than one thing though, because Dolce & Gabbana prepared four nail shades for us to ogle and wear.

 

I think, it’s easy enough to guess two shades here out of four. Actually, all four are well woven into the collection concept and colour scheme, so you could guess all four, if you think carefully.

 

The first one.

 

Cyclamen 234

 

Cyclamen. Sure.

 

This cyclamen is closer to the eyeliner cyclamen than to the lipstick cyclamen 🙂 That is, there’s less purple in it than there’s in that lipstick shade that almost gets pushed it into fuchsia territory.

 

This is a cooler pink, but it’s pretty clear, without much purple in it. This pink is darker, It’s an adult pink, not a Barbie pink. It’s a womanly and elegant pink lip shade.

 

This pink is claiming boldly that it’s not a cute little colour, it’s full on, it’s equal to all the greens and blues and purples and browns and other basic colours out there.

 

It’s a lush shade. A hot shade. It’s right up there with all the vampy reds. Only it’s a summery version of the reds. It’s fun, it’s merry, it’s party like.

 

At the same time, you could do a red carpet evening gown level manicure with cyclamen, and if you want to look extra sophisticated, you can pair it up with cyclamen lipstick. That’s going to be some look.

 

I see this shade, and I see hot hot hot and fun fun fun. Now you see if you agree with me 🙂

 

Next shade.

 

Orange 608

 

Orange is as big in this collection as cyclamen, obviously 🙂

 

Remember the blush? Remember how bright and intense it is? Well, think that when you think this nail shade.

 

It’s not coral, it’s orange, as orange as it gets. It’s bright. It’s summer on your nails.

 

Corals are very common in manicure, and summer and early fall too is a good time to go brighter and choose orange shades to wear on your nails. And then you can always go back to coral nail colour in winter and spring 🙂

 

This shade is an accent shade. It makes me wanna wear an orange belt, purse, shoes, maybe, and this nail shade with a neutral colour dress.

 

And, yes, I think it will be nice to pair up this shade with orange lipstick. Orange lipstick is not as vigorous, it’s bright but more muted in a way. And then on your nails you’ll get a real big splash of orange 🙂

 

This nail shade is exuberant, just having it on your nails will make you really move it, you know. Sometimes we all need this extra boost of energy in life, well, here it is, in this little bottle, all ready for you.

 

The third shade.

 

Lemon 705

 

This shade had to show up in nail colour in this collection, and it did.

 

This yellow here is bright. Very bright. Lemon like, yes.

 

Yellow nail colour is artsy. Not everyone would want a yellow manicure. I actually don’t mind yellow on my nails. But…

 

It’s the same way it is with yellow eyeshadow for me. I’d like this yellow to be paler and I’d like it to have some pearl in it. Then I’d really love it.

 

As it is, it’s fun and summery, and I can wear it from time to time, when I feel like it. It’s probably the same for you. It’s not something you’d wear every day, but there might be times you would.

 

This yellow shade is upbeat, it’s vigorous, it’s like sun itself.

 

Something in me makes me wanna wear it with yellow jeans, I don’t know why, it just does. You could come up with other ways to make this bright splash of colour work though. Work for you 🙂

 

And the last nail shade in this collection.

 

Turquoise 718

 

We obviously have here two nail shades to match two lipstick shades, and then we have two nail shades to match… cream eyeshadow colours. Ok. That works for me. I like it when things match in makeup collections.

 

This turquoise is a little less green than that cream eyeshadow colour. Still, it’s aqua or turquoise like, that is, there’s both blue and green in it.

 

This shade is more like actual turquoise proper than that turquoise cream eyeshadow that’s almost green, really.

 

This colour is very wearable. Even though aqua on the nails is a pretty edgy thing. If you usually take one big pass on all turquoise and aqua nail shades that get released in summer, this might be the first one you’ll want to see on your nails.

 

There’s something… nice about this shade. I rarely say that about blue green nail shades, but looking at this one here I wanna say just that.

 

Also, this shade is hot somehow. In a more adult way. It’s not just fun and bright and stuff. It’s hot on a deeper level.

 

Remember we talked about this summer trend where the usual summer brights are more intense and sultry this season? That’s what this shade is like. And it means, it will look good in fall too 🙂

 

That’s Summer in Italy by Dolce & Gabbana, and that Italian summer is truly hot. It’s full of life and full of colour. The bronzer design alone can make you smile when you look at it. When I look at this collection, I can’t help thinking that the colours in it are not really tied to one season. Yes, summer is associated with colour usually, but then again isn’t it great to have a bunch of makeup shades and products that can bring summer in your life at any point, whenever you choose to wear them? You don’t have to wear them all at the same time, you can just sneak one bright colour in your usual not so bright makeup and get your own portion of joy without changing your whole look and style. And even though at the first glance at this collection you see spurts and splashes and bursts of colour, it’s actually put together in a very clever way to work as a whole. To create the right feel. The key shades here are well defined. They are: orange,

 

yellow,

 

bright fuchsia like pink,

 

turquoise.

 

And these shades are great. There’s something very optimistic about them. Something glorious. Something special. To put it simply, they are magnificent. Don’t be afraid of them being so bright. You can own them the way only you know how. Introduce them into your styles and looks. And come to love them. So, I say, let’s have some Italian Summer this summer, this fall and all year round 🙂 Are you with me?