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When I saw that Lancôme was collaborating with the Louvre Museum I was surprised and intrigued. Lisa Eldridge has been the Creative Director of Lancôme for about 8 years now and so I'm always curious to see the latest Lancôme makeup products. I audibly gasped when I saw this collection. It consists of the Richelieu Wing Palette, 4 shades of the L'Absolu Rouge Drama Matte Lipsticks and the Advanced Génefique Serum with Limited Edition packaging. The lipsticks are 4 different shades of red, 105 Celestial Rose, 196 French Touch, 200 French Drama, 274 French Tea. As far as I can tell, three of the shades are pre-existing and Celestial Rose appears to be the only new shade. French Touch and French Drama were also featured in the Qixi Collection from the Summer.
The main attraction of this collection is the Richelieu Wing Palette which was designed by Lisa Eldridge. It consists of four eyeshadow shades and one highlighter with each shade being named after a part of the Richelieu Wing, Cour Puget Peridot, Cour Carée Copper Light, Cour Marly Marble, Royal Palace Pink and the highlighter is called Richelieu Wing Light.
Let's discuss pricing because obviously Lancôme is a luxury beauty brand and their prices reflect that. I was so tempted to buy this palette myself when it was first released because it pulled at my heartstrings. Obviously, there was the Lisa Eldridge element as I'm such an admirer of her work with her own brand and what she has done with Lancôme too. I loved the selection of shades in this palette and the exquisite packaging and embossing. I'm a big fan of shimmer eyeshadow so I had no problem with there not being any mattes in the palette. The reasons I didn't buy it were, of course, the price. It's an expensive product and I don't have any income at the moment so buying expensive makeup is not something I can justify especially seeing as it is limited edition. If I am spending money on beauty products now it has to be something that I can thoroughly review and create some great content with, otherwise I can't justify it. If I used a sold-out or limited edition product to create a makeup look and shared it online it would be frustrating for people to no longer be able to buy it which is why I don't tend to buy limited edition products. Despite all of my reasons to not buy it, I was still coveting it as a piece of beautiful makeup and a work of art itself.
The Advanced Génefique Serum is €99 for 50ml (although it’s currently on sale in Arnotts for €79.20) but for some reason, the regular version 50ml size is €111 which makes no sense to me. As I mentioned three of the lipsticks are pre-existing in the L'Absolu Rouge Drama Matte line and the Qixi Collection which is still available to buy. So you can get three of the shades for €37-€38 each instead of €45. The only difference is the packaging but if you're buying the palette you may want the Limited Edition lipstick packaging too. I know that the packaging will be a selling point for a lot of people. At €98, the palette is obviously quite expensive too as it's just 4 eyeshadows and one highlighter. If you wouldn't wear the green shade I don't know if it would be worth buying. The green is the stand-out shade for me and it's the reason I was considering buying this palette before I was sent it. I love green eyeshadow, it's one of my favourite colours to wear on my eyelids and I can see several ways in which I would wear this green shade.
It could be worn as a liner either alone or over a pencil liner for longevity and added depth. I would wear it all over my eyelids as a one-and-done shade and maybe blended out with the highlighter shade, I'd wear it as a reverse liner on the lower lash line which is a look I love wearing. I've seen it worn on the inner corner too. It would also look great as a halo or spotlight eye look. You can wear all shades as a sheer wash across the lids and they can also be built up. As with most eyeshadow formulas, you can apply them with your fingers for more impact or use a brush spritzed with a fixing spray to increase the impact. I used an eyeshadow primer before applying these eyeshadows as I have oily eyelids and I always use an eye primer (the Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion). I used every shade in the palette on my eyelids and I found they wore well and lasted all day without creasing.
I have very fair skin and I found all of the shades of the palette and lipsticks worked well on me. I think the eyeshadow formula means that the shadows would work well on all skin tones, especially as they're shimmers. The highlighter is the only shade I'm not sure about, it doesn't have much of a base colour, it's more of a pearl finish so in that sense I think it could work on many skin tones without looking ashy however I don't know that for sure. It can of course be used as an eyeshadow but I know you may want to see it in person before spending quite a lot of money on it.
The faces of the campaign are Aya Nakamura, He Cong, Amanda Seyfried and Zendaya and in the videos on the Lancôme YouTube channel, you can see each of the four women wearing different looks using the products in the collection. It's a good way to see how the products were intended to be used and whether you think they are looks you would like to wear. It's also a good way to see the products on various skin tones.
Overall I love this collection. I think the limited edition packaging of the Advanced Génefique is beautiful but to me, the palette and lipsticks are the stars. The lipsticks being already existing shades is better as it means you don't have to worry about getting your hands on them before they sell out. You may be someone who is taken with the packaging but I think it's always important to separate the product from the packaging and think if it was in the regular Lancôme packaging would you still want it? If the palette didn't have the embossing would you still love it enough for the shades alone? I am trying to be much more considerate about beauty purchases especially if I'm drawn to something that is limited edition, or a collaboration or has beautiful packaging. While a product may be beautiful to look at, will I actually use it? I think it's important to consider these things when making a purchase, particularly if it's an expensive one.
I'd love to know what you think of this collection. Are you enticed? Will you add the products to your Christmas wishlist? If there's anything else you'd like to know about the products or any comparisons you'd like to see please let me know and I'll try to do that. I've linked two videos below of me applying the palette and lipsticks so you can see them in action as well as a swatch video.
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