I feel a bit awkward about reviewing another Dior collection, because I really don't think that high end make up is the be-all and end-all of beauty and I've been reviewing so many expensive collections lately. There's a lot of great stuff to be found in drugstores as well, but I promise I have some more affordable reviews coming up! But first, the Dior Cosmopolite Fall 2015 collection. Which is tooootally worth a review, and really convinced me.
I received a beautiful selection of products, which I have broken down in groupings of face, lip and eye make up. Let's start!
FACE PRODUCTS:
Dior Skin Nude Cosmopolite Illuminating Face Powder, retail price €27: a neutral toned highlighter that is perfect for lending a beautiful, pearlescent sheen to your cheekbones, browbone, cupid's bow or the bridge of the nose. The swatch is pretty full-on, but when used on the face the effect is more subtle and very wearable for cool as well as warm skin tones. I'm not a fan of the brush, but we don't buy products for the complementary brushes, do we?
Dior Blush Cheek Stick in Cosmopolite Pink, retail price €36: ah, this blush! I jumped on the cream blush bandwagon with & Other Stories' cheek and lip tint in Swivel Pink, and Cosmopolite Pink is actually pretty much the same colour: a sweet, Barbie shade of pink. I do have to admit that the Dior product is superior to the & Other Stories cheek and lip tint, though. The stick is easier to use than a flat pan of product, and the Dior blush stick is just so soft, so sublimely blendable, and just pigmented enough.
You only need a light sweep of product to get a lovely effect, and you can apply with your fingers or with a brush, whatever you prefer. I especially love how soft the product is: I have very red cheeks (rosacea, what what), and I always make an effort to cover up the redness. If I have to do a lot of blending to get my blush to look soft and natural, I generally end up removing a lot of the foundation that is present on my cheeks, revealing the redness and messing up the end result. That does not happen with this stick. I'm especially enamored by the Rosewood tint that is also part of the collection, I guess I'll have to swatch that one asap!
LIP PRODUCTS:
Rouge Dior in Voyageuse, retail price €38: I have to say, when I opened this tube, I was a bit disappointed because the lipstick is so light. I figured it wouldn't suit me, as I don't really like super light lipsticks. They tend to wash me out or make me look like a Barbie doll (in the wrong way). However, when I applied it to my lips, I was convinced. And so were my facebook friends, I used the full face shot as my profile picture and got a shit-ton of likes straight away, so I guess that the people have spoken! The formula is silky smooth, very pleasant on the lips, and despite the colour being lighter than my own lip colour, it applies evenly and opaque. Love! You do need to exfoliate your lips before using it, though. Light lip colours always tend to emphasize any imperfections.
Dior Addict Fluid Stick in Avant-Garde, retail price €37: you guys, I have found my perfect MLBB (My Lips But Better) shade!! Avant-Garde is literally a perfect match with my own lip colour, somewhere between taupe and mauve, and it has been in my purse ever since I received it. Goes with everything, so flattering, love love love. The product itself is a very pigmented lipgloss, basically. It does not stain the lips and does not dry down to a matte finish like liquid lipsticks, but I feel like good lipglosses are very underrated. This one is somewhere between sticky and wet, has a beautiful, glossy, even finish. New favourite!
EYE PRODUCTS:
5 Couleurs Cosmopolite Couture Colours & Effects Eyeshadow Palette in Exuberante, retail price €62: this one is a bit of a mixed bag for me. Of course, the palette is beautiful eye candy, and much cooler in tone than the collection shots online seemed to show. I love the combination of neutrals with that one shade of electric blue. The taupe and brown shade are very good, creamy, pigmented, nicely blendable. The light pink matte base colour is OK but I still don't see why every palette should include one of these, I prefer using a real primer. The highlighter shade (the super glittery one in the middle) is actually more of a champagne colour after you wipe away the overspray, sheer but pretty. The blue, however, is really a total fail. As you can see in the swatch, it applies sheer, powdery, and you can just wipe it off your skin. No adhesion whatsoever. However, I read a tip online to use a wet brush for application, and that really works wonders. In short: the blue shade is unusable, unless you use it wet. I used all the shades in a make up look, applied as follows:
- taupe all over eyelid
- light pink on browbone
- highlighter in inner eye corner blended toward the middle of the eyelid, and under eyebrow
- dark brown in outer V
- dark blue applied wet under the waterline
The eyeshadows had good staying power, lasting throughout the day. I did experience fall-out from the blue colour, it's just not a good formula. Needs reworking, Dior!
Dior Addict Fluid Shadow in Univers and Magnetic, retail price 36€: these come with the same brush that Dior uses for its lipglosses. Don't use force to wank the applicator out of the tube, though, or you'll have liquid eyeshadow splatters all over your bathroom counter like I did. I feel the need to start by saying that I read a lot of reviews of this before I tried it myself, because liquid eyeshadows are SO hard to get right.
All the reviews I read basically said that these are a fail, unblendable, patchy end result, drying on the eyes etc etc. However, I think the Univers shade (the bronze-y taupe) is nothing short of sublime. This is the type of colour that would suit anyone, and you can use it in three ways: tapped on with your fingertops to create a wash of shimmer like you see in the picture above, layered to full opacity all over the lid with the applicator to achieve the first look you see below, or brushed on with delicate precision for accents like in the mirror-shine-cat eye you see in the second look below.
CAT EYE LOVE
Either way, this works great. I had no issue with the colour lifting when applying a second layer or flaking after a few hours of wear, and even though this product doesn't lend itself to blending (it is wet and dries down after application), you can easily use an eyeshadow in an adjacent (or contrasting) colour to create that soft edge you want. The brush lends itself perfectly for precise application, I managed to do the cat eye above on the first try! Did not expect that.
The only downside here is that it is not waterproof, and although it does not smudge, it does wipe off rather easily. Also, the silver shade (Magnetic) is not as amazing as the taupe Univers shade. Magnetic does have a tendency to disappear when you use your fingers, and to become patchy. I do think it would lend itself very well to precision work, for example as a second line above a clean, black cat eye.
All in all, I can really dig this collection, as it offers a lovely way into fall with a wearable colour palette and some top notch products.
Which of these has your heart? For me, it's a toss up between the liquid eyeshadow in Univers, the blush stick and the lipgloss.
Dior Skin Nude Cosmopolite Illuminating Face Powder, retail price €27: a neutral toned highlighter that is perfect for lending a beautiful, pearlescent sheen to your cheekbones, browbone, cupid's bow or the bridge of the nose. The swatch is pretty full-on, but when used on the face the effect is more subtle and very wearable for cool as well as warm skin tones. I'm not a fan of the brush, but we don't buy products for the complementary brushes, do we?
Dior Blush Cheek Stick in Cosmopolite Pink, retail price €36: ah, this blush! I jumped on the cream blush bandwagon with & Other Stories' cheek and lip tint in Swivel Pink, and Cosmopolite Pink is actually pretty much the same colour: a sweet, Barbie shade of pink. I do have to admit that the Dior product is superior to the & Other Stories cheek and lip tint, though. The stick is easier to use than a flat pan of product, and the Dior blush stick is just so soft, so sublimely blendable, and just pigmented enough.
You only need a light sweep of product to get a lovely effect, and you can apply with your fingers or with a brush, whatever you prefer. I especially love how soft the product is: I have very red cheeks (rosacea, what what), and I always make an effort to cover up the redness. If I have to do a lot of blending to get my blush to look soft and natural, I generally end up removing a lot of the foundation that is present on my cheeks, revealing the redness and messing up the end result. That does not happen with this stick. I'm especially enamored by the Rosewood tint that is also part of the collection, I guess I'll have to swatch that one asap!
LIP PRODUCTS:
Rouge Dior in Voyageuse, retail price €38: I have to say, when I opened this tube, I was a bit disappointed because the lipstick is so light. I figured it wouldn't suit me, as I don't really like super light lipsticks. They tend to wash me out or make me look like a Barbie doll (in the wrong way). However, when I applied it to my lips, I was convinced. And so were my facebook friends, I used the full face shot as my profile picture and got a shit-ton of likes straight away, so I guess that the people have spoken! The formula is silky smooth, very pleasant on the lips, and despite the colour being lighter than my own lip colour, it applies evenly and opaque. Love! You do need to exfoliate your lips before using it, though. Light lip colours always tend to emphasize any imperfections.
Dior Addict Fluid Stick in Avant-Garde, retail price €37: you guys, I have found my perfect MLBB (My Lips But Better) shade!! Avant-Garde is literally a perfect match with my own lip colour, somewhere between taupe and mauve, and it has been in my purse ever since I received it. Goes with everything, so flattering, love love love. The product itself is a very pigmented lipgloss, basically. It does not stain the lips and does not dry down to a matte finish like liquid lipsticks, but I feel like good lipglosses are very underrated. This one is somewhere between sticky and wet, has a beautiful, glossy, even finish. New favourite!
EYE PRODUCTS:
5 Couleurs Cosmopolite Couture Colours & Effects Eyeshadow Palette in Exuberante, retail price €62: this one is a bit of a mixed bag for me. Of course, the palette is beautiful eye candy, and much cooler in tone than the collection shots online seemed to show. I love the combination of neutrals with that one shade of electric blue. The taupe and brown shade are very good, creamy, pigmented, nicely blendable. The light pink matte base colour is OK but I still don't see why every palette should include one of these, I prefer using a real primer. The highlighter shade (the super glittery one in the middle) is actually more of a champagne colour after you wipe away the overspray, sheer but pretty. The blue, however, is really a total fail. As you can see in the swatch, it applies sheer, powdery, and you can just wipe it off your skin. No adhesion whatsoever. However, I read a tip online to use a wet brush for application, and that really works wonders. In short: the blue shade is unusable, unless you use it wet. I used all the shades in a make up look, applied as follows:
- taupe all over eyelid
- light pink on browbone
- highlighter in inner eye corner blended toward the middle of the eyelid, and under eyebrow
- dark brown in outer V
- dark blue applied wet under the waterline
The eyeshadows had good staying power, lasting throughout the day. I did experience fall-out from the blue colour, it's just not a good formula. Needs reworking, Dior!
left: straight from the tube, right: tapped out with finger
All the reviews I read basically said that these are a fail, unblendable, patchy end result, drying on the eyes etc etc. However, I think the Univers shade (the bronze-y taupe) is nothing short of sublime. This is the type of colour that would suit anyone, and you can use it in three ways: tapped on with your fingertops to create a wash of shimmer like you see in the picture above, layered to full opacity all over the lid with the applicator to achieve the first look you see below, or brushed on with delicate precision for accents like in the mirror-shine-cat eye you see in the second look below.
CAT EYE LOVE
Either way, this works great. I had no issue with the colour lifting when applying a second layer or flaking after a few hours of wear, and even though this product doesn't lend itself to blending (it is wet and dries down after application), you can easily use an eyeshadow in an adjacent (or contrasting) colour to create that soft edge you want. The brush lends itself perfectly for precise application, I managed to do the cat eye above on the first try! Did not expect that.
The only downside here is that it is not waterproof, and although it does not smudge, it does wipe off rather easily. Also, the silver shade (Magnetic) is not as amazing as the taupe Univers shade. Magnetic does have a tendency to disappear when you use your fingers, and to become patchy. I do think it would lend itself very well to precision work, for example as a second line above a clean, black cat eye.
All in all, I can really dig this collection, as it offers a lovely way into fall with a wearable colour palette and some top notch products.
Which of these has your heart? For me, it's a toss up between the liquid eyeshadow in Univers, the blush stick and the lipgloss.
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