Lancôme x Alber Elbaz Star Eyes Palette

I was seriously conflicted when I heard that Alber Elbaz of Lanvin was collaborating with Lancôme to launch a capsule makeup collection. On the one hand, I am not a fan of Lancôme products… I have an epic history with the brand (more on that on a separate post shortly)… but oh, I so love Alber Elbaz! I think that man’s a genius for knowing what women want.

When I saw the images of the Lancôme x Alber Elbaz collection started sneaking around online, I thought it was cute, but not quite tres chic as I had come to associate with Elbaz’s work for Lanvin. But sucker that I am, I had to get myself one of those eye palettes!

At SGD90 per palette, consisting of 5 colors, it seemed like the best value proposition in the collection. The others consisted of 3 different mascaras, priced at SGD60 each (insane for a Lancome mascara that typically retails for SGD43??); and single eye shadows which are just not as fun.

There are 3 different eye palettes, and Star Eyes called out most strongly to me.

The 5 colors coordinated well with each other, such that it was super easy for a total eye shadow novice like me to blend them to create a smokey eye look.

Before I applied the eye shadow, I told myself not to forget to draw my brows as well… and after I finished with the eye shadows, I had forgotten!! It wasn’t until now that I’m loading the photos, that I’m kicking myself!

I was actually rather disappointed when I dipped into these as I felt they were not quite as heavily pigmented as some of the other luxury branded eye shadow palettes of the same price range. In fact, the brushes that came with it were really inadequate at picking up the colors, especially the glitters, that I was tempted to switch out to my own brushes. But I wanted to see if I could create a decent look with the stock ones that came in the palette for the look above (what do you think?). I have also swatched them on my arm using my finger so you can see each of the shades in details.

Under incandescent lighting

Under fluorescent lighting

The main problem I encountered was the substantial glitter fallout I experienced! This could be a real problem, necessitating a good shadow base / primer, which is kind of a cheater-cheater way of getting around poor shadows.

Also, when I actually got to hold one of these palettes in my hands for real, and dipped into the shadows with my fingers, something just didn’t seem right. When I flipped to the back, I realized for SGD90, I only received 2.7gm of product! WTF??!?!!?? For a mere SGD10 more I could have owned another Tom Ford eye shadow quad that holds 10gm of product! That’s more than 3x the product, and trust me, there is NO fallout from TF!

Overall, I think this is a very mediocre eyeshadow palette. The only thing that is worth noting at all, is the new magnetic hold on the brushes. But given how poor the brushes are, I don’t see the big deal if they simply fell out. And for the price, I can only console myself that I’m keeping a piece of Alber Elbaz’s work.