Can I just preface this by saying I love Chanel. I love the fragrances in their timeless bottles, I love the skincare with it’s quenching moisturisers, fab nail polish colours and novel egg-shaped hand cream. I love the lipsticks – is there anything that defines luxury more than a Chanel lipstick? And I love the cream bronzer, with the longest name in cosmetics history, that is so unnecessarily large that no buyer will ever finish a tub before it’s expiry date. So, you see, I love Chanel.
However…I don’t love these cream eyeshadows. I’m not sure I even like them.
I was only walking past the Chanel counter to have a look at the cream eyeshadows, because Ruth (@modelrecommends) had mentioned something months ago about the shade called Memory, and hey, the name sort of stuck with me. Quite a trick there, Chanel, but I’m on to you now and your product naming voodoo magic. Here’s the deal; I love a cream eyeshadow. Charlotte Tilbury had me at her website checkout faster than Australian internet allows after showing off those Eyes to Mesmerise pots in her Amal Cloony tutorial. Seriously, go watch it, now. But these Chanel pots don’t seem to be exactly cream eyeshadows to me.
Scintillance looked like a perfect barely there pearly-pink that was going to make me look like one of those effortlessly pretty editorial people. In reality, it’s dry, hard to blend, and looks so dry on my lids it ages my skin about 25 years. Silver Screen should be the perfect grey-brown, the perfect ‘smoke’ tone for an un-done evening out. But again, the texture is so unflattering and unworkable I never reach for it. The only exception to the rule seems to be the shade Memory, a warm golden-bronze that for some reason is more blendable and doesn’t crinkle as soon as it contacts skin. Memory, is a little wonder that we’ll just exclude from this whole discussion.
Now I can hear you saying, these pots must have dried out – maybe I left the lid off for too long? I assure you, these were fresh out of the box, first impression applications. So confused by the texture was I after only one use, I went back to the store, re-tested their samples, compared directly to mine, and had the sales assistant pull out new, out-of-box replacements (yes, I’m that customer, who does this for the greater good of a fair review) and was assured there’s nothing wrong with my goods. This is the texture. They’re just slightly dry. If this was something I’d picked up at a pharmacy, I’d say nothing. But this is CHANEL. Maybe you have lusciously oily lids and these glide on like butter, but for me they remain so sadly in the ‘meh’ category despite my efforts to convince myself otherwise. Truth be told, after my last attempt at reconciliation with Scintillance, I took one look at the crepey, parched eyelids I was left with and reached straight for my Chanel eye makeup remover. Which I love, by the way.
So if you’re set on picking up one of these Chanel pots, Memory is definitely the pick of the littler, being an almost universally flattering shade, but ultimately I just think we can do better than this folks. Sorry Coco, please don’t @ me.