I was rushing through a short lunch break with my sister on a fine afternoon somewhere end of last year when we spotted an Estee Lauder counter near the middle of Alamanda's Centre Court. We, in a mad dash to get back to our offices were successfully stopped in our tracks by the sales person when he pointed out that there's a sale on perfume and also a Coach makeup pouch gift set (PWP) for a steal of a price. He then showed us the choices of colours for the Coach makeup pouch which is the red (striking and bold colours) and the gold (down to earth natural colours). He told us that the Silver set was already finished. so he didn't get to show us that one but could only show us a picture of it. I was quite disappointed because the Silver set seems to have the more attractive shades.. huhu..
In the end both my sister and I picked up a set of perfume each and also the Gold Coach cosmetic pouch. It is actually a steal because the Coach pouch itself costs about RM400++ but here it only cost RM180 plus all the makeup. And yes, it is authentic too! The cosmetic pouch consists of two tubes of lipsticks, a gloss, a compact palette of eyeshadow and blusher, an eyeliner, a blusher brush and an eyeshadow brush all in shiny golden mirror packaging.
The set alltogether.
The Blush Compact set comes in a round shiny golden palette containing three eyeshadow (in the shades of Ivory Slipper satin, Hot Cinnamon shimmer and Amethyst Spark shimmer) and a blush (in the shade of Nude Rose). The texture of the eyeshadows are silky and they were densely packed in their pan. However, they are not so easy to pick up with a brush as I had to run my brush a couple of times on the pan to get some product but they are definitely not crumbly which is a good thing to me.
Closeup on the eyeliner.
The eyeshadow and blush compact.
Swatches: Ivory Slipper, Hot Cinnamon, Amethyst Spark, Nude Rose Blush and the black eyeliner.
The shades are mostly sheer but the shimmer eyeshadows are buildable to
get a more intense look especially the Amethyst Spark. The eyeshadows were swatched in multiple layers to get the colour to show up on my skin. The Ivory Slipper is very sheer pink and not very pigmented, the Hot Cinnamon is a warm brown shade and is great for a nude look, and the Amethyst Spark is a sheer purple shade. The blush is a very nice subtle rosy pink shade. The eyeliner is a true black eyeliner. The eyeliner is a
pencil-type eyeliner that comes with matching gold cap and the colour
is a very pigmented black.
The Pure Color Long Lasting Lipstick and Lip Gloss:
The lip products that came with the pouch is Pure Color Long Lasting Lipstick in the shade of #28 Pinkberry and #83 Sugar Honey and also a tube of lip gloss in #13 Wired Copper.
Lipstick and Lip Gloss shade names and numbers.
The Lip Gloss and Lipsticks uncapped.
Here's a swatch of both the lipsticks and gloss:
Pinkberry in 1 layer, Pinkberry in multiple layers, Sugar Honey in 1 layer, Sugar Honey in multiple layers and Wired Copper Lip Gloss.
The Pure Color Long Lasting Lipstick felt quite thick and glides on smoothly. It has a creamy texture but not as smooth as Pure Color Crystal Lipstick. The lipstick felt a bit heavy on my lips. I think because this is the long lasting color line, so the colors are very pigmented and vivid.
The Pinkberry is one of Estee Lauder's popular shades. It gives off a nice natural pinkish nude shade and goes on matte. The Sugar Honey leans more towards coral warm pink with bronze undertones and it has shimmers in them. When applied on my lips, the shade is still matte but looked a bit frosty. Both the lipsticks' shades are great for a natural look when applied with a light layer.
The gloss gives off a shimmery shade of warm bronze bordering into orange. I am not a fan of glitter so I didn't really like the excess of shimmer in the gloss. The texture of the gloss is a bit sticky.
I think the colour of the gloss complements the Pinkberry shade better than the Honey Sugar because when applied over Pinkberry, the gloss added a little bit of shine to the matte nude pink shade. When the gloss is applied over Honey Sugar lipstick however, it made the already frosty shade of warm pink bronze even more frostier. I think a clear gloss is better worn with Honey Sugar to give it a little bit of shine or maybe just leave it on its own.
The Brushes:
The set comes with an eyeshadow brush and a blush brush. The brushes comes in shiny golden metal casings and looks very sophisticated. The eyeshadow brush is quite dense and the size is just nice to be a highlighter brush. It's too big to use on the crease. The blush brush is a medium sized blush brush and is not as dense as the eyeshadow brush. It's the type of brush that you need to twist the tube like a lipstick to get the bristles out. Both the brushes does not feel very soft to my touch though.
Eyeshadow brush.
Blush brush.
My verdict: I kind of liked the shades of the eyeshadow and blush compact because I prefer sheer colours anyway. I also kind of liked the shades of the lipsticks because they give off natural looking colour on the lips. I would have liked them better if the pigments were a little bit more sheerer. In terms of texture, I think I prefer Pure Colour Crystal Lipstick better especially in the shade of Crystal Baby which goes on sheer and more natural looking. As for the lip gloss, I don't really like the sticky texture and the abundance of shimmery sparkles in them. Would I repurchase these? Nope, cause this is a one time offer and I don't think I would anyway because there's a whole lot of product and it's going to take me sometime to finish them.