Today I went to a Chanel national event and had the good fortune of being worked on by two excellent artists. They chose Lift Lumiere which is a premium foundation which is described on Chanel’s website as “firming and smoothing sunscreen fluid makeup broad spectrum SPF 15”.
I don’t recall having ever tried Lift Lumiere in the past so this was a new thing. Its their richest foundation with built-in serum, similar to Dior’s Capture Totale, and is Chanel’s most expensive foundation. For skin like mine which can really start to look worn from stress or lack of sleep (which is a chronic problem unfortunately) that is a good thing. The more serum the better.
Too bad the lighting at so many stores is sub-optimal. Even though it was, one of the artists who worked on me was smart enough to tell me to hold the mirror up high so that it would reflect more of the natural light coming in through the center of the store. After finishing, she had me stand and hold the mirror facing one way, where the was more natural light coming, and then turn around and face the other way which had warm light.
As a professional artist she clearly knew all about light and how significantly it affects the way makeup and skin look. At the store I thought it looked ok but quite honestly I wasn’t like overwhelmed by the look, even though the artists were saying I looked great. I have a problem with not believing people too much when they tell me that.
Anyhow when I rode my bicycle home and looked in the bathroom mirror under two 75W GE Reveal tungsten bulbs which are somewhat warm – but not ultra-warm like far too many consumer bulbs are these days, and even though these bulbs are considered more “daylight” – I looked astounding.
The ultimate test was my going to the gym in the evening and running on the treadmill for half an hour. When I got home and did a follow-up I saw that it looked like I had completely sweated the founation off. Well, I don’t plan on wearing liquid foundation like that if I know I’m going to the gym. But it may happen that I go to the gym at the end of the day and have it still on so I was curious to see what would happen.
Anyhow now when I go to the gym if I have on heavy eye makeup I like to remove it because even if most of it can withstand the intense sweating, even a little but of running of mascara, combined with that naturally sallow-kind of look one gets after intense exercise, makes me look like a zombie. I’ve had enough gym experiences where I looked like a zombie from not having remove the eye makeup in advance. Not again, thank you!
I want to say that I’m really happy with Lift Lumiere and am going to keep it and use it. The coverage appears to be excellent and I definitely can use the “smoothing” part of what it provides on some areas of my face.
Unfortunately they didn’t try out any of the new creme bronzers that Chanel has just come out with. I would like to have seen how the national artist would have used it. He did use a new cream blush on me and suggested a differernt tone than the apricoty one I would have picked, saying that because I have yellowish tones in my skin I don’t want to amplify them. The color he chose looked really good in the mirror at home.
He also used one of the new Chanel stylo cream eyeshadow pens in blue. I liked his way of doing my eyes. It was a very “Chanel” way – which I love – focusing on lining the inner lid – but I’m not overly impressed with these new stylo eyeshadows and still think nothing compares with Chanel’s Illusion D’Ombre gel eyeshadows.
I think if he had used an eyeshadow primer it would have made a significant difference in the pigment being more intense. The illumination from the stylo is nice but faded quickly and by the time I got home it had faded considerably. I think I might exchange the blue color I got for the cream blush.
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UPDATE 2013.07.26
Today after cleansing/exfoliating I started my routine with Dior’s One Essential and Capture Totale serums which are designed to go together. I used no primer and decided to hold off on moisturizer too because Lift Lumiere is quite rich and I wanted to see how it would do on its own.
The result is… wow! It looks awesome. It goes on very well with a liquid foundation brush. The coverage is great. The texture is flawless and it has a glowing quality that really brightens up the face.
Finishing products (bronzer + blush) blend very well with it.
I really love Lift Lumiere already.
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