CHANEL CRUISE COLLECTION 2019

Chanel’s new Cruise collection for summer 2019 has finally started to roll out in the UK so I managed to pick up a few items that stood out to me. I first bought a couple of things at the Chanel Covent Garden boutique, but as I found myself gazing at other beautiful products that people were picking up from the collection, I caved and placed further orders on the Selfridges and John Lewis websites. This is a limited edition collection, and I noticed a lot of products are now out of stock on Chanel’s website, but the collection is still available on various department store websites and in stores.

The Cruise 2019 Collection is called Lumiere Et Contraste and is full of luminous, bronzy tones to help you create a natural sun-kissed look, and a few pops of colour perfect for summer. The full collection consists of the following products:

• Duo Bronze Et Lumiere in Clair and Medium (£52 each)
• Les 4 Ombres in Lumieres Naturelles (£47)
• Ombre Premiere Gloss in Lunaire and Solaire (£28 each)
• Stylo Ombre Et Contour in Vague, Metallic Flash and Pure Flesh (£25 each)
• Rouge Coco Flash in Lumiere and Contraste (£31 each)
• Le Vernis Longwear Nail Colour in Open Air, Afterglow and Purple Ray (£22 each)

If you would like to see some swatches and hear my thoughts on the items I picked up then keep on reading.

I decided to skip the lipsticks as I recently hauled some of the rouge coco flash shades from the permanent line (review soon to come). I picked up items from the remainder of the collection in all shades that I thought would suit me and I would get the most wear out of.

Duo Bronze Et Lumiere

When it came to choosing one of the bronze & highlight duos, despite being fair skinned at around an NC15 shade, I opted for the deeper option in shade Medium. I saw some reviews on the Clair shade, and felt equally confused about what Chanel had intended with the very light, peachy bronzer colour. I thought that it would barely show up on my skin even if I used it as a blush, so I decided to skip that one. I almost skipped both, but seeing a few others with light skin tones using the shade medium I decided that I could probably get away with it if I used a light hand with my application.

The product comes in the classic black Chanel compact with a decent sized mirror and a very handy fan brush which sits on top of a small removable plastic separator covering the powder. The powder formula is not powdery at all and so you don’t pick up too much product when you dab your brush in – but it is definitely buildable! The bronzer is fairly neutral in tone, it is not shimmery in any way but is definitely not a flat matte and has some dimension to it. The highlighter is a beautiful golden shade, and as you would expect, contains a fine shimmer without being chunky or glittery. Both powders blend like a dream. There is also no detectable perfume added for those who find scents in makeup off-putting.

The brush is soft, not too dense, and very functional. I like to use it first to sketch some of the bronzer into the hollows of my cheeks to create some definition, and swipe upwards onto my cheekbones to blend slightly. If I was travelling I think I could get away with using this brush alone, but when I’m at home I tend to then go in with the bronzer on a tapered contouring brush to deepen and blend into more of a “brontour” effect using a 3-motion down my face. Then If I’m feeling a bit extra I’ll swish the two powders together and work it into the upper part of my cheekbones to create luminous bronzed look. I found the shade to not be very powdery or overly pigmented, but very easy to build up, which is exactly what I was hoping for. The highlighter is fairly dark for me, but used super lightly it can be made to work. I’m honestly not a huge highlighter person so I mainly bought this for the bronzer shade, though I do enjoy a mix of the two.

Overall I am very happy with this purchase. The formula is smooth, buildable and the bronzer shade is divine. This is definitely aimed more at those with a light-to-medium skin tone, however I encourage other fair-skinned people to not be intimidated by the depth of the tones in this palette as it is easy to make this product work. Also – shoutout to the off kilter Chanel logo imprint which I LOVE.

Eye Products

Les 4 Ombres

For some reason I had decided that the fate of whether I bought the Les 4 Ombres in the shade Lumieres Naturelles or not would depend upon the two shimmer shades. I was concerned about how the shade of the bronze shimmer in the bottom right-hand corner would transfer on me as I don’t like eyeshadows to lean too orangy. I was really drawn towards the silvered-taupe shimmer shade in the top left-hand corner. I already own the 9-pan Chanel Les Beiges in the shade Les Indispensables which was recently released, so I didn’t want to purchase this eye quad if the shades could be duped by that one. But I kept watching the video on the Chanel website where Romy Schonberger creates an eye look using this Cruise collection, and I wanted to wear this eyeshadow so badly. So here we are!

Description of the shades, going from left to right, top to bottom in the pan (left to right in my swatches above):

• Platinum bronze shimmer, which I would describe as a silvery-taupe shade
• Light caramel matte
• Rosy Beige matte
• Satiny Bronze

It’s such a great collection of natural shades in matte and shimmer finishes giving a perfect metallic look to the eyes. The formula is similar to that of the Les Beiges Les Indispensables palette. They’re smooth, they’re creamy, they’re well pigmented and blendable. The mattes are the same formula as those in Chanel’s recent Les 4 Ombres releases in case you’ve tried those. Two enthusiastic thumbs up from me!

I’m actually really glad that I did cave and make this purchase despite what I already have in my collection. As mentioned previously about the “pigmented deeper shades + pale skin = disaster”, I found that with the 9-pan palette, although beautiful and versatile, I have to be super careful when using the brown shades as I can look unintentionally smokey-eyed and dramatic very quickly when I am often only trying to create a soft day look. I also wished that the shimmery silver eyeshadow in that palette was a bit more pigmented on the eyes whereas it translates as a faint shimmer-wash on me. The matte-brown shades in the Cruise quad are much lighter and less highly pigmented on first application (but still buildable), which suits my preferences and skin tone better. The bronze shimmer is very neutral and looks gorgeous as a one-colour eye look. As for the silvery-taupe shade, whilst it swatches as a similar opacity to the silver shade in the 9-pan Les Beiges palette (see below), on my eyes it had more colour pay off and a finer shimmer finish. Another great eyeshadow for a one-and-done look.

Had I have decided that the silver shades in these palettes were too similar for me to make the splurge, I was planning on duping the bronze shade for the bronze “smoke” shade in the Charlotte Tilbury Golden Goddess eyeshadow quad. I swatched these below for reference; the Charlotte Tilbury shade is on the left, Chanel Cruise Collection shade in the middle, and the golden shimmer shade from the Chanel Les Beiges Les Indispensables palette on the right. The Charlotte Tilbury bronze leans warmer, whereas the bronze from this cruise collection is neutral. The 9-pan Chanel golden shade is more… well, golden.

And some more comparison swatches from my Chanel collection:

Stylo Ombre Et Contour and Ombre Premiere Gloss picks

From the remainder of the eye products, I picked up the Ombre Premiere Gloss in Lunaire and two of the Stylo Ombre Et Contour eyeshadow sticks/liners in 228 Vague and 224 Metallic Flash. Vague is a satin neutral brown, Metallic flash is a metallic taupe with a hint of silver. The Lunaire gloss is fairly transparent with a slight silver tone, and is very glossy.

The Stylo Ombre Et Contour eyeshadows glide on the eye with ease and offer a luminous metallic finish. They also boast great staying power as they set nicely. I like to use Vague as a liner to add a subtle depth to the outer 1/3 of my lash line. Metallic Flash is perfect for the inner corner as it catches the light beautifully, but I also like to take it along the lash line a bit.

The Ombres Premiere Gloss for me was a little disappointing. I know that eye glosses are notoriously crease prone and not very practical for everyday wear, but for some reason I was hoping this would have a little more setting power. Unfortunately it did not set and remained tacky on the eyes. By the time I had taken photos for my final look, this had creased everywhere and was starting to melt off my eyelids in the heat. It is also tricky to apply as it lifts any eyeshadow that you have on underneath (if you’re using it as a top coat as Chanel seems to suggest), even with gentle dabbing motions using the brush included. I ended up dusting more eyeshadow over the top and that seemed to stay in place for some reason. I didn’t really buy this to be worn with eyeshadow on top, though.

Le Vernis Longwear Nail Colour in Afterglow

The shade Afterglow is a light neutral nude colour with a very slight shimmer. I’m wearing this in the image below.

I applied two coats of this nail polish with no base or top coat. It went on very smoothly, dried quickly, and lasted very well, no chipping and only started fading towards the end of the week after I applied it (though it was fairly unnoticeable). It gives your nails that my-nails-but-better finish with a lovely shine and subtle shimmer

Chanel always makes incredible nail polish colours and I have never had problems with chipping. However I have the dark red shade “Pirate” which I find starts to wear off at the tips and fades fairly quickly. Maybe I’m just noticing it more due to it being a bright shade. Two coats of this seems to take a while to dry though. The shade “Ballerina” goes on a little streaky and it takes me three coats to achieve a uniform opacity. This also takes a while to dry. The Afterglow shade dries quicker in comparison, wears perfectly and is my ideal everyday nail colour. I just wish they would make it permanent.

The Final Look

And here’s my finished look using all products mentioned! I am wearing Giorgio Armani Luminous silk foundation in the shade 2, and Tarte Shape tape as under eye and spot/redness concealer in the shade fair-light neutral, with a little Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Filter in shade Fair dusted down the t-zone. I also used the ABH brow-wiz in the shade Medium brown to fill in my brows.

I applied the bronzer as described before, and added light dustings of the highlighter on top of the cheekbones and down the centre of my nose just a touch. I put a tiny amount on my cupids bow and brow bone, but not really enough to be noticed to be honest. I added some blusher to the apples of my cheeks using Chanel Joues Contraste Powder Blush in 72 Rose Initial.

For the eyeshadow I went a bit deeper than I would for usual day-to-day as I got carried away and tried to use all shades. The lightest matte shade went in the crease, and the deeper matte shade in the outer-v. I put the shimmery silver-taupe shade on the inner part of my lid, and the bronze over the rest of the lid, blending it all together of course. I also lined my outer lash line top and bottom with the stylo pen in Vague, and put Metallic Flash on the inner corner and inner part of the lash line. I then dabbed some of the gloss onto the centre off the lid. There was a trade off between the amount I could add and the amount of the bronze shade that was removed in the process. I finished off the eye look with the Tom Ford Extreme Mascara on the top lashes.

I wanted to finish off with a peachy-pink lip colour, and since I don’t own a Rouge Coco Flash in that sort of shade, I instead opted for the Dior Addict Stellar Shine in D-Galaxy, which has a similar formula and finish to the Rouge Coco Flashes.

And that was it! I hope you like the finished look!

Final Thoughts

Overall I’m really happy with this collection! I think the powder formulas are stunning and can easily be built to the intensity you like, and therefore they can work for a wide range of skin-tones, though I’m not sure how they will translate to deeper skin tones. I’m a huge fan of neutral shades so this collection was a sure hit for me. I think that if one of the products in this collection really floats your boat then the splurge is worth it (with the exception of the eye gloss) and you’ll be sure to get plenty of use out of it. The shades and finishes are very subtle and wearable so I’m certainly hoping to get my money’s worth from these purchases!

If I was to pick my absolute favourites, it would have to be the nail colour in Afterglow and eye stylo in Metallic flash. This would be closely followed by the powder eyeshadow quad and contour cheek duo, which only miss out on being top of my list as I feel I have similar products that I’m equally as happy with in my collection already.

Let me know your thoughts! Have you tried anything from Chanel’s 2019 makeup releases yet? Fingers crossed you can find the products in stock somewhere online or instore, and maybe the Chanel website will restock these items again before they’re gone for good. I really hope this post has been helpful and I shall speak to you all soon! Bye!