GUCCI Beauty – First impressions on Tuscan Storm and Coral Flower

Gucci have just launched their beauty line with so many make-up items that your wallet may well cry out loud if you love the Brand!

I started with just two items, the eye palette Tuscan Storm and the Coral Flower blush.

I wanted to post my comments on Instagram but apparently I am being too long and detailed 😛 so I’ll extend them a bit more and post them here, although this is not a review, these first impressions will give you a better idea about these two items :

On the swatches above, on the left the eye palette and on the right the blush (3 swatches, 1st with a brush, 2nd with my fingertip, 3rd with the brush from the compact).

Tuscan Storm

It’s a neutral eye shadow palette with very basic easy shades:

• a golden : shimmery and luminous but not over the top, not too golden hence easily wearable. It’s now my fav golden shade, actually very similar to an LE Mac shade I used to wear all the time but that I finished. This one is very subtle and no sparkles flying around. Love it on the mobile lid or as a highlight, in the inner corner it’s one of the most elegant shades I have ever came across. Well when you reach 40+ you better keep the highlighting fresh and subtle and you need a little bit “more” than just a nice shade, this delivers the “more”.
• a grey : very subtle sheer grey, luminous satin finish, I think I can see some very tiny microscopic hue of purple depending on the light but not sure… either way, it’s pure elegance, no sparkles, no shimmer but it does bring a lot of light, I could call this finish a shimmer with transparency, it has a base color and it doesn’t scream shimmer.
  Reminds me of the TF She Wolf (the middle shade), the Gucci is more subtle and sheer. This grey is totally my shade of grey!! dresses the eyes without being too opaque, you won’t see the makeup but you will a glamorous grey veil. I used it either on the mobile lid on the bottom lash line, both delivered.
• a camel : this is THE texture of the century, revolution, it’s like a leather finish, matte, can be opaque but very slowly and to a certain point buildable, reminds kind of transparent although it covers the skin. Reminds me of the amazing taupe shade on the TF Unabashed, but even better in terms of texture, now I want all my matte shadows to have that texture and finish but I know this won’t happen and I find this texture very unique! Feels a bit like Inglot mattes with even better quality, more refined.
  Imagine soft leather, with a warmth and smoothness that will blow your mind up.
• a dark brown/plum: satin finish, I was scared with this shade because the swatch feels a bit weird (uneven in the edges) but when applied and then blended it diffuses evenly and is buildable, you can smoke out the pigment without fallout (didn’t see any) and with a very smokey and sultry gradual effect, once more this shade screams elegance.

The finish is way more subtle on the eyes than in the swatches, very elegant but maybe not bold enough for some of you… this palette would suit better a person who

1. is looking for an easy wearable elegant look
2. is extremely picky about textures
3. wants to use all shades in one palette and get a complete look out of it

It’s probably the most effortless palette I own, you cannot fail the application with this. Sleepy, drunk or if you have never used make-up in your life, there is no way to fail on this.

It’s great for mature lids so whatever your age you should be able to rock it but it might seem too muted for some. It’s difficult to target all audiences with just one palette! On the other hand it will always be a “safe” palette. I tried to dramatically smoke out the darkest shade around the eyes and it looked awesome so if you want dark and still keep it elegant you can also get there. Depending on the light, you can see some micro sparkles on some shades but they are really discrete, I am actually glad it has some, it makes the shades less flat and very luminous.

The combination of the shades could not be more perfect, well, for me at least. A highlight shade, a luminous lid sultry shade (grey), a crease shade with the best texture ever and the definition shade. Holy… they got it so damn right.

Coral Flower blush  

The blush is a pink coral with amazing staying power, feels powdery if applied with a goat brush (you may see volatile powder go everywhere depending on how strongly you swipe it!) but when on the cheeks it’s not powdery at all, it holds super nicely and the finish is again, matte but silky, no sparkles. Great blush with excellent pigmentation, just be careful when swiping your brush the first time!

General observations

– amazing staying power -fantastic gripping!!- of the swatches, for the eye palette and the blush.
– packaging is gorgeous and heavy but you’ll have fingertip marks everywhere!
– prices in Switzerland are insanely high, please Gucci, be reasonable !! a price difference of approx 40usd per eye quad compared to the USA is a bit off putting.
– feels “quality” inspired by Tom Ford or Burberry …  (but this is just a personal observation) So far I can put these items at the same level of TF quality or higher. Textures of the eye palette and the blush remind me of TF or Burberry.

You can order at Gucci.com, I have already order more items but mainly quads. The brushes though are not tempting to me, mostly pony and goat and pony for the eyes will not be an option for my delicate eyes.

The pics have been taken with no good lights as all my photographic stuff is away during thehouse  renovations but I still tried to take a few pics for you.. 🙂

Allure press post :

Gucci’s First Cosmetics Line Is Here! And It’s Stunning

What do you get when Gucci’s creative director Frida Giannini joins forces with makeup-artist royalty Pat McGrath? One of the most ridiculously glamorous cosmetic collections you’ve ever seen. And we have the exclusive first glimpse. Here are 17 of the line’s standouts—there are 183 more where these came from—and click here to see how we made the collection come to life.

So.. who’s Frida Giannini ??
I thought this line had a kind of TF impression on me… well :

In 2004, Giannini was appointed to head women’s accessories when Tom Ford departed the company. (In Gucci)

Maybe nothing to do with that but quite interesting…