Estee Lauder Blue Dahlia

Impetuous, spontaneous, foolhardy.  Mrs Instant Gratification, that's me.  Decide at 7pm on a Wednesday evening that I am a Bright Spring who should only ever wear teal and by lunch time on Thursday I have spent £35 on blue eye shadow and had my hair colour darkened as I have decided, based on nothing at all, that it will look much better with my new colourful wardrobe.  For once my leaping in seems not to have back fired.  

Having decided that I needed colour I spent a considerable time online googling the various options, no point wanting anything from Guerlain or Laura Mercier as neither of those are available in Huddersfield.  Clarins is nice but safe, maybe? Lancome was a possibility but knowing that I love Estee Lauder DWL and having seen that the eye palettes were both beautiful and, comparatively, affordable I created a bit of a yearning for an Estee Lauder palette and given my new found love of colour the only one that was ever going to tick all the boxes was Blue Dahlia.

It wasn't until I got to Huddersfield I thought to consider that perhaps it was no longer available, given that it first appeared ages ago as part of a limited edition.  Luckily I needn't have worried, apparently it was limited ed but proved so popular its now part of the main collection.  Wanna see some pics?!

 

The familiar iconic EL gold case which feels nicely weighty.

I am sure everyone has seen this a million times so these photos are completely self-indulgent.  I fell in love with the teal and the shimmering navy but it's the taupe that pulls everything together and makes it all so wearable if you are a bit colour shy.

 The white isn't white, it is an opalescent shimmer, no frost, no whiteness, just the most beautiful opal glitter.  Not immensely wearable admittedly but to add a little something to an evening eye it's perfect.

The photo above best shows the glitter, especially if you click on it to see the larger photo. 

As you would imagine the colours are a dream to apply.  I very unusually have a morning where I haven't had to get up to do breakfast for guests so I had the chance to play.  Ordinarily for the day I suspect I'd go taupe all over the lid and then use either the teal or the navy on my upper lash line and I would always intend to go all out and use the colour properly on a night out and then would chicken out and never do it.  This morning I decided that if I was going to spend £35 on coloured eye shadow I wasn't going to shy away from using it.

A bit much for Co-op in Elland on a Saturday morning I'll grant you, but I do love it!  I had read that the Estee Lauder way to wear was the teal all over the mobile lid, taupe in the crease and the navy on the outer corner and top and bottom lash line, or something along those lines so that's what I did.  I still have slightly puffy eye lids as a result of a run in with corneal erosion on Thursday night, once they deflate fully things will look a lot better.  I really like how the taupe took away the scaryness of all that colour and of course once I put my glasses on it takes things down a notch as well.  For a night out I would definitely just put a little of the opal glitter in the inner corner just to lift that area and I might be tempted to pull more of the navy up into the outer V, I played it safe this morning so as not to frighten myself! I am surprised at how comfortable I feel in this much colour, I think the darker hair helps a lot and having agreed with Helen that scarves do me no favours I felt the need to wear this one just to pull things together until I stop spending money on teal eye shadow and start spending it on teal clothes!  Just in case anyone is wondering I am wearing ELDWL, Clinique colour correcting powder, Laura Mercier Second Skin Blush in Rose Petal, Dior Addict Extreme lipstick in Paparazzi, Benefit they're real mascara and Benefit Browzings in light on my brows, which are also much better with my darker hair.

And whilst I need no encouragement if anyone has any other eye shadows that they think I might love please let me know.  I did find the most gorgeous teal sweater in Monsoon that is now on my wish list, along with fuschia leather gloves from M&S, also on the list!  As a result of all of this I felt it only right that my much beloved UD Naked palette wasn't left to languish lonely and unloved so I have given it to Emily, needless to say I am currently her favourite mummy!
    

Bobbi Brown - Taupe eye shadow

Well that didn't work did it - my post scheduling failed to happen oops!  

Confession time.  In the past I really liked eye shadow and in my teens used to do insane things on my eye lids, when they were taut and I was wide eyed and lovely.  Ok, I may never have been lovely but my eye lids were once taut.  One particular fave involved lemon yellow inside corner, bright pink middle lid, bright green edge of lid and into crease and yellow on brow bone.  I was, of course the height of cool and much admired by my friends for my ability on the maquillage front.  Sod off, it was the 80's we all looked stupid.

20's saw the arrival of babies and no time for anything more than a slap of moisturiser.  I was heavy, make up free and had my hair cut by a friend who thought a woman with a round fat face suited a pudding bowl hair cut.  Some friend.  My twenties were quite frankly my fuggly period.


30's and the realisation that fuggly was not the way to go.  Changed hair dresser, changed my life!  Got glasses instead of spending months at a time with conjunctivitus from my contact lenses, lost 3 stone and unleashed my inner siren.  My thirties were FUN! 

Moving on.  40's and now I want to look polished, we (sometimes) have a bit more disposable income and whilst I am never going to be a teenager again I think its just a case of changing gear, or at least I do now having read loads of other beauty bloggers, admittedly most of whom are still in their 20's and 30's at most.  I just want to look in the mirror and see someone that knows what works for them, that maximises their good features (when I find one believe me you'll be the first to know) and glosses over the less than lovely bits.  So I am rediscovering my love of make up and especially eye shadow.  So far no lemon yellow but give me time!

One of the bloggers I really like is Jane at Modesty Brown and I credit her with re-awakening my love of all things eye.  Her looks are neutral but still interesting and very wearable and she made me realise that just a little of something nice can make a really big difference to how you look.  Taupe is the word I would associate with Jane, based on her blog posts and as a result I decided it was the way to go.

 

I am having a bit of a Bobbi Brown thing at the moment.  I also bought the taupe eye shadow and even as I handed over my £15 I was wondering if I was mad to be parting with £15 for something as dreary looking as a matt taupe eye shadow.  Once I got home and had a play I realised that I had made the right decision.


Inside with flash, above


Outside in natural light, above
 
Whilst I am not sure this is what I had in mind when I was thinking taupe, I am seeing brown, I do think this will get a huge amount of wear. As you would anticipate it feels like velvet to apply, and wears well but it doesn't blend as well as I had hoped, to the extent that I have just done a google to see if it is one of the ones more intended for use as a liner - seems not, I just struggle to get it really nice and smooth, even with a base shadow to work on top of, maybe its me and my rubbish application.  Of course now I want a shade that more closely resembles the "taupe" I had in mind.  (kicking myself for just letting the SA pick up the shadow they called taupe and not going with her to the counter to check it was what I wanted.)

 I know I used this pic on my post about the foundation but it also a good one for showing off accurately the taupe eye shadow. Now I want bone, for all over, a shimmer to jazz things up for evenings and a lighter shade that more fits with my definition of taupe!  It never ends!!

But.  All my dreams are about to come true.  I have been working away for 2 days and whilst I was away Leanne at OCD emailed to say she had heard that Debenhams were going to be selling UD Naked on their website, Steve staked out the site and yesterday morning ordered it for me as a surprise!!  I was delighted yesterday evening when I got home and he told me so now I am pacing up and down in front of the door waiting for the post man!  Looked at the Debenhams site last night and they are not showing the palette again so presumably they sold out really quickly.  Leanne thank  you so much for the heads up!  


*update 15/9/11 - this eye shadow is rubbish and has languished in my "things I wouldnt use if hell were to freeze over" drawer from about 2 weeks after purchase. Frankly save your pennies!