 |
| Chanel Illusion d'Ombre - Apparition |
I just LOVE this colour. It's a dark greyed blue. What I am not so crazy about, however, is the application.
I have all of the Chanel Illusion d'Ombre shades (except 81/Fantasme, and I'm severely tempted), including the two new beautiful shades from the latest Expressions de Chanel collection. They are all, without exception, beautiful. They apply easily, are blendable, buildable, sheerable (they're all words, honest!) This one is from the Blue Illusion fastrack collection that's just released (finally, and late, on Monday last).
 |
| Chanel Blue Illusion |
This one... hmmmm. It's less easy to work with. It has quite a bit of fall-out, strangely enough for a mousse texture. It also takes quite a bit of work to make it decently opaque. The visuals from the Chanel Blue Illusion collection (more info here), I would suspect, rely heavily on the use of the eyeliner (Blue Aerien) with this pushed on top and blended at the edges.
 |
| Yummy. Photographed with flash. |
Don't get me wrong, this is still gorgeous. It's an unusual shade, it could be made either more blue or more grey, depending on your accents and primers - for example, I have used it together with grey liner (actually just a Barry M one, KP26 I believe) and mascara (YSL Faux Cils Sublime Grey), over a grey base (Benefit Strut), and it looked quite grey.
 |
| Baby's got the blues today |
Today I switched to a blue base (Avon Supershock Gel Eyeliner Cobalt), with Chanel Apparition pushed on top and navy mascara (Chanel Inimitable Mascara in Noir Indigo) - definitely leaning more towards blue now.
 |
| Nope. Didn't work. Grrrr. |
BUT in both cases, it took quite a bit of working with. In general, I have found that the Illusion d'Ombre formula works best with fingers, but I've also applied with fluffy brushes, dense brushes, natural fibre, synthetic and flat brushes, all with no problems. (I really don't like the little brush that comes with these pots). In this case, I tried fingers... hmmm. A MAC 239. Again, hmmmm. A MAC 286. Hmmm-ing a little louder now. A Real Techniques domed shadow brush, no dice. A Cozette D230 that I figured would definitely work, as it's very dense and unyielding. Nope.
 |
| Game on: flat synthetic brush |
I was starting to head towards expletive-ville when I reached for my trusty Make Up For Ever 5N and it all started to come together. What actually, ironically, worked best for underneath my eyes is the brush that comes with it. Finally, a use for these brushes!
And how does it wear? It doesn't. That's the thing. Even over primers or cream bases, or primers followed by cream bases, this wore off after about four hours.
Then something went "bing" in my head... this was all looking a little too familiar. So off upstairs to the old makeup stash I went and surely enough, found this:
 |
| L->R: Chanel, MAC |
...the Gareth Pugh for MAC Metal-X Cream Shadow in Obscura.
In real life, the MAC version is slightly darker, slightly bluer with slightly pinkier reflects. But they're close enough as makes no odds.
Incidentally, I've been informed by the SA's at the Chanel boutique in BT that the gorgeous pale-silvery-blue Illusion d'Ombre (Destination) won't be released after all (that's as much as I know).
Do I recommend this? Tentatively. I wouldn't rush out to get it. I think that you can recreate this look with other products that are easier to work with and that last a little longer.
