Today I am reviewing some more Asian cosmetics for you. This is a pretty big department store brand, Lunasol, and this item is the Aurorized Eyeshadow Palette from their Fall/Winter 2010 collection, in 04 Gentle variation.
The top left is a soft minty green, with mild shimmers. It works great as a base and it is good for all over the lid. The bottom left is a shimmery, very sheer white, and it’s good for also all over the lid, perhaps before the green? As a nice brightening base. Many Asians have some darker pigmentation around the eye area, and this white color works beautifully to brighten.
The soft pale yellow on the top right is a lovely color for the inner 1/3 of the lid. I like to do a gradient, from inside to outside, starting with the yellow, then the soft pale green, and then finally the ultra-shimmery dark greenish-inky color on the bottom right.
The middle color is the “aurorized” color, the star of the collection. It’s really really really super duper ultra shimmery. You cannot, cannot sweep this color anywhere. It’s best used pressed lightly on the inner corners and on the center of the lid to brighten and highlight. It’s seriously intense.
Overall, Japanese eyeshadows seem to be less pigmented than their Western counterparts, but are still very buildable so that you can still do dramatic looks with them by building up. This is no exception. I would not say that this is an easy palette to work with, however. There is some danger of fall-out from the glitter, and the colors are a bit difficult to manage, especially the super glittery middle color. It’s really beautiful, but hard to control.
Because of its cost (it set me back around $55, and someone bought it for me directly in Japan), and because of the difficulty, I can only give it a B- even though it is a truly beautiful palette with really beautiful colors that look amazing on Asian skin tones.
