OK I'm going to try and get in a little more of my observations of this collection, but I've got a hectic Superbowl day today so I'll do my best to be brief for now (That's a joke, lol)
I already raved about the new MSFs and if I haven't raved enough about the blushes, let me just say that they're some of the most lovely bright, soft pastel blushes I've ever encountered, due to the amazing texture. If you have to be careful with pastel blushes because they get powdery or chalky or ashy or just looking too teenybopper on you, these new ones are going to save your bacon and give you a new appreciation for them. I felt like I'd melted the years off of my face with them both and didn't for a second feel or look like an old gal who's trying too hard to wear young girl colors. You can apply them very subtly if you use a 129. If you use a 187, they go on brighter, stronger and more glistening in one pass than with the 129, but still very gentle, subtle and sophisticated, compared to the usual pastels and the usual MBs. Petal Power has a texture that is somewhat related to the Naturally blushes like Early Morning, but sheerer and more melting into the skin (but definitely buildable to very opaque and dense if that's what you need, for example if your skin tone is deep). AitA has a white/pink sheen glow to die for. Mayanas' beautiful pictures display the sheen of both of them very well, especially AitA - and you wouldn't think they'd be easy to photograph. I wasn't going to grab them both, in fact I was considering skipping them both, but I just about keeled over when i tried them, they are that beautiful. I won't need any other springtime blushes now, basically.
I want to stop everything and speak of the other surprise winner in this collection: Lilly-white pigment. I am not a pigment buying person unless it's a color I think I will use all the time, despite the extra hassle of dealing with pigments. Most of my piggies sit lonely and languishing just because I don't feel like fussing or they're wild colors that I'll never make a dent in. So I just don't buy them unless they are Holy Grail level. Lilly-white is one of the very special few. I have seriously not found such a perfect brow highlight for my skin tone in years - the only other one out there that looks perfectly natural, isn't too matte or frosty and enhances rather than over accentuates my prominent brow bones and eyebrows is Aurora from Daphne Guiness. But Lilly-white is better! It's just the perfect shade and texture to bring brightness to my eyes and it's nice and sheer, smooth and blendable when you apply it with that intention. If you are NC15 and/or have darker skin around your eyes (my lids and creases are so much darker than the rest of my face people often ask me what eye shadow I'm wearing - it's a nice look on me, honestly, so I don't usually try to cover it up in daytime looks), a wash of LW all over the eye, faded up into the brow is going to instantly make you feel like this is your perfect spring and summer eye look!
We also mixed it with Pearl CCB and used it as a highlight around the eyes and down the nose and that was incredibly beautiful too. I can't wait to bring it home and mix it with Diamonds - I think that combo is going to be outrageous. It's so smooth and finely milled, you could easily use it on the lips with some gloss to tone down redness. It's no wonder it was used all over the spring 2014 runways - this is an extremely elegant color and texture. I'd call it a very pale buttercup cream color, it's a chameleon that melds with your natural skin tone and just enhances, rather than merely color. If you want to, you can build it up into a frosty pale pale yellow. This looked great in the tear ducts with Phlox Garden and Sassy Moss, which are two other mega-standouts in this collection if you're feeling fashion forward. I'll go into it in another post!
