Fall/ winter 2014 Catrice products

Catrice is doing it again: changing its make up line that is. Twice a year the German make up brand renews its line and updates older products. When I was in Germany last month, I found a display at the German drugstore with some of the new products featured in the upcoming change for fall/ winter 2014. I managed to pick up two nail polishes, a lash extension product and three newly formulated matte eyeshadows. In this article I will show you these new products and write a short review on them including swatches and a make up look. These products will shortly be released in the Netherlands, as they usually launch the new line mid-August.

Nail polish

Catrice Luxury Lacquers Million Brilliance in 05 Plum Fiction
Catrice Luxury Lacquers Million Brilliance in 03 Let’s Get Lost in Vegas

In the renewed line, Catrice will be introducing their Luxury Lacquers Million Brilliance formula to the permanent line. In March the brand already launched a Limited Edition nail polish collection containing Luxury Lacquers of different textures and formulas. You can check the colors and textures I got in this blog post. One of the LE finishes was the Million Brilliance formula and it was my favorite one of the LE line. So I’m excited Catrice is putting different colors in the permanent line. I took home two purple shades: one a deep plum with a great multidimension sparkle and one a lighter blue toned purple which also has some holographic glitter. The glitter in the polish is chunky which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but these swatched beautifully. The swatches are two coats, but especially the plum color was pretty opaque after only one coat. And that’s impressive for a glitter polish. These polishes also come in a square bottle rather than round and the lids screw back on quite easily.

Lash Boost: lash extension fibres

Lash extension fibres. Not necessarily a product I’m lusting after, but if it only costs a few euros I’m all game for giving it a whirl. The idea is that you apply one coat of mascara, before it is dry you apply these fibers and then another coat of mascara and voilá: you should have fuller, longer lashes. That’s what I did and I have to say I did end up with fuller lashes, but not exactly longer ones. The effect I got was barely noticeable in pictures and is no different than applying 2 – 3 coats of mascara. What I found especially when using this is that the fibers are quite flaky and you have to be very careful not to get them in your eyes. Plus this latches onto your mascara wand and when you dip it back into the mascara the fibers will get stuck in there. I found it a bit difficult to make the second coat of mascara go on smoothly and without clumping. Another downside was that my eyes felt itchy and dry after about 10 minutes. It subsided after about 30 minutes or so, but I think it’s best to avoid this if you have sensitive eyes. Moreover, my lashes felt heavy and weighted down, and I kept seeing them in my peripheral vision which was annoying.

Velvet matt eyeshadow

Catrice Velvet Matt eyeshadow 010 Vanillaty Fair
Catrice Velvet Matt eyeshadow 040 Al Burgundy
Catrice Velvet Matt eyeshadow 050 Welcome to Greysland!

Finally I picked up three of the Velvet Matt eyeshadows that are to replace the Wet n Dry formula. Drugstore mattes are difficult to find so I was really looking forward to trying these. The swatches are very promising: good color pay off, but the grey and the burgundy aren’t entirely matte. Both have a sheen to it but it’s not too much of an issue: on the eyes these go on matte. They are a tad powdery and you have to be careful to prevent fall out. Vanillaty Fair is a creamy vanilla shade which is well pigmented and good for use as a highlighting shade. Welcome to Greysland! is a medium grey with a cool undertone and slightly silver sheen. I feel the color is a bit lighter on the swatch and on the eye than what you’d expect from looking at it in the pan. Lastly, Al Burgundy is the shade I was most curious about. It is a rich burgundy color that leans towards a plummy purple and has a reddish purple hue to it on the swatch. If this does well it may be a good dupe for MAC’s Sketch eyeshadow.

Eye look

All over lid, browbone & inner corner: Vanillaty Fair
Crease & liner: Al BurgundyCrease blend color & lower lashling: Welcome to Greysland!

Apart from mascara, all other make up products are also by Catrice:
The lipstick has been discontinued and is called Let’s Dance Salsa, highlighter was in a LE, blush is Strawberry Frappucino
Foundation is All Matt Plus foundation, concealer is Camouflage Cream, and powder is All Matt Plus transparent powder

These shadows swatch beautifully but on the eyes not all them perform as well. All of them are powdery and produce fall out as I mentioned above. The creamy shade quite possibly worked best, followed by the grey. Both went on the eye as swatched and are good staple colors to have in your collection. The grey would have been better if it was truely as deep as you’d expect from looking at the pan. The burgundy shade is a bit of a let down when applied to the eye. It applies beautifully at first, but when you blend it out, it turns very muddy and just dark looking. It’s as if the pretty reddish/ burgundy shade simply disappear and what you’re left with is the dark undertone. I had to reapply the crease color at least three times after blending to ensure some of the red showed up. Else it just looked like a darker grey. As a liner it fared better and I think that in order to retain the burgundy of this shade you really have to pack on the color. One good thing about that is that it will not very likely give you that eye disease look that some red shadows can give you when you use it close to the lash line.

If you find the new Catrice products in stores I would recommend snatching up both of the nail polishes and the creamy and grey eyeshadows. Buy the burgundy if you don’t mind having a product that needs a bit of getting used to and finding a proper way to make it work for you and pass up on the lash fibers.

What new Catrice (or Essence) products are you looking to try?