Tag Archives: selfridges

Reviewing Three G’s of Luxury Beauty

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The title of today’s post refers to me reviewing a product from Givenchy, Guerlain, and Gucci! They’re three G-named luxury beauty brands with products I tend to like when I try them. Rather than reviewing them separately, I decided to combine them into a single post.

Let’s begin!

Givenchy Prisme Libre Skin-Caring Glow Foundation in W385

The Givenchy Prisme Libre concealers are in my top five favorites, so my interest in the glow version of the foundation began from there. When I saw this shade available for half price, I jumped at the chance to try it!

I’m sure it seems strange that I chose a foundation shade that’s lighter than the concealers I use, but my face color comprises of multiple shades: mainly the lightest sections (cheek area, chin, parts of my nose, and center of my forehead), medium section (forehead and perimeter of my face), and the darkest parts (dark under eye circles, dark spots, scars, and hyperpigmentation). Most of my foundations are either a middle ground shade between the lightest and medium colors on my face, or matching the medium color alone. Because of my severely dark under eyes, using a concealer that’s around my skintone depth (instead of brightening) looks best. It’s a long way to say that N390 is close enough to my skin tone depth, so I figured W385 might work. It’s not the best match for me, but it’s hard to be able to tell since the coverage is so sheer.

This foundation is supposed to be “buildable,” but it only goes as high as medium coverage with 4 full pumps for the whole face. It’s typical for me to use 1 or 2 pumps of any foundation at most. I used 1 full pump for one half of my face in the photo below, yet got hardly any coverage.
Because I don’t enjoy the feeling of having too many layers of product on my face, I wouldn’t surpass three pumps. After a point, adding more doesn’t increase the coverage and it hinders the foundation’s ability to dry down on the skin. Using more drops also increases the ease of transfer.

Other than the foundation on one side, both sides have a little concealer around the eyes and mouth.

The Givenchy Prisme Libre foundation sets without needing powder, as long as I’m not heavy on the emollient skincare and stick to using no more than 2 pumps of foundation. Powdering, to me, would defeat the purpose of having a luminous foundation.

This has about the same amount of glow as the Chanel No. 1 Foundation in the beginning, but by midday and onward, the Chanel foundation gives more glow.

The dispenser part of my bottle top arrived broken. It spins around 360 degrees. If I don’t remember to hold it steady when pressing down the pump, it’ll spray everywhere. I don’t have the best memory, so I’ve made that mistake three times already since June. Since I bought this at such a high discount, I didn’t bother contacting customer service.

The darker and warmer color is the Armani foundation, but the squirts all around is the Givenchy foundation when I planned to wear them mixed them together.


As a side note, the Douglas retail website is wild! I’ve never seen prices fluctuate so much on a website before! When I checked again, some shades of this foundation dropped to 16 Euros, whereas other shades (including mine) went back up in price!

I find more use for this product as a mixer to sheer out foundations that are on the thicker side while getting a little more natural finish and coverage. For example, the Armani Luminous Silk foundation is one that never reaches luminous level and I can get a natural finish at best. The Givenchy product mixed with it improves it on every front. So, even though I don’t like this as a standalone product, it’s still useful for me.

*I’d just like to add that all photos were taken early in Summer, so I’m darker now. Definitely too dark to wear this foundation alone now.

Guerlain Terracotta Blush in 03 Deep Nude

I admittedly don’t feel like I can fully appreciate this because I bought it at the same time as the Chanel trio, and they’re basically the same color. It’s not as “nude” of a shade as I thought either. It’s basically just dark pink and I wish it had more brown.
Color aside, I also wish it wasn’t so matte. I would have loved for there to be a sheen in this. This is why I didn’t get more shades, even though they were at least 33% off on websites I came across (I bought mine from Parfümerie Pieper).

I’ve had no issues with longevity. I can’t speak for the whole line, but this particular shade is pigmented. I try not to load up too much product on my brush. It’s better to build it up because it’s hard to try and buff it away. If I apply too much, I have to tone it down with a finishing powder or foundation. In a sheer amount, it looks pretty. The powder quality is nice, but not worth full price to me. What I paid is more in line, in my opinion, with what it should have been at the start.

As for the packaging, I think I remember reading some complaints about Guerlain’s Terracotta compacts looking boring and people wanting the blush components to be different, but I like it. I’m more concerned with the formula. I think the quality is decent, but I fail to see anything special about it that would make it stand out from other brands. For a similar price, the Armani Luminous Silk Glow Blushes, which are also matte, are ones I like better.

Gucci Poudre De Beauté Matte Compact Powder (refill) in 10

This is a very smooth finely milled powder. Although I opted to buy the refill so that I could keep the cost low, the intended component is just as luxe as the bronzer packaging and in a pretty shade of pink. Between the formula and compact, I can understand the price tag. For anyone wanting to do what I did and house it in an empty magnetic palette, just know that the pan itself isn’t magnetic. I had to add a metal sticker to the bottom. The sticker I purchased from Amazon and the powder I bought from Selfridges.

The shade I bought is perfect for me. It doesn’t darken when put on top of wet skin. I can see how this is dry skin friendly, but it’s a bit too weak. It tones down shine, but can’t hold at bay an actual dewy product. Also, despite what the product description says on the website, I don’t notice any blurring.

If you don’t like perfume in makeup, just know that every product I reviewed today has it listed in the ingredients. I don’t find the smell of any of them to be alluring, but none are bad either.

This is what the 3 G’s look like when used all together on my face! I tried to use as many “G” branded products as possible to fit the theme! The Gucci powder was all over the face, but the Givenchy powder was under the eyes.

I’d like to take this time to correct my feelings towards the Gucci Bronzer. In my ranking post, I put it in the category of “nice but not a standout formula, in a shade that wasn’t perfect for me.” It’s amazing how a different undertone can really change things! I got my hands on Shade 4 and liked it so much better! It’s still not in my top 10 formulas, but it’s better than I initially felt. With Shade 4, I can get it to blend into my skin better and have it look more natural. I can finally see that it’s smoother than I originally gave it credit for, especially considering how I was still able to make Shade 5 work despite being so off.

Anyway, that’s all for today! Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤

Hermes Silky Blush Powder (Iridescent Version)

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I reviewed the first launch of Hermès Blushes (found HERE) when the brand released only matte finishes. Then, during the Summer of 2023, they added three shimmery blushes to the Rose Hermès line. Considering I felt that the matte blushes were equal to, but did not surpass my favorites, I was unwilling to pay full price to try a new one.
All of my blush favorites are under $40, so the refill price of $48 was pushing my limit. I waited months for the refills to be released so that I could add a metal sticker to the bottom and pop it in a magnetic palette, but it took so long that I stopped checking for them by the end of 2023. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon it on the Selfridges website and saw it was finally available!

I have to admit that sometimes my inability to purchase something (sold out, limited edition, early teased product that won’t be released for months, only available in certain countries, etc.) intensifies my feeling of missing out. With enough time, I can reason with myself that I probably won’t love the item enough for it to be worth buying.
That logic didn’t work in this instance, but I am very lucky that the outcome was in my favor! I actually like this blush so much more than I expected and I feel like it’s at least more worth the high price than the matte ones!

Hermès Silky Blush Powder (refill) in 58 Rose Cuivré

The shade that I purchased is the deepest of the three shimmery blush options. The right half of the photo above shows that the base color is medium-dark. When the light hits the shimmer, the blush looks medium peachy-pink instead, depicting how much the shimmer can lighten the overall look of the blush. This is one of the reasons I wasn’t certain if this shade would be too light for me. Shimmery blushes can sometimes look too ashy or like a pure highlighter on me, regardless of how deep the base color is, such as Nars’ Orgasm X.

Upon swatching Rose Cuivré, I discovered that it looks similar to MAC’s blush shade in Pinch Me, which was also similar to the first Hermès Blush I bought called Rose Feu. At least, Pinch Me and Rose Feu looked similar when applied on bare skin. When applied over foundation, Rose Feu darkened and looked slightly more red and less of a deep pink.

One of the things that I’ve come to realize is that Hermès makes the silkiest and softest feeling pressed powder products. Their bronzer is still my number one favorite in my collection. The matte blush was very good, but on par with my other favorites. This iridescent formula though is the silkiest feeling shimmer blush I own. It’s even softer than the Gucci blushes. The particles are so finely milled. There are no large sparkle or glitter particles. Visually, it looks like the MAC Sheertone Blush formula, except so much softer and more refined. I can also use my softest blush brushes, such as my grey squirrel ones that don’t pick up as much product as goat, because it’s still able to grab a decent amount of product and it doesn’t require a dense brush to buff the blush smoothly into my cheeks. Lightly sweeping the product into my cheeks produces a beautifully blended result. It adheres well to my skin and lasts all day.

I skip wearing highlighter when I use this because the glow is easy to see. It gives a pearly effect, but thankfully does not look too silvery for me to wear. It’s right on that cusp of looking slightly cool, but still flattering on my warm undertone complexion. I could possibly still enjoy this blush if I was a few shades darker, but I don’t know if this is deep enough for someone in the deep-dark category or beyond.

The sheen from this is what I imagine it would look like if my beloved Dior Powder No-Powder was made into a blush formula. The textures are not the same, since the Dior powder is much harder pressed in comparison. It just has the slightly blurring quality and is one of the few other products I can think of that gives off a sheen that’s nearly pearly-looking, yet works for my skin tone. Considering the Dior powder has holy grail status with me and is my favorite finishing powder of all time, that’s high praise for the Hermès blush to conjure that image for me.
I figured this product would make a great blush topper, but as one can see in the swatch photo, the luminosity lessens considerably on top of another blush. I think it becomes an issue of too much pigment and not enough of the shimmer in the mixture. If I add more of Rose Cuivré on top, it turns too deep and intense. So, this blush looks better when used on its own.

When it comes to luxury goods, there are a lot more factors to consider than just the performance or quality as to whether it’s “worth the price.” As much as I am enamored by this blush and impressed by the quality because it’s the finest shimmer powder one I own, it’s not the absolute perfect color tone for me. I intend to get a lot of use out of it, just like with the brand’s bronzer, but I still have blush colors that are my favorites from other brands.
It was worth it to me to buy this refill, and I will probably even put this in the Hermès blush compact that currently houses Rose Feu when I get it back from the US. However, I still wouldn’t be able to justify the $84 for this. Good lord, did the price go up since last year? Weren’t they $77? Hermès being the luxury brand that it is, the price could be considered next to nothing for their regular customers. So, it’s all about perspective.

I hope this has been helpful to anyone still curious about this shade. Technically it has been out already for a long time, but at least now the refill option keeps the cost down for those more interested in the product itself. One final note is that this contains fragrance.

That’s all for today! Thank you for giving this review a read!

-Lili ❤