Pale pastels rule the day in the Dior Frost Bloom Eyeshadow Palette and Nymphea Vernis

Frost Bloom is a capsule makeup collection from Dior that is released concurrently with the Diorsnow skincare range and is the offering for Spring 2013. In a sense, I suppose we in Asia are spoilt for choice when it comes to Springtime products because we don’t only get the regular Spring collections, we also get the special ones released with the whitening products. Interesting huh? 🙂

I showed this to you last week as part of a collection overview, but there were some requests for a closer look at Nymphea nail polish so I figured I might as well show you how the palette looks when used. As we can expect from the preliminary swatches I showed you, the palette looks nothing like what it does in pan, which can be both a good thing or a bad thing. Good because in pan, boy! Does it channel the 80’s! Baby blue eyeshadow galore! Bad, because you may just want to channel the 80’s you know… fashion revival and all that 😛

I will tell you that although I’m not much a fan of pastel colours, the nail polish is quite pretty. It fits right in with the seasonal mint pastel green hues so you’d be right on trend.

The colours in the Frost Bloom eyeshadow palette (334) are light, pastel and shimmery. The texture is lovely but honestly, the colours are far too sheer to be attractive. If you wear them alone, you pretty much just get a wash of shimmer on your lids, colour being quite irrelevant. The only colour that shows up is the baby blue in the bottom right corner.

Wear them over a black or deep coloured base, and you get a better result, but just barely. There is no deep shade included in this palette so you have to use the eyeliner trick or use a deep coloured cream shadow as a base. Here are some comparison swatches to show you what I mean. For the base, I used the Maybelline Color Tattoo Cream Shadow in Audacious Asphalt.

Dior Frost Bloom 334 eyeshadow palette swatches – Top without a base, Bottom over a deep grey cream shadow base

You can probably see from the top that the colours are shimmery and iridescent and I must give props to Dior for the formula which I think is very good. It isn’t glittery or obnoxious, just a sheen of iridescence on skin… if you like that sort of thing. Over a deep coloured base, the colours don’t show up that much better unfortunately, except for the middle blue. What the deep base does is add dimension so it doesn’t look so flat on your skin. You could quite easily achieve the same effect using another deep coloured powder eyeshadow to shade, but this base trick is quicker.

What I learnt after experimenting for a few days, is that the colours work best when worn alone. If I try to layer, it looks too shimmery and a bit “dirty” strangely enough. On their own, it brightens the eye area and gives it a sheen that is simple and unobtrusive.

I’m just wearing the light green in the top right corner of the palette here, over Audacious Asphalt cream eyeshadow. You may be able to tell from the image on left, that the light green is just about seen on the lid, but as it is sheered out towards the top, the colour looks almost like white shimmer. What you get therefore is a hint of colour, as you see on the right. Nothing very obvious, but it brightens up the eye area.

Honestly speaking, I wouldn’t recommend getting this palette unless you want a palette full of highlighters. The colours don’t stand out on their own or over a base, and although I can make it work, I can imagine that the majority will just roll their eyes at this and think “Why bother? I can do the same with any light coloured eyeshadow” and you’d be right.

I can’t say this is a dud because it fits right in with every Diorsnow makeup collection before this, so in terms of consistency, they are perfectly consistent for this collection and because they are so consistent, they are consistently not quite wowing anyone with these light coloured palettes either 😛 I think including a deep shade in there will help a lot and make it just a bit more appealing.

As for the Nail Vernis in Nymphea (307) I think this is quite a pretty one. I wasn’t too thrilled the first time I applied it, but then, I’m notoriously BAD at applying nail polish. B.A.D.

Nymphea is light milky blue-green (it looks more blue in the photo but its a bit more green in real life, and its more milky pastel in real life too) that would these days be called “mint green”. I seem to detect some grey undertones but for whose wondering, it isn’t a robin’s egg Tiffany blue. Its a bit light for that.

If you like pastel colours, I think you’d like this one. Its very Spring-y and very young and pretty and although a bit late, reminds me of Easter eggs for some obscure reason. I did need about 2-3 layers to get it opaque but let me remind you again that I’m terribly impatient with painting my nails and am very bad at it, so that’s why I tend to steer clear of cream textures – mistakes show up more than with holo polishes 😛

For those who like layering their polishes, I think this makes a pretty base for one of those new-fangled chunky glitter polishes.

As pretty as the colour is, I find that Nymphea brings out the yellow tones in my skin (it must be said that most mint green shades do, which is why I don’t wear clothes in that shade. I look better in brights, darks or jewel tones. No wishy washy pastels for me 😛 )

Still, I know many people love colours like these and it really does look pretty on so, if there’s one item to check out from the Frost Bloom collection, it would be the Nymphea nail polish.

In a nutshell

The Frost Bloom Spring 2013 collection is a capsule collection by Dior released in conjunction with their Diorsnow skincare range. It is, I believe, an Asia exclusive collection. The Frost Bloom 334 eyeshadow palette is a palette of 5 light iridescent colours which apply sheer. I don’t think it is one to appeal to many people. I prefer to wear each colour alone than together and it works better over a deeper base colour. The light iridescent shades do brighten up the eye area but it is too pricey to spend on just one palette for this purpose, unless you like this style of eyeshadow. The nail polish in Nymphea 307 is a pretty mint green that is bang on trend for Spring. The cream texture is easy to apply with the regular wide tipped brush, and it dries quite quickly. I find that on my skin, the colour brings out the sallow yellow tones so I’m not crazy about the colour on me, but it is a very pretty shade.

Pros: Nymphea nail polish is a pretty colour and easy to apply, Frost Bloom eyeshadow palette colours brighten the eye area effortlessly

Cons: Eyeshadow palette is too light and sheer and could have benefited from the inclusion of a deep shade, Pricey

Who will like this: Anyone who likes light, sheer iridescent eyeshadows, Anyone who wants a pretty cream mint green nail polish

Are these colours that appeal to you?

I can just imagine all the groans about the Frost Bloom palette so I’ll save your breath and not ask you what you thought of it 😉 But I know a couple of you were curious about the nail polish so does this make your mind up about whether you need it? 😉

Paris B

Dior Frost Bloom 5 Couleurs Eyeshadow Palette (334) Price: 210 | Dior Vernis in Nymphea 307 Price: RM75 Availability: Dior counters Limited Edition: Yes, Diorsnow Frost Bloom collection Spring 2013