This cool autumn season, take a walk with me in the Pupa Velvet Garden

Life is funny sometimes. You go about, knowing of the existence of a brand for a while, but never get round to checking it out. That was pretty much the relationship between Pupa and I. Pupa is a bestselling Italian makeup brand, available locally at Sasa stores. I recently had the opportunity to check out their latest limited edition collection Velvet Garden, launched for Autumn 2016.

As far as Autumn, or Fall collections go, this one is heavy on the purple and burgundy tones, meant to evoke a woman in a garden of purple blooms. According to Pupa International Makeup Artist Giorgio Forgani, the lips were the most important look. I have to say that after testing it out, the Pupa I’M Lipstick is truly the star of the collection. Sorry, not that beautiful blush 😀

I’ll be taking you quickly through the collection, so I hope you read through to the end – you snooze and you lose! 😉

Pupa Velvet Garden Pupart Eye Makeup Palette – RM125

There are 2 Pupart Eye Makeup Palettes in this collection, one a neutral palette with brown shades, and another, this fairly neutral palette, with rose and purple tones.

The palette is a solid purple plastic, which isn’t very eye catching, and comes with sponge applicators, but I recommend you use your own brushes. The shades in the palette are all shimmer shades bar one, the 4th colour from left, which is a pale mauve that I believe is meant to be the blending shade.

Never having used any Pupa makeup before, I was quite surprised at how soft the texture of these shadows were. It was easy to pick up colour with a finger or brush for most of the shades, except the 2nd shade from right, that felt very hard to the touch with low colour pay off. I’ve swatched them below in the order as they appear in the palette.

Most of the shimmer shades offered a pretty decent colour pay off and intensity. However, the shades do tend to be a little light in tone, with only 1 deeper purple shade in the palette at the end.

Texturally, it felt nice and soft, and easy to pick up and deposit on skin. I find that patting on the colour helps the product and shimmer adhere better. While it looks very shimmery in the swatches, I find that if you blend it out, it isn’t as shiny on the eyes. It is a little more like an iridescent shine, as opposed to a bling-bling glitter. That makes it more flattering and for me lasted almost a full work day, fading by late evening.

However, the light shades can pose a challenge, especially for deeper skintones, as you may find that the shades all go on just shimmery without a lot of colour. As International Makeup Artist Giorgio Forgani demonstrated, you can deepen the colours, by using a deeper shade as an eye base. If I wanted something more simple, I’d do the shadows without a base for just a hint of iridescent shine, and with thick black liquid liner and mascara, if you use it. But if your preference is for bold, pigmented colours you won’t fancy this much. If you know how to work Japanese or Korean style eyeshadow, you’d appreciate this better.

This is a very handy tip, that you can use for other eye makeup as well.

TIP: Use a darker shade of cream eyeshadow as a base on your lid. Then, pack on powder eyeshadow over the cream base. The base helps the shadow to stay on longer, and also helps deepen the shades, so you can create more depth of colour.

Giorgio Forgani used the Vamp! Intense Smoky Maxi Eye Pencil for this purpose.

Pupa Velvet Garden Vamp! Intense Smoky Maxi Eye Pencil – RM65

There are 2 shades available, 001 (Black) and 002 (Deep Purple) Both shades are matte. These are jumbo eye pencils, with a sponge smudger on the end, that you can use. I however, just use my fingers. I find that the colour sets quite quickly on my skin, so the warmth of my fingers helps me blend it better, and more quickly.

You can see the swatches above. I found that they are a little dry going on the skin, but if you run it on your hand a few times before taking it to your eyes, it softens a little. You can use it both as an eye base, or very carefully, as an eyeliner. Once the tip blunts, it will be harder to use it as liner.

I do not have oily lids, so having it stay on my lids wasn’t a problem. It sdidn’t mudge either for me, which I was quite impressed by. Also, I tended to use them as a base colour, so it didn’t move around. What I did was to pat on the shadows over the base and then blend, and that gave a more flattering look, or a smokier look if that’s how you roll 🙂

Pupa Velvet Garden Vamp! Exceptional Volume Mascara – RM79

Speaking of mascara, I learnt that the Pupa Vamp! mascara is the No. 1 bestselling mascara in Italy! How’s that eh? It offers volume and some length without weighing down lashes. It’s a permanent range, with a new limited edition purple shade released for the Pupa Velvet Garden collection.

I haven’t worn a mascara in years, so I didn’t plan to start, sorry. Just know that if you ever want an affordable purple mascara, check out Pupa. They aren’t No. 1 in Italy for nothing! 🙂

Pupa Velvet Garden Blush – RM99

This one’s a beaut! The Pupa Velvet Garden Blush comes in just 1 shade, with a beautiful flower embossed on the surface.

There are 3 shades in this blush – a matte rose, a matte pink and a slightly shimmery light pink. The shimmer is quite low so what you get when applied on skin, is mostly matte.

Initially, I was a little disappointed, when I tried to swatch the blush with my fingers, because the texture felt hard, and I couldn’t pick up colours. You can see my attempt below. However, when I used a blush brush, it was easy to just swirl it around and pick up colour, and easy to blend. I didn’t experience patchiness, and it blended quite smoothly. That came as quite a surprise!

You can use the pink on the apples of the cheeks, the shimmer part to highlight and the rose along your cheekbones. But you’d need a very small blush brush to execute that. Personally, I find that swirling a brush around gives a lovely colour anyway, so it’s far easier!

Pupa Velvet Garden I’m Pure Colour Lipstick – RM75

There are 4 shades available in this range, all of them creamy and very comfortable on lips. If I had to pick, I’d pick the I’m Pure Colour Lipstick as the star of the whole collection, because the colours were simple, yet flattering. (the 2 bottles are nail polish)

The 2 shades I have are 212 Rose Lilium (Coral-pink) and 313 Red Peony (Rosy-Red). They come in rather simple, plain purple plastic packaging. Not very sexy, but look past it to the product. I loved the texture – and you know I’m fussy about lipstick! 😛

The shade on left is 212 Rose Lilium, which is actually more coral, and the one on right is 313 Red Peony, a nice bright red. The colours are pigmented, and the texture is opaque and creamy so what you see in the tube is pretty much what you’ll get on lips.

You may also notice my attempt at swatching the blush on the left of the lipstick swatches – not impressive. But fares much better when applied using a brush on skin.

Mr. Forgani had yet another tip for applying lipstick, which for him, was the most important item of makeup. If you want to use a deep colour like a plum or burgundy, or a deep red, but don’t want it to look too stark, you can try this tip.

TIP: When applying a deep coloured lipstick, dab on a lighter shade of lipstick on the middle part of your lips and then blend the colours. The lighter shade acts like a highlighter, and also lightens the heaviness of the deeper tones, especially if it’s an opaque texture.

You will get something akin to an ombre lip, but somewhat reversed from the Korean style. I tried it, and I liked the look! It adds something different and allows you to wear your plum and burgundy lipsticks more often, without looking too gothic 😀

So, I went home, and put what I learned from Giorgio Forgani into practice, and here’s how the Pupa Velvet Collection looks when I attempt a look 😛

The eyes are the same in both pictures. I used the purple Vamp! Intense Smoky Maxi Eye Pencil as a slight base, then applied a combination of eyeshadow shades from the Pupart Eye Colour Palette 010 over it. I was quite terrified I’d end up looking like I’d been punched in the eyes (Purple shades tend to do that to me) but I was gratified to see it didn’t turn out too badly! I attempted the black pencil as a liner. A bit tricky. This eye look lasted me a whole day and I loved the iridescent shine on lids, that wasn’t too shiny and there was no fall out or smudging. On my cheeks are the Velvet Garden blush, and on my lips on left, is the I’M Pure Color Lipstick in 212 Rose Lilium and on right, 313 Red Peony.

I love both lip shades, and while there’s a slight vanilla scent, it isn’t overpowering. The texture is lovely, and as I said above, if I were to pick 1 item from this range, I’d pick the I’M Pure Colour Lipsticks 😀

IN A NUTSHELL

The Pupa Velvet Garden collection is limited edition and in terms of colours, is heavy on purple tones. The eyeshadow palette does seem a little light, although you can work around it by using a deeper coloured base. The blush feels hard to the touch, but applies quite prettily on skin, with a brush. The pattern is very pretty too. For me, the star was the I’m lipsticks, which are creamy and opaque and pigmented, and flattering. If purple tones are your thing, then you may want to check these out.

WHERE TO BUY: Sasa stores in Malaysia (limited edition)

Now, if you got up till here, WELL DONE YOU! And to celebrate, Pupa Malaysia has given me 1 set of (almost) everything that you read about above, so YOU too can enjoy creating your own Velvet Garden look 😀

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Pupa Malaysia, 1 lucky winner will receive everything that you see in the picture below (only makeup, props not included)

Here’s what you have to do:-

LEAVE A COMMENT below and tell me, which item from the Pupa Velvet Garden collection featured here interests you most and why you picked it.

You may follow me on Facebook or Instagram but it isn’t compulsory. Just nice. And it always pays to be nice 🙂

TAKE NOTE:

• This giveaway closes at 12 midnight on 4 December 2016 (Malaysian Time GMT +8)
• Only open to anyone with a mailing address in Malaysia
• Winner must provide me with your personal details as required by the sponsor.
• Winner will be contacted by email and announcements will be made on Facebook and Twitter only.
• If the winner fails to respond after 48 hours, a new winner will be automatically picked.
• The winner announced is final and no appeals or complaints will be entertained.
• For other terms and conditions of giveaways on MWS, read here.

Have fun peeps! You know I hardly ever run giveaways anymore, so enjoy it while it lasts! 😉

Paris B

WINNER: WAN – Winner has been contacted by email and prize will be despatched