Guerlain's Calligraphy Eye & Lip Palette launched with their holiday 2012 Liu collection. As soon as I saw the promo pics for this palette, it went on my wish list. Just look at it. It's gorgeous. I was even more excited when Temptalia did a review of the palette and gave it an A+ rating. In fact, every review I have ever seen for this palette gave it a top rating. It seems like everyone loves this palette.
This palette has it all, beautiful, luxurious packaging, rich holiday colors and phenomenal quality. At at Guerlain's price point, it definitely should. The Calligraphy palette had a price tag of $79.
I COULD NOT WAIT to get my hands on it.
Lucky me, I did receive this as a Christmas present last year. I was thrilled!
Look at those shadows, they are gorgeous!
At least in the pan.
...
Well, only in the pan, as it turns out.
This palette is hands down the biggest disappointment of 2012 for me. Possibly my biggest beauty disappointment ever. As I said, it is gorgeous. This palette definitely is a thing of beauty - to look at, not to use.
But the quality? The shadows were described as buttery soft with great payoff. Um ... I have no idea what to think of this. All of the shadows are stiff and dry with very lackluster pigmentation. I had to fight with the shadows to get any color at all.
The lipsticks are definitely the standouts of the palette in that they go on fantastically well and have great pigmentation. They look really similar in the pans, one orange red and one primary red.
The primary red looking shade actually goes on a very bright raspberry pink. The orangey looking red actually swatched much more of a true red.
Overall, looking at this palette just makes me want to cry. I had such high expectations for it and it totally failed to live up to them. If someone just handed me this palette on the street, I would probably think it was okay. The shadows are disappointing, but not the worst you could find. But given the expectations I had for the palette combined with the price point, it just breaks my heart.
Overall: 0/10
