I just can’t say no to trying out a new indie company, so when Blanche Neige announced they were opening about a week ago and had fantasy/fairy tale themed collections, how could a girl say no? A girl could not! Blanche Neige means ‘Snow White’ in French, and their first eyeshadow collection is Little Mermaid themed. It consists of twelve beautiful shadows in a lovely variety of colors, and they also have some great lipsticks. I may or may not have placed an order that same day, and may or may not have received it two days ago!

We may or may not find out… aw hell, just look at these beautiful shades!

Swatches

Urban Decay Primer Potion on top half of swatches, Darling Girl Glitter Glue on bottom half of swatches

Sweetest Voice is a soft lilac color with a gentle shimmer to it. It’s a very feminine shade, I love i! This shade needs a glitter adhesive to really bring out the best parts of the shimmer.

What a pretty color! Love of a Prince is a delicate, shimmering ballet pink, not too warm or cool. Of all of the pastel colors, this was one that performed best over both primer and a sticky base.

Siren also had excellent pigmentation, and is a shimmery white champagne color. The shimmer was of course more intense over a glitter adhesive, but I think it performed well over just primer too.

I think both of the lightest colors of the collection are lovely, but I particularly looove Daughters of Air! On my skin, it’s a very pale peachy pink color with just enough shimmer to it. Very delicate, and it served as a great nude lid color the first time I used it (which I unfortunately did not take photos of,  so you’ll have to take my word for it).

Seafoam is a light blue-green with gray tones. It is fairly sheer over primer alone, but over a glitter adhesive has a lovely amount of shimmer.

Of all of the colors in the collection, Deep Sea is most in need of of a glitter adhesive. It applies as a sheer, blue/green toned gray over over primer alone, but with a glitter adhesive the darker silvery, sea green tones come out, with a touch of olive.

Seashells is the lone matte color of the collection and is a light yellow/tan. I liked its application over prime alone, as I do with most all mattes I’ve tried, but it wasn’t patchy over glitter adhesive. It applied very smoothly, and was super pigmented.

As Above, Below is a shimmering blue violet that calls to mind deep, stormy oceans. It seems to have some subtle pink/purple shimmer to it as well. It was a bit sheer without a glitter adhesive.

Eternal Soul is BEAUTIFUL! It is a lighter, coral rose with a satin finish. I actually think it would make a really perfect lip color too. It had great pigmentation over primer alone.

Little Mermaid is the stand out color of this collection, which is appropriate considering it’s the theme of the whole collection. It is a warm red with a green shift– it’s not as strong as the green shift in Femme Fatale’s Candied Apple, but contrasts well with the red base and is absolutely a color I am excited to incorporate into looks.

Broken Heart is another satin finish shadow, like Eternal Soul. It is a warm purple, with maybe a touch of mauve. The swatch on the Blanche Neige website was considerably darker than my own swatch, but on a personal level I prefer this shade. I also think this shadow performs much better over the adhesive base, and is sheerer over primer alone.

Sea Witch is darker and more purple than Broken Heart, with a touch of brown as well. The shimmer came out best over the glitter adhesive, as is to be expected, but it had good pigmentation over just primer.

Blanche Neige has three shades of cream lipsticks and I ordered two, Tea Party and Wicked. Ugh, I LOVE them! Tea Party is a beige rose with orange tones. Wicked is a blackened red, a pretty true red that doesn’t lean particularly pink or purple.

In the introduction for their company, Blanche Neige mentioned they were originally going for a formula similar to YSL Kiss and Blush (which I love) and it evolved from there. I can see these origins in the lipstick. Both lipsticks were quite pigmented and creamy. Wicked lasted a good four or five hours without needing reapplication, and I found I needed to reapply Tea Party after about three hours, after a meal (expected for a beige color). Wicked left a stain, whereas Tea Party did not. I’m really pleased with the pigmentation and overall formula of these, and didn’t mind having to reapply. I think I’m falling in love!

My only gripe is SUPER small– I think the labeling could be improved upon. It’s printed on a non-waterproof paper label and the widths of the labels weren’t consistently sized. They picked up a bit at the edges, and after keeping Tea Party in my purse for a day I found it had already started to tear a bit. I think such a great product would be better represented by better labels, but it certainly won’t prevent me from picking up the last color, Bad Wolf.

Turn Around Time

Blanche Neige’s turn around time was excellent! I placed my order on October 26th and it shipped on October 29th. Because they shipped it 2-day Priority, I received it on October 31st, super fast. Shipping was reasonable ($3), and overall the TAT was delightfully fast and I had absolutely no difficulties with my order.

The Look

 

I used Daughters of Air in the inner corner, Love of a Prince across the lid, Sweetest Voice in the outer corner with some Broken Heart in the outer crease, and then Sea Foam in the crease itself. Without a sticky base, Sea Foam is a much more muted color. Because my skin is basically a whitish-pink color, whenever I wear muted greens it looks a bit brown, or gray. I found that Sea Foam used lightly without a sticky base to bring out the shimmer looked more gray, which is what I was hoping for in this instance.

I also used Broken Heart for the liner, and some along the lower lash line.

 

I decided to use Tea Party for this look. In some lights, it definitely looks a lot more orange, and in others it looks like the beige-y pink you see here, which I think can be seen in the range of photos in this post.

 

I paired the Blanche Neige shadows and lipstick with Hello Waffle’s Moon Princess blush. The more I use this blush, the more I fall in love with it. It’s one of the few cool-toned blushes that I think really works well with my skin tone, and as with all the Hello Waffle products I have, the formula excels in pigmentation and ease of application.

But why not give Wicked a try too?

 

I know now, though, that I simply MUST have Bad Wolf (the third color I didn’t buy).

I also used Wicked for my ridiculous last-minute vampire costume on Halloween.

This photo was taken after that dinner and wine drinking I mentioned. You can see that there was some fading on the inner mouth-side edges of the lips. This is a bit more accurate, albeit a cell phone photo from the beginning of the evening:

 

Products

• Palladio Herbal Foundation primer
• Blackbird Cosmetics Magic Trick Super Powder in Green
• Laura Mercier secret concealer in 01 and secret brightening powder
• MUFE HD foundation in 110
• Anastasia dipbrow in Auburn
• L’oreal voluminous lashes in brown/black
• NARS smudgeproof eye primer
• Darling Girl Glitter Glue (center of lid)
• Blanche Neige Daughters of Air, Love of a Prince, Sweetest Voice, Broken Heart shadows
• Hello Waffle Moon Princess
• Pumpkin & Poppy oak bark contour powder
• Blanche Neige lipstick in Tea Party (rose) and Wicked (dark red)
• Urban Decay All Nighter setting spray

Final Thoughts

Blanche Neige is off to a great start! Their lipsticks were really the stand out product for me out of everything I tried. Their texture and pigmentation is excellent and I can’t wait to see them broaden their range of colors! I’m chomping at the bit to snag Bad Wolf, which is current out of stock, and lord help me if they introduce a good, bright, warm pink or coral to the collection… ahh!

As for the shadows, I think the colors chosen for their first collection are very cohesive and represent the theme very well. All of their shadows performed well over Darling Girl Glitter Glue and the ones I used in the look blended nicely with each other. A few of them were sheerer over primer than some other brands out there. Love of a Prince, Seashells, Eternal Soul, Sea Witch, and Little Mermaid had the best pigmentation of the collection and stood out to me as performing as well over regular shadow primer as they did over Glitter Glue. Contrasting that, Sweetest Voice, Sea Foam, and Deep Sea in particular were quite sheer over just primer, but really showed their true little personalities over Glitter Glue. Of all of them, my favorite shadow colors were Love of a Prince, Daughters of Air, Eternal Soul, Broken Heart, and ESPECIALLY Little Mermaid… its green shift is gorgeous!

I’m excited to see where Blanche Neige Cosmetics goes from here. I love how fast their service was and the unique niche their lipsticks fill. Shadows are $1/sample and $5.50/full size jar, with a 15% discount when purchasing the entire collection in either size. The lipsticks are $7 for a 10ml tube with a doe foot applicator. Take a peek!

Your Turn

What are your favorite indie lip products? What are your favorite sorts of collection themes?