Chrstmas Luxxe with Estee Lauder...

Estee Lauder seem to have a bit of a reputation for being the stately duchess of the makeup world. In a way thats a good thing - after all, it's nice to know that amongst the fashion and innovative brands there's always a reliable and well put together lady of class just waiting in the beauty hall for you to come along and give you exactly what you pay for.

Agnes and Lori-Lee were both totes sold on the Crystal Baby lippie, so Chanelle the sales girl backed down on the hard sell... This shizzle sold itelf! 

Image Sourced HERE.

However the downside of that reputation is that younger "clientele" have found the brand a bit inaccesible - Lauder have done sterling work in addressing the balance however since the recent appointment of Tom Pecheux as Creative Makeup Director. One of the things I loved  about his inaugural Blue Dahlia collection, was the new layout of the eye palettes - they retained the luxe feel you want when you spend £34 of a palette, yet the new layout and unexpected colours of the Blue Dahlia palette appeal to twenty-somethings as well as the more traditional Lauder customer.

So I was pleased to see that they carried the new design through in their Christmas collection...

When I first saw the images for this collection, I did a bit of a double take, because I initially thought that the collection contained two eye palettes, however - the more vibrant looking palette is a lip collection (£34) of lipsticks and glosses. Clearly more glam to whip out of your bag at a christmas do than a traditional lippie, yet the colours are appealing too, offering a choice of neutrals and more dramatic shades.

The rest of the collection lends itself well to the current trend of strong lips - it's a trend that recurs most years during the colder months, and one that I love. The eye palette is fairly neutral, making it a good addition to any collection, and also a great gift.

The four outer shadows have a satin-like finish with a slight shimmer - they verge more on a metallic sheen than a glitter-fest though, and the central dark chocolate shade is a matte - perfect for a liner, althought this might also work as a crease colour with a light hand for a more dramatic eye.

All of the shades are pigmented and smooth, and blend very well...

As well as the eye and lip palettes, there are the more traditional lippies and glosses, but as it's Christmas they have an added sparkle!

I was given the berry shades - Extravagant Berry(£17) is a pure colour formula. These are glossy looking, pigmented, comfortable to wear, and wear well, which is important with these richer shades... I love the formula of the pure colour lipsticks and I've  bought several over the years. They have a delicious fig scent which Lauder have in most of their lip products and I personally love it.

Both the berry and red shades in the collection, have a glittery appearance when you open the tube, however this is the lipstick equivalent of an overspray and doesn't translate to the lips...

Both lipsticks have matching Pure Colour glosses (£16) - again these are lovely to use and they have that figgy scent to them which I really love. The shade "Extravagant Plum" is a rich well pigmented gloss which contains shimmering micro-glitters which reflect a multitude of colours - greens, blues, purples, pinks and golds...

The shimmer this time does translate onto the lips, but gives a really pretty effect either alone or over the lipstick. It has a doe-foot applicator.

As with the Blue Dahlia Collection, there are also some nail polishes (£12) in the Christmas collection - Extravagant Pearl is a pearly grey-mauve neutral shade great for everyday. I recieved the other shade Extravagant Night, a plummy purple shade  with microshimmer which gives a real dimension to it...

The base colour of this polish is fairly sheer - I found that 2-3 coats were needed for  this polish to get "bottle colour", however this means it would lend itself well to layering over other dark shades. It also had great lasting power - I applied it to toes and it was a good 10 days before I noticed any wear and tear to the polish. Although a little sheer I do like this polish and find the formula of Lauder's polishes a lot more hardwearing than other more expensive ranges - Chanel for example may be known for creating cult colours, however they are notorious for chipping, which is a shame at nearly £17 a bottle...

Keep an eye out on counters too for some fab Christmas GWP sets - Lauder will be launching a set which is free with a number of purchases, containing a really large eye palette, brushes, lipsticks and glosses, which is well worth a look...

Disclaimer - Products swatched and shown in this post were provided by PR, for review purposes. I haave not been paid for this review, and all ideas expressed are my own and based on my own experiences with the products.