I was pretty excited to see these Little Round Pots at British Beauty Blogger way back in January and managed to snag a couple of them at Asos. These limited-edition eye shadows and blushes from Bourjois feature a floral print that originally appeared on their packaging for loose powder in 1934.

However, I was disappointed in the quality. The flowers are stickers, not printed directly onto the case as in other limited-edition Bourjois collections.


If you look at previous collections from Bourjois, like this collaboration with Nathalie Lété (one of my favorite collections!), you can see how the design is printed onto the case. It's sturdier than a sticker, which can peel off, and looks much nicer.

Additionally, I was unable to find any images of the Bourjois products that had the floral print allegedly used in the '30s. So overall this collection was kind of a miss for me.
If vibrating mascaras were the big beauty tech breakthrough of 2008, spinning mascara wands are the 2011 version. Bourjois Volume Fast and Perfect Mascara, which will be released in May, features a rotating wand that promises to coat each and every lash to give perfect volume and definition. You can watch a video of how it works here.
(image from beautyandthedirt.com)
Meanwhile, Dior introduced a spinning version of the ever popular DiorShow mascara, called DiorShow 360. This product allegedly "mimics a makeup artist's application technique for a perfect 360-degree lash-styling effect…this mascara features a spinning brush that rotates in both directions to adapt to every need, whether you're left or right-handed or you want to pump up the upper or lower lashes."
As with vibrating mascaras, I'm skeptical these would actually work better than a traditional non-moving wand. Still, I think these have more validity than the vibrating ones – I think that the motion could in fact yield better results than a manual wand.
I remember with the vibrating mascaras the mass fear of poking one's eyes out. Does a rotating wand present the same threat? Hard to say.
(image from sephora.com)
Bourjois did it again. That is, the company collaborated with another Parisian artist to create a limited edition set of blushes. I'm not sure if I like these as much as the ones by Nathalie Lété, but they are tres cute!

According to the packaging insert, the artist is Juliette Buré. A Google search didn't turn up much besides her Facebook page, which is very disappointing considering that I wanted to see how these designs compare to her other work. Equally disappointing is that I'm missing one of the blushes, as Asos.com was out of stock on one of them. Fortunately it came back in so I will post when it arrives.
Right after the release of the Rendez-vous a Paris collection came two limited-edition sets of eye shadows from Bourjois. They feature designs taken from actual vintage Bourjois ads. Unfortunately I was unable to locate any images of these original ads, but the design on these can still be appreciated.
Here is the brown set:
The grey set – there are 3 of these but one is the same white pot as the brown set so I didn't take pics of it. These two are inspired by perfumes Bourjois introduced in the early 20th century.
Cute, no? I just wish they weren't so hard to purchase here! Bourjois is available at Ulta but these limited-edition pieces seem to be available only in the UK.
Remember how I was bemoaning the fact that asos.com was out of stock on some of the Bourjois Rendez-vous a Paris items? Well, in my typical OCD way I kept stalking the site and placed an order for the ones I was missing, then waited with bated breath to see if my order would be canceled like last time or be processed. Lo and behold, it went through and now my Rendez-vous à Paris collection is complete! Here are the three I was missing:
Blanc Diaphane, with the Arc de Triumph:
Lilas D'or:
Ambre D'or:
I am quite happy not to have any gaps in this collection anymore!
Maybe it's all the planning and research I'm doing for my trip to Paris next year, but I'm drawn to anything French these days. Naturally when I saw this collection I had to have every item, especially after finding out the illustrations were done by French artist Nathalie Lété. Each one shows a Paris landmark or neighborhood.
Rose D'or blush, featuring the Eiffel Tower:
Argent, with the Opera Garnier:
Beige Rose, with a little map:
Violet Absolu, featuring the Place Vendôme:
Noir Precieux and a lovely view of the Seine:
Sadly, Asos.com was out of stock of one of the eye shadows (Blanc Diaphane, which has an awesome picture of the Arc d'Triomphe) and 2 of the blushes (Lilas D'or and Ambre D'or) and Ulta doesn't seem to be carrying them, so I wasn't able to get my hands on those. (A note about ordering from Asos: it must be some weird UK thing that allows you to place items in your cart only and submit your order, only to get an email a few hours later telling you your items are out of stock. The same thing happened with my fiance when he ordered some Grenson boots from a UK site – he was able to hit the submit button but got a notice later saying they weren't available. It's VERY frustrating! I'd rather know up front the items aren't available rather being able to add them to my shopping cart.) Anyway, here are stock pics of those:
(images from asos.com)
Whenever an artist collaborates on a collection I'm anxious to see their regular work to see if there's any resemblance between what they created for a brand and their own oeuvre. After looking at her website, I don't think there was anyone more appropriate to do illustrations for this historic French brand than Parisian Nathalie Lété. She seems to have struck a perfect balance of whimsical and chic, playful and sophisticated, and so much of her work pays homage to her hometown. Some examples: the
notebook on the left shows the Montmartre neighborhood along with a duck cheerfully pulling a butterfly on a string. The rug on the right depicts a cloud of butterflies soaring among the Eiffel Tower, which has a French flag sitting
atop it. Both works are imbued with passion and pride for Paris.
You can also see her affinity for nature in these lovely prints ("Botanica")
and this rug, simply titled "Jardin". These stylized flowers and
butterflies definitely made their way into the Bourjois collection.

Finally, these chocolates have a similar concept overall to the Bourjois collection:
(images from nathalie-lete.com)
All in all I'm very impressed with this collection and think Bourjois did a sensationnel job in their choice of Lété. I do hope to acquire the rest of the collection at some point.
French company Bourjois came out with these palettes for the 2006 holiday season, which was a nice tie-in to Sephora's circus theme that year. By definition, a circus is meant to be purely for entertainment, and these definitely capture the spirit.
(gift of Melissaginparis)
The illustrations in each remind me a bit of this 1891 Seurat painting, The Circus:
There are several similarities between the images on the palette and Seurat's work. First, both the painting and the Tantalizing Tamer image contain an audience, and the latter's audience is not contemporary but appear to be from the late 1800s, which is particulaly evident in the men in top hats in the background on either side of the tamer. Second, there's a sense of motion in the Acrobat palette and the painting – the acrobats are flying through both images. Third, both the palettes and the painting have something obstructing the image slightly on the sides. In Seurat's work the clown seems to be pulling the floor of the circus (or canvas - a delicious little touch), which is slightly blocking the view on the right and cutting off part of the tamer. In both Bourjois palettes the images are cut off a bit by the flowered pattern.
Finally, Bourjois is French and so was Seurat, plus the acrobat perched on the swing in her showgirl costume reminds me of Satine in the film Moulin Rouge.
In any case, I think Bourjois did a great job capturing the feel and motion of "the greatest show on earth!"