To celebrate the reopening of their Soho boutique, Chanel decided to do an exclusive collection ("exclusive" meaning only available at Chanel boutiques and at their website) devoted to the hip Manhattan neighborhood. I was intrigued enough to buy the highlighter/blush.
With flash:
I tried to find some answers about the inspiration behind the colors of the collection and the palette's design. Peter Philips, CHANEL Global Creative Director of Makeup had this to say about the collection: “For me, SoHo is a place where Bohemian ideals meet the toughness of the city… I love the tension and energy this creates.” To echo this "toughness", the two nail polishes in the collection were named Steel (dark shimmery grey) and Strong (sparkly purple). As for the design on the blush, here's the description from the Chanel website: "This blush-and-powder palette, comprised of light plum, pink-ivory and soft pink shades for face and décolleté, puts the name of the CHANEL Boutique — in hip, downtown SOHO, New York City — front and center." Well, that's lovely, but it also looks a lot like Robert Indiana's LOVE design, no?
Now that I really look at it, I'm not sure how interesting the design on the palette actually is, or how the colors and design capture Soho's essence (I've visited there a few times and this doesn't strike me as particularly Soho-ish.) I guess it might come in handy if I ever do a NY-themed exhibition. And I very well could someday, what with the release of the Urban Decay NYC palette – I'll be discussing that as soon I get around to taking pictures of it. 🙂