Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Sheer Powder No 50

Hi My Lovelies,

I have recently made a very naughty purchase. I am not sure what possessed me but I am nowhere near sorry. I classify this as a naughty purchase because I was on my way to buy my beloved MAC Studio Fix Powder (reviewed here) and I found myself being distracted by the beautiful Chanel Counter and the sales lady caught my lingering look and next thing, I knew I was colour/shade matched, money changed hands and this beauty was in my stash..It all happened really fast. But...I don't regret it because I really like it and it's like a nice present to myself. This is my first Chanel purchase so I am very excited and who knows how many more Chanel products will be finding its way to my stash. To further facilitate this purchase, I had a 10% discount which is amazing especially as Chanel never does discounts so I was well chuffed!!.With the discount, how could I say no?

Packaging

I am not even going to lie; the packaging was my major reason for purchasing this powder in the first place (before I fell in love with it) because it is so, so pretty. It defies the usual Chanel classic black packaging by taking up a lovely beige colour which is in line with the name- Les Beiges. As usual, it also has the Chanel logo in from of the compact and the pouch. Chanel definitely has one of the best luxury packages out there but they better be the best seeing that their products are on the pricey side.

Contents

It comes in a beige outer packaging which houses the velvet (or is it suede) black pouch with the Chanel logo on the outside. Inside this sexy pouch is the Chanel Les Beiges compact which houses a mirror, a half moon brush and of course the powder itself. I adore the packaging but it definitely has one flaw which is quite annoying-the Half moon brush is separated from the powder by a flimsy black plastic lid. This is very impractical because you have to be flicking between the lid and the brush if you want to apply this on the go. I have decided to discard the both the brush and plastic lid for now because it makes everything too cumbersome. I apply this with a my Black Opal Mini Kabuki Brush featured here.

Chanel Says:
This creation of this powder is inspired by the passion for freedom of Gabrielle Chanel. Les Beiges was created to reveal the healthy glow of each woman and provide a sensation of lightness, well-being and freshness. The finely milled, light weight and antioxidant powder shields the skin from environmental stress and sunlight thanks to its SPF 15/PA +++sun filter.

The Powder Compact

 The Les Beige Healthy Glow Powder can be used in a variety of ways to enhance, tint, bronze, sculpt and highlight depending on how you choose to use it and what shade you buy. For example, you can buy a shade darker than your skin tone to use as a bronzer or as a sculpting powder. I don't imagine buying more than one of this powder at this time though. For me, I use it to enhance my complexion, as a mattifying powder and for a healthy glow which is its main selling point. I picked up the shade no 50 which was the darkest shade on the counter. I believe they do no 60 and 70 in some other countries or at the Airport.

Coverage
From the name, you don't need a soothsayer to let you know it is a sheer powder which offers light to medium coverage at the most. I don't mind this at all because my foundation is medium to full coverage so a sheer powder just gives me a natural glow as opposed to a caked up face. To be honest, I am quite impressed with the coverage it offers because when I was saw it was sheer; I thought of the worst scenarios but I am quite pleased with it. In terms of its mattifying power, it easily transforms the face with a few brush sweeps which actually stays put for a couple of hours depending on your skin type.

How I use it

I reserve this strictly for touch ups when I am on the go :-). Recently, I have been using this as my main powder and I really like the results especially when paired with my Clinique Anti-Blemish Foundation (review up soon). I use this with my Black Opal Mini Kabuki Brush. Having said this, I am secretly glad the Chanel Kabuki Brush created specially for this powder was out of stock as I may have bankrupted myself purchasing it if it was not. The sales lady used it on me while trying to match me to a shade and it was the softest, luxurious brush I had ever used and laid my eyes on.

Cost

Retails price is £38 and I think that has to be the most expensive makeup item I have ever bought. It's ridiculous but with my 10% discount; I got this for £34.20 which is not a massive saving but it's definitely more forgiveable in my own opinion. My MAC Studio Fix Powder costs £21.50 so this was an extra £13 or so which is a lot but I will classify this as a birthday gift to myself :-). If you want a bigger discount, buy it in Duty Free in Airports where you get it for 20% cheaper. I may still get my MAC Studio Fix just because it's still one of my practical favourites




Cons
1. I am not a fan of the half moon brush and flimsy plastic lid separating it from the compact; it's cumbersome and impractical and one would think Chanel will create a separate compartment underneath the compact.
2. If you are after a medium/full coverage powder, look elsewhere as this is a sheer powder.
3. It is expensive as expected with most high end products.
4. The shades/colours are very limited especially for ladies with more yellow and darker skin tones.

Verdict

I love this powder and I am really happy with my purchase. Usually, before I commit to buying any product especially if it is high end, I read many reviews on different blogs complete with swatches and I also check Temptalia (my favourite blog for swatches) and Makeup Alley (my favourite blog for non-bloggy reviews). When I checked reviews on Makeup Alley for this powder, there was a lot of mixed reviews on it and it looked like people were not really recommending this product. However, I still went ahead to purchase it because I had tested it in store a little while ago and I loved the finish. Asides that, I did not really have very high expectations because I know that expensive does not always equal quality but in this case, I absolutely love this powder and it has to be one of the greatest quality of powders I have tried in a long time. It's always best to form your own opinion after getting opinions/reviews from others; at the end it's your call...that's me getting all philosophical :-). Hope you enjoyed this and see you in my next post..Have you tried any Chanel Products?