Loreal w/ Project Runway Colors Take Flight SWATCHES & REVIEW

As soon as I found out about this collection, I was out scouting for it.  As a HUGEEE fan of Project Runway and makeup in general, this collection must have been made specifically for me!  Overall, it's an extremely well-rounded collection.  I'm impressed with the range of colors and styles they put into this. There are four "looks" included in this collection, The Charming Cockatoo ("sophisticated and enchanting"), The Watchful Owl ("alluring and glam"), The Audacious Amazon ("bold and flirty") and The Sultry Raven ("smoky and dramatic") All the lip colors are on the slightly dark side for me, and I generally don't like drugstore polishes so I skipped both of those.

The photo below is an official photo of the collection...except the pictures are screwed up.  Instead of showing the 4 looks, it has 3 with one of them repeated at the top and bottom.  So keep in mind, the Watchful Owl look isn't pictured.  I've included a picture below of that look taken from Nouveau Cheap's post on this collection.  The first row is The Charming Cockatoo, the second row The Audacious Amazon, and the third The Sultry Raven (the fourth is Charming Cockatoo repeated).

They had the full display at my local Walgreens.  They generally get most LE collections first, at least around here.  I picked up The Charming Cockatoo's palette and blush and The Sultry Raven's palette.  I later went back and picked up The Sultry Raven's blush.

Left to Right: The Sultry Raven's Gaze, The Charming Cockatoo's Gaze and Blush (Sultry Raven's blush not pictured)

The Sultry Raven's Gaze:

I really love this palette.  The silver color is extremely creamy feeling. This is the highlight color.  The second color swatched is the crease color.  It's a nice taupe brown meant for a crease shade.  It's fairly pigmented but .  The third shade is warm black color for the outer corner of the eyes.  It was a bit hard to get a good swatch.  My first swipe was ashy and poorly pigmented.  The swatch above is after two swipes on my hand.   It had VERY few sparkles.  The three you see in the picture are all the came off from the pan.  The last shade is the lid color, a warm dusky purple.  This too wasn't that pigmented.  Overall I really like the color combination.  The sliver was extraordinary.  But the formulation could have definitely improved.

The Sultry Raven Blush

This blush is a tough one for me.  It's not like anything I own in terms of tone, as it's quite neutral.  I tend to prefer cool toned blushes.  But, because this is such a dusty neutral pink, it goes really well with the matching eye palette.  It gives the cheek color without overpowering the extremely smoky and dark eye look.  It felt weird when I swatched it.  I can't explain.  It was almost chalky, yet was smooth at the same time.  It's also extremely shimmery which I didn't notice from the pan.  I didn't pick this up on my first go to Walgreens because in the pan it looked a little like MAC's Dame, which I already own (and returned for Coygirl).  With the flash, it's clearly quite pink.  But without flash it's pretty tame looking.  It's a nice thing to have if you like smoky looks.  Also, I find that more neutral blushes are generally matte.  So having a neutral blush like this, which is obviously very shimmery, may be appealing to some.

The Charming Cockatoo's Gaze:

I love this palette!! I immediately ran into my room and used this on my eyes when I finished photographing the swatches.  The first color on the left is the highlight.  It's not the most pigmented shade but it is mostly a glitter shadow, so that's understandable.  It's a slightly cool nudeish pink.  The second is the crease color, a pinky orange.  This one felt very similar to the purple shade in The Sultry Raven - somewhat dry and patchy, but otherwise fairly decent.  The third is the lid shade.  It's a steely blue grey.  Very pigmented and smooth.  The last is a dark matte black...?  Looking at it, it's hard to tell if it's supposed to lean navy or not.  It's for the outer corner of the eye.  The colors in this palette go so well together.  I personally wouldn't have put them together and that's what so great about palettes like these.  They really expand the possibilities available to people who don't experiment with makeup all that much.

The Charmin Cockatoo's Blush

This blush is honestly quite standard.  If you have a pinky coral with sparkles (such as, say, NARS Orgasm) this blush isn't going to wow you.  However, for a drugstore blush, I have to say the texture is amazing.   It was sooo buttery and pigmented.  As you can see in the non-flash, heavier swatch, it almost reads a light reddish color if you don't blend it out.  For fairer skin, this may seem intimidating.  I used just the lightest wash and you could very much tell I had it on.  But it is really lovely, and a cheap option if you haven't cashed in on the NARS Orgasm trend yet.

Here's a look I did using The Charming Cockatoo's Gaze and Blush.  I followed the instructions that were attached to the display, applying each color as described above.  The pictures aren't of the greatest quality so the eyeshadow doesn't look like such a big deal, but I really love it.   It's really great for blue eyes, as the warmer pinks contrast the blue in the eyes, while the steely blue grey accents them.