The Best Swatches...

The best swatch photos are perfectly clear, evenly lit, accurately depicted and labelled. Arm swatches should be thick and tidy.Full face in context photos should be provided. Full face swatch photos also are perfectly clear, evenly lit, and accurately depicted and labelled. The best swatch photos are hard to do.

Taking product photos and swatches can be a struggle in variable light and I'm still trying to figure out the most optimal lighting and setting situations in my place. Coupled with laziness and the thought that, really, if you wanted, you could go elsewhere for better swatches on and you end up with my middle-ground of swatching and product photography. 

When I was taking photos of the new Dior Lip Addict and Vernis shades, I debated over creating photos that I wanted or what I felt I 'had to do'. The battle related to in-context-on-face lip swatches. I didn't quite have the time or patience that day and since I want to to establish my blog as a beauty diary rather than a place for clinical product reviews, I figured, eh. Then I thought long and hard about how difficult it was to take pleasing informative photos, how I disliked my lighting situation and I spiralled into a small "F-this" moment.

Anyways,

that experience says nothing about the new Dior product themselves which have the misfortune of being owned by me,  who could but barely showcase how pretty the tubes and shades are. I have failed you, Dior.

Dior Addict*($42CDN, 0.12oz) 451 Tribale (pearly coral), 553 Smile (pinky nude), 561 Wonderful (fresh baby pink), and 976 Be Dior (raspberry) are the four iconic It Shades of Dior and can be paired with the corresponding shade of Dior Vernis* ($28CDN, 0.33oz). The 44 shades of lipstick promise long lasting color with dazzling shine. They have a gel core formula which produces intense color with a long lasting top coat. The lipsticks plump lips and come in three finishes: pure color, shimmer and pearlescent.

The plastic tube has also been redesigned and now has a silver Dior logo.

The Lip Addicts are glossy, sheer in texture but layerable and stay on the lips for maybe 3 hours. These won't last you through multiple meals or drinks but they are comfortable and hydrating on the lip. They are balmy and have a nice natural slippy feel and glide on smoothly. Some of the shades I received had fine glitter (Wonderful and Smile) in them which gave a slightly frosted look to the lip, which I didn't prefer and I found that Wonderful settled into lip lines.

If you like being matchy-matchy you can pair three of the lip colors with their coordinating nail colors. That's another thing. Nail swatches! The time it takes for me to put on and remove each shade....I commend all the nail bloggers out there.

As far as the beauty diary portion of this post goes, the Dior Lip Addicts and lip products have always been of interest to me. I like the feel of the new formulation but not necessary the shades I received. There are 44 to choose from so that means 40 other colors I could fall in love with but in reduce/purge state of mind, it is unlikely I'll dash out to buy them (unless I'm willing to let go of other things). But if you are looking for a nice tinted balmy lip color with a touch of luxury which you don't mind reapplying then you should check these out.

Daily Zen: Been watching some more KDramas lately. I just finished The Producers and am now onto Yong Pal but with the recent Emmy awards I realized I haven't watched the latest seasons of Game of Thrones or House of Cards. So much TV...so little time.

Swatches. Tell me about your struggles.