Shiseido Camellia Compact

When Shiseido's Camellia Compact came out a couple months ago to commemorate their 140th anniversary, I was immediately smitten. It's a beautiful compact, the flower design on the inside is gorgeous, and the shades are totally up my alley. Oh, and it's limited edition, and we all know how I'm a sucker for limited edition products. But because I was trying to budget my personal spending in December, I didn't pick it up right away. It worked out for the better, though, because my friend that works at Shiseido gifted me her gratis Camellia Compact for Christmas. The limited edition compact was "inspired by Shiseido's symbolic camellia trademark... and features shimmering face colour powder in shades of vividly rich rose, spring petal pink, and icy cool platinum... that can be worn alone or blended to create beautiful depth and dimension as a blush or highlighter." Each powder is housed in a black plastic mirrored compact featuring a red camellia design with Shiseido's signature logo on the lid. It contains 6.5 grams of product, and retails for $38.

Three shades swatched separately

Three shades blended together

The Camellia Compact features three shades: 

The first shade is a dark vibrant brick red with gold micro-shimmer. It has a soft, silky, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has intense pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is much warmer than MAC Frankly Scarlet, slightly darker and more red than MAC Burnt Pepper (PRO), darker and warmer than Tarte Natural Beauty, warmer and less pink than NARS Outlaw, and slightly brighter and more red than NARS Taos. 

The second shade is a medium warm petal pink with subtle silver micro-shimmer. It has a soft, silky, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is warmer and brighter than Dame, more pink than MAC Pinch O' Peach, slightly darker and less yellow than MAC Dainty Mineralize Blush, warmer and less bright than Tarte Dollface, and lighter and much warmer than NARS Mata Hari. 

The third shade is a pale icy white with a soft shimmer-sheen. It has a soft, silky, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium pigmentation and semi-opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is similar though perhaps less frosted than MAC Crystal Avalanche Eyeshadow. 

When the three shades are swirled together, they create a medium-dark warm reddened rose with a soft shimmer-sheen. It has a soft, silky, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. Together, it has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is more reddened than MAC Pinch Me, slightly more pink than MAC Gleeful Mineralize Blush, and less brown than NARS Dolce Vita.

In a word, gorgeous. The texture across the three shades is so soft, so finely-milled that it just glides on the skin like silk. The shades blend together to create a really universally flattering shade, and really will suit all skintones from fair to dark. The compact as a whole does lean on the warmer side, but not so warm that those with cooler undertones wouldn't be able to use it. I like that there's also some versatility to this compact; you can use the shades separately, combine any two, or use all three together (which is my preference for using this compact). There's just enough micro-shimmer in it to create a beautiful, natural glow to the skin, but not so much that it looks shimmery. Consider me impressed. I had never thought much of Shiseido's make-up in general, but this compact is making me seriously re-consider taking a look at their other products.