Lavshuca Pure Blossoming Eyes Limited Edition Set

So I'm a bit upset with the Japanese cosmetics makers. They say one thing, but they do something else. The release date for these Lavshuca Pure Blossoming Eyes Limited Edition Sets is just one example. This screen cap clearly says May 1, and prior to this, the new release on Lavshuca's website also said May 1. It makes you think that these items are going to be released, i.e. going on sale starting May 1, right? Wrong.

***Picture from Lavshuca.

Friday night was N.'s birthday party in Shibuya. So while hubby was in class up in Ikebukuro, I went around Yokohama shopping for a bday present for N. As usual, in trip include perusing my favorite drugstore stops and foreign food shops, just to resupply our Twinings and jams. Then lo-and-behold I spotted the display for these Pure Blossoming Eyes Limited Edition! I checked my cellphone, thinking I'd been a vampire for so long I'd lost track of my time and date. Nope, it was friday April 27. And yet these limited edition sets were already on sale. The worst part? The displayed were completely empty - they were already sold out! My next rational thought was that this particular drugstore is somehow "special" in that it gets "first dibs," which explains why it got the merchandise so early on in the process that it had time to sell out the items! I went on to check out my other usual drugstores, only to find that they too had the same freakin' exact same emptied out display! Garrhhh!!! What is this, a bizarrely warped reverse Asian time continuum in which instead of being 30 minutes late to the agreed time you're a week early?!?

Pure Blossoming Eyes Limited Edition Sets PK Pink Variation and PU Purple Variation. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

Luckily I have a small secret in a somewhat hidden drugstore that is usually the last place to sell out of anything limited edition. And what do you know, they have just 2 of the PK Pink Variation and exactly only 1 PU Purple Variation left! I grabbed 1 of each color, of course, still seething for being this close to missing out on them! Seriously, I feel deceived and lied to, because this is not the first time it happened. In fact, this happened with, like, every other popular limited edition item there was! They'd always say it'd be released on a certain date, but I'd be in the store on that day and the stuff would be sold out! Now either the ladies here just have lightning fast hands or the items came out early, and I'll bet my money on the latter. Grr...

PK Pink Variation

Oh and get this, at all these drugstores, I also spotted 2 sets of Kate Metallic Eyes Limited Edition in Brown and Pink Series. They looked like a brand new release, either on that very day or just a day or two prior as the stocks were still completely full. I have not seen these before in advertisements or in the brand's news release. They might have made an appearance in a magazine, but I haven't bought any magazine lately other than the Liniere May 2012 and Sweet April 2012, and I don't recall seeing anything in these two issues. When I got home later that night, I went online to check. To my surprise, I couldn't find a mentioning of them anywhere on Kate's website. I even googled "Kate Metallic Eyes" and nothing showed up either! WTF, a "surprise" release? Anyway, I didn't get these Kate palettes because the pink and brown color schemes were too warm a copycat of Lavshuca Star Decoration Eyes Limited Editions. But we'll see. The next time I go out, if they're still there may be I'll pick them up for kicks, especially if they're still unadvertised. Urgh. Manipulative marketing ploys irritate me, but enough ranting.

PU Purple Variation

These Pure Blossoming Eyes Limited Edition Sets are utterly gorgeous, down to the paper box they came in! Just look at all those pretty and colorful flowers! So very summer! I feel like Lavshuca is going all out with this summer release. Check out that compact! It's in the same shape as the Star Decoration Eye compacts, only with lovely pink rose prints adorning the pale pink metallic lid. And wow, let's talk about that eye base, or at least that crazy lace cutout overlay on its surface. I absolutely adore it, but when did drugstore makeup get so...intricate? I almost didn't swatch these bases because I didn't want to ruin their pretty overlays!!

And as expected, the overlaid lace cutout of creamy shimmers melted upon contact, and I had to press a bit even to get to the actual base underneath, which is a matte cream. The shimmers are very fine, and when mixed well it lightens the base by at least one shade, depends on how much of it you mix. In addition, the mix gives a glowy wet finish upon application. I do wish the entire base is like that, because after blending, the mix brightens as well as evens out the lids, bringing out the eye shadows and making their colors more vivid. The matte cream base by itself is translucent after blending, and while it does even out the lid and bring out the shadow colors it does not brighten. To get a swatch of just the matte cream base I used a brush to dig a hole and avoid the shimmery cream, then I painted the base on using the same brush.

Clear Stay Eye Base PK

Clear Stay Eye Base BE

As for the eye shadows, they are quite silky smooth. The colors are on the light side, but the liner shades are very pigmented - their swatches were done with just 1 layer! There are a couple of minor disappointments, the first and foremost being some inconsistencies between the two palettes in terms of pigmentation and finish. The second minor disappointment is the fact that the highlighter shade as well as the actual eye base (underneath that fancy surface decoration) in both sets are nearly identical. Sure, they look different in the picture, and if you stare at them long enough or pile them on thickly enough, you'll see the slight difference, but otherwise they're indistinguishable after blending. I haven't actually worn either the eye shadow or the base, so I can't comment on how either performs or their lasting power.

- PK Pink Variation: a warm mauvey pink palette that's not too warm for me ^.^ This palette features a shimmery top wash with fine and dense shimmer particles instead of the usual larger bits that provides the super sparkling effect. Also, the liner shade is shimmery, probably more so than other liner shades I've used. This palette is more pigmented and more metallic than the PU Purple Variation below.

  

- Top: crease shade, metallic, medium intensity. A pigmented warm beige pink.
- Middle: shimmery top wash, shimmer, very sheer. A warm petal pink. The finer and denser shimmers yield a semi-metallic finish with a brighter and cooler pink sheen. This shade is nowhere as sparkly as top washes go, so the result is a more sophisticated glow instead of magical sparkles.
- Left: liner shade, semi-metallic, high intensity. A warm rosy brown with silver shimmers. It is surprisingly more shimmery than most liner shades I've used. If you layer it you will see that it's semi-metallic. It is also very pigmented. Check out the swatch - that's just one layer!
- Right: base/highlighter shade, semi-metallic, low intensity. A pale shell pink that's on the cool side.


- Clear Stay Eye Base PK:
- With the creamy shimmers: a pale milky pink color with fine shimmers. It looks opaque at first, but after blending it becomes more translucent with a brightening effect.
- Without the creamy shimmers: a matte pinky nude skin color. Again, looks opaque and concealer-like but is also translucent after blending. No brightening effect here.


Base swatches on left half of the picture, far left swatch is without the creamy shimmers and next to it is with the creamy shimmers. See how the creamy shimmers totally lightens up the base?

- PU Purple Variation: a cool pink and purple palette with a gorgeous pairing of a lemony yellow top wash and a deep bluish purple liner color. In comparison to the PK palette, the top wash has larger shimmer particles but still isn't super duper sparkly, and no semi-metallic finish or different color sheen, the liner shade is not as shimmery, and the crease shade is neither metallic or as pigmented, which is too bad because it's so pretty.


- Top: crease shade, shimmer, low intensity. A shimmery lilac that's not as metallic or pigmented as I would like.
- Middle: sparkling top wash, high shimmer, very sheer. A lemony yellow. And while it has high shimmers, there are no wet diamond sparkles. But hey, the color is really pretty!
- Left: liner shade, shimmer, medium intensity. A gorgeous deep bluish purple. I don't care if it's not as shimmery as the liner shade in the PK palette. I love it!
- Right: base/highlighter shade, semi-metallic, low intensity. A pale and cooler shell pink that's not exactly discernible to the base/highlighter shade in the PK palette.


- Clear Stay Eye Base BE:
- With the creamy shimmers: a pale milky ocre with fine shimmers. Again it looks opaque, but after blending it becomes more translucent with a brightening effect.
- Without the creamy shimmers: a matte nude skin color that's only slightly less pinky than the base in the PK palette. Again, it looks opaque and concealer-like but is also translucent after blending. No brightening effect here either.


Same here, base swatches on left half of the picture, far left swatch is without the creamy shimmers and next to it is with the creamy shimmers.