Addiction Compact Addiction Chinoiserie

In the fall of 2018, Addiction released a large collection named Empress Orchid. Among the collection were six(!) nona eye shadow compacts with inspiration drawn from the film The Last Emperor, Compact Addiction Chinoiserie: 001 Last Emperor, 002 Eastern Jewel, 003 Rain, 004 China Girl, 005 Shanghai Breakfast, and 006 Trust Me. Each palette was said to have existing colors from the current lineup of 99, palette-only limited editions, and re-issues from previously discontinued colors.

001 Last Emperor

002 Eastern Jewel

003 Rain

004 China Girl

005 Shanghai Breakfast

006 Trust Me

 ***Stock photos courtesy of Addiction JP.

Out of the six though, I was drawn only to two: 002 Eastern Jewel and 005 Shanghai Breakfast. Meanwhile, 001 Last Emperor has unique colors that I would never wear, 003 Rain is too pastel which doesn't work well on my yellow-saturated skin tone, 004 China Girl is pretty but is dominated with similar-looking pinks and grays, and 006 Trust Me is plain yawn-inducing.

Even 005 Shanghai Breakfast has only 3 unique colors, the pale pink, bright pink, and gold. The other 6 are way too close, all in the mauve-bordeaux-burgundy-wine-purple family. So I ended up with just 002 Eastern Jewel, because all the colors in this palette look differently enough.

All remaining pictures taken in natural light without flash. 

Hoo boy! If there's one reason why I don't indulge in large palettes more often, it's because of space constraints. As expected, this compact is huge! Pretty, yes, but huge, and heavy too.

I'm pretty happy with my choice of palette though. All the colors are indeed different from each other. The palette itself has an overall theme of jewel tones (hence Eastern Jewel?) and not dominated with any specific color range. When I was looking up this collection, the most frustrating part was learning about the individual palettes and its color content. The vast majority of websites just post photos and give color descriptions instead of indicating which is existing, which is LE, and which is a re-issue. I don't know about you, but I sure don't want to purchase a huge palette only to find several duplicates I already own in singles (ahem--Celvoke!).


Anyway, I found one source, just one, with the information I was looking for. According to this website, 002 Eastern Jewel contains five existing colors that are in the current lineup (042 Arabian Ruby, 055 Never Land, 068 Nostalgia, 094 Shangri-La, and 095 Color Purple), one LE color, and three re-issued colors that were previously discontinued. Luckily for me, of the five existing colors, I actually had my eyes on 042, 055, and 068. The only one that overlapped with the singles I already own was 095 Color Purple. I guessed this much going in, so I wasn't too surprised or at all disappointed.

Other than color content, the quality of these eye shadows are as expected of Addiction: silky smooth, some are buttery, all are pigmented, and with very little to zero fall-outs. So yes, I'm quite happy to have this palette, although I won't indulge in anymore due to their large size. 

Darker versus brighter lighting

Labeled for your reference :)

Top row, left to right:
- 094 Shangri-La (ME): metallic, high intensity. Gorgeous metallic jaded red. I wasn't eyeing this color at all, but now that I have it, I love it! Thinking back now, this color was the first one that my gal-pal J. picked out when she first saw the Addiction eye shadow color board. Girl has good taste.
- LE color: satin, high intensity. Statement-making, Lady Vengeance red. This color appears matte in the pan but does swatch with a satiny sheen.
- 068 Nostalgia (P): shimmer, medium intensity. Lovely shimmery beige, a great lid wash.

Here's a comparison between 068 Nostalgia, 110 Old Town, and 069 Flashback.

Middle row, left to right:
- 095 Color Purple (ME)
- 055 Never Land (ME): metallic, high intensity. A blackened peacock green that looks like a greenish black when viewed head-on but reflects a metallic peacock green sheen at an angle. Very pretty.
- Re-issue: matte, high intensity. A matte royal blue that's so potent and pigmented it stained the spot on the back of my hand where it was swatched!

095 Color Purple duplicates

Re-issue matte royal blue versus 096 Blue Moon.

Bottom row, left to right:
- 042 Arabian Ruby (ME): shimmer, high intensity. Deep eggplant. Despite the (ME) designation, this color isn't metallic, at least not to me. Don't get me wrong, it's still a gorgeous color and I still love it regardless.
- Re-issue: shimmer, high intensity. A matte-based inky blue with floating brighter blue shimmers. Makes a nice liner!
- Re-issue: metallic high shimmer, very sheer. A champagne that appears translucent when looked at directly but is sparkly and metallic at an angle.

Here are (left to right) 043 Dangerous Liaison, 087 Gypsy Queen, 136 Black Rose (a brand new acquisition, will post next!), and 042 Arabian Ruby.   

Of the above four, I thought 087 Gypsy Queen was most similar to 042 Arabian Ruby. 087 has just a touch more red 042 more black, but honestly once blended out it'd be splitting hair to tell between the two. 

Here are the re-issue champagne versus 139 Soprano (another new acquisition, will post next) and 092 Mariage.

Close up of top and middle rows.

Close up of middle and bottom rows.