Kanebo Lunasol 15th Anniversary Makeup Palette

I go through phases with Western and Eastern beauty brands, and judging from the title, you can probably tell that I am back on my Asian cosmetics kick. Lunasol will always hold a special place in my heart as the first high end Japanese makeup brand that started my uphill Japanese cosmetics climb. Jill Stuart followed closely afterwards, and then Suqqu.

Being on the higher end of Kanebo's family tree, I would say that Lunasol is geared more towards the 25+, working age crowd. That said, Lunasol's eyeshadows -- while almost always in the neutrals zone -- are consistently chock full of microglitter and shimmer. If you are one to shy away from shimmer or deem such finishes inappropriate for the office, their eyeshadows are not for you. Matte eyeshadows simply do not exist in the world of Lunasol (nor most other Japanese beauty brands actually.) Take a look.

Eyeshadows:
-Eyeshadow #1: This is straight up, multi-dimensional glitter and serves as a topcoat over the other eyeshadows. Much softer in texture than Tom Ford with no fallout issues whatsoever.
-Eyeshadow #2: Shimmery white, this is the least shimmery of the bunch and serves as an excellent inner corner highlight.
-Eyeshadow #3: Shimmery and metallic light beige with microglitter, this works beautifully as an all over lid color.
-Eyeshadow #4: Shimmery and metallic beige with stronger pink undertones and microglitter, this is another great all over lid color.
-Eyeshadow #5: Shimmery and metallic light bronze, this is probably the smoothest color of the six and extremely soft in texture.
-Eyeshadow #6: Shimmery dark brown with gold shimmer, this is my favorite as it is ultra-pigmented and blends like a dream, with minimal fallout.

Lunasol eyeshadows have always impressed me, but these simply take the cake in terms of ease of use, pigmentation, and lasting power -- easily 10 hours with no fading at all over primer! What sets this palette apart from the other Lunasol quads I own is that I can easily pick up the shades with my eyeshadow brushes, and the color in the pan is the color I saw on my lids. In the past, I had always turned to the sponge tip applicators and/or fingers in order to intensify most of my Lunasol (and other Japanese brand) eyeshadows, as they tend to be more sheer than their Western counterparts. More sheer, yet still as high of a quality as they get though!

Face and Cheek:
-Face powder: Despite the division in the pan, I'm going to just call it the face powder as a whole. The left side is reminiscent of Guerlain Meteorites, albeit a more stark and sparkly version, whereas the right side is your traditional setting powder suitable for those up to NC/NW25 skin tones.
-Blusher: This is also divided, with one half being peachy-coral and the other half being rosy pink. I would not call either shimmery, although they do give a noticeable glow when applied. Buildable in pigmentation and blends effortlessly, this really took me by surprise.

I had minor gripes with both products. With the face powder, it was next to impossible to solely pick up product from one half of the pan unless I went in with a blush brush. Eventually, I gave up and just swirled a powder brush across the entire pan, and surprisingly, it gave the perfect balance of mattifying and illuminating finish to my face. My biggest gripe with the blusher was the utter fact that Lunasol decided to stamp '15th Lunasol' in bronzey, chocolate brown lettering. I practically had to take off the top layers of the blush in order to remove any traces of said bronze-copper shades to prevent myself from looking as though I had mistakenly dipped my blush brush into the eyeshadows instead! Apart from that, I was very happy with how well the face powder and blusher wore on me.

Extras:
-Liquid Lips: To be honest, this was a sheer gloss on my pigmented lips despite the peachy-coral color in the tube. It did wear comfortably with no tingling sensation and kept my lips hydrated though.
-High Stylized Mascara: Nothing to write home about, as I did not see any lengthening nor volumizing effects with this. Then again, I am probably not the best person to judge non-waterproof mascaras, seeing how I only wear them a handful of times throughout the year.

Lunasol really knocked it out of the park with this all-in-one palette. It did come with sponge tip applicators and a brush that was rather useless, but as I had mentioned before, I didn't feel the need for the applicators this time around. I had never tried Lunasol's face and cheek products before, so this was a great way for me to try the rest of the line, and I can see myself picking up a few more blushers in the future. Despite the palette looking rather travel-friendly, I would advise not traveling with it (or be extremely careful if you do.) When I received mine, bits and pieces of the face powder had gotten all over the palette, so I did spend quite a bit of time wiping everything down. I think that just goes to show the soft nature of the products, but it does not detract from the overall quality at all!

The 15th Anniversary palette is -- as you might have guessed -- limited edition, so if you fancy snagging a collector's piece that is functional and actually delivers, I would recommend getting your hands on it soon. I had seen this palette running anywhere from $90-$110 USD, which is very reasonable when you break down the cost of this palette for each individual product.