Must Try ::: Designers Do Beauty

Photo: George Chinsee via WWD

With a "Less is More" mantra, and a line consisting of just four simple, and beautifully packaged, cosmetics products to accompany a small bath and body line and a fragrance, Tory Burch is the latest designer to make her grand entrance into the world of beauty, scheduled to launch in a matter of weeks, and just a month after Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs made their own breezy splashes into this wide world of products.

Photos via The Drum

Marc Jacobs developed his line with beauty giant Sephora, and it is a line exclusive to his boutiques, his beauty website, Sephora and Sephora.com.  It seems very well thought out, and is a very expansive line, from skin to nails, and with clever names and of the moment colors mixed with well done classics and neutrals. I have had limited opportunity to play with it, but the shadows felt lovely, and the ones I tried were well pigmented, though, disclaimer, admittedly I didn't try them on my face, just on my hand using my fingers, and I went for the darker shades, nothing light. From what I could see with the polishes--I am not much of a nail person--they were quite nice, quality and colors about on par with OPI or Essie, so if there's a color that you don't see elsewhere, perhaps look to him for that, otherwise you can probably find it in OPI or similar line.  

It seemed texturally that the biggest winners within this line were the gel foundation, foundation and blush powders, concealer (needed more coverage, but a nice feel to it) and eyeliner pencils (the pencils were great!!!) and I was pretty pleased with the brushes.  This line is very much about playing with looks, and experimenting with color, and the ranges were fantastic. 

Here are a few iPhone shots from when I went to check it out this weekend:::

All five of these photos taken by me.

Both the Tory Burch and Michael Kors lines appear to be exclusive fragrance and cosmetics deals made with Esteé Lauder, a brand that knows a thing or 100 about products and fragrances. Tory's line will be exclusive to Bloomingdales, Holt Renfrew, and her website and stores. Michael's is available on his own website, and appears to be available at a number of other outlets, such as Macy's and Dillards.  I did attempt to check out the Michael Kors in person at both a Macy's and a Dillards locally, and was unable to find a store here that carried it. 

Photo: WWD

The Tory Burch line is appealing to a fresh-faced, five-minute-face, upwardly mobile kind of woman, the type which I aspire to be, but admittedly, I definitely am not...five minutes per eye, maybe.  A lip and cheek double-duty cream tint, a pressed bronzer and an accompanying travel-ready brush, and a lipstick, all in nude-ish shades.  Very much the classic, subtle, clean, kinda-sporty and outdoorsy, tomboyish, natural-beauty look she's come to embody.  She's actually quoted in a WWD article about the line saying something to that effect, even. I am a bit intrigued about the lip and cheek tint, pending inspection of ingredients, actually.  The thing that caught my eye about this line, first and foremost, was the packaging.  Well designed, looks chic and expensive and heavy, and is very Tory. 

Photo: WWD

The Michael Kors line consists of three color collections named Sporty, Sexy and Glam, each with a fragrance, bath and body products, bronzer, nail colors, glosses and lipsticks, and is much more geared to the "fashionista" out there.  The Sporty Collection is nude-based, the Sexy is red-based, and the Glam is more burgundy/violet-based.  I find that his style is a very jet-set and fashion forward mindset, still classic, but more glam than sporty, despite the name of the Sporty collection.  It's very lip-centric, which counts me out a bit, but I like the thought behind the line. It's very colorful, and I can see each season really being a unique color story. 

I find it interesting that both of the latter two lines include bronzers as an anchor in the collection, and I must seriously be behind the ball on those, because I rarely, if ever, use bronzer. Since the Marc Jacobs line is a full line, his inclusion of one is less of a surprise to me.  I embrace my serious pastiness a little more than perhaps I should...I have just not gotten into the habit of that product. 

I am looking forward to trying out bits and pieces from these lines, and I will be curious about the Tory Fragrance, as it sounds particularly clean and crisp and not particularly girly. 

Anyone else intrigued? 

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