Sephora & Pantone Universe Limited Edition Collectors Set & Swatches!

As soon as I saw this set by Pantone & Sephora, to celebrate the Color of the Year for 2012, which is Tangerine, I knew I had to have it.

Normally I don't wear bold makeup, but for work I have to be extremely conservative and wear my hair completely back/up, so I've found myself wanting more bold looks for my days off.

The Pantone & Sephora Collaboration has a whole host of products to choose from, and then they even did an "inspired by" line of Sephora products, which was pretty clever too!

The packaging for the Pantone Collectors Edition box is super impressive, well designed and cleanly executed. Everything comes in a beautiful white rectangular box that they had in a sleeve so it did not get damaged while shipping.

Opening the lid reveals a Pantone chart of orange colors, which is cute and a clever way of putting the theme in without making the entire box Tangerine colored.

Being against the white background really makes all the products pop.

From left to right are: Eyeliner in Tangerine Tango Twist, Eyeshadow Quad containing the colors
Scallop Shell, Pantone #12-1010 (nude),  Carnelian, Pantone #16-1435 (orange) , Sparrow, Pantone #18-1404 (plum) & Pavement, Pantone #19-3900 (black glitter). , Cream Blusher in Apricot Brandy, Blusher Duo with the colors Coral, Pantone #16-1539 (pinkish orange with gold shimmer) & Desert Flower, Pantone #15-1435 (light orange matte)
, Lipstick in Tangerine Tango Cream, and Lipgloss in Tangerine Tango Luminous, Pantone #17-1463 (tangerine with shimmer)


One small thing that could have been better thought out was the inclusion of 3 blushes into this box. It seems as though they could have at least included one nail polish out of the collection instead and made the pricepoint a bit lower. The reason I went with this whole set is because I wanted the lipstick, the eyeshadow set, and the blusher duo, and this box is about the same price as those three. But it's disappointing that there are no nail polishes out of the set included here.

I took photos of each product out of the box, individually, to give you all a better view of what they really look like. For some reason, on the lipstick, Sephora made it look more smooth than it actually does. The texture is really lovely on it, so I wanted to share that. There are also swatches on my hand. My skintone is NW15 in Mac, Ivory in most foundations, and Light in Bare Minerals. Even though I'm extremely fair, I'm warm toned, so I feel like these colors really work with me, but I do have to be careful not to overdo it. (All photos are clickable to view them full size) The lipstick has a very creamy, smooth texture, and a light scent to it that smells almost fruity. I am not bothered by the scent, but if you are sensitive, I would suggest going in the store to test it to double check that it does not make you react.
 The packaging and the shape of this lipstick are so so gorgeous. Very reminiscent of old school glamour, but with a modern twist since the case snaps on magnetically. 

 This is the blusher duo in Coral & Desert Flower, from Left to Right.
The coral color swatched extremely sheer on me, I'm really not sure if it would show up very well on a darker skintone, since it barely was visible on my extremely pale hand.
It's not very pigmented, but the formula is nice and smooth, and it's a matte color.
Desert Rose is much more pigmented, and showed up a vivid gold shimmer flecked coral. I think it's beautiful, but the shimmer might be offputting to some. The packaging for this is pretty neat, it continues the magnetic theme, those 4 little dots in each corner are magnet, which holds the lid on.

 Next is the cream blusher in Apricot Brandy. This one comes in a square white compact, with a mirror. The product has the swirl pattern that the lipstick and the Desert Rose color have. I think it's a pretty effect, especially with the color of the blusher.
This one is not extremely pigmented either. On my hand it went on as a gold wash of color, so I might end up using this as an eyeshadow instead.





Next is the lipgloss, in the color Tangerine Tango Luminous. Originally I thought this was the Vivid color, but this has shimmer in it. It's a bright tangerine color with little flecks of gold shimmer in it, and a regular sponge applicator.

Lastly, we have the eyeliner in Tangerine Tango Twist. It's a fire red-orange color with gold glitter in it. On my skintone it looks odd as eyeliner, because it's so reddish colored and my skin is warm toned. I think this would look fantastic on people with darker skin tones because it would stand out and contrast more.
On me it looks a little too red and just looks odd. I have to layer eyeshadow and smudge it out a bit for it not to look so drastic. I'm sure you could just as easily use this as a lipliner instead, but I haven't tried that out yet.

 Here are the swatches! Again, my skintone is NW15 in M.A.C, and I'm a warm toned Ivory, and these photos are clickable to view full sized.










From left to right, top to bottom, we have top left being the Eyeliner, below it is the Desert Flower Blush, then Coral Blush.
Top right is the Apricot Brandy Blush, which just looks like a gold highlight on me, then middle right is the Tangerine Tango Lipgloss, and finally, the Tangerine Tango Lipstick.
Unfortunately the lighting is really bad in my house so it makes things look more cool toned than they actually are.

 Here's a photo of the same swatches with my overhead light on, just so you can see what they look like warmed up a little bit.

Next, I have some swatches of the eyeshadow quad:

From Left to Right we have: Scallop Shell, which is a nice cream colored shimmer neutral and a color I wear almost everyday!, Then Carnelian, a red orange with gold shimmer. I like to layer some of my Revlon Cream Eyeshadow in yellow over it, just to make it not so bright. Then there is Sparrow, the Plum color, and Pavement, black with glitter.

Of the 4, I would say Sparrow is the most disappointing. It's supposed to be Plum, but it just looks like a slightly off black on me.

The colors, as I am sure you can see, are not terribly pigmented. The most pigmented is the Carnelian color, which looks like an extremely bright fire red orange on me. The formula is smooth and not chalky at all though, and they pat on really nicely. I use my fingers to apply eyeshadow, and there were no streaking issues.

My favorite product, the one I would say is the "must have" out of this set is the lipstick. It's beautifully crafted, the color is unique but not garish, and it will be perfect for summer. It's definitely fun to have the whole set to play around with, but I don't think that the blushes or the eyeshadows are particularly unique, or pigmented enough for the price that they are. You're better off looking for drugstore dupes for those, in my opinion.
That said, it's nice to own the set as a whole. I plan on going to Sephora and picking up the nail polish set.

Also, supposedly, they will be releasing different versions of this set throughout the year for the various seasons. I am extremely interested in what the Summer Set of this will look like, and hope that they up the pigmentation in the products.

Hopefully this helps out anyone who is interested in what the colors look like, or who was curious about the set.
Thank you so much for reading!
If you pick up the set, let me know! Or if you pick up individual products, let me know what your favorites are.
xoxo