Dior Diorskin Nude Air Glow Powder, Diorblush Sculpt & Polka Dots Colour & Dots Manicure Kit!

Dior surprised me this year by turning out a collection inspired by milky polka dots… judging from the colors, there is a sort of 70’s retro flare to the inspiration, which is a rather strange direction to go for a summer collection.  I wished they had taken the prints all the way, print them all over the cases and emboss them on the surface of the powders!  That would have made the entire collection more memorable, but as it is, the entire collection from the 2 eyeshadow quints down to the bronzers look very reminiscent of the last 2 summers.  I really wasn’t planning on picking anything up at all, but then I saw Lily’s post and was immediately sold on the Diorskin Nude Air Glow Powder!  And as I was in the boutique already, I picked up 1 of the Polka Dots Colour & Dots Manicure Kits out of curiosity, and spied the Diorblush Sculpt in stock at last and picked 1 up as well.  Since I have just a random selection of things, this is not really a typical Summer 2016 collection review, but a bit of a shopping haul post for a change!

I have been on a low-buy since the beginning of the year, and I wanted to be sure that whatever I pick up, I will use more than once.  And so far, I am happy to say that I have been rather enjoying the few items that I picked up here!

Dior Diorskin Nude Air Glow Powder (025) Fresh Rose is 1 of 2 limited edition illuminating compact face powders this season.  It is interesting that this year Dior has released as many as 4 different versions of this powder, Fresh Rose and Fresh Coral (015) are exclusive to Asia, whereas US and EU got Fresh Tan (001) and Fresh Light (002).  For a look at all 4 of them, feel free to hop on over to Beautygeeks for pictures!

Fresh Rose is not just pretty in the pan, but it has a meltingly-soft texture and leaves a beautiful fresh glow on the skin.  The powder is mostly a pale pink-beige with a satin-matte finish, but if you add on the lilac from the letters “U” and “D”, you will get a much brighter, lavender-hued powder with a touch of shimmer!  So it is quite a versatile compact if you moderately fair, simply concentrate your brush on the quadrants bearing the letters “N” and “E” for all over face powder; or sweep more over the other 2 quadrants to use as a highlighter!

Earlier this year, Dior released 4 Diorblush Sculpt Professional Contouring Blush Powder, but these are only just making their way to Singapore.  2 of them are limited edition, and I have 1 of them here – 001 Pink Shape.  For a look at more of them, feel free to head on over to Ommorphia’s blog.

Pink Shape consists of a medium salmon-pink blush with a satin finish, and a pale champagne highlighter with a fine shimmery finish.  Compared to Diorskin Nude Air Glow Powder in Fresh Rose above, the highlighter in Pink Shape is much less shimmery and is in reality quite muted and easy to wear on a daily basis.  You may even buff both shades together for a luminous flush on the apples of the cheeks!  I’m very fond of the color, and Dior has gotten the pigmentation of this Diorblush Sculpt Blush Powder just perfect as it is not easy to overdo, and yet does not require multiple layers for the color to show up.  My only complain is that the brush is really useless for my purpose, and takes up far too much space.  I wished they made the split pans larger as they are currently too small for a regular cheek brush to pick up properly.

Lastly, I picked up 1 of the Polka Dots Colour & Dots Manicure Kits in 001 Pastilles.  There are 3 sets to choose from, and all the sample swatches on display at the boutique looked so cute, I had a hard time deciding.  Finally I went with 001 Pastilles as that blue is something unusual, whereas the shades in the other 2 duos were pretty much dupeable from my existing stash.  If you’d like to take a look at all 3 of them, please check out Sara’s blog review on them!

Generally, I like Dior’s nail polish formula, and I’m a fan of their limited edition nail art kits from previous years [such as this, and this].  So I was quite excited to see the return of these kits this year.  I mean yes you can probably pick up a dotting tool for pennies anywhere, but one with Dior printed on it??  I wanted to do something different from the all-over polka dots that everybody else is showcasing (and as it turned out, even creating a nice fat rounded dot required a level of skills that I don’t have!), so I created a variant, and threw in some confetti from Dior’s Spring 2015 Eclosion Blossoming Top Coat [reviewed here].  The blue shade is an easy one coat wonder, whilst the the beige has a lovely self-levelling consistency.  Absolutely no streaks, and fast drying – thank you Dior!

Dior makes some lovely powders, and this season’s Diorskin Nude Air Glow Powder in Fresh Rose is a winner for me.  I’ve collected several Dior blushes in the past, always for their beautiful designs, but Diorblush Sculpt Professional Contouring Blush Powder in Pink Shape is my current favorite.  And when worn together, this is how they look on me:

Please pardon the crazy hair… I have a lot of difficulties capturing the glow on my camera, and this is the best I could do without a ring light.  But take my word for it, it’s pretty and wearable!

Have you picked up anything from Dior lately?