Estee Lauder Blockbuster

Well, I certainly seem to like doing more than one post at the same time, so here's today's second belated post. The topic for this one is Estee Lauder's 2008 Holiday Blockbuster, which retailed for $49.50 with any fragrance purchase or $80 skincare purchase (Nordies)

As I'm allergic to fragrance and didn't want to spend $80 on skincare, I opted to buy this set off eBay. It was even more beautiful in person than it was in product photos.

The set included a palette with 15 eyeshadows (all in their permanent line, a smaller palette with 2 blushes and a bronzer (also permanent), 3 lipsticks (permanent), 2 lipglosses, 3 brushes, an eyeliner, a mascara, and two cosmetics cases. The brushes were complete cr@p and I'm not really going to use the mascara or the eyeliner, but the rest of the set is quite nice. The brushes in this set, while kind of pretty with their gold handles, are terrible. They're quite scratchy, and aren't what I'd use for applying my makeup. They went straight into the trash for me. (If you have a pet that likes eating brushes..these are good for that) The eyeliner is a regular black pencil liner that tugged a bit, but stayed in place all day with no smudging or fading. I'm not a big fan of pencil eyeliners so it's unlikely that I'll use this again, but I kept this just in case I ever needed to draw a divider on my arm. The Gentle Eye Makeup remover is pretty decent, and is a great oil free makeup remover. It's not the best for removing waterproof makeup, but very few oil free makeup removers are good for this. This is definitely one of the better ones I've tried though, and is currently what I use to take makeup off my arm between swatches. (which feels like a waste to me, but can't use any makeup removers with oil for this) I didn't bother trying the mascara since non waterproof mascaras don't hold curl for me.

Here's the set inside the larger case. It's a suitcase style hard case without sections. I like it, but it's pretty useless for travel in my opinion, because things will just clatter around and most likely break inside..still, it's nice.

There are 15 eyeshadows encased in a red plastic case, with per row. 13 are regular singles, while two are from one of the regular duos (Roseberry). The shadows are all smooth and buttery, but kind of sheer.

The top row contains:

Vanilla: Very light shimmery yellow/gold

Ginger Drop: shimmery light orange..more on the yellow side than red

Sand Box: matte nudey beige

Amethyst: satiny? blue-purple. Looking at it closely, it seems like a purple with blue shimmer

Bronze Cube: this is close to matte, but has very very tiny bronze shimmer. It's not quite satiny either.

The 2nd row contains the following shades:

Camoflage: Satiny olive green
Cinnamon: Shimmery light brown. On the warm side

Honey Drop: Satiny light pink (more shimmery than the other ones I've said were satiny so far..those were closer to matte)
Mocha Cup: shimmery taupey lavender on my arm

Pale Moon: satiny pinky lilac

3rd Row:

Mink: Dusty matte purple-brown

Ivory Box: satiny shimmery very light pink

Roseberry Duo (Berry): Matte dusty lavendar with gold shimmer

Roseberry Duo (Rose): somewhat coolish pink with silver shimmers

Sugar Cube: shimmery white shade

Here's the blush palette.The bronzer is Bronze Goddess. This seems to be a favorite of Estee Lauder's for GWPs. This appears to be a warm brown with copper shimmer dispersed throughout he bronzer. On my arm though it appears to be matte.

Nude Rose: Matte brown-pink

Pink Kiss: Slightly peachy pink. It has some gold shimmer in it in the pan, but it's just mildly glowy on..still mostly matte though

The three lippies that came with this set were encased in gold tubes and are full sized products. They have the standard Estee lauder scent to them.
Sugar Honey is a warm brown-pink. It's not quite matte, but ha very low shine

Bois de Rose is another GWP favorite of Estee Lauder. It's a warm pink, with some orangey-brown undertones to it

Pink Champagne is my favorite of the three of these. It's got more of a glossy finish than the other two and is sheerer as well. it's a nice warm pink color

This set also came with two of Estee Lauder's high glosses. (Rose and Berry). These glosses are scented, but it's a bit difficult for me to place what they smell like (they've got an odd perfumey taste to them too). They're not completely nonsticky, but they're still nice.

These glosses, while absolutely gorgeous in the tube are rather sheer on, which I suppose makes them good for topping lipsticks. Rose is a light pink shade with gold shimmer. This is the more opaque of the two.
Berry is a simple sheer light pink gloss. There isn't much color payoff for this one, but I like it nonetheless

I hope you've enjoyed this post. Please let me know if the new font is difficult to read as a label. As a bonus, and to show just how long I've been putting off labeling and posting these swatches...here's my cat. From her size there, I'd say she was 4 or 5 months old..so I've been putting this off for at least a month. She takes great interest in my swatching activities..I didn't even notice her paw was on the mirror of this palette until after I saw the picture..but as she's never actually TOUCHED the makeup itself, I suppose it's fine. I also have to apologize for any typos in this post and future posts..my laptop's keyboard is a bit on the fritz and doesn't always register my input.