♥s..

Yup. 2009 Kanebo Lunasol holiday set. No, it's not a typo. When I purchased it last year, I didn't have a blog. Now that I do and it's getting closer to the holidays, I thought I'd share.

If there could be a brand that I can say I absolutely adored without even touching a single product, it would have been Kanebo Lunasol. My love of this brand was completely irrational. Then again, love is usually irrational and makes us do crazy things. Over a year ago, I was dying, dying, dying to get my hands on SOMETHING Lunasol. There were online stores that sold it, but I was hesitant to pay so much money for something I haven't even seen in person. What if it was just pretty colors and packaging with no substance? No soul? I looked around for a local brick and mortar store that sold it. Alas, I always came home empty-handed. So I had no choice but to purchase online. Then I had to decide which palette to get.. lol.

Isn't that cute? When you open the box, it wishes you a Merry Christmas. :D (easily amused)

After much mulling (by mulling, I mean staring at pictures for weeks), I finally decided on the Party Coffret (2009) set since it had several products. I thought that while it was kind of expensive, it was a better value than just purchasing an eyeshadow palette on its own. Not that I didn't drool over almost every single other Lunasol palette (or products in general). At $50+ per palette, I just couldn't afford to treat them like Pokemon.

This is the white sequined pouch that came with the set. As you can see, it's got little squared off sequins all over it. Usually, I dislike sequins, but I think this was done tastefully. It has a little pocket inside, and the zipper says Lunasol. I haven't used it yet because I'm afraid it will get dingy, but it's cute.

As you can see, the set comes with Lighting for Eyes EX05 White Lighting, Germinate Liner EX03 White Lighting, Full Glamour Gloss EX11 White Lighting, and Shining Powder EX03 White Lighting. I'm not really sure if the eyeliner, lip gloss, and face powder are full sized since I don't have anything for reference.

The centerpiece of the set: the Lighting for Eyes EX05 White Lighting palette. Typically, Lunasol's packaging is a metallic bronze, but for this set the packaging is a shimmery white. I like the normal packaging a little more, but this is nice as well. Am I the only one who finds it amusing that they have diagrams for suggested use? They probably made it with makeup n00bs just like me in mind.. lol. The diagram was found on the bottom of the box set. I translated the Katakana for you so sorry if I got it wrong lol. My Japanese is super rusty and terribad in general.

It's not as obvious looking at the photo of the palette, but you can see from the swatches that these shadows are rather shimmery. The most being the lighting powder shade. I mostly avoid this one and use the rest due to how crazy glittery/shimmery it is. The shadows apply very smoothly, and are nicely pigmented. I experienced a tiny bit of fallout from the shadows (especially the dark grey one), but it's not a deal-breaker. They crease over time for me (no surprise there.. stupid oily lids), but a good eyeshadow primer fixes that. Overall, I think it's a very cute color combination although maybe not for everyday use. It holds a special place in my heart because it's my first Lunasol eyeshadow palette. ♥

The Germinate Liner EX03 White Lighting (liquid eyeliner) and Full Glamour Gloss EX11 White Lighting (lip gloss).

The Germinate Liner and Full Glamour Gloss included in the set are little beyond a clear substance acting as the vehicle for tons of glitter. I have found them to be extremely limited in normal use, but it's a matter of preference (and occasion). I'm not sure if they are full-sized items, but no matter because I use them so rarely that they will probably last me for the rest of my life lol.

The Shining Powder EX03 White Lighting is for face highlight. Well, I think so anyway.. I can't imagine using such a sparkly white powder all over your face :x.

Before I took these pictures, I've never even opened this face powder. It seems too sparkly for me, but I might be able to use for special occasions.. lol. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think that little puff is so cute! ^^ It's really soft, and I'm going to keep it to use for other things.

Overall Thoughts

If you can really use every single product in the set, I'd say yes this would be a good value. For me, I only use the eyeshadow palette and only rarely the Germinate Liner (under normal circumstances I don't think I can use a glitter laced eyeliner.. just not my style) so I don't think this set was worth the price I paid for it so I kind of regret choosing it over getting a standalone eyeshadow palette. However, this set does reaffirm for me that Lunasol products are good quality, but it's not as high on my list as say Chanel or Dior in a similar price range. The markup really reflects how much shipping from Japan affects the price. So I think that if you can get Lunasol products close to what they actually retail for in Japan, they would be amazing (and I SOOO envy youuu!). Unfortunately for myself, I don't have any female friends (or COOL guy friends.. cough) visiting Japan to help me out. That being said, would I still buy Lunasol at the higher price?? Hellz ya! lol. I'm still in love with Lunasol, and totally drooling over this year's Coffret set. :P I think you can still buy the 2009 set online somewhere if you so desire. I might have seen it on Imomoko or mihokofamily. I bought mine for around $75-80 @ Imomoko(? I forget). It might be cheaper now, but limited in quantity. Personally, I'd skip it and get this year's. It looks like it has more usable items this time around!

Sorry this post was maybe a little too picture heavy; I was being lazy and didn't want to crop several together. :x

I've been having such GREAT AMAZING FUN TIMES at work lately. I hope you can detect my sarcasm. I need some serious retail therapy. The holiday collections for so many brands this year are so gorgeous (Guerlain, I'm looking at you!!). So are a couple non-holiday things.. >> Ya, I knew my self-ban on new makeup purchases wouldn't last (due to my ever-wavering willpower lol).