Chantecaille haul

I cannot recommend Cheapside branch highly enough. The staff were absolutely fantastic. Anyone that is offering me champagne at 11 in the morning can’t be rated highly enough in my opinion (no, I didn’t – that’s too early even for me).

The staff introduced me to Greg, who is Chantecaille’s Head of Education. He’d flown in for a week from the States and was touring Space.NK’s stores. Despite the fact that this was his last stop he was full of enthusiasm and a real pleasure to meet. I asked him a little about the brand, which is reasonably new to me. He explained that it was founded by Sophie Chantecaille, who previously worked on Prescriptives. As her name she suggests she is French, but the family are now based in New York.

Greg firstly cleansed my face and used various skin care products. He told me that their skin care is all about reducing inflammation, and they focus heavily on botanicals, for example using rose water instead of water. You can definitely smell the rose water for some time after the product is applied so if you don’t like roses this might not be the brand for you. I thought the products smelt and felt lovely, but I would need to test them over a longer time period to see how they held up before recommending. The one product that I might be interested in is the Ultra Sun Protection which has an SPF of factor 50 and can be used as a primer, which would be great for Summer.

Greg then applied the foundation, which he told me gave a flawless finish and is often used for photo shoots for a natural effect. He used a smaller brush than certainly I would use for foundation, explaining that he liked a really precise application but only where it was needed.

Greg then handed over to Chantecaille make up artist John, who carried on with colour. We discussed the look that I wanted. I was off to an event the following day, and had my nails done in coral in preparation for that, so we decided to stick with the coral theme. John used a little concealer under my eyes, and used foundation across the eyelids as a base. Then he applied Lasting eye shadow in Coriander right across the lid. The Stylo eyeliner in black was applied right along the top lash line, and John then lined top and bottom lids in Lasting eye shadow in Smokey Topaz. John blended this to give a slightly smoky eye and told me that he prefers not to line the entire lower lash line, but just the outer centimetre. He applied mascara, which I was slightly nervous about as most non tubing mascaras really irritate me. This one was absolutely fine, so no problems there.

We finished off with some loose powder, blusher and a lip chic lipstick in Sunrise.

So, having done all of that, what was I tempted to buy? The photo above shows what I went for. The loose powder was a recommendation from a friend, so I went for that. I also picked up the Lip Chic lipstick and co-ordinating liner in Coral and the two eyeshadows in Coriander and Smokey Topaz.

The skin care was lovely but I am happy with my current regime, and well stocked on that front so resisted any purchase there. I wouldn’t buy the foundation. Although the effect once applied was lovely, and I was advised it was suitable for all skin types, I was very very oily within an hour on my T zone. The other issue for me with this foundation was that I could see it sitting in the pores round my nose and on my chin. The mascara was fine but I will stick with my Estee Lauder Double Wear.

The free gift was a full size eye shadow in Crystal and a couple of samples of cleanser and a mask in a cute blue bag. I thought it was a really nice gift.

All in all, a lovely hour long treat and I would recommend you giving it a go if Space.NK run the event again.

Chantecaille free gift, inc eyshadow in Crystal

Eyeshadow in Coriander (L) and Smokey Topaz (R)

L-R Lip liner in Coral, Lip Chic in Sunrise and NARS Niagara for comparison

Appalling on train photo of eye effect