Slowly, I am recovering from last weeks marathon. Luckily we have a long weekend so I am hoping to fully get beck on track by Tuesday. I prepared this post a week ago but couldn't post it due to time constraints. It is about this very hard to get Summer Quad of Suqqu. I am posting the review so that you might check your stash to put something together which is close and recreate the look. If you do that please write a comment to help others too.
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| Suqqu Blend Color Eyeshadow EX-20 Natsubotan |
You know my affords of learning a few Japanese words by trying to translate Suqqu Quads (and sometimes terribly failing), so to me this one means Summer (Natsu) Peony (Botan), which makes sense because of the pink shades in that one. Hope I am not totally off with my interpretation.
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| Suqqu Blend Color Eyeshadow EX-20 Natsubotan |
I have to admit I was a little nervous with that pink shade. You know rabbit eye concept? This happens to me with some bright pinks and I am no fan. The other two shade also looked very close to each other so I was pondering to get the quad or not. I was basically caught by the darkest shade, knowing it is right up my alley.
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| Close-up: Suqqu Blend Color Eyeshadow EX-20 Natsubotan |
Suqqu Ex-20 Natsubotan is composed of:
Upper left: A pale champagne with pink undertones and frost finish.
Upper right: A bright mid-toned cool pink with semi transparent shimmery finish
Bottom right: Base shade, a light beige pink with slight shimmer.
Bottom left: Deep Plummy brown with purple shimmer, satin finish.
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| Swatch, photo with studio light: Suqqu Blend Color Eyeshadow EX-20 Natsubotan |
The texture of pink shade is close to the vivid shades which were a part of divided pan from Fall 2013 releases, like the one in Ex-16 (reviewed here) which is a little redder. Those vivid shades were designed to be worn over a liner or darker color to modify the color. I believe there is a similar concept with this pink too. Once worn alone it provides just a wash of color and can't be build up even with a dense brush but once applied over the plummy brown in the quad, it does give it a nice cooler/purple hue, which I really like.
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| Swatch, photo outdoor: Suqqu Blend Color Eyeshadow EX-20 Natsubotan |
Here is one attempt to wear Natsuban. I think the liner I chose here was not really optimal (Chanel Grenat) but you get to see how pink layers over plum and ends up looking wearable.
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| In-action: Suqqu Blend Color Eyeshadow EX-20 Natsubotan |
Here is the whole look. Please excuse me but I don't know anymore which lipstick I was wearing for this one since last week my mind was a little overload. It must have needed some hard disc space badly and deleted all "irrelevant" information from my brain. By the way yesterday after paying at the car lot, I couldn't find the card to drive out anymore. I had to call customer service and make them track my credit card to open me the gate. You see in which level of deleting information my brain reached.
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| FOTD: Suqqu Blend Color Eyeshadow EX-20 Natsubotan |
All in all Natsuban is really a nice quad which may also be versatile if different base colors are used. I believe if you have Ex-16 though, it might be a little bit of a repeat for you. The semi-transparent pink shade is unique so I don't know if something like that can be found outside Suqqu range. If you have any ideas, please leave a comment below.
Now rant time. I found the accessibility of Suqqu even worse after Selfridges started shipping worldwide. It is almost not possible to catch 2-3 products from my wish list all at once since they are almost always sold out and occasionally become available for a few hours each one to two months. This quad was only available for half an hour before selling out. I really wished Suqqu experience would be possible to more of us, since the textures and color pay-off is phenomenal as well as the longevity. I will always stay a fan of the brand but if at some point I may start feeling that it is too much work and I might quit hunting them down. Just saying...
All in all, don't worry if you missed it. It is pretty but we can all live without this one.
gorgeous palette and I love the eyelook you created! I tend to stay as far away from pink eyeshadow as possible, but this color combination is really pretty! Might have to check this one out....
ReplyDeletewww.lilting-grace.blogspot.com
Hi Miss Louise,
Deletethis one tends to be more purple than pink in the end since pink one is semi transparent and needs a base. The quad is hard to find though, but I think you can achieve similar look with others.
You are so right about the openness = less availability :(
ReplyDeleteI am broken-hearted I missed this quad! It didn't look v special in pics but in person I was blown away by both the pink and the reddened plum. The waiting list for this at the London counter was a mile long when I went three days after release, and they had sold out within hours I believe. The blended look is beautiful on you -- such a complex smoky rose <3
Hi Kate,
Deletefor high-end brands, one would expect that the items are available at least for a week after their release. Suqqu became very popular, which they deserve but I have the feeling that their stocks didn't really improve at the speed of their popularity. I know how much you like pinks and how well you wear them, considering your last pink graphical look, I wished you would have also gotten it and show us a few tricks of how to use it *sigh*
I'm so curious to see this in person now! The press images really didn't seem very special to me at all. I hate how elusive suqqus are... And how they sell at 2-3x on eBay and 3rd party resellers!!!
DeleteI also wish Suqqu was more accessible- everything I've seen from them looks lovely! xo
ReplyDelete-Jen
www.vibrantbeautyblog.com
They have a unique texture which looks lovely ob the eyes, like magic :-) Do you tried some of their products yourself?
DeleteGosh I'm so glad your ordeal is over! Losing your parking ticket after payment truly sucks!! Believe it or not it's happened to me!! And in the US, the tiny Asian girl always gets the short end!
ReplyDeleteLOL, Linda, you know meanwhile it happened to me once more and it was worse than the first one because the guy remembered me! :-(
DeleteThis quad is very pretty on you. I love the look you created. Suqqu is very hard to find here.
ReplyDeleteHere too, very hard... I am hoping it will be easier sooner or later.
DeleteSuch a pretty palette and your scarf is matching the look, would you be doing different looks with this palette?
ReplyDeleteOh I ended up not doing many looks with it because it was sold out within a heart beat and I didn't want the people end up hating me because I got hold of it ;-)
DeleteHi Sara,
ReplyDeleteDo you recall the steps you took to recreate the look (which colors you used first, etc.)?
Thank you!
Hi Vanessa,
DeleteI used the highlighter shade on the corner, Plum Shade on the outer corner and blended that one onto the crease, then I layered the pink shade over the plum to give iridescent lighter purple shade. I hope this helps.