Have a Makeup Garden Party with the Bobbi Brown Lilac Rose Collection

Before I start telling you chicas about all the summer makeup you’ll want to pack in your weekender bags, I’ve got one last bit of unfinished spring beauty business. See, I never got a chance to tell you about the Bobbi Brown Lilac Rose collection — and it’s an enchanted beauty garden you’ll want to visit. The collection transitions perfectly from spring to summer, so you’ll find the products in it will come in quite handy in the coming seasons.

As its name implies, the Lilac Rose collection incorporates mainly lilac- and pink -toned products. First, there’s the Bobbi Brown Lilac Rose Shimmer Brick ($42 at Sephora.com and Nordstrom.com), a five-bar shimmer highlighter that incorporates a pale and icy pink pearl shade, a cool lilac pink, a bright coral with magenta pearl particles, a golden seashell pink, and a deep bronze-tinged pink. Next, there’s the Lilac Rose Eye Palette ($60 at Sephora.com and Nordstrom.com), a compact, 8-shade palette featuring four eye shadow pans on the top tier and an additional four in a bottom tear with a handy pull-out tray. The shades in the compact are mainly soft neutrals, but they’re complemented by dusty pink and lilac shades and one incandescent metallic pink lily shadow. If you prefer perkier eye shadow shades, you’ll love the Lilac Sparkle Eye Shadow ($28 at Sephora.com), one of the prettiest eye shadows I’ve seen in the recent past, a true pale lilac tone with both shimmering pearls and fine glitter in silver and magenta pink tones.

To give your pout just a hint of color, the collection incorporates two new Lip Gloss shades: the Pink Lily Lip Gloss ($24 at BobbiBrownCosmetics.com and Sephora.com), a bubblegum pink with a semi-sheer and ultra-shiny finish; and the Lilac Rose Lip Gloss ($24 at BobbiBrownCosmetics.com and Sephora.com), a semi-sheer purple-ish pink with a vinyl-like sheen.

To complete your fresh-as-a-flower look, the collection incorporates the Bobbi Brown Pastel Pink Blush ($25 at Nordstrom.com), a clean and bright pink powder shade with a deliciously silky texture.

Last bit not least, the collection includes a moody, grayish beige, creamy nail lacquer shade: the Bobbi Brown Roza Nail Polish ($18 at Bloomingdales.com and Sephora.com).

Below, you’ll find close-up shots of all the products in the collection, along with swatches. Time to smell the roses — the lilac roses, that is!

LIP GLOSS

As mentioned, the collection includes two new Lip Gloss hues: Pink Lily and Lilac Rose. Both of the shades feature this icy sheen that makes lips look succulent and shiny, and their coloration is extremely similar. The Pink Lily shade is a very bright and perky bubblegum pink with cool undertones and the second shade, Lilac Rose, is a grape-ish purple shade with rose pink undertones. Here’s what the two hues look like:

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SPARKLE EYE SHADOW

There’s something otherworldly and almost celestial about this shade. First, there’s the futuristic, Jetsons-worthy quality of this silvery lilac color. Then there’s the silvery shimmer and the fine fuchsia pink pearl particles that make the eye shadow sparkle like a globular cluster of tiny stars. Because of the shimmer particles in the formula, the Lilac Sparkle Eye Shadow looks different depending on the lighting and the angle at which you regard the shadow. In some lights, the color looks more like an icy, silvery fuchsia with lilac undertones while, in others, it looks more like a pale lilac with pink undertones. See for yourself below!

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BLUSH

Unlike so many powder blushes that incorporate tons of shimmer, the Pastel Pink Blush has a lovely satin finish, so that it gives cheeks a natural-looking flushed appearance, minus the glittery bits that make the look a bit too makeup-y. The color itself is a golden seashell pink, reminiscent of the inside of a conch shell. Check out the swatches below:

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SHIMMER BRICK

Everyone loves Bobbi Brown’s Shimmer Bricks. How can you not? These compacts include five harmonious face color shades imbued with a refined shimmer, so that you can use a small brush to select a specific color and use it that a highlighter, applying it onto the tops of cheekbones, along the ridge of the nose, below brows, or inside the corners of eyes, or you can sweep a larger brush over the entire compact’s surface and enjoy the blend of shades.  I personally love blending all the colors and using that as a highlighter for cheeks, and I was stunned by how lovely the shades in the Lilac Rose Shimmer Brick looked when combined, yielding a pale pink color that incorporated both soft lilac tones and warm golden tones. Check out how nuanced and gorgeous the effect is:

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I’ve never been a big fan of nude nail lacquers since I tend to think of them as being a bit too safe and bland, but there was something really magnetic about this limited-edition shade. Unlike other nudes, the Roza Nail Polish incorporates gray and lilac tones, yielding a moodier and more complex hue. The color is almost like a rum raisin hue, a lovely gray beige or “greige,” if you will — which, after all, is one of the new neutrals.

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EYE PALETTE

Last, but not least, there’s the Lilac Rose Eye Palette, which incorporates mainly neutral shades that are given a modern twist via rose and lilac undertones. As with most Bobbi Brown palettes, there’s a great combination of finishes: from the satin finish of shades like ivory, a creme brulée cream hue, to the shimmery finish of the light lilac Pink Lily hue and the ultra pearlescent, glitter-packed finish of the Stormy Gray shadow.

I personally found the palette slightly disappointing only in that I wanted a couple more standout, bright shades. The Pink Lily eye shadow seemed extremely promising but, when I applied it to my eyelids, I was stunned to discover just how sheer the color looks, how little  the color pay-off .

That being said, if you’re a fan of nude palettes, you’ll appreciate the natural-looking look you can create with this one. Standout shades include Dusty Lilac, a very light taupe shade with raisin undertones; Barely There, a pale brown with caramel undertones; and Stormy Gray, a medium brown color with lovely gray undertones that make it feel moody and interesting and golden pearl particles that add an unexpected dose of warmth.

Below, check out swatches of the Stormy Gray, Pink Lily, Pale Rose, and Ivory eye shadows:

Next, check out swatches of the Barely There, Heather Brown, Dusty Lilac, and Black Chocolate eye shadows:

All in all, my favorite products in the collection are the Lilac Rose Shimmer Brick and the Lilac Sparkle Eye Shadow so, if there are two must-have pieces, it’s those. They will light up your entire face and, in the process, make you feel like you need to let your own inner light shine.