Chanel Ombres à Paupières Duo in Khaki - Discret for Summer 2011

Continuing the "green theme" for Summer 2011, Chanel is offering an Ombres à Paupières Duo in Khaki and Discret ($42). I'm a khaki lover, so there was no question that it would be mine!

Chanel's foolproof pairing of complementary shades, housed in one convenient compact, always gives us paint-by-numbers selections. The softly shimmering light shade is a creamy powder, which can be worn alone for a luminous effect, or as a base to extend the wear of the accompanying deep-toned shadow. The dark shade has intense, micronized pigments for true color application and a matte finish to create depth and contour. Two applicators are always included with the duos: a foam-tip to apply the shadows and a brush to blend. The little brush is a nice touch, even though I won't use it.

Like the quad in the summer collection, the duo has two faces - the one in the compact and the one on my skin. In the compact, the light shade appears to be a light celadon green, extremely close to the color in the quad compact. It's not the same color on my skin. My compact photo above doesn't show that color well because it was taken in bright light, but not sunlight. The nuances of the color got lost. The green, named khaki, is khaki, but it's a brooding, dark, almost brown-toned khaki on my skin.

Hopefully, you can see in my swatch photo how dark the khaki really us - a shade that you can apply lightly for a khaki wash or heavily, as it's applied here for a dramatic touch or eyeliner. I like it applied lightly with a brush. My swatch photo was taken in sunlight, and I applied both shades with a sponge-tipped applicator to get enough pigment to show you the shades. The "light celadon green" color, though, is a celadon green-tinged ivory. That makes it hard to see on my arm below the khaki. It's a delightful base shade, particularly for those of us who love greens. You green-eyed gals are going to love Discret. Both shades bring out the green in my blue-green eyes (mostly blue, but they morph).

Khaki isn't new. I'll have to dig out my other duo with Khaki in it to see if there is any difference in the two shades. Unfortunately, I packed all my makeup into boxes, with no organization, to get it out of the way before my surgery. I have been slow to recover and organize it. I'll get to it. Maybe I can get Miss Brahms to look at Neiman Marcus for me today.

I really like this eye shadow duo and would recommend it to you green fans and green-eyed gals. I know the collection has arrived at Saks Chevy Chase (go see Loyd Cassler!) and Neiman Marcus Tysons locally (go see Kathy Shoreman!). I'll bet Neiman Marcus Mazza also has it. I was at Nordstrom Tysons and Bloomindale's Tysons yesterday; it wasn't on display at either of those stores yet. It will arrive everywhere soon.

More on the rest of the collection coming next!

Photos by BTiB