Dior 5 Couleurs Haute Couture Eyeshadow Palette in Peacock from the Birds of Paradise Collection for Summer 2013

Drawing from Christian Dior's passion for the luxuriant, tropical nature and animals of Latin America and Brazil, Dior's 2013 Summer collection is an invitation to an exotic journey through Latin America and its colors.

When I saw the collection at Neiman Marcus, I was attracted to nearly every piece. So I selected strategically, remembering how much makeup I buy, but seldom use. I think I purchased some gems.

There are two 5 Couleurs Haute Couture Eyeshadow Palettes ($60): Blue Lagoon (#374) and Peacock (#434). Blue Lagoon is visually the more appealing in the compact. The bright shades of blue, teal, and green are magnificent. After testing it, I feared it was too similar to the Chanel Métamorphose I had ordered online (not here yet). I moved on to Peacock, and there I found a unique palette that I'd be more likely to wear often. The colors are more subdued, and the blue isn't bright. I met my match.

With shades of green, beige, and silvery grey-blue, the colors coordinate beautifully, and I think they gook good on me. These colors are about as peacocky as I can wear comfortably.

I took swatch photos in full, mid-day sunshine. I swatched heavily with a sponge-tipped applicator, starting at the top of my arm with the green in the upper-left corner, moving clockwise around the quint, and finishing at the bottom of my arm with the center shade.

 

The springy pastel or lime green is a pretty shade on the eyes, enhancing the blue in mine.  The only dud color (from my perspective) in this palette is the beige, which you can barely see on my arm. It's all sparkle with little pigment. That's ashamed; it's the only thing that's keeping me from raving about this palette. I realize that it's meant to be an overlay to add more sparkle to the other colors, but I can do without that.

The very subdued green (third shade down) is a perfect base shade. It adds a hint of green and looks very pretty with the brighter lime shade. It looks like a hybrid of green and beige in the compact, so it may show differently on different skin tones.

Now, we get to that stunning blue. This is a blue for blue haters - those who say they just can't wear blue on their eyes. The silvery greyed blue is subtle and elegant. I'm totally smitten by this shade and the center shade, shown below it. In the palette, it appears to be pastel light blue. On my skin, it's a silvery, icy shade with only a hint of blue. It's versatile. Paired with the blue, it casts a blue highlight. Paired with the lime green, it morphs green.

I'm quite pleased with Peacock. Four out of five is my "normal" love level for many palettes. I'm OK with that.

You can find the new Dior Birds of Paradise Collection at Dior counters, and I found it online at Nordstrom. I bought two other pieces - one at Neiman Marcus and one online at Nordstrom - and I will show them to you soon. I could have purchased them all together, but, as usual, no one told me the collection had arrived at the store the week before, so they sold out of a Jelly Lip Pen I wanted - and that's because the store never orders enough pieces of the limited-edition pieces.

Photo at top courtesy of Nordstrom; other photos by Best Things in Beauty