So, after much waiting I have finally got my hands on Dita Von Teese’s new makeup with Art Deco. Honestly, I was mixed about this because while Art Deco is a good quality brand, celebrity makeup lines are usually a bit meh. But, naturally, coming from Dita Von Teese, I should have known better. The colours are retro perfect! Lots of lovely matte eyeshadows, matte lipsticks and natural looking blusher colours. There are also 4 slightly shimmery shadows, liner and mascara available too. I really had to restrain myself because even though it’s “drug-store/chemist” makeup, it is still not cheapy cheap. Each of the little eyeshadows are 5€, the power is about 17€ and the magnetic palette, 27€. That said, the palette is refillable and honestly, a very substantial metal coated container. It’s not the kind of cheap plastic that would break if you dropped it on the bathroom tiles. 

Onto the actual product then; First up is the magnetized container with the eyeshadows/blush. This is great. Trust the ever efficient germans to come up with something like this! Art Deco make a series of eyeshadows/blushers/concealers/correctors in small magnetized pans that all slot neatly - in whatever combination of colours you need - into these little containers. I picked a neutral flesh base colour in 554, a taupe shade for the eye socket in 520 and a deeper brown for either the crease or for an evening look, in 524. All of these shades are matte, true colour powders. I’ve yet to test them on my eyes throughout the day, but from sweeping them over my hand they seem as smooth and lovely as MAC’s matte shadows. Fingers crossed. The blusher in this set is No. 20, a light pink shade. It blends very well, as one would expect from an Art Deco product, but isn’t as tanfastic and TOWIE-looking as many blushers. For vintage fans in particular, finding that subtle pink shade is a nightmare but these colours are the closest matte shades I’ve seen yet. Again, their colours are comparable to other brands, in this case, Illamasqua who make some very similar colours of blush.  A lovely touch on this palette and the powder is the mirror which is a clear magnifying mirror that has “Beauty is an Art” scrawled in one corner in Dita’s signature looped handwriting. Cute. 

Next up is the powder which is a fine milled, heavy coverage old fashioned matte powder. There is a slightly floral smell to it which some people may find off putting but it reminds me very much of the scented powder compacts that women used in the 40’s-60’s. In particular, Guerlain’s poudre aux violettes, something which I got for a birthday present once and never bought again because it was so horribly expensive. This though is far larger, just as good (maybe even slightly better colour wise) and comes highly recommended. it will be interesting to see how it fairs in this extreme heat we’re having. 

Finally, there is the lipstick, something which I was really looking forward to. There are six shades in the Dita Von Teese Classics range - starting with a rich red-orange, progressing through three shades of red (starting with a bright pin up red and finishing with a deep, vampy 30’s claret shade) and finishing with two shades of pink - a bright blue toned fuschia and a pinky red shade. I chose one of the reds in the middle. This is No. 620. It is a fairly mid toned red, maybe with a little blue in it but balanced enough that I think it would be a nice, classic red for all skin tones. It is really a semi matte tone, not as chalky as MAC’s Ruby Woo but still “dry” enough to look authentic. Upon first application it seemed smooth and not at all claggy. However, I’ve been wearing it for a couple of hours now and it’s starting to get a little sticky and “bitty” which isn’t great. I suppose that could be remedied by wiping the whole lot off and reapplying throughout the day. It doesn’t smell too strongly and tastes faintly vanillary. It’s barable but I’m still not swayed enough to abandon my trusty Ruby Woo forever. That said, the colour does look beautiful on and hasn’t started to wear off yet even though I’ve been sipping water for a good hour or so. 

Overall, I’m very impressed with Dita’s range for Art Deco. I think as the line suggests, the colours are classic shades that are suitable for everyone. There’s no crazy high fashion shades and they’re not the kind of things you won’t be wearing in six months time. They’re timeless colours and formulas which I think gives this range a really great selling point.