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There has been incredible fan fare in the beauty world about the launch of the new skincare and colour collection from uber celebrity makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury. She’s renowned as one of the world’s leading makeup artists with a career spanning over 20 years working on a who’s who of A-list celebrities as well as designers, stylists and photographers from Mario Testino upwards. This is her first makeup collection in her own name though she was behind the budget brand MyFace. Lesser known is that she collaborated with Tom Ford to help create and launch the Tom Ford cosmetics collection.
The trend has been for designers to launch makeup ranges as brand extensions – Tom Ford of course, Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors are recent names that spring to mind. I think a big part of the excitement has been seeing what someone like Charlotte who knows makeup inside out would come up with and she delivers in spades.
Charlotte’s trademark look is mega-watt sultry glamour. She is truly committed to the cosmetics cause and NEVER lets anyone see her without her trademark smokey eye (even her husband has never seen her barefaced!). Every beauty editor has been raving about the line and though I am generally immune to hype I certainly caught launch fever too. I ended up placing an early online order a few days before the Selfridges store launch and couldn’t wait to see the products first hand. I don’t do queues so didn’t go down on launch day so was beyond thrilled to bump into Charlotte herself when I went to collect my order later in the week.
First impressions were that the overall vibe is glam, feminine, big-hair, boudoir, glossy lips, well polished. The packaging is art-deco elegant in maroon and rose-gold. If I had to pick another similar brand in the beauty hall purely based on visuals it would be Tom Ford. Not entirely surprising when you know Charlotte Tilbury helped to create the Tom Ford range. Price-wise, the collection is not cheap but it’s not exorbitantly expensive either, one area where it differs from Tom Ford (for instance CT lipstick is £23 compared to £36 for TF).
The extensive collection covers a full range of cosmetics as well as brushes and skincare. The hero skincare product is ‘Charlotte Magic Cream’, a secret formula passed down to her from her grandmother that she uses on models and celebrity clients that is meant to do amazing things to the skin (i’ll be finding out for myself soon!).
The colour collection is based around 10 looks with eye and lip products divided accordingly. There are videos on the website with clear instructions from Charlotte showing how to achieve each look and use every product. The tone is cool older sister who knows her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard and will show you exactly where to stuff the tissues to make your cleavage look bigger.
Whistle-stop thoughts:
- Lipsticks: applied smoothly with strong pigment
- Blush: lovely looking, texture like silk
- Eyeshadow: good pigment, very smooth blending though personally not so keen on glittery colour in each palette
- Colour chameleon eyeshadow pencil: buttery application and budge/smudge-proof (the glittery colours not quite as long lasting)
My only disappointment was in the complexion colour selection. The concealer is only available in fair and medium and the foundations don’t really go dark enough. I do believe brands should have a proper range that covers the full spectrum from lightest to darkest skin that us fabulous humans come in.
I always give honest feedback so did tweet how great most of the products were but also how I felt more complexion colours needed to be added. I was beyond thrilled to get this response.
It would be amazing if other brands replied so promptly and listened to customer feedback. Another master class in how it’s done from Charlotte Tilbury.
For further information visit: http://www.charlottetilbury.com
Having seen the collection, this is my Charlotte Tilbury Beauty wish list here. I’ll be putting swatches up over on Facebook . Have you seen the collection? What do you think of it?
Related articles
- Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Wish List (wonderlusting.co.uk)
Wonderlusting 
Great post! CT’s response to your feedback is impressive: love it when a brand is open and not on the defensive. You’ve upped my interest in this line!
Thank you! It’s so rare isn’t it – absolutely A* response. You should def try and have a play.
Wow, jell you got to meet her! And glad to see she’s working on other colors for darker complected girls 🙂 That’s something I wish many brands would work on. I don’t understand why a lot of them leave us out
Hi. She was lovely! Really looking forward to seeing more colours – I’ll try and get an update on when they’re due. Cheers!
BTW the lippie you have on in your profile pic is fab – what colour is it?
Yeah, I’d love to see your products too! & thank you! It’s actually Revlon Lip Butter in the color Lollipop!
Thanks – great colour on you. My hard drive died taking everything including all my pics boo. Trying to redo 😦
Oh no, what a nightmare! Hope you get it sorted soon 😦
Complete mare as backup failed..Sigh..Thanks!
I saw the collection in Selfridges a while back and loved the way it’s presented in looks as you described. The lovely response from Charlotte is promising and hopefully there will be a full range of foundation colours soon. I also wanted to say that I love the way you write and really enjoyed this post. Looking forward to reading more x
That’s lovely of you to say – thank you! X
Thanks for sharing your link!! This is a great post. You did very well at hiding your fan girl-dom!! I would have been beside myself!! Wow.. To run into CT herself at Selfridges!! 💗 and, that’s awesome that she responded to your tweet :0)
I’m even more impressed that she actually followed through and now offers darker colours! 🙂
As she should!