Dior Constellation Quint Swatches and Review

Hi friends!

Sorry I haven't been posting so much lately. I feel like a failure of a blogger, having not even been able to get my act together enough to do "use it up" posts - let alone actual reviews - but hopefully there will be more soon to come. I have a whole backlog of fabulous swatches I can't wait to share with you, I just need to drudge up the motivation to get through the arduous process of resizing and labeling them all! My life has been busy lately, but in a wonderful way: The Boyfriend became The Fiancé, and we are getting all set to enjoy some much-needed relaxation time together and away from work next week. I've promised myself I will only read ONE wedding-related book during that time - or maybe two, but NO MORE! Vacations are not meant to be spent planning...

Anyway, I have a special treat for you today! Today was Day 1 of early access to the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale exclusive items for Nordstrom cardholders, so of course I couldn't help but stop by Nordstrom on my lunch break. I wasn't really expecting to buy anything, as I've been on a self-imposed "low-buy" in order to help save up money for the wedding, but the Dior Constellation eyeshadow palette (#894) completely captured my heart. Those of you who know me well will already know that a Dior item must be truly exceptional for me to buy it, let alone for full retail price at a painful $61 (I would normally purchase Dior and most department-store-brand products through my own company, where I get a discount), as I've grown somewhat disenchanted with the brand in general since leaving Dior for another job in which, frankly, I'm treated much better. So, let that tell you how genuinely special I believe this palette is.

First, let's take a look at the packaging. I adore the embossed star design on the outer shades; I know with significant usage the design will disappear, but it's so adorable, I don't care:

Now let's enjoy the swatches, shall we? Not to toot my own horn, but I'm rather excited about how these pictures came out, as I think they do a pretty good job overall of showing the depth, texture, and undertones of these colors quite well. So, I'm going to share an abundance of them! The final one, on a slant, is the one that I feel is the most color-accurate of the four. These are all over primer:

Allow me to showcase each of the shades individually, as well. Because I love this palette, and because I CAN!

First, we have a satiny neutral that I want to call "betauve" (seriously, can we make that a word?) - it is a cool beige in which I also see touches of taupe and mauve:

Next, we have the most AMAZINGLY FABULOUS sparkly purple ever to grace my makeup collection. It's a true purple, not too plum or too violet, with tiny silver glimmers that do not overpower it or create glitter fallout (in my opinion, the particles are too fine to be "glitter"):

Then a surprisingly complex, shimmery pale pink that seems to me almost like it could be the lovechild of MAC Vex and Pink Freeze. It's not quite duochrome, but it definitely has something interesting going on - I'd encourage you to click the image below to view it full size. Thanks, Dior, for not making the highlight shade a boring, frosty white like you put in most of your other quints!

Next, there is a shimmery gold that made me purr with delight upon swatching it. Like the purple shade featured above, it's not too warm or too cool, and it has tiny silver glimmers that dance in the sunlight and should not cause fallout:

The final shade is another neutral one that really knocked my socks off. This one is sort of a dusky plum. It's not gray, it's not taupe, it's not plum, it's not purple - it's some beautiful hybrid of those shades (graupumple! I WIN AT NAMING COLORS!). Again, this shade pulls pretty neutral on my skin; for some reason, it's appearing slightly more red-based in these pictures than it actually appears to me in person. It reminds me of a more flattering version of MAC Shale:

I hope you enjoyed the photo-fest. All in all, I think this palette is absolutely stunning and unique. Every single color has excellent pigmentation and quality, and I would be hard-pressed to identify any skin tone on which it wouldn't be flattering. If you can only pick up one item from the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, I must recommend Dior's Constellation palette as your best option!

Disclaimer: I purchased this palette myself and am not being compensated in any way for this review.