Estee Lauder Color Portfolio

Disclaimer: I purchased this.

I'm a fan of Estee Lauder's annual Color Portfolio's, as I find them an economical way to collect a variety of the Pure Color shadow, blush, and lip shades.  I did not purchase last year's version, but succumbed to temptation with this year's Color Portfolio ($39.50 with purchase), and thought I would put some swatches up in case you are considering it as well. These can sell out fast!

The sides of the palette pull out to reveal the blush shades, 3 on each side.  I love Estee Lauder's Pure Color blush formula, but I know they recently reformatted the formula so this gives me a chance to try them out.

The shadows are selections from the Pure Color quads, which are new to me as well. Names are on the back of the palette, and I like how the colors are divided into warm shades on the left and cooler shades on the right.

There are a mixture of shimmer, satin, and matte finishes.  I was surprised at how pigmented and creamy/dense the matte shades were and wish there were more of them in the palette, as they are lovely.  A few of the colors were disappointing in their lack of pigment and took some building up, namely Silver Edge  and Fierce Safari 3 (the numbers refer to the shadows position in the quads).

I'll be forming more opinions once I have the opportunity to play with these and will post some reviews, as the quads are quite pricey ($52) and there are not a lot of reviews that I've seen.

The disappointing shade in the cooler toned palette is Provocative Petal 1.  It barely registers at all, and I did swatch these over primer. Overall most do look promising.

The Pure Color lipsticks are lovely, although cream with shadows palettes are always problematic. I will probably depot these into a palette so that the there is no shadow transfer, and in fact have a Z palette on it's way from the recent Ulta 20% off sale.

The Pure Color Kajal pencils in Blackened Black and Blackened Cocoa are smaller than the usual sample sizes.  I love Blackened Cocoa and use the ones I've collected several times a week.

The gloss this year is Reckless Bloom, which provides more sparkle than color. It's pretty and I do like the formula of Estee Lauder's glosses.

The blushes are smaller than in the 2013 and 2014 Color Portfolio palettes that I have, but you do get two more.  They are just big enough to fit most blush brushes, but it is a bit awkward considering you don't want to kick up much powder with the lipsticks right in the vicinity.  I will probably depot this as well and create a large blush palette with all the Pure Color blushes from the portfolios.

 I'm curious to compare the formulas between the older shades I have and the new reformulated ones.  At first swatch, Sensuous Rose does not appear as pigmented, but I've yet to swatch them side by side.












These are buildable and what I love about the Pure Color Blush formula is that I find them skin enhancing and natural looking.  The two new shades to my collection are Brazen Bronze and Pink Ingenue.

I purchased my Color Portfolio from Nordstrom during a GWP event, as I like to stack a purchase with purchase special with a GWP if I can find one.  A great site to keep abreast of GWP's is GWP Addict, and you can also sign up for emails to alert you.