REVIEW: La Dangereuse by Violette
Violette x Estée Lauder is back! I really liked their last collaboration, Poppy Sauvage, so I was looking forward to this for MONTHS. Violette has teased this on her Instagram and other outlets as celebrating a sort of femme fatale, mysterious sexy lady. Not really my MO, but if Violette has had a part of it, I’m in.
These don’t come out on Estée Lauder’s website until December 1st, but Violet Grey launched everything except the lipstick in ‘Diabolique’ on November 20th (I’ll order it from Estée Lauder once it comes out and update this review -- ordered!).
First things first: pretty disappointed with the packaging. This line is pretty expensive (the eyeshadow palette is $39!) and all but one of the palettes are made out of cardboard! One of the things I really liked about Poppy Sauvage was that it felt very expensive, chic and luxe — these feel kind of cheap. Adding insult to injury, the Sculpting Trio IS made out of plastic which makes the choice of cardboard for the other palettes even more distracting and disappointing. I’m also not that big of a fan of the fabric motif, but that’s more of a personal preference. (But also like — Poppy Sauvage looked like art!)
I mean — just look at these guys.
If I’m going to be brutally honest, this feels like it was a bit of a rushed cash grab. My cynical side tells me that that last collection was such a success, they wanted to get another one out ASAP to capitalize on Violette’s popularity and following. I don’t want to say that the colors and the products themselves suffered, and I’m sure everyone involved worked really hard and cared about this launch… but even the cardboard boxes these came in felt cheaper and messier than Poppy Sauvage! The box for the Sculpting Trio doesn’t even fit it properly (it’s just the same size box as the shadow palettes) and the product itself had to be wrapped in tissue so it didn’t get knocked around too much in shipment. The only reason I’m even upset about this I guess is because the bar was set pretty high this spring, so I know what is possible for them to do. Especially because the price range is similar, I’m feeling a tad taken advantage of as a consumer.
ANYWAY, these issues aside, there are some definite winners in this collection. My favorites so far are the glitter, eye crayon and the liquid lip. I’m still figuring out how to use the colors in the eyeshadow palettes, but I like them because 1) I definitely don’t have that much blue eyeshadow so it fills a hole in my collection and 2) the pinks are nice and can totally double as blushes. There’s nothing here I love as much as the red lipstick from Poppy Sauvage, but I think it’s worth checking out if you are attracted to any of the colors — the glitter in particular seems to me to be a special product / color I haven’t seen anywhere else.
La Dangereuse Eye Palettes - ‘Blue Dahlia’ and ‘Amour, Amour’
’La Dangereuse’ has a lot of reddish pinks, burgundies and golds. These are not colors I use regularly, so I think it will take a few tries to get really ‘used’ to them, but objectively I think they are very pretty. Also, ‘Blue Dahlia’ always reminds of this and ‘Amour, Amour’ of this (what I’m talking about starts around 2:13, but it’s fun to watch Callas enjoy the overture!) which amuses me.
A lot of the colors in ‘Amour, Amour’ could double as blush (though the small pan might cause some annoyance). I really like the reddish gold (the rightmost color on the top row) and the light pink sparkle (leftmost upper row). Violette has started doing tutorials on her YouTube channel which are always really helpful for me to learn how to use these types of colors. I think I feel more comfortable with ‘Amour, Amour’ than ‘Blue Dahlia’ on my own, but both are kind of cool and different (especially for me!)
In terms of eyeshadow quality, I’m a bit on the fence. Wear for a couple of hours has led to definite creasing, and for some of the more pigmented shadows I have trouble getting them uniform on my lid. (Honestly, this might be because I am not that good at applying eyeshadow or am not using the correct brush though!)
My favorites in ‘Blue Dahlia’ are the black-blue matte (rightmost bottom row) and the three gold / taupes on the upper left. I really like the look put together by Violette of using the black-blue matte and the bright blue (leftmost bottom row) with glitter on the lower lash line.
Also have highlighter and blush from this collection and Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir mascara!
Deluxe Eye Crayon
Deluxe Eye Crayon in ‘Sly & Sultry’
One of my favorites from Poppy Sauvage was the eye crayon so I was particularly looking forward to this! It is definitely on the pink side of copper, and is easy to apply and blend. Be careful when you open it, or you can f**k up the tip like I did! 😭
Looks kind of like cumin in a good way, right?
Glitter Pot in ‘Burning Star’
Wow — this is definitely a cool product. Violette has talked about making sure this glitter was ‘super fine’ and it is! It’s so delicate and easy to apply (and easy to take off). You can even blend it in on your face and you get some of the pigment with a shimmery diffused look. It’s a product I didn’t think I would be that into, but feel in love once I tried it.
It is just so luxe and pretty! It’s also dry, but manages to stick wherever you put it reasonably well. I really like it on my lower lash line — it even looks great in really low light!
‘Burning Star’ in restaurant dimmed light ✨
Eye Gloss in ‘Sheer Scandal’
👀
Ugh, okay. So … I don’t really get eye gloss. I was excited about this product because people RAVED about the Victoria Beckham x Estée Lauder collaboration ones but I think it’s going back. As Instagram friend @brutallyhonestbeauty pointed out, eye gloss appears to be “purely for photography, and you / the model has to keep eyes closed until the photo is taken”. It’s so pretty in the pot and such a gorgeous object I want to keep it, but… that’s irrational! I’ll never use it — and I already have the ‘La Rosé Soft Glow’ as a transparent gooey highlight option. I tried layering it over shadow, and it was a HOT MESS. Made everything patchy, blotchy and greasy — three words I don’t think I want to describe my makeup. So — don’t think this is a dig against the product, just its use case. If you are into eye gloss, this seems nice so maybe try it?
Pure Color Envy Paint-On Liquid Lip Color in ‘La Dangereuse’ and ‘Naked’
I LOVED the liquid lip from Poppy Sauvage, so already knew the formulas for these would work for me (which they do!). Not my favorite lipstick ever, but I like ‘La Dangereuse’ a lot, even though it’s not as opaque as ‘Poppy Sauvage’ so is a bit tricker to apply (it keeps showing up splotchy on me because I can’t fill in things evenly and equally). ‘Naked’ is definitely going back — not my color. The texture and formula are great (it’s nice and opaque and easy to apply!) — I am sure it would look good on a lot of other people with different skin tones than mine.
Here are some swatches!
‘La Dangereuse’, ‘Naked’ and ‘Diabolique’
Rich devilish red!
Violette Sculpting Lipstick in ‘Diabolique’
Another winner — I like Estée Lauder’s lipstick formulas and this color is great! They feel kind of waxy, but they are really easy to apply and create a stain-type effect or build up to a more strong lacquer of color. This looks more brown in the tube than it has on — this is actually the color I expected / kind of wanted ‘Vin Noir’ to be from Poppy Sauvage. It’s a nice deep berry that also leaves a really nice stain if you leave it on for a bit.
Sculpting Face Trio in ‘Swirling Passions’
Last but not least, the highlighter-bronzer/blush(?)-blush trio! This is my favorite palette in the collection because it feels really heavy and luxe in your hands. The mirror is really nice too.
Not really sure what the tan powder on the far left is supposed to be. On the packaging it says “brush highlighter on high points — temples, cupid’s bow, cheekbones and chin. Swirl lighter blush on apples of cheeks, deeper blush under cheekbones”. Which one is the ‘deeper’ one though? 😮
All of these seem to be not that pigmented, and it appears that this is intentional — in that ‘La Dangereuse Eyes’ tutorial Violette mentions that you won’t pick up too much color with the brush which makes it easier to control. This is true. The highlighter is nice, very mellow. I also don’t have any powder highlighters so it’s a good addition to my makeup collection over all.
The blush reminds me of the Poppy Sauvage blush — you can see they are pretty similar. Also PSA — don’t get these wet! I did that to my Poppy Sauvage blush and a weird film developed that I had to scrape off with a paperclip! 😮
What is going on with that tan powder though? I tried using it as a kind of bronzer and then in an ill-fated attempt to contour and it didn’t really do anything. I like the blush and highlighter enough to not send it back, so I’ll keep trying.
I enjoy a lot of the products in this latest Violette collection — not as happy as I am with Poppy Sauvage but I think a lot of that comes down to my own personal color preferences and what I feel comfortable with figuring out on my own (browns and golds I feel are pretty easy to navigate!). If you had to get one thing from this, I’d recommend the glitter!
Again — I really like Violette’s style and aesthetic, so I’m excited to try out things she creates and hope she continues to have the opportunity to collaborate with Estée Lauder!
And on a different note — I was reminded by a comment on this recent top shelf to reflect on my preferences in bodies I admire and aspire to (such as Violette!). I definitely fit the privileged type of skinny, white and blonde(ish) beauty blogger and would encourage the support of bloggers and content creators that don’t look like me! I’ve found this to be a nice resource and really value Ericka Hart’s Instagram where I’ve been introduced to a lot of other people (like the amazing Sonalee!) to follow and learn from. If you have suggestions of people, blogs, accounts etc. to follow let me know or share in the comments!
