Dior 5 Couleurs 374 Blue Lagoon from Bird of Paradise Summer 2013 Collection, Swatches & Comparison

After presenting you nail polish duo Samba 001 from Dior's summer 2013 collection, Bird of Paradise, I decided to give back my back-up of Samba and get something else instead. The main reason for that was that the metallic color was slightly staining. I went to the counter to return Samba and talked to SA, she said she also noticed that it stained. It is good to know that it is not just me. I would like to get something else instead from this collection but I was undecided between Blush/Bronzer duo Pink Glow and Blue Lagoon palette. After being convinced that Coral Glow and Pink Glow give you almost the same effect, I decided on the palette. Dior 5 Couleurs 374 Blue Lagoon, which looks like it would give me the trendy peacocky eyes for this summer.

I usually like the formula and the iridescent quality of Dior eye shadows but some of their recent releases lacked some pigmentation (such as Swimming Pool from last year summer or Rose Ballerine from Cherie Bow). Usually Dior releases two palettes with their collections, one for very very fair ladies and the other for everyone else. Besides Blue Lagoon, the collection has another palette, called Peacock, which is again way too light for me (although I am only NC20-25). Those lighter palettes usually doesn't have great color pay-off and all shades look like highlight shades on my lids (then why bother with five colors?). 

Blue Lagoon consist of a baby blue (#1), a light sea green (#2), a duo-chromish turquoise (#3), a light lime-green (#4) and a darker teal/blue (#5). All shades are numbered below for the ease of reference.

Three shades in this quint have good to perfect pigmentation. There are #1,#3 and #5. The third shade is gorgeous with slight duo-chrome effect and gorgeous yellow shimmer. #4 is also good for inner corner highlighter or to brighten up the look and to layer on top of #3 to give yellowish greenish effect of peacocky eye. One shade which truly disappointed me was #2. This one is not true to pan, look up to see how it looks like and look down for the swatch. It is a very pale blue, which has to be scratched out of the pan to show itself. A highlight color was what I was lacking in this quint, so I was not particularly upset about the color but about the inconsistency between how it looked and what I got.

Almost all the colors are satin, with little iridescent quality, which is good as they don't look chalky once applied. #1 is almost matte. 

For the eye look below, I used the gorgeous duo chromish shade, #3, all over the lid and highlighted the inner corner of the lids with #4, which I applied also over #3 half way to add some dimension. I defined the crease with the darkest shade, #5. I wishes this shade would be a tad darker, but I think they did it in purpose to keep the soft summer look. I used (or tried to use) shade #2 to highlight brow bone. 

As it is very difficult for me to pull off a baby blue, I decide to use this one along the lower lash line, which you can see in the photo with open eyes. To complete this look, I used Urban Decay pencil in Mainline from their Smoked Set and set it with shade #5. I applied Armani Eyes to Kill Excess Volume Mascara in dark green for a softer look (shade 05, currently not available in US). 

For a comparison, I took out some similar palettes from my stash, Guerlain's Ecrin 4 Couleurs in 12 Les Aqua and 10 Les Ombres de Nuit, Armani Ecailles Black Pearl from last years Bronze Mania collection and Tom Ford's Emerald Lust. Blue Lagoon is unique once compared to those palettes because of the yellow-green hues and brighter lighter shades. 

Below I numbered the shades for a reference in the upcoming comparison swatches.

My favorite shade, #3 of Blue Lagoon, is comparable to other mid-toned shades of above palettes, the closest is the 3rd shade of Armani quad (A3) which is also a summer palette. Tom Ford and Armani shades have more shimmer whereas Dior has more fine iridescent quality. 

The darker shade of Dior quint, #5, is lighter than most of the others, the darkest shade of Guerlain's Les Aqua being the closest match.

Below I swatched #2 and #4 together, as they are both highlighter shades for me. None of the palettes have similar shades but I am sure I could find something closer if I would go on searching my quad. I believe the combination of this yellow shade with the greens make Blue Lagoon special. I believe the online exclusive quad of Chanel from summer 2013 collection called Metamorphose has a similar combination. 

Below the baby blue shade #1 and yellowish green #4 are swatched against the lighter yellowish green shade of Guerlain's Les Aqua, which almost looks like the combination of these two.

Final thoughts: Dior 5 Couleurs 374 Blue Lagoon from Bird of Paradise Summer 2013 Collection indeed gave me the peacocky eyes. My only problem was with light green shade which was not true to pan but still could be used as highlighter under brow bone. The originality of this quad comes from the yellow and green color combination, which can be layered for different effects. Although these are very pastel colors, they are not chalky and has good color pay-off (only one shade on up right doesn't). The palette is now available worldwide, retails for around 55 EUR/$60.

Have you tried Dior's Blue Lagoon or Chanel's Metamorphose? Do you like peacocky eyes?