While Valentine’s Day might be first on your mind at this time of year, for millions of people around the world, Lunar New Year is this February’s big event. Givenchy is celebrating this important holiday by releasing a capsule collection of Lunar New Year makeup, with a powder and lipstick to help you ring in the new year with radiance!
{Celebrating Lunar New Year with Givenchy}
What’s Lunar New Year?
Lunar New Year (also known as the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year) marks the first new moon of the first month of the year. Since the timing is based on the Chinese lunisolar calendar, Lunar New Year could fall any time from the end of January to late February. In 2018, Lunar New Year is on February 16th.
Much like typical North American New Year’s celebrations, Lunar New Year is a time to gather with family and friends, reflect on the past year, and look forward to exciting things in the 12 months to come. Celebrations usually contain feasts, parades, lighting lanterns or firecrackers, cleaning the house, wearing new clothes, and gift giving.
Each year in the Chinese calendar is connected to one of the animals of the Chinese zodiac. February 16th, 2018 marks the beginning of the Year of the Dog, a character who is loyal, decisive, and quick to rise to a challenge.
The Givenchy Lunar New Year Collection
The Packaging
One of my favourite aspects of Givenchy’s capsule collection is the striking packaging containing the two symbolic colours of red and gold. These are lucky colours in many East Asian cultures: red is believed to ward off evil spirits and bring joy, and gold represents wealth and good fortune. Accordingly, Givenchy’s Lunar New Year lipstick cap is made with genuine printed red leather, the powder lid is imitation red leather, and both are beautifully embossed with a gold cherry blossom pattern. Just looking at these products in my makeup bag brings me joy and makes me feel so elegant and festive!
The Products
The Givenchy Lunar New Year makeup collection includes two products: Prisme Libre loose powder in Shade #1, and Le Rouge lipstick in Shade #305. While the packaging is absolutely gorgeous, I’m most impressed with the high quality of the products themselves! Some highlights:
- The lipstick is long-lasting
- Both products work on a variety of skin tones
- The powder is colour-correcting
If you’ve been following my Instagram stories, you’ve seen how amazing this lipstick is. I wore it with a lip liner underneath, as I do for all non-liquid lipsticks, and it lasted. As in, I applied the lipstick at 7 am, talked all day, drank several cups of tea, ate a sub for lunch, and my lips still looked flawless by 5 pm without reapplying or touching up once! No feathering and only a very subtle fading. I couldn’t believe it!
I also love the colour. (No surprise there, as you know I’m a sucker for a bold lip!) The poppy red works well on a range of skin tones, and, though it is quite bright, it never looks garish. It has a very creamy formula, and doesn’t get clumpy or dry out your lips over the day.
The loose powder is a quad, with one compartment each of gorgeous pastel purple, blue, green, and ivory. To apply, you shake the powders onto the included puff, then dust over your skin using circular motions. The colours mix together as you apply, evening your skin tone and creating a radiant finish.
Wearing both the Prisme Libre powder and the Le Rouge lipstick was a simple way to create a festive look. I added some gold accents with my eyeshadow and jewelry, plus some classic black eyeliner to top it off, and my Lunar New Year makeup look was complete!
The limited edition Givenchy Lunar New Year collection is available in-store at Sephora. Le Rouge lipstick in Shade #305 retails for $45.00, and the Prisme Libre powder in Shade #1 retails for $69.00.