Dolce & Gabbana

Chain mail chic.

Picture ScarJo riding a white warhorse while hoisting Dolce & Gabbana’s banner and rocking a custom-tailored suit of chain mail.

LOL! And looking hot, because I can’t imagine her ever looking awkward in armor, but anyways! That’s the feeling I get from the seven-piece Shimmer Glow winter collection, which was, fittingly, inspired by armor (or armour, depending on your POV).

Cool-toned chain mail grays and gunmetals feature prominently, as do varying levels of shimmer and shine, but because this is Dolce & Gabbana, the total package still seems seductive, sultry and gloriously wearable.

The collection’s crazy gray lipstick (Moon 69) perfectly embodies the idea.

I mean just look at it — there are 50 shades of cray in that tube! Expect advanced future human-robot babe hybrids to be carrying something like it to da club in the year 2115.

Interestingly, even though it looks cool and cold and tough in the tube, it’s shockingly wearable. Yes, it starts a little gray and nuts, obviously, but because it is quite sheer (it’s mostly sparkle, actually, with very little gray pigment), it mellows out on your lips, eventually becoming something you could comfortably wear to your grandma’s house without her looking at you disapprovingly and muttering, “Kids today!”

Similarly, the Smooth Eye Colour Quad in Smokey Eyes Dust 103 ($60) also exudes chain mail (it houses a light shimmery, silvery bluish gray; a medium matte gray; a dark blackish gray; and a single cool-toned shimmery, lemony beige). The two shimmers bring high-fashion glow and shine, while the mattes keep the quad grounded.

I usually prefer warm color temps to cool, but I don’t shy away from grays (see: the Hourglass Visionnaire Duo in Prism).

These particular shades, though, I feel are a tad too cool for my skin… I think they’ll work better on Knights of the Cool-Toned Table.

That said, the powders themselves are lovely. Dolce & Gabbana’s eyeshadows blend so well that they’re almost too easy to blend. If you, like me, tend to over-blend sometimes, I feel ya dawg. Refrain; otherwise, you’ll end up with muddy lids.

As for the new Shimmer Powder, it’s almost exactly like Chanel Illusion D’Ombre in Fantasme. Same spongy texture, same fine flecks of glitter, same raison d’être (use it as a highlighter, or like a glittery topcoat for your eyeshadow). Just pat it directly on your skin with fingers.

In the pot, the two look almost identical, but on skin, Dolce & Gabbana’s Shimmer Powder conveys more of its straight-up silvery white glitter than Fantasme, which also has pieces of pink and green micro glitter.

I like both…but I think I prefer Fantasme. It just looks a tad warmer (due to the pink) and works a bit better for me.