Givenchy Le Prisme Eye Shadow- Summer 2010 Island Lagoon

Givenchy Summer 2010 collection offers two limited edition Le Prisme eye shadows- Island Lagoon and Island Sand (a gold/bronze combination), two shades of Le Fleur de Frangipanier bronzer/illuminating powder and two Pop Crystal lip gloss colors. I looked at all of them and was instantly enamored with little piece of tropical vacation dream, Island Lagoon.

The eye shadow compact has several shades of rich blue in a splash pattern that is lovely but a little too gimmicky to be useful. Properly separating the colors would have been less visually appealing but easier to apply  if one wants a particular shade for contouring or highlighting. It's perfectly fine, though, if what you want is to swirl your brush and collect a little of each and you can control how much to get of the dark or light shades.

The eye shadow is very finely milled and looks silky smooth on the eyelid. One of the best things about it is that while the color is buildable and you can get some serious blue intensity if you insist, in normal use (1-2 brush strokes) the color looks sheer, modern and very flattering. My swatches show what you get from one brush swirl over the darkest and the lightest parts of the compact. I used a smaller and denser brush than I use on my lids to collect the colors and show the difference. It's more subtle when you you use a regular eye shadow brush.

Bottom Line: Not as striking as it seems in the compact but surprisingly good and wearable.

Givenchy Le Prisme Eye Shadow Island Lagoon ($29) and the rest of the Summer 2010 collection are available from Sephora. For some reason, givenchybeauty.com is still stuck in the spring collection and doesn't yet have the newest items. So much for launching spiffy new e-commerce.

All photos are mine. Let's keep it that way.