Shu Uemura X Pokémon Collection is Shu Uemura's 2019 Holiday Collection. Every year the brand comes out with special collaborations for the holiday season. In this collection Shu Uemura released x3 Eyeshadow Palettes (x1 12pan & x2 9pan), x2 Blushers, x3 Lip Sets, x1 Eyebrow Pencil, X1 Brush Set, X1 Eyelash Curler, and X1 Makeup Box. Together with this collection, Shu Uemura also released some of their skincare / haircare products with limited edition Pikashu packaging. Being somewhat of a Pokémon fan, I wish I manage to purchased more of the collection! For those who aren't very familiar with Shu Uemura, they are a professional Cosmetics / Skincare Brand (Who deserves more recognition) and are very well known in Asia. Their most well known product from them would have to be their Unlime8 Sublime Cleaning Oil and their Petal 55 Brush. Branding & Style wise Shu Uemura to me is very edgy giving me Nars vibe but with a Traditional Asian / Japanese approach. Definitely a great brand to look out for.
Concept & Packaging :
For this collection the main focus is the Pokémon Pikachu, which to be honest is also the mascot for the Pokémon Brand. I really liked the play on words of "Pikashu" for the collection, I find it to be cute and adorable lending a special identity to the collaboration. For this collection, Pikachu's art style was drawn in a dazzling gold with festive makeup, orange cheeks, red lips and purple eyes the Pokémon has a heart shape tail giving it a unique touch only available for this collaboration. The collection is heavy embellished by gold with printed images of Pikachu scattered around the packaging giving it a fun look that's perfect for the holiday season. A very fun and stunning collection overall! Unfortunately this collection is no longer available, I'm very happy to have gotten some of the products.
Products :
Pikashu Eye Palette (Thunder Shock) is the absolutely the main star piece in this collection. Shu Uemura released a x12 eyeshadow palette that has both a warm shade range and also a cooler tone range. Out of the x12 shades there are x3 Mattes, while the rest are shimmer shades. The colour story for this palette is super versatile, it's possible to create an everyday look as well as a smoky night time look. I also like that there are both a cool tone side and a warm tone shade side, this gives more options but also act as a guide when creating a look. The mattes are soft and super pigmented, they do give off a tiny bit of kickback on the pan though but to me it's not such a big deal. The mattes blend super effortlessly on skin and even on layered products. As for the shimmers, there are x2 distinct formulas, one with a subtle sheen but has beautiful base pigmentation and one more where the shine is more intense. I absolutely love the formula of the shimmers, I find them to have a very pigmented base colour with a subtle sheen, and they blend out beautifully with no patchiness. Overall I love Shu Uemura's eyeshadow quality and this is such a great palette to have!
Pikashu Eye Palette (Brick Blast) For the Pikashu collection Shu Uemura released x2 9pan eyeshadow palettes dividing the cool tones with the warm tones. Out of the two I purchased Brick Blast, the warmer palette out of the x2. The formula is exactly the same with the Thunder Shock palette. I actually liked that Shu Uemura chose to released x3 palettes, really giving buyers a range and choice to their purchases. I choose the Brick Blast palette over the Mythical Purple palette due to the warmer tones. To me I feel, it would suite my complexion better but also allow me to do more natural looks. From this palette only x1 shade is a matte finish while the rest are shimmers and out of the shimmers only x1 is a high-shine formulation. Overall, happy I manage to purchased both the palettes and I think the quality of Shu Uemura's eyeshadows are worth it!
Electric Gold Pikashu Eyelash Curler. Throughout the years, Shu Uemura has released their legendary Eyelash Curler together with various collections / collaboration adding a signature keychain to customize the collection. Shu Uemura's eyelash curler is such an iconic beauty tool by them, and they claim it is uniquely designed curved at an angle suits all eye shapes while the silicone rubber pad releases just the right amount of pressure to curl lashes. To me, I find the curved diameter is slightly wider while the depth of the curve is also deeper in shape. I also notice that with the Shu Uemura eyelash curler I do manage to gather my inner lasher better as compared to some other brands. The rubber pad is also very different in the sense, that it feels much thicker but has a good amount of bounce when squeezed. The pressed released gives a beautiful natural curved lash and no matter how hard I tried to press / squeeze the curler, my lashes never curled into hard angles. Only downside to me is there are no support / padding for the holders, after a bit of pressure my fingers started to hurt abit. Other than that, I definitely understand why this is an award wining eyelash curler!
Rouge Unlimited Matte Lipstick (Mulberry Frost & Scarlet Fire). From this collection Shu Uemura released x8 shades, out of them I manage to purchase x2. The x2 shades are Mulberry Frost which is a muted mauvy lavender shade while Scarlet Fire is a bright orange red shade. The formula is super pigmented, and the finish is definitely a no-shine matte. The formula is soft and creamy, and it has a very comfortable lightweight feeling on the lips but will definitely transfer on contact. Overall, it's a beautiful comfortable true matte lipstick with stunning pigmentation that wont dry out the lips. I love both shades I purchased but feel like Mulberry Frost is such a stunning unique shade and hope to purchase more of these stunning lip products.
Overall, it's a solid collection by Shu Uemura with beautiful packaging! Pok'emon is such a world wide phenomenon that spreads so much joy to kids and adults everywhere. My childhood revolved around Pok'emon and now as an adult who now loves makeup as well, I always cherish the ideas of having combine two things that I enjoy in one! This Pikashu Collection is so fun and yet so sophisticated in formulation to me. Shu Uemura is such a fun and edgy brand and this can be seen in majority of their collaborations, bringing in some unique concepts as well as great products across the board as a brand. I honestly love each item I purchased from this collection and I'm really looking forward to discovering more from them.
Hopefully you guys manage to pick it up, Unfortunately this collection is no longer available, but Shu Uemura has some quality products and definitely worth looking at! Like I mentioned Shu Uemura does collaborations for their Holiday Collection and currently have One Piece (Anime / Toei Animation) as their 2020 collaboration. If you love One Piece or interested in Shu Uemura as a whole you can check them out on their website! Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it. If you liked it continue reading other post, or come back for more there are Weekly updates and blog posts!