Chanel Diapason Illusion D'Ombre 92

Swatches in the same order, made with the included synthetic brushes

full sun

Among the ultrafine cool blue shimmer, Diapason also contains larger flecks of turquoise, pink, and white-gold sparkle -- all cool tones which 'pop' against its warm red-plum base. Illusoire's sparkle is more balanced in tone, with warm pink and red alongside cooler lime and palest icy lilac.

full sun with extra fuzz

Although I love Illusoire (enough to use it down to the last crumbs), the higher-contrast Diapason is even more to my taste. *cough* No, seriously:
Charlotte Tilbury Amethyst Aphrodisiac Colour Chameleon pencil and the plum from THREE 09 Star Guitar quad both share Diapason's warm reddened base, but the icy coolness and concentration of Diapason's blue microshimmer is unique in this batch. Unlike the purple pan from the Shu Uemura x Karl Lagerfeld Prestigious Bordeaux palette, Diapason stays very much poised as a blue-overlaid-red rather than combining fully into a royal purple.

With all this inbuilt complexity, no point in gilding the lily further. A simple wash of Diapason, laid down all over my lid up to the socket and taken all the way under the eye, edges blended gently with a Sephora Pro #28 brush, looks like this:

The sheerer, blended-out edges let the warmer base peek through, while the untampered areas on my lid flashes more strongly blue. But differently blue (and red) depending on the specific contours of the eye *_*


PS I have a feeling my Diapason may not be quite au diapason with the Diapason otherbloggershavereviewed -- whether it's a batch issue or concession to Asian makeup's infatuation with great sparkle* my pot seems to have much more and stronger blue shimmer. (The way the undertones of the base pull more purple, red or brown can be explained by differences in skintone, I think.) Fortunately, this one is easily accessible, so I recommend swatching before buying :)

*EDIT: thanks to my pals at Wondegondigo and Musing On Beauty, I can confirm that the ingredients lists for the Diapason sold in the US, Europe and Asia are identical; all are made in France. So I'm chalking this one up to possible batch variation / skintone / lighting -- I think the four bloggers I linked to above all have posh studio lighting setups, while I have... an open window.