Pantone Universe + Sephora Tangerine Tango collection

I had one overriding cosmetic mission on my recent trip to New York - namely to witness this stridently orange collection that Sephora have developed in conjunction with Pantone. It's an homage to Pantone's official "colour of the year", Tangerine Tango - a vivid red-orange. Orange is one of my great loves in the realm of makeup, and I can rarely pass up a product of this hue, especially when it's a lipstick or gloss.

I couldn't find the products out on counters or fixtures, but the assistants at Sephora Soho were good enough to dig around out the back and find them for me (I think they were yet to be put out on display).

The showstopper is the Color of the Year collector's edition, aka "The Box" (as the girls in the store called it), a compendium of orangeness that includes an eyeshadow palette, blush palette, eyeliner, lipstick, eyeliner, gloss and single blush.

Here are a few swatches:

Single blush + gloss (and a little bit of the gel eyeliner pencil off-shot to the left)

Blush duo

Eyeshadow palette.

I was really impressed by the quality of the packaging, especially on the palettes, which have translucent frosted lids which close via 4 magnets in the corners - like one of the square-type Inglot palettes. The pans are really generously sized. I also adored the white creme lipstick, which has a gorgeously expensive weightiness.

I was swatching away at The Box and soon found myself joined by 3 or 4 different Sephora assistants asking what it was and admiring it - drawn by the orange awesomeness from around the store. They all agreed that the collection a step up for the Sephora makeup line. They were especially keen on the blush.

Here's the lovely Gina from the store - by her you can see some of the other packaging from the collection, including a very tempting brush set with orange-tinted fibres.

Finally, here are the items that came home with me to the UK. A trio of lomg-wear gel eyeliners (with twist-up "leads") and a set of 4 orange glosses with various finishes - sparkly, colour-heavy, shimmery and sheer. I'll be getting stuck into these properly in time, but at the moment I can't quite bear to break into them and am keeping them pristine.

The eyeliners were $22 (USD), and the glosses were $20 (USD). I haven't tested them yet, but based on the swatching I did in store, this seems like great value for the quality of the products.

See the full Pantone Universe + Sephora range online at Sephora