The Dior 2012 Holiday Collection palette, Grand Bal is taken from the carnet de bal, a dance card holder, used in the 19th century at formal balls. Dance cards were used by the ladies to keep track of the gentlemen in which they had promised dances throughout the evening. The carnet de bal was miniature in size and some were quite elaborate with engravings and etched patterns.
The Dior interpretation of the carnet de bal is more sleek on the outside and the embroidered looking pattern of the eye shadows on the inside are reminiscent of the patterns that were typical of many of the carnet de bal back in their day. The Dior Grand Bal palette comes with a shiny golden case with the “CD” logo forming the clasp. A black (to me more blue/black) retractable eye liner is strung through the logo to hold it in place and must be removed in order to open the Grand Bal palette.
On the interior you will find a golden – almost a hint of rose gold tone, and silver toned eye shadows and two lip glosses along with applicator sponges and brush. Personally, just using one or both of those eye shadows alone is too much shimmer for me, but I’ve played with this quite a bit and have come up with a few other ways in which to wear the eye shadows. One way is to take another eye shadow and then press either the gold or silver shade on top to give it a nice holiday look. You can use the silver shadow lightly on the inner corner of the eye to brighten the eye. But, my favorite way to wear these eye shadows is not as an eye shadow at all! I like using either the gold or silver as a highlighter on the cheek bones. Take a fan brush to get a light dusting of the product and use as a highlighter. Also in the palette are two glosses, one a medium rosy pink and the other clear.
Also for the holidays, Dior brought back a few of the Diorific pieces. Four limited edition nail colors and four limited edition lipsticks. Dior 2012 Holiday Collection at counters now.