Rock and Republic eyeshadows

Rock and Republic is a designer fashion denim brand apparently loved by young Hollywood and Victoria Beckham, who designed a range of jeans in collaboration with the line.

At the tail end of 2008, Rock and Republic launched a cosmetics line. They didn't start small; there are 48 shades of eyeshadow, 15 shades of lipgloss, 12 powder blushes (these are massive) and 5 shades of mousse/cream blush, as well as 8 pressed powders, 4 shades of primer/tinted moisturiser and 4 corresponding shades of fluid luminiser/foundation.

The eyeshadows are beautiful. When I walked up to the counter I let out a gasp at all the pretties, and I had a really hard time rationing myself down to a couple of colours at the first visit. These are expensive at £20 for a single colour, but the texture is gorgeous and you do get a pretty generous 3g for that (a MAC single eyeshadow is 1.5g in comparison.) I also purchased a mousse blush in Rumor (a slightly pinky peach, very similar in colour to NARS Orgasm/Deep Throat powder blushes, but with more subtle shimmer) and lipgloss in Drama Queen, a peachy pink shimmer.

Eyeshadow colours I own (from top left, clockwise)

Snakeskin - sludgy green/brown, medium shimmer. This is one of those shades that can look a bit blah in the pot, but it very flattering on almost all eye colours.

Lawsuit - duochrome dark brown with emerald shimmer, medium shimmer. This is the shade that drew my magpie eye on the counter. It's a more wearable version of MAC Club (which can look a little reddish on me) with a better and more blendable texture. This is fabulous for a smoky eye, and I also like to wear it as a liner with Snakeskin.

Veil - matte cream/ivory. This colour is not going to set your world on fire, but it's a lovely texture and a nice base shade. It's more wearable on me than MAC Brule, which can look a little chalky.

Spy - matte beige, but with really tiny scattered sparkles. I vacillated between this and the slightly darker Diffused, and I do wish I'd picked Diffused, because this hardly shows up on me at all (and I'm pale.) It'd be a nice base shade for a warmer skintone.

Love Rocks - shimmery rose gold. This does not look like a great shade for an eyeshadow, but I wear it buffed lightly over my lid on top of Spy (applied from lash to crease) and it gives perfect glowy baby eyelids.

There are swatches of all the eyeshadows and powder blushes on the brilliant karlasugar.blogspot.com, but I do find her swatches are a shade or two darker than the products apply in real life (she has to apply a lot to swatch effectively.) Nevertheless, it is a very helpful blog to assist in picking colours if you can't get to a counter in person.

In the UK, this line is currently exclusive to Harrods. I wonder how smart this is as a marketing decision, because the counter has not had any other customers both of the time I visited it. Harrods and Harvey Nichols are not the beauty shopping destinations they once were for me; Knightsbridge is a bit of a pain to get to (which is why I've only been to the counter twice, despite loving the products) and Selfridges beauty hall seems a lot cleaner and more modern (and also busier.) I've not seen much buzz for this line in fashion magazines, and I do worry how it will do in these difficult times ( in comparison, Illamasqua has done a much better promotional job, and the counter in Selfridges is always busy and buzzy.) The brand itself is not as bankable in the UK as Dolce and Gabanna.

I hope this brand does succeed, because the products are excellent, and the sales assistants have been friendly, knowledgeable and helpful both times I visited.