Lancome Absolu Voyage travel palette review, swatches and photos

Having decided not to pack the Clarins Bright White Travel Palette reviewed here, I decided to take another look at the Lancome Absolu Voyage Travel Palette, which I had picked up alongside from the airport en route to Lisbon. I had fallen hook, line and sinker for this stunning palette for the packaging alone, and I use the contents more often than I use the Clarins palette.
Travel palettes are an easy way of taking along some 5-6 eyeshadows, a couple of lip products, basic eyeliner and mascara, concealer and a couple of face products - powder and blush, at least - without filling up half your suitcase. And the Lancome Absolu Voyage ticks all those boxes, especially for everyday looks.

The packaging is absolutely delightful. A sleek black case in a velvet pouch. The case is a fingerprint-magnet, though.

It flips open to reveal a mirror on one side and some lovely eyeshadows (details below), three L'Absolu Rouge lipstick pans in shades 354, 06 and 320, a concealer in 02, a blush subtil in Rose Sable or 02, face powder in shade 01 and a mini Virtuose Mascara (used up last year).

There's another compartment below which slides out to reveal a lip liner crayon, a mini khol liner pencil, a powder brush, a lip brush and a basic eyeshadow brush and a soft sponge.

The lipsticks are absolutely fabulous! As you can see from the pans, they've received a lot of love. I'll do on-the-lips swatches along with my other Lancome lipsticks for you. The only problem is that they don't have staying power. I prefer Rouge In Love over L'Absolu Rouge and Absolu Nu anyday!

My problem with the eyeshadows is that while there are two good crease colours, the rest of the shades are highlighters on my medium skin tone. Maybe a slightly deeper shade or two for the lid would have helped.There are four Ombre Absolue powder shadows in F60, F70, F25 and D01, one Color Focus shadow in 250 and one Color Design in 603. I'm presuming it is the Ombre Absolue shadows that are light and chalky. The darker two are fabulous beyond description, though.

Or, like Benefit, they could have light, medium and deep versions of the palette to reach out to all skin tones.The same is the case with the face powder, though I can pull off the concealer in shade 02. Oh, and the sponge is a dream. The blush subtil in 02 is also very pretty and mild.

The swatches are in natural light and in direct evening sunlight. From left: lip liner, eyeliner  pencil, eyeshadows, concealer, blush, face powder and lippies.
So am I packing this palette into my suitcase? Ummm, nope. Argh, I leave tomorrow and still need to decide on my makeup! I'm off to take another look at my stash.