101. Westman Atelier - Les Bordeaux

Plus Introducing Song & Scene

Apr 09, 2023

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Le Box - The Gift Edition

Westman Atelier - Le Box The Gift Edition ($133)

Items + Price

First things first, let’s talk about what’s in the set. Both items were limited editions and weren’t sold as singles. Le Box includes a Lip Suede in Les Bordeaux and a Lit Up Highlight Stick in Pärla. In case you're wondering, there is no discount for getting the set: the Lip Rouges retail for $85, and the Lit Up Highlight Sticks for $48. Recently, there’s been a limited run of Pärla being sold individually. However, the only way to purchase the Lip Rouge in Les Bordeaux is still by buying the set.

By now, you know my love for luxury beauty and a tightly edited collection. You also know how I love to put items I feel “guilty” for splurging onto my birthday and holiday wishlists for friends and family. My best friend got me this set for my 2022 Christmas gift. And, of course, it didn’t disappoint.

Design + Packaging

The design of the Westman Atelier line is immaculate. It is the definition of minimalist luxury. The brand’s compact and casing aesthetic is reminiscent of how artists approach jewelry and vintage car design. The compacts and sticks often photographs like such with shiny exteriors and a mix of luscious textures and finishes. This set is no different.

I kept wanting to try the Lip Rouges, but two things were stopping me:

There wasn’t a palette where every shade spoke to me.
They aren’t refillable.

For a lip palette that retails for $85, I need to love all of it. And when my eyes first settled on Les Bordeaux when it launched roughly a year or so ago (I think?), I knew this was the one. First and foremost, the compact color stole my heart. An inky mulberry in low light and ever-so-slightly chocolatey in brighter environments immediately reminded me of those beautiful vintage car colors that take a fine eye to reproduce nowadays. So it came as no surprise when Gucci Westman (founder) explained that it was modeled after the car her father drove on her wedding day. I loved learning this. What a lovely thing to imbue a beautiful memory of your past into your present and future.

Pärla doesn’t shine away from the spotlight either. Head to toe in what appears like molten white gold, its sleek exterior is highly reflective and simply stunning. While photographing both items, I often spotted stars and galaxies.

Experience + Swatches

Let’s chat about texture first. The Lip Suede in Les Bordeaux is a drier cream to the touch. It picks up easily, whether on a brush or fingertip. And the texture is uniform across all four shades, which can be rare since the palette ranges from very light to very dark. However, the application has a bit of a learning curve if your lips are on the drier side like mine.

No matter what, when wearing lipstick, I have to wear lip balm underneath. Otherwise, all moisture evaporates, and I’m left with uneven lip color clinging to dry patches, collecting in lines, etc. I used a lip brush to apply these the first few times and had almost the same experience across all shades. Suede is perhaps the closest to my natural lip color I’ve ever found in makeup. If my lips were a shade, it would be this! For this reason, it blends and melts into my lip color seamlessly and applies well by brush or finger. However, I found that the other shades being poppier and darker, must be applied by finger instead.

When I applied with a brush over my lip balm, it deposited some color but spent more time sliding the color around instead. Thus I’d get pockets of color gathering at the edges of my lips and uneven layers. But the result was nothing short of beautiful when applied with my finger and pressed into the lips.

Poppy is a beautifully vibrant red that pulls pinker on my lips (as all colors do on me). In this sense, it straddles the line between a true poppy and a raspberry. Both of which I enjoy.
Suede, as you already know, is the perfect my-lips-but-better shade. It is the nudest and most neutral of the four and is just a pleasure to use.
Aubergine is the reason I lusted after this palette. Just look at its deliciously deep eggplant hue. I was surprised by how purple and cool-toned this looks in person and how bright it remains even when built up.
Merlot is a perfect everyday color for me when I want a bit more hue to my lips. I’d describe it more as a rosewood than how a merlot pops into my mind.

As expected, these shades work harmoniously when applied together as well. I love going in with Merlot as a lip liner and “contour” (outer edges and bottom center of lips), then adding a hit of Poppy right in the center for brightness and color. You can, of course, custom mix shades too.

I’ve even used these elsewhere on the face, and they’re excellent. I’ve mixed Suede, Merlot, and some of my Rose Inc concealer to get a custom contour blush shade. I often find blushes are not light enough in depth for my liking, so mixing these with concealer has been a game changer.

For long-time subscribers, you may remember my love for Rituel de Fille’s Forbidden Lipstick in Darkest Deeds. Yes, I still have it because I refuse to part with it. However, another reason for wanting this was to see if Aubergine could be a replacement. They’re close in hue and buildability, but there are two significant differences. RdF is surprisingly more glossy in finish and, when built up, is several shades deeper. I prefer the finish of the Westman Atelier, but the deepness of RdF, so sadly, it’s not an exact dupe. I hoped to achieve as dark a lip color as in the pan and swatches, but in person, it is much brighter. I’m also somehow shocked that both contain Carmine (more that Westman Atelier isn’t entirely vegan yet).

All shades wear as a satin to satin-matte finish depending on your layering over a lip balm and how much you build them up. And these shades wear impeccably. Once I started applying them with my fingers and pushing them into the lips, they wore for a crazy amount of time, even with beverages and food. I was pleasantly astonished by their lasting power! Poppy and Aubergine left even stains on the lips after prolonged wear, while I didn’t notice any from Suede or Merlot. But this could be that both are close to my natural lip color so they were harder to spot.

Lip Suede in Les Bordeaux, Lit Up Highlight Stick in Pärla

Final Thoughts

Let’s dive into the real reason we’re here today. Is this set worth it? Well, as you can see, there are no swatches or information on Pärla. And that’s because I’m saving it for a Tender Forms Pay It Forward (my take on giveaways). I am frank with myself and am just not a highlighter. And I want this to be with someone who will cherish and always use it. (Fear not, dear reader, I did not open the case/stick to keep it brand new, so the PAO won’t kick in until it is in your hands.)

This set will only be worth it if you also use Pärla (strike 1). However, I love Les Bordeaux and think it's worth it if this is the only way to get your hands on it. (You could always split the set with a friend too!) I really hope they’ll re-release Les Bordeaux as part of the permanent collection and as a refill. This brings me to my next strike against the set.

Even with the continued promise of offering refills, I’ve yet to spot any makeup refill options on the Westman Atelier site or through their stockists (strike 2). I purchased their Vital Skin Pressed Powder last year because it was their first refillable compact, yet there’s still no refill option. The only refillable option is for their new Skin Activator skincare item. I would have expected the powder refills to appear before a new item’s refill. But WA does offer recycling through Pact on their website, which I very much appreciate.

Last but not least, there is one packaging “flaw” I’ve noticed. With my Les Bordeaux compact, the magnet is a bit weak (strike 3). I own a few Westman Atelier compacts, so I know the strength of their magnetic closures. This one is very loose. I barely have to touch it, and it opens. This makes me feel less safe about dropping it into a bag or pocket without its duster bag, fearing it will self-open and become a mess. And with that, I suppose we’ve concluded that, to me, the set is not worth it. (But Les Bordeaux as an individual, refillable item, would be.)

What is life without music? Music is a huge part of any film or television series, and often, whenever I hear a particular song, it will always remind me of a singular scene in film or television history. An iconic moment where sound and visuals meld together to form something beautiful, something unforgettable.

Recently, Don’t Worry Baby by The Beach Boys popped up on my Spotify, and instantly, I was thrown back into high school, standing on a pitcher’s mound on a baseball field, waiting for my guy to come and kiss me.

Wait, that isn’t me at all. That’s just the scene that’s deeply embedded in my brain and the only one I associate with this song. Yes, this song itself is part of music history, and yes, it plays in several films. But the iconic ending scene of ‘Never Been Kissed’ is what I think of.

Spoiler alert: coming up next!
If you’ve never watched this film and don’t want to spoil it for yourself, I recommend fast-scrolling right to the end of today’s newsletter.
If you have watched this, please proceed and enjoy!

You start hearing the murmurs, then rising cheers in the crowd, and you see John C. Reilly’s head tilt up, and his eyes snap to the side. The camera cuts to the stairs, and you spot Michael Vartan running down. And when the titular song’s drums kick in? You knew Drew Barrymore’s life is about to change. And when he finally kisses her exactly when the music swells, and the lyrics kick in, wow! Now that’s a stirring, heart-aflutter, tears-in-your-eyes moment and what great romcoms are truly made of.

It’s currently available to watch on Hulu if you have it! I highly recommend a first viewing or a re-watch for all the cheese, cringe, and love it’s known for.

Thanks so much for reading! Have you tried the Westman Atelier Lip Suedes? What pops into your head when you hear Don’t Worry Baby? And I can’t believe I didn’t write about this in the last newsletter, but the final season of Succession is upon us. Are you tuning in because I’m sure you already know that I am! Let’s talk about it over on the chat!