Good question! I was just about to get started on talking about these, because they are not going to be to everyone's taste. I thought they were gorgeous and I cannot wait to bring them both home!
Lavish Living is so fabulous! I know it looks dark, but it's sheer in a really perfect way. It's like a more wearable Chanel Notorious, much sheerer and with more natural brownish tones. Even though it's sheer, it's easily buildable, so you can basically contour and highlight with it by adding an extra layer for the contour. Also, its very deceptive because it looks sheer just looking at your face head on, but if you turn your head just so, you will see an opaque metallic pink highlight, like the way Adore MSF behaves. It looked equally great on me at NC15-20 as on an Asian woman who was probably NC30 - on both of us, you could see the color perfectly. The color, btw, is really complex so depending on what brush you use and if you use Fix+, it can look more plummy, more dirty violet (like Notorious) or like a coolish brown sheer bronzer with a touch of red undertone.
The things to take into consideration: My MA mentioned he'd tried it on a very dark skinned MA he knows, thinking it'd show up just fine on her, but it's deceptive and it only looked like a highlight on her. The highlight color is quite unique - a plummy pink that's a little cool - like an all-around darker and plummier Rio. If you love the colors in Rio, this is less orange/more plum/mahogany. One other thing, just like Alpine Bronze and Amber Glow, there are sparkles. These are the sparkles that usually just read as a beautiful natural glow, but if direct sunlight hits just so, you are going to see lots of clear sparkle. You don't see the sparkle when you're at angles to see the metallic pink highlight and you don't see either the highlight or the clear sparkles when viewed face on in typical light. It's a chameleon. Unlike Amber Glow and Rio, there seems to be a little more pore emphasis overall, which is another consideration. I didn't feel like it was a problem, but others might be HELLZ NO. Overall, a fascinating blush that does so many things but you have to be ok with all the mineralize side effects! Strangely, my usual 188 did not work well for this or any other MB or MSF from the collection. It really did better with a plain old 109 and it was good with a 159 too. I guess everything is too sheer to really function with a brush that's not dense enough.
MEANWHILE, Scene to be Seen is great too, but for all the opposite reasons. It's the most pigmented of the MSFs by far. For fair skin, it might even be a little too dark - it takes a little care to apply if you are my skin tone, unless you are OK with the bronzed look, which I am. It's again a beautiful warmed, red-undertoned brown when blended down and viewed straight on, but the highlight is super strong and a fantastic strong pink. It doesn't look like a metal robot face, but like the Tropical Taboo MSFs, when it shows it shows bold. It's like a deeper, warmer Lust. The highlight square is truly with some glitter (clear) that is just this side of chunky, but I found it perfectly controllable and it didn't get flakey and fall-out-y and disco ball looking. It sort of melts in once you've applied it and if you use Fix+ it just goes towards being more frosty. This is a color and texture that will show up on even the darkest skin. If you like Lust's texture and style, but wished it was darker and less cool with more vibrant color, STBS will be perfect.
I would say if you are a paler NW, you may want to try these in person first. If you hate frost and glitter and shimmer and highlights, you may need to just skip this, but the colors are very unique and the texture of both the MB and MSF is incredibly versatile - you can get so many looks out of combining these two. LL is what I would call foolproof, but someone else might not agree with me - I think it's easier to wear than Exotic Ember, that's for sure…on par with Amber Glow, but deeper and no orange like Alpine Bronze.
