Fab Find of the Week: CHANEL Les 4 Ombres Bouton palettes

You might not know that one of us is obsessed with buttons. Jo’s great-aunt owned a haberdasher’s and would let Jo play with all the myriad buttons, while idling in the shop. Before she died (at the magnificent age of 93), Jo’s Great Auntie Doris presented her with a waistcoat, covered in aforementioned buttons. ‘I didn’t want to die with a full button tin,’ was her explanation – and if that’s not a great metaphor for life itself, we’d like to know what is.

Bottom line, then, is that these new CHANEL palettes were always going to push our buttons (sorry!), even more than usual. The smooth and silky shades – and if you’re familiar with CHANEL’s palettes, you’ll know how richly-pigmented these are, yet how smooth – have been embossed with a wide variety of designs taken from the designs for actual buttons use on garments. And the shades are truly wearable; probably the only one we’d skip right past is the purple (but that could be just us).

There are four colourways, in these (decidely luxe) palettes. Our favourites are 219 Boutons Couture (far left), which is as classic a palette as anyone could wish for, and 209 Boutons Mademoiselle (far right), a quad of pale pink, peachy pink, taupe, and ivory beige. But you don’t have to be a button obsessive to fall for any one of these. They’re completely collectible (Jo still has a Coromandels palette from over 25 years ago, and while we don’t necessarily recommend using any make-up that old… it’s as swoonworthy as ever to get out and admire.)

Mademoiselle Chanel herself is quoted as saying: ‘Buttons are very important. Seek out and find charming little buttons.’

Well, they don’t come more charming than these. And if only Auntie Dot was still around, to admire them!

£72 – buy here