Shu Uemura Opening in Ireland August 24th, Brown Thomas Dublin

We broke the news recently that Shu Uemura were coming back to Ireland (oh sing hosannas to the king of kings) and yes, it's positively, definitely, totally happening: look for the brand at Brown Thomas Dublin from August 26th (I've also heard September 1st so don't be too surprised if it does move back a week) where it'll be occupying Benefit's old slot - Benefit's moving elsewhere in-store, so Shu gets that nice corner space by the main beauty hall entrance.

Lashes! Lots of lashes!

And we're getting the lot, ladies. Yep, skincare, makeup, brushes, a Tokyo Lash Bar - Dublin's getting the whole roll-out and oh boy are we going to bloody LOVE IT. Price-wise - and this is the thing we all want to know - the L'Oreal Luxury end of things seems to be in the main fairer than the Estee Lauder group when it comes to the Sterling/Euro conversion and I think this is one reason why Kiehl's has done so well here - the price of their excellent products is fair and equitable. And hey, we really, really like a bit of that.  So then we go out and buy it.

More lashes!

Typically, a £20 product like the Painting Liners (Shu's gel liner offering) will cost €24 here.  The Cleansing Oil, a 500ml bottle of which in the UK costs £56, will be €68 here. Quick maths check: at today's rate, £20 is about €22.70; then whack on a little more for our higher VAT rate and those operating costs we're always being told about and uhuh - that's absolutely hunky dory, isn't it?

And yup, some more lashes

So, now that we know we can afford it, lets take a little look at some of what's incoming - oh go on, I'm sure I don't have to persuade you. All the lovely stuff that we've blogged about over the years, like the excellent eyeshadows, cleansing oil and those lash curlers, will be arriving, as will some newbies which hit counters in September.

Such as this feller. The brand is phasing out its acrylic-packaged single shadows and blushers/highlighters and there's a new palette system coming into place in September. So where before you bought those cute little square single shadows in clear plastic cases (which I'll kinda miss, I'll admit), now you buy a refill which you can slot into a one, two or four-pan palette, which you buy separately. More expensive at the outset, yes, though the idea is you cut down on packaging waste and cost over time.

Here's how it works: You buy your palette (I'm not sure of the euro price on these yet but the quad will cost £10) and then whatever you want to fill it with. Shu's eyeshadow finish system is really simple - there's M (matte),  P (pearl), IR (Iridescent), ME (Metallic) and G (glitters) - which helps you out immediately and with 55 shades on offer at €18 a go, you've tons of choice. I was given Vivid Green (M) and Medium Olive (ME) to put into my quad, as well as Glow On blush in Soft Peach (P), €23.

Shadow and blush sit onto a slide-out panel without the aid of glue or magnets and when you've finished your placement, you slide it back into place and everything's held nice and snugly. Clever. Here's a look at my colours - the quad can handle four shadows or two plus a blush, which is what I have here.

I like the blush though this shade is more of a Mac-type 'beauty powder' than a real skin tint, love Medium Olive (it's a winner for anyone into Mac's Sumptous Olive or Lancome's Erika F, so a sure-fire bet I'll love it) and that green - well, y'know, it's a bight matte green. I may not find too many opportunities to use it.

Swatches of Medium Olive, Vivid Green and Glow On in Soft Peach. Quality is great - oh I do enjoy a Shu shadow in any case but Medium Olive is gorgeous, creamy and smooth and it wears like a dream. Vivid Green is very nicely textured for a matte, it's not chalky and swatches really well. Now, just to work out how to use it, on my face, like.

Here's the completed palette - nice, eh?

That's a very small and sweet edit of what's en route for us - are you happy the brand is back and what will you be queuing up to buy when it lands?