theNotice: a beauty blog

The product: Clarins Ombre Minérale 4 Couleurs (Wet & Dry Eye Quartet Mineral Palette Long-Lasting) in Blue Sky

The aesthetic: It feels like the sort of day to start off with the good stuff and work our way down, so I think that’s what I’ll do. The four shades in Blue Sky work brilliantly together, creating a number of gorgeous, soft eye looks with (depending on which shades you use & where) a lovely aqua, charcoal, or teal undercurrent.

Honestly, I don’t know how they could have done a better job with the colour scheme of this palette. It’s very light, ethereal, and Spring; it feels like a new season without being either bright! bright! bright! or boring pastels. It very much lives up to Clarins’ promise of an ode to lightness, creating a very forgiving, wearable blue eye.

The shades: Clarins describes the colours in Blue Sky as “subtle-shine shades,” with a silvery turquoise, a greenish grey, a grey eyeliner, and a white illuminator.

I didn’t love the super-sheer, shimmery white, but I’ll give it a pass, as it’s described as an illuminator. (I think it would make a great inclusion in a palette of mattes or satins, but with three other shimmery shades, I’d have preferred a more opaque off-white illuminating shade). I liked the bright aqua (“silvery turquoise”) more – it has a really lovely, subtle duochrome, the light blue flashing silver when tilted.

Clarins Blue Sky Eye Quartet swatches – dry on primed skin

The darker two shades are my favourites of the palette. The greenish grey (I like to think of it as a desaturated teal) is a gorgeously unique shade; enough grey to make it sophisticated rather than sloppy, but still green enough to add some colour to the eye area. The shimmery charcoal, on the other hand, is intense and sooty (just like a charcoal should be), but with enough finely-milled silver shimmer to keep it interesting rather than just another boring dark grey.

The illuminator, teal, and charcoal are all shimmery, with particles that (as clichéd as it is) rather twinkle against the skin. The aqua, on the other hand, has that metal-smooth finish that doesn’t sparkle so much as it shifts.

Clarins Blue Sky quad swatches – foiled on primed skin

The opacity: Alright, so here’s the catch. With the exception of the charcoal, the shades in Blue Sky range from extremely sheer to fairly sheer, when applied dry. They’re a good deal more opaque when applied wet (and/or over primer), of course, but I just think they’re too sheer to warrant the price tag.

The illuminator is excusably translucent, and the dark charcoal is perfectly intense, but the blues (the most important shades in the quad) are a bit lacking. I just can’t get the vividness that I want out of them without foiling, which is extremely frustrating, because I’m crazy about the shades in the pan. Blue Sky is still a good quad (particularly against darker skintones), but it doesn’t quite reach the Clarins standard of excellence. 

The verdict?

As much as I love this quad, I can’t help but feel it’s a tiny bit of a letdown. Of my three Clarins quads (and that’s a whole other can of worms – how do I only have three? How on earth do I manage to talk about them so much if I only have three?), this is my least favourite. The shadows just don’t seem quite as smooth, and (with the exception of the lovely, shimmery charcoal), they’re less pigmented, too.

While I think the colour scheme is spot-on, $42 is a lot to pay when two of the four shades could be better (read: when both the teals should have, in my opinion, been more pigmented).

Try it if you’re looking for wearable, age-appropriate (all-ages-appropriate) blues. Because, honestly? Aqua is a hard colour for any age to pull off, but Clarins manages to make it totally chic.

Skip it if you like your shadows to be more than medium-sheer; you only want to pick up one Colour Breeze item (I think this is the weakest product in the collection); or you just want to try out a Clarins quad (again, I think there are better ones).

With everything said and done, I’d give this quad a very tentative yes. For a quad of blues, just in general, it’s good. For Clarins, however, (a brand that I’m quickly learning to love), I had expected more!

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The product: Vasanti Microionized Silky Blush in Rockies 

The shade: Rockies, despite the tangerine-coral look of the product on the Vasanti site and its description as a “beautiful coral that brightens and hilights all skintones,” is more of a bright, peachy pink than a straight-up coral in real life. It has quite a bit of gold shimmer worked into the shade, aligning it with products like NARS Orgasm in my head – because my head makes weird logic leaps like that; not actually because they’re dupes (or even close to being such).

If you ask me, Rockies is first and foremost a pink blush, and it just so happened to have been attacked by a bit of coral and a lot of shimmer before leaving the factory – not the other way around.

Vasanti Rockies swatches – lightly, then heavily.

The formula: I’m not, admittedly, the most strict tester when it comes to blushers – with fair, dry skin and reasonably small pores, a blush has to be pretty darn terrible in order to completely disappoint me.

That said, though, I did like the formula of this blush. It’s not too powdery in the pan, and goes on with just the right intensity: there’s no chalkiness whatsoever, but it’s also not so pigmented that it’s hard to work with. While I’m not personally a fan of shimmery blushers, Rockies does give a very pretty glow, blending out evenly and lasting all day.

Wearing Vasanti Rockies blush

(Rest of the face: Clinique Chubby Stick in Whole Lotta Honey, Senna Sketch-A-Brow in Mink, and Clinique Quickliner for Eyes in Charcoal.)

The verdict?

At $15 each, Vasanti’s blushers are a great drugstore find. If I compare Rockies to the other shimmery blushers in my collection, it can hold its own against products both in its price range (high end of the drugstore) as well as in the more expensive department-store/high-end bracket: I’d reach for this over my NARS Orgasm or 100% Pure Mimosa (both shimmery peaches) any day.

While Rockies isn’t a shade that I can see myself wearing on a frequent basis, I do think that (objectively), it’s a very solid formula at a price point that’s well worth it. Pair that with the fact that it’s a Canadian product free of animal testing, parabens, silicones, and fragrances, and I think we have a winner!

Ingredients, additional photos, and more swatches »

The product: MAC Viva Glam V Lipstick (Lustre)

The purpose: One thing that I love (absolutely love) is seeing how the same shade will translate onto different skintones. Luckily for me, my friends are just as crazy.

For the April round of the Lipstick Bandits, we all bought the same tube of lipstick: MAC’s Viva Glam V. I believe it was Tracy who suggested the shade, and if you ask me, it’s absolutely perfect. Viva Glam V is one of those great MLBB shades that wears well on almost everyone, and today, you’ll get to see how it wears on twelve different skintones. 

(Can you tell that I’m excited? I’m really bloody excited.)

Both images above: Viva Glam V, in slightly different lighting. (Isn’t it a weirdo?)

The cherry on top is that MAC’s Viva Glam line donates 100% of the purchase price to the MAC Aids Fund, which is pretty much as good as it gets, as far as charitable products go. Most companies will donate a dollar or two per tube, and more often than not, there’s a cap on how much they’ll donate overall.

So, without further adieu, I bring you MAC Viva Glam V!

The formula: Unfortunately, I’m not much of a fan of MAC’s Lustre formula. Like Desire (a gorgeous creme-finish burgundy, and my autumn Lipstick Bandits choice), I find VG V to be a bit okay, more than a bit shoddy in the moisture department. It’s more comfortable than a cheap matte, of course, but I find my lips are begging for moisture by the time this wears off.

As always, the MAC lipstick formula is paraben-free and scented solely with vanillin.

Bare lips

MAC Viva Glam V lip swatch

The shade: Viva Glam V is an interesting shade, though. Based on how it looks in the tube, I had expected a more dense colour, and with more brown tones in it. When swatched, though (whether on my lips or just the back of my hand), it’s unexpectedly pink – sort of a neutral-rose, rather than a lightly pinked brown.

In line with many of MAC’s other Lustre shades, Viva Glam V is sheer with quite a bit of shimmer. I find it rather unforgiving on my dry, too-wrinkly-for-their-age lips, but you’ll have to check in with the other Bandits for the final judgement on that one! (I’m excessively picky. Y’know, in case you hadn’t noticed.)

MAC Viva Glam V swatch – heavily, then lightly.

Wearing VG V – it’s quite a natural-looking shade!

The verdict?

Okay, so I’m not thrilled with Viva Glam V on its own. I’m excited to see the shade on the rest of the Bandits, though, and I know a number of them are crazy about it!

If your lips aren’t too dry, and you’re looking for a neutral rose with a bit of shimmer, I’d give this one a go. There isn’t a better lipstick to put your money toward than the Viva Glam line, so I’d definitely say they’re worth checking out on the whole! Give the lustres a skip if you have lips as dry as mine, though, and beware of this particular shade if you’re not a huge fan of shimmery lipsticks.

A few links: Karla has the permanent Viva Glam lipsticks swatched here, as well as swatches of the current LE Viva Glam products (Nicki and Ricky) here; Bluebell’s Beauty Blog has lip swatches of the first five Viva Glam shades here; and finally, The Shades of U has the permanent VG lipsticks swatched on a darker skintone here.

And now, the good stuff! See Viva Glam V on the rest of the Lipstick Bandits »

I believe I promised eye swatches, yes?

Here are two of the shades featured in our review — just two, because (in true Rae fashion), I accidentally took two photo sets with Intense Plum and none at all with Intense Ivy. So; the inky black and bright plum today, and we’ll leave the charcoal and green for another morning.

Swatched L-R: Clinique Quickliner for Eyes Intense in Intense Black, Plum, Charcoal, and Ivy.

Intense Black

The terrible thing is (well, I mean, there are lots of terrible things in the comedy of errors leading up to this post, but this one is the most relevant) that I didn’t note down any of the other products used in these photos. So don’t get too curious, because I probably won’t be able to answer your questions! ;)

I believe, for Intense Black, it’s the highlighter shade from Clarins’ Graphites quad that I’ve applied through the lid, over translucent primer. A bit of concealer under the eyes, but nothing else on the lid, and nothing on the lashes.

Clinique Intense Black lid swatch

Intense Plum

There’s an ultra-nude eye that on a pretty frequent basis, especially when testing out or photographing liners or mascaras – a look that’s very natural; almost undetectable (even on film), while still adding a bit of depth to the eye area. I’m not 100% sure, but I can say with a reasonable amount of certainty that that’s what I’ve done here. I think.

For a look like this one, it’s just a bit of (1) primer through the lid, (2) black liner pushed into (but not above or below) the lashline, and (3, 4) two eyeshadows – a subtle highlighter on the inner 2/3, plus any brown or taupe on the outer third.

If you don’t have a favourite nude eyeshadow combination, try these highlighter swatches for your lid shade & these taupe eyeshadow swatches to add depth! (I’ve been partial to using a matte medium brown, recently, but I’m afraid I haven’t enough shades in that vein to swatch them en masse… yet.)

What really “makes” the look isn’t the products, but how much of them you use and how you apply them: the difference between a regular “natural eye look” and this one is just the amount of blending. Which is to say, apply sparingly and blend the crap out of everything. 

Finish by (5) adding eyeliner, if you’d like, (6) a quick coat of mascara – always a tubing one, for me, – and (7) blending in a bit of concealer under the eyes.

Clinique Intense Plum lid swatch

More Quickliner for Eyes Intense coverage…

• NEW | Clinique Quickliner for Eyes Intense
• The quick way to get intense eyes – even on the go. | Clinique Quickliner for Eyes Intense: review, photos, swatches

The product: Clinique Quickliner for Eyes Intense

  ↳ in Intense Black, Intense Plum, Intense Charcoal, and Intense Ivy.

The application: Okay, so, not the easiest pencil to get on – depending on the look you’re going for. I usually wear fairly clean eyeliner, with a bit of a wing at the end, and these are a bit terrible for that! I sort of have to get it on, then grab a liner brush, and smudge it into shape.

If you’re looking for a smokey, sexy, smudgey eyeliner, though… well, look no farther. These smudge like a dream. The buttery sort of dream, which probably revolves around desserts and has a plotline worth about 1200 calories, and ends with the dreamer eating an entire cheesecake or rolling around in butter or something.

Seriously. They’re the butteriest pencil liner I’ve ever come across, which is terrible if you’re going for a precise line, but absolutely wonderful if you’re a fan of a softer, smokier line.

The wear: Unfortunately, the wear is the one thing about these liners that’s not up to par. With my oily monolids, I can get only five or six hours out of these before the colour starts to transfer – and that’s with primer and powder eyeshadow underneath. (For my lids, that’s about on par with other popular long-wearing liners, like MUFE’s Aqua Eyes, but definitely less than what I get with a good liquid liner.) If a liner can’t hold up for at least ten hours, I’ll definitely think twice before wearing it – even if the product’s this pretty!

I do have really picky lids, though, so don’t write these off without giving them a go. I have actually read very positive reviews about the wear time of these, so I guess it’s another “your mileage may vary” type of product!

Swatched L-R: Clinique Intense Black, Intense Plum, Intense Charcoal, and Intense Ivy.

Indirect sunlight, no flash.

The shades: When Clinique said “Intense,” they weren’t joking around. The Quickliner for Eyes Intense liners come in six shades, four of which are featured here – and yeah, they’re pretty damn intense. (Missing from this post are Intense Chocolate and Intense Midnight, a rich brown and a dark blue, respectively.)

Intense Black (01) is an opaque, cream-finish black with absolutely no shimmer. Intense Plum (02) is a playfully sparkly dark violet – tons of very finely milled violet and blue-violet shimmer interspersed in a creamy black base colour. Intense Charcoal (05) is a gorgeous gunmetal grey with incredibly refined silver and gold microshimmer – think “brushed metal” rather than “shimmery”. Intense Ivy (07) is a dark olive green with gold shimmer – very, very pretty.

Clinique Quickliner for Eyes Intense in Intense Black, Intense Plum, Intense Charcoal, and Intense Ivy.

The packaging: Clinique has done a surprisingly clever (not surprising because it’s Clinique; surprising because it’s so perfect) job of packaging these liners, keeping the shape and function of the Quickliner Intense range, but making them different by colouring the tubes correspondingly.

What really gets me, though, is that they’ve factored in shimmer, too: like the shades inside, the packaging of Intense Black is completely shimmer-free, while Intense Charcoal‘s tube is slightly metallic, and both Intense Plum and Intense Ivy are wrapped in shimmering colour. Talk about attention to detail!

The verdict?

They’re good, but… they’re not quite there yet. Clinique’s Quickliner for Eyes Intense formula is buttery, blendable, and (just as promised), really intense – but it doesn’t have the wear that I’d want out of a liner.

I don’t want to write it off completely, though, because I do find the formula to be quite unique. If you don’t have difficult lids, these would be the perfect way to get the look (and creaminess) of a gel liner, but with the convenience of a pencil – something that I don’t feel has been achieved by anyone yet.

Keep reading! »