theNotice: a beauty blog

The product: Clarins Ombre Minérale 4 Couleurs in 10 Iris Blossom

There are a lot of gorgeous (seriously; gorgeous) products in this Spring’s Clarins Rouge Eclat collection, but I have to say — Iris Blossom? Total. Stunner.

I know I promised this review ages ago, so without further adieu, I hope you enjoy the post!

The formula

Like the other Clarins Eye Quartets, Iris Blossom contains four eyeshadows with fairly hard-textured formulas. One is a sheer liner/crease shade that builds up easily and foils well; one is a translucent shimmer; and two (of course) are smooth, gorgeous mid-tones. 

Again, as with the other quads, I found Iris Blossom very easy to create both day and night looks from — things like foiling (or focusing more on the bottom two shades) are great for adding drama, and the mix of tones and textures add a fantastic amount of depth to any look created.

See this quad used in a look here! Right here!

Clarins Iris Blossom quad, swatched in indirect sunlight (dry on primed skin)

The shades

To start with the top two shades, this gorgeous wheat-y taupe (which is to say, more yellow and brown than violet and grey) is perfect for creating a neutral lid — it’s very smooth, and delivers the most pigment out of these four shades.

As its shimmery shade (great for highlighting the inner corner or adding interest to the middle of the lid!), Iris Blossom contains an extremely sheer white, packed with shimmer. It’s still complex enough to add some interesting texture, but doesn’t have any shards of glitter — I like it, but I think it could be better.

Clarins Iris Blossom quad, swatched in indirect sunlight with flash

Then, for the depth and drama, we have a stunning violet with blue reflects… but warmer undertones. Without flash or foiling, it’s much more subdued (see the top swatch), but the temperature and shimmer difference really makes the shade pop! with movement. It has good pigmentation and texture, but isn’t quite as buttery as the taupe.

Finally, as with the other Clarins quads, we have a dark shade (perfect for use as liner or in creating a smokey eye). In this case, it’s a sheer, matte charcoal, and as always, I love it — Clarins’ darkest shades are always quite hard, making them easy to work with but still leaving room for foiling or layering.

The verdict?

At $42 USD/$42 CAD (look at that gorgeous lack of a price difference!), I would absolutely recommend Iris Blossom if you’re looking to get into colour, but you’re wary of going too far with it on your first try.

I was asked last week about what would make a great first Clarins quad, and I think it varies by person and need. To answer the question in context, though: while this one doesn’t show off just how awesome those sheer shimmers can be, I still do think it would make a great “first Clarins!” if you have a soft spot for violets and taupes.

(I know I do).

Keep reading! »

Wow, okay, this look is really late. (I think I promised it for… Monday?)

All the same, though, here’s an easy violet smokey eye–seriously, this is super easy–eye done with the Clarins Iris Blossom Eye Quartet from the Rouge Eclat collection.

Don’t miss this post at She Said Beauty for the full tutorial!

Done first as a Valentine’s Day makeup look, this Iris Blossom-based eye creates a soft, luminous “haze” of violet around the eyes — honestly, you could do this with your fingertips. (But please don’t. Brushes are great.)

A bit of sculpting to the cheek, a neutral lip (yes, that’s Clinique Curviest Caramel!)…

Just by pulling the violet shade of the palette through the entire lid, then adding the shimmery white in the inner corner (for a little bit of texture & glow) and buffing in a tiny, tiny bit of the charcoal shade for definition, you can create an incredibly seasonal makeup look without adding any harsh lines or contours to the face.

It’s just so easy, you know? Add a flick of lengthening (not volumizing) mascara, and ta-da! you’re already done.

I’m a huge fan of really light, translucent eye looks, so (of course) I loved this one. No, it’s not the most exciting makeup you’ll ever wear, but it’s pretty hard to go wrong with something like this.

Especially when it makes you feel as ready for Spring as this look does — the Clarins Palette Eclat Face Blush & Powder smells amazing!

Shop the Look

Clarins Rouge Eclat:

• Clarins Ombre Minérale 4 Couleurs Eye Quartet Mineral Palette Long Lasting in 10 Iris Blossom ($42 USD/$42 CAD)
• Clarins Palette Eclat Face & Blush Powder ($35 USD/$40 CAD)
• Clarins Poudre Multi-Eclat Mineral Loose Powder in 01 Light ($35 USD/$47 CAD)

The dressings:

• Clinique Chubby Stick Intense Moisturizing Lip Colour Balm in 01 Curviest Caramel ($16 USD/$19 CAD)
• Senna Voluptulash Mascara ($22 USD)
• Anastasia Beverly Hills Bold & Beautiful Kit, Vol. 1 Bold Brows ($36 USD)

Keep reading! »

How beautiful is the Clarins Odyssey quad? The lone Eye Quartet Mineral Palette ($42 CAD) of the Odyssey collection, this gorgeous gold case contains everything you’ll need to create a stunning earth-toned eye: think chocolatey, taupey neutrals combined with a high-impact copper-gold.

Also in the Odyssey collection

Keep reading! »

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!

Keep reading »

It’s always nice to have a product listing that’s less than fifteen five items long, and I can (blissfully) tell you that the shades in Blue Sky work cohesively enough together that this list is. Aside from the four shades of the quad (LE for this Spring’s Colour Breeze collection), this look features Clinique Quickliner for Eyes Intense in Intense Charcoal, Hard Candy Glamoflauge concealer in Light, and… actually, I’m not quite sure what’s going on with my brows. Smashbox Smoke, probably. Oh! And MAC Blanc Type (Matte2) under the brow and around (but not quite in) the inner corner, of course.

Pre-emptive apologies for the fact that I didn’t have time for a FOTD! I’ve been up to other things the past few weeks, but I wanted to do a Blue Sky makeup look to go with the review, nonetheless – I always find it useful to see what a palette can actually look like on the lids, so hopefully this’ll help make or break your Colour Breeze lemmings.

See you tomorrow for a review of the palette itself – swatches & thoughts when it goes up, I promise! For now, you’ll just have to make your judgements based on photos ;)