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Clarins Colour Breeze Collection for Spring 2012 Pics and Swatches

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clarins colour breeze spring 2012 (1)

Oh, sweet Friday, how I love thee so…

Happy Friday, friend. 🙂 I hope you’re doing well. Me? I’m dealing with the aftereffects of an almost sleepless night (blasted insomnia!), but I’m beginning to feel better now. Colour Breeze, the new Clarins collection for spring 2012, has certainly helped.

The 12-piece release for eyes, lips, and cheeks can hardly wait for winter to end. Available now at Clarins counters and also online, it’s all about bright and fresh, with shades of pink, blue, coral, red and brown.

Reviews coming soon, but in the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at six of the upcoming pieces. Take a gander, and let me know what you think.

clarins colour breeze spring 2012 (2)
Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in Blue Sky, $40

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This Year for the Holidays, Clarins Got Passionate (and It’s a Slow Burn)

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clarins passion holiday makeup collection (4)

Packaging ho that I am, I always salivate thinking about look forward to seeing what Clarins cooks up for their holiday collections.

Remember the floral flourishes swirling across 2010’s Barocco release and the plaster and pebbled textures from 2009’s Palazzo d’Oro?

Mmm… luxuries limited edition designs. And seriously good stuff.

Since the brand usually displays dramatic flair with the packaging of their holiday collections, I was a little surprised by this year’s release. Passion, available now on Clarins counters and also online, has at least one opulent episode via the curvy red pattern decorating the Passion Face Palette ($55), but the other items in the four-piece collection look uncharacteristically streamlined and restrained.

Here, the simple compacts merely hint at the fire that burns within them. “Hello, lovah,” they whisper, with sophisticated gray, rose, taupe, peach and silver shades that feel more to me like a controlled burn than a sudden burst of vibrant, intense color.

Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in Smokey Passion ($40)

When I started to explore Passion (LOL!), I began with this quartet. Its sleek gold compact houses two powder eyeshadows (in taupe and rose), a powder liner (in a glittery grayish black) and a creamy, glittery highlighter; I really like how the colors make my eyes smolder and shimmer, and while the creamy highlighter applies a little patchy on me, the powders slide like smooth skin on satin sheets.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B+

Passion Face Palette ($55)

When I sweep the Passion Face Palette on my cheeks, the golden shimmer works like stage lights to illuminate my face. The downy soft texture feels like cashmere, but alas, the shimmer is just an overspray. The pale peachy pink matte powder beneath it doesn’t really show up on my tan skin. I have a feeling this piece would fare better on lighter lasses than it does on me.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B

Rouge Prodige Lipstick in Passion Rose ($24)

A single layer of shimmery, rosy brown Rouge Prodige Lipstick in Passion Rose (unscented and unflavored) delivers rich color that lasts for hours, even through a few cups of tea.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A

Instant Definition Mascara in 01 Intense Black ($24)

The boldest part of this look? — the lashes! 🙂 Glossy jet black Instant Definition Mascara in 01 Intense Black ($24) will not be denied, and I fully appreciate that. The snazzy brush, with its short, stubby tip, defines and separates like a champ.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A

clarins passion holiday makeup collection (2)

clarins passion holiday makeup collection (3)

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Passion Face Palette
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5 Summer Staples: Eye Makeup Essentials to Beat the Heat

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Summer, summer, summer time!

Orange eyeshadow? Come to mama. Teal eyeliner? I’m all over it. You don’t have to ask me twice when it comes to trying trendy eye makeup. The answer is the same emphatic “Yes!” I’d give to an up-close-and-personal search from Detective Elliot Stabler on Law & Order: SVU.

But while outrageous eyes can be a blast, this girl’s gotta have her steady staples, too. Tried-and-true eye makeup essentials, like the five summer staples below, can keep your eyes fly when the temperature climbs.

1. Waterproof mascara

urban decay cannonball review brush
Urban Decay Cannonball Waterproof Mascara

Don’t let melting mascara ruin your chances with that hot, muscled, baby-faced guy in your summer school statistics class — the one you thought was adoring you from across the room but later realized was probably wondering how you ended up with two black eyes.

Escape that fate with an industrial-strength waterproof mascara like Urban Decay’s Cannonball ($20). It’s a little pricey, but it stretches my lashes to the limit, resisting sweat and water like a champ (I’ve been wearing it in all my pictures as of late).

2. Eye primer


NARS Pro Prime Smudge-Proof Eye Shadow Base

Whether I’m applying a single eyeshadow or five, I reach for eye primers to protect my work from fading, creasing and melting in the heat. My favorite right now? — NARS Pro Prime Smudge-Proof Eye Shadow Base ($24), and I also like Urban Decay Primer Potion ($19) and Too Faced Shadow Insurance ($18).

I haven’t had the chance to try it yet, but Cover Girl’s $8 Intense Shadow Blast in Beige Blaze sounds like a great drugstore option. MBB reader Erin says it intensifies colors and keeps eyeshadows locked down all day long (thanks, Erin!).
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Clarins Neo Pastels and My Monday Face of the Day

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Sooo, guess who’s procrastinating? 🙂 Yeah, I have about a billion things on my to-do list, but none of them are as much fun as makeup.

I put the new Clarins Neo Pastels Collection to work today for this here face of the day.


Clockwise from the lipstick on the left: Rouge Hydra Nude SPF6 Lipstick in 03 Pastel Beige, Blush Prodige in 02 Soft Peach and the Eye Quartet Mineral Palette

I loosely based the eye portion of the look on the Neo Pastel makeup tutorial here, and the edgy look of the black liner along the waterline is one of my favorite parts.
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The Clarins Neo Pastels Collection Turns Down the Lights

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clarins neo pastels

I wonder what would Neo from The Matrix would think about the new Clarins Neo Pastels Collection. Would he consider ditching his black cloak and brooding persona for its uplifting makeup in pink, purple and peach?

I highly doubt it, but ya never know. 🙂

SCI-FI SIDE NOTE: Now, my girl Trinity would probably dig that pop of black liner the Neo Pastels model is wearing on her lower lash line, but I digress…

Back to makeup in three, two, one…

Available now on counters and online at clarinsusa.com, the new Neo Pastels Collection features 21 new and repromoted items consisting of an eye palette, six blushes, 12 lipsticks, one mascara and a wrinkle-smoothing primer in a palette of primarily soft pinks, purples, peaches, with a sprinkling of neutral brown, beige and black thrown in for safe measure. To me the colors seem like typical (in a good way) spring/Easter shades.

clarins neo pastel display

clarins neo pastel display

With the collection, Clarins says they wanted to celebrate the annual spring renewal by interpreting pastels in a new way. Like Chanel did with pearly finishes in Les Perles de Chanel, Clarins tried to play with varying degrees of sheen, shade and shine to give faces, eyes and cheeks a subtle radiance — almost like a halo of color.

At least that was the idea. Looking at the swatches now, the concept might have been lost on me, but I wouldn’t say that’s a bad thing. I do like many of these colors, but they’re darker than typical pastels — a good thing, perhaps, if darker also makes them wearable on a wider range of skin tones.

Take the Eye Colour & Liner Palette ($40), for instance, and I’m hoping its brown, pink and violet shades will be wearable by pale princesses and tan temptresses alike.

Still, gals who had their hearts set on pure pastels might want to look elsewhere, like to Dolce & Gabbana’s Secret Garden, with its more traditional pastel greens, violets and pinks.

Grays have been showing up in several of this spring’s collections from lines like Chanel, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana and Laura Mercier, but I was quite surprised not to find any in Neo Pastels. Nada. Zilch. Zero. You won’t find any gray here, folks!

But while you won’t find any gray, you will probably spot some fingerprints. I can already tell that trying to keep this packaging pristine will be a useless endeavor because prints are easy to notice sitting on the surface of these shiny gold compacts. Not a big deal, but it might be something for the super spies with secret identities to consider. 🙂

The first time I saw the model in the promo pic at the top of this post, I fell in love with her eyes. The ethereal purples and pinks suck you in and then POW! — there’s that black liner along the waterline. She’s like a biker angel. All she needs now is a leather jacket to ride her winged hog into the sky…
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