Happy Monday guys! It might be spring in our corner of the world, but everywhere else the leaves have started turning brown and autumn has arrived. I always have mixed feelings when it comes to seasonal make-up collections- on the one hand winter colors don’t really work in the South African summer, but on the other hand I hate waiting months and months for a collection to arrive here when our season finally changes. Then the novelty of the collection is lost to me, because the rest of the world has tried it out, and I am (what seems like) the last person on the planet to try it out. So on that note, I actually like it when brands launch their seasonal collections all over the globe, and the collection that has just hit our shores (as well as everywhere else) is the Clarins Pretty Day And Night.
Warning- you might want everything in this collection after this post, so be prepared.
After trying out Clarins make-up for the first time earlier this year (read about my Garden Escape collection review here), I was itching to get my hands onto this launch. And for me, 90% of the items in this collection didn’t disappoint! Lets see what we have here!
The collection consists of two limited edition eye shadow palettes- the Pretty Day and the Pretty Night. Its pretty self-explanatory why they are called that, as the Pretty Day Palette consists of 5 very warm and neutral colors, while the Pretty Night Palette is filled with more sultry, dark-coffee colors.
A little close up of the Pretty Day Palette– here we have 5 colors- a beige, a sparkly rose, a shimmery light brown, a deep matte brown and a grey-brown. The only one that I didn’t find very well pigmented was the beige, as it is very light, but it is buildable. I have been using this palette almost every day since I got it, and it creates the perfect, light look for the day. I actually used it for my first job interview, because I wanted to wear a bit of eye shadow, but not too much that it was super obvious. I love the result that this palette gives- pretty, pretty, pretty!
Here I created a very quick make-up look using just the palette and one of the Ombre Matte eye shadows (see below). I love the dark brown color on the bottom lids for a bit of a sultry look, but you can just use it on your top eye lids for a very light, work-friendly look. This palette goes for R495.
The Ombre Matte Eye Shadows were another interesting find for me, as I expected something different given the word “ombre”. I expected to open them and find an ombre-like eye shadow color, but instead I got two solid (and very gorgeous) colors- a deep black called “Carbon” and a brown taupe called “Heather”. Firstly, the pigment on these things is mad- just take a look at the swatches. Its intense, one swipe is enough to get a full color pay-off. Secondly, their texture is a velvet smooth perfection although the finish is ultimately matte. It does make it a little bit more difficult to blend them, because they are so heavily pigmented, but hey that’s never a bad thing right?
And just for the South African summer and market, Clarins has added two very bright and summery colors into this collection- a vibrant blue called “Cobalt Blue” and a beautiful purple called “Ultra Violet“. Again the pigment on them is mind-blowing, but I wouldn’t recommend using this ALL over your eyelids. These are great for an accent detail like eyeliner (just wet your brush and go for it) or on your bottom lids. The selling price of these babies is R275 each.
An Eyebrow Pencil is always a must, and especially now that eyebrows are such a huge beauty trend! I always look for the ones with the little brush on the one side like this one, because I don’t actually fill in my brows, I only brush them to tame them down. This color so called “Dark Brown” and there are 2 more shades available in the collection.This very handy pencil is selling at R225.
The only product that I am not obsessed with from this collection is the Crayon Kohl. I have been a fan of liquid eyeliner for ages now, but I will admit that pencil eyeliners are handy, and this one is equipped with a little brush on the one side for smudging and blending. The reason I wasn’t a fan of this eyeliner is simple- it transferred (and then Steve let me walk around the mall with it like that for ages, thinking I did it on purpose). Of course eye pencil transferring is nothing new, and all you need to do is just prime your eyelids beforehand, but we all know that I am lazy and need to get everything done in one go. It worked wonderfully on the bottom inner lid though, so if you are looking for a dark black eyeliner to do that, this is you guy(R225 each).
Besides all these goodies that I mentioned here, the collection also includes two Rouge Éclat lippies (Tawny Pink and Red Paprika), and the Be Long Mascara. What do you think? Isn’t it just gorgeous?
*Samples for PR Purposes
Chicara - Lipgloss Kisses says
Your photos are AMAZING! Stunning post, Ri! 🙂 x
Beauty Candy Loves says
That palette is so pretty!
Candice | Beauty Candy Loves
shopgirlcapetown says
Pretty pretty! Will be looking out for the heather eye shadow 🙂
Nadia says
It’s times like these that I get super jelly of you blue-eyed ladies 🙁 That palette makes your eyes look amazing! The crazy pigmentation of those single eyeshadows scare the hell out of me though – I do not have the skills to blend that shiz.
nasheta says
hi, was this a limited edition range?