On my recent Beauty Envies there was Mystère from Chanel's Superstition collection that is just about to hit stores. It's already available on some websites and some beauty bloggers have reviewed it. So far, considering the price, I believe it will be a little over $60.00, they are not unanimous. Some love it and others have been a little more critical about the textures of the different colors in the quad. I can't comment about the textures so much but I was able to swatch it over the weekend and I must say I was a slightly disappointed for as it turns out, the colors are a little ordinary. For me, for every day, it would end up being boring and since I pay for my makeup I decided to pass. For now...
For my first fall purchase I decided to go with Clarins instead. I think it was last Friday that stores started to receive the new Fall collection, Graphic Expression...
Clarins Graphic Expression Eye Quartet Mineral Palette, 11 Forest...
As usual, Clarins has nothing to envy to more expensive brands as far as packaging is concerned.
Four mineral eye shadows that can be used dry or wet.
Medium khaki, light sparkly champagne, dark almost greyish khaki and a bronzy medium beige.
Swatching these shadows at the store I just fell in love with them. Both the khaki and the medium beige are perfect for every day and are interchangeable for a basic look. The light champagne for a little sparkle and the dark for a little drama, all where perfect!
How do they perform?
The medium khaki and the medium beige, great! They are good basic colors and go well with my green eyes. I used them dry for a more natural look. Wet, they would look too metallic, especially the beige. They have a nice buttery feel to them and hardly any fall out. The light champagne and the dark shade are the problem and for some reason they feel different than when I swatched them in the store. Both feel dry and their staying power is not that great. I would say about three hours!
Here's what I did...
Yesterday morning I did my makeup at around 9:00 am. I used the medium beige as a base, the dark shade as a liner on my upper lid, the khaki as a light liner on my lower lash line and a little champagne next to my eyebrows. All where used dry and all, except for the lighter shade, had good color payoff.
Three hours later, the dark color was transferring to the upper parts of my lids and was fading in the inner corners. I figured, ok let's try this one wet. I reapplied it and must say wet was much better, bordering perfection. I was afraid the light sparkle would be too obvious but it wasn't the case. Sadly, again after three hours it was transferring and fading but now it was becoming a mess due to the fact that it was darker.
If you don't have deep set eyes or droopy lids you may not have that problem. The light champagne which I applied lightly next to my eyebrows was nowhere to be seen after a few hours.
My verdict...
I'm still pleased about the medium khaki and the medium beige. I didn't have any issues with them, both had good staying power. The light champagne, although it did disappear on me, did not deposit sparkles all over my face, now that's a good thing! That one will be used in the evening just for a touch of light when I know I won't need my makeup to last too long. The dark one, well, what a disappointment! I will try it with an activator to see if it can last longer but at this time I will not use it. This is really sad, especially since it was the reason why I purchased this quad.
One last note...
I did not use an eye makeup base and don't plan to. I've tried both Too Faced and Urban Decay and my eyes didn't like either. They made my lids feel stiff and slightly irritated. I've always used concealer for this and don't plan to change anytime soon since I've always had good results. Here I used Rimmel Match Perfection Concealer. I don't think a base would have made any difference here since the dark shade was applied "over" another eye shadow.
Clarins Graphic Expression...
Notice the difference in the colors of the quad. Again, this is the reason why I never buy colors online! My pictures are, for once, more true. I don't understand the difference in the beige which looks more like copper in this picture taken at the store. The face palette is very nice and mixing all its colors with a face brush you get a similar effect as Chanel Les Beige. You can, with a smaller blush brush, pick up the darker shades for contour. I found it quite nice but it did not wow me.
What did wow me was the 3 Dot Liner! So smooth and easy to use, with a little practice of course, I just wish Clarins would come out with a dark grey or a dark brown. Black is so not for me and at the moment it's the only option. They do have height beautiful new eye crayons but I've never been lucky with any as far a long wear is concerned so I passed. What I do regret is not swatching the lip colors. That I will do next time! :)
